Houston’s Effective Approach: A Look Inside the Strategy to Reduce Homelessness
DEBARYLIFE – Julie Blow, 62, was an Army veteran whose string of unfortunate events included two operations, a significant kidney problem, and a fall that left her blind in one eye. Blow ran out of money and was unable to work.
And right now? She has a TV, an apartment, and brand-new furniture that was given to her by a nearby business. Although Blow’s 320-square-foot studio is not opulent, she views it as a luxury in comparison to her tent. “I feel like a teenager, I am that happy!” she stated. “You know, before life throws everything at you and you become jaded? I have a young vibe to me!”
It’s another proof that Houston’s approach to resolving its homelessness issue is effective. Houston’s Coalition for the Homeless, led by Kelly Young, believes it is a model that should be emulated by the rest of the country. “We were one of the worst in the nation to begin with, in 2011, 2012,” Young stated. “And now, we’re considered one of the best.”
What took place? The city made a major commitment to the “Housing First” idea in 2012. Since then, the greater Houston area has seen a 63% decrease in homelessness and the placement of over 30,000 persons.
Housing First refers to neither fixing the homeless person first nor merely adding more shelter beds, but rather investing in moving them into their apartments and paying for their rent while still offering the resources they need to stabilize their life.
“Hiring more outreach workers and building more shelter beds is our instinct when we see homelessness increasing,” said Mandy Chapman Semple, the mastermind behind Houston’s remarkable transformation. She now gives advice to other towns, such Oklahoma City, Dallas, and New Orleans, on how to duplicate it.
“The notion that you can transform and handle difficult problems like complex mental health issues, addiction issues, or complicated financial concerns if you don’t have a permanent place to live? It’s just not feasible.”
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In Houston, the first step was persuading dozens of disparate agencies—all striving to do their best—to come together under one overarching organization: The Way Home, which is administered by the Houston Coalition for the Homeless.
For instance, Jessalyn Dimonno can enter all she has learned into a system-wide database and log in real-time to see where individuals are residing when outreach coordinators visit a homeless encampment.
127 homeless encampments had been demolished in Houston, but only after all of the residents had found homes. Over 750 people have already found homes at The Way Home this year. It helps that this city, in contrast to many others, has a supply of reasonably priced apartments and that, in addition to its other homeless relief funds, it was able to use about $100 million in COVID money to help pay for rentals.
Houston’s lesson, however, is that owning a home—rather than merely managing homelessness—is actually crucial to prosperity.
“What Houston has done for this country is, it’s established a playbook that now allows any city to do the same, because we’ve proven that it can be done,” said Chapman Semple.