Homelessness

For America’s Least Fortunate, The Grip Of Poverty Spans Generations  -The Huffington Post “I found out I was poor in middle school,” Davis says between bites, as he recalls intermittent forays into the drug trade. “I had holes in my shoes and I started getting ripped on. So I just started hitting the block, and I was like ‘Man, nobody’s [...]

Rettele is one of the “chronically homeless” — people who typically have a disability, an addiction or both and have been continuously homeless for more than a year. Their needs and society’s cost have propelled a national push called Housing First that offers permanent supportive housing — apartments or assisted living with case management — to chronically homeless people without [...]

Initial findings on ‘housing first’ programs, such as Project 50 in Los Angeles, show that they may be a solution to chronic homelessness and possibly save taxpayer money.   In its recent series on a controversial program for the homeless, The Times described a project called Project 50 that seeks to put a roof over the heads of substance abusers [...]

February 13, 2006 Dept. of Social Services   Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage.   ….Johns and O’Bryan realized that if you totted up all his hospital bills for the ten years that he had been on the streets—as well as substance-abuse-treatment costs, doctors’ fees, and other expenses—Murray Barr probably ran up a medical [...]

The Reader by Brandon Vogel It was the first day — the first 6 a.m. shift — of Omaha Registry Week, a local effort to find and interview the city’s homeless population. Organizers and volunteers hoped to find housing for the most vulnerable folks. I was riding with Methaney and Smolsky, two of almost 75 volunteers helping with the weeklong [...]

Program’s goal: Make homeless healthier By Erin Grace   Being homeless can kill you.   Living on the street can shave 25 years off a person’s life. And death can come within seven years when being homeless is paired with one of eight risk factors, like age, disease and multiple emergency room visits.   Published Wednesday October 6, 2010 – [...]

Nashville’s Chronically Homeless: Housing Model Slow to Catch On   In Nashville, most homeless outreach agencies believe a home is something that must be earned. Roughly four years ago, the Metro Homelessness Commission decided that approach wasn’t cutting it, that too many chronically homeless lingered on the streets and it was costing the city money. The commission adopted a program [...]

by Joy Eckstine September 09, 2010 06:00 AM (PT) Topics: Housing   Is the Housing First program in your community faithful to the principles of the theory?   This is a more important question than you might realize. After all, Housing First programs  have data going back at least 10 years which shows both incredible cost savings and better personal outcomes for the homeless individuals who participate. Housing [...]

The pilot program that puts the 50 most chronically homeless into supportive housing is a success. L.A. should follow New York’s lead and turn Project 50 into real policy.   In 2007, Los Angeles County launched a pilot program, Project 50, intended to provide “housing first” — no treatment or sobriety required — to the worst 50 cases of homelessness [...]

L.A. County workers identify the 50 people likeliest to die on skid row’s streets and find them housing, with no requirement that they quit drugs, stop drinking or seek psychiatric help.   August 01, 2010|By Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times   The searchers carved skid row into quadrants and advanced in small groups, aiming flashlights into the cold.   They [...]