There are many caring individuals and organizations who are spearheading efforts to end homelessness. However, as evidenced by many failed plans, it makes sense to pay particular attention to those efforts that have really solved the problem within local jurisdictions.
Last Updated on June 23, 2021
This is an evidenced based approach to solving homelessness. In other words, it has been shown to actually work. From my experience, many programs claim to be housing first but are missing one key ingredient… actually providing housing first….
In my view…. I find the Mother Jones article on the housing first model very compelling. The approach of the folks in Utah seems data driven—approaches that actually drive down homelessness. See the article at https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/housing-first-solution-to-homelessness-utah/ —Rick Bowers
This webpage at the National Alliance to End Homelessness provides a simple overview of the Housing First model: https://endhomelessness.org/resource/housing-first/.
This webpage at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development provides a Housing First Brief that is both an overview and provides pointers to useful resources: https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/3892/housing-first-in-permanent-supportive-housing-brief/.
Oregon’s HUD office is at https://www.hud.gov/states/oregon/offices.
The academic book, Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Transforming Systems, and Changing Lives, chronicles “the story of Housing First (HF), a paradigm-shifting evidence-based approach to ending homelessness that began in New York City in 1992 and rapidly spread to other cities nationally and internationally. The authors report on the rise of a ‘homeless industry’ of shelters and transitional housing programs that the HF approach directly challenged by rejecting the usual demands of treatment, sobriety and housing readiness. Based upon principles of consumer choice, harm reduction and immediate access to permanent independent housing in the community, HF was initially greeted with skepticism and resistance from the ‘industry’. However, rigorous experiments testing HF against ‘usual care’ produced consistent findings that the approach produced greater housing stability, lower use of drugs, and alcohol and cost savings.” See the complete description at Amazon.
See WorldCat for book details https://www.worldcat.org/title/housing-first-ending-homelessness-transforming-systems-and-changing-lives/oclc/937944782/.
Most communities have many groups working in the general area of homelessness. Here in Clatsop County we have Clatsop Community Action, the Harbor, Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, Filling Empty Bellies, the Astoria Warming Center, Helping Hands, the Astoria Rescue Mission, the Northwest Oregon Housing Authority, and Riverfolk. There are others. What’s missing is a coordinated, systems approach. See the insights below:
“By far the most frequently requested strategic advice has to do with the overcoming street homelessness. While the municipal leaders, nonprofits, advocates, communities, and resources involved are as varied as the people who are on the streets, the challenge is the same: persuading outreach, shelter, behavioral health services, and the housing providers to coordinate their services in a way that reaches each person on the street, assesses their individual needs, and offers them safe shelter and stable housing, that works for them” (Gibbs, Bainbridge, Rosenblatt, & Mammo, 2021, p. ix).
“Our message: follow the evidence of what works, implement and iterate, monitor data in real time, and pivot when signals indicate something is amiss” (p. xi).
Gibbs, L., Bainbridge, J., Rosenblatt, M., & Mammo, T. (2021). How ten global cities take on homelessness : innovations that work.
To address homelessness, communities should take a coordinated approach, moving from a collection of individual programs to a community-wide response that is strategic and data driven. Communities that have adopted this approach use data about the needs of those experiencing homelessness to inform how they allocate resources, services, and programs.
Read the entire article here.
The Built for Zero Collaborative is a one-year program designed to help your community measurably reduce and end homelessness— and sustain this progress. In our model, your community will have the support of a dedicated team of coaches from Community Solutions, experts from across the country, partners from key federal agencies, and a coalition of other community teams all committed to get to zero homelessness.” —Built for Zero
See the full story here.
“Imagine a Homeless-Serving System that quickly responds to a person’s housing crisis, supporting them to return home. A system that empowers people through choice and self-determination. A system committed to restoring dignity by knowing people’s names and circumstances. A system that instills confidence and trust by delivering on our mission to house people and keep them housed.”
From the National League of Cities (article by Community Solutions):
Our work has always been dedicated to ending homelessness. But the complex nature of homelessness has challenged our notions of what it takes to solve it, over and over again.
In 2014, our organization Community Solutions announced the completion of an initiative known as the 100,000 Homes Campaign. 186 participating communities aimed to collectively house 100,000 of the most medically vulnerable Americans experiencing homelessness. In many regards, it was a tremendous success. Communities had increased housing placement rates for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness by over 200%, connecting more than 105,000 Americans to a home in under four years.
But there was a problem: none of those communities ended homelessness for a population….
Read about the solution they developed “that works” here.
This city has virtually eliminated homelessness — through supportive services (including housing / shelter) and enforcement.
See more here.
Imagine a system with one empowered point of contact…https://greshamoregon.gov/Homelessness-in-Gresham/
Nelle Moffett’s succinct insight was “… I realized that the solution to homelessness is housing.” Unfortunately, Over the 2010-2016 time period, Oregon created only 63 new housing units for every 100 households that formed during the time period, increasing competition for housing.1 So the problem of the lack of affordable housing is getting worse, not better. What are the options? We could wait for the housing market to self-correct and increase the stock of affordable housing. We could wait for a flood of federal dollars to (1) provide a drastic increase in the number of housing vouchers and (2) finance more affordable housing stock. I suspect those are long term solutions. In the meantime we could consider group housing and micro shelters as affordable options that are available now.
“Oxford House is a concept in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. In its simplest form, an Oxford House describes a democratically run, self-supporting and drug free home. Parallel to this concept lies the organizational structure of Oxford House, Inc. This publicly supported, non-profit 501(c)3 corporation is the umbrella organization which provides the network connecting all Oxford Houses and allocates resources to duplicate the Oxford House concept where needs arise.”
“The number of residents in a House may range from six to fifteen; there are houses for men, houses for women, and houses which accept women with children… they all abide by the basic criteria.”
“The first Oxford House was established in 1975 in Silver Spring, Maryland.” They are now nationwide. From their website:
Visit their website here.
The Friends’ House in Astoria is loosely modeled after Oxford House.
See the full story here.
Dan Bryant from Square One Villages in Eugene, Oregon presented their progress on tiny houses. The first video is from his presentation at the First United Methodist Church on Wednesday, July 24, 2019. The second video is his talk at the Homelessness Solutions Task (HOST) force the following morning, Thursday, July 25th.
The Square One Villages website is at https://www.squareonevillages.org/.