A Democrat-led city has managed to solve its homelessness crisis with nonprofits working together to secure one-bedroom apartments for homeless people.
Houston, Texas has continued to create one of their “major innovations”: the Coalition for the Homeless, along with exploiting the city’s loose planning rules.
The independent agency, known as The Way Home, partners with 100 nonprofits to combat homelessness under a collective effort across the city.
The agency has taken a cheaper approach to combating the U.S.’s ongoing homelessness crisis, compared to those in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland.
A residential encampment in Portland, Maine known as ‘The Pit’
A homeless man sleeps on the sidewalk in Los Angeles. The cost to build a one-bedroom apartment for the homeless in Los Angeles is $87,000
Over the past twelve years, 30,000 homeless Houstonians have been successfully housed and supported.
The city has succeeded by following their “housing first” approach: the idea that people, regardless of alcohol or drug abuse, are provided with housing.
They also found that the price to build a small one-bedroom apartment is $200,000, while a similar life in Los Angeles costs $837,000 to build, according to The New York Times.
Unlike other homeless cities, Houston has also decided to focus less on “general assistance” to the population, such as handing out food or coats. Instead, they ensure that people get houses where they can settle.
Once they are housed, the assistance continues as the nonprofits provide them with ongoing care, such as providing identification cards, helping them sign up for benefits, find jobs and access behavioral and mental health needs.
The process of obtaining a home is not quick, but people like Molly Permenter, an outreach worker, have made sure to give back to the community she was once a part of.
As Permenter roams the streets of Houston, she does her best to build lives for the homeless. She starts by getting them ID, then puts them on a housing list and soon gets them a place they can call home.
She told Nick Kristof, opinion reporter for The New York Times, that many homeless people do not have access to any form of identification, including a birth certificate or Social Security card.
Permenter went on to help a Joe Cavazos, 31, who had no identifying information to give her to get his housing process started.
Instead of giving up on him, Permenter went to help him get the right information. Often the police are brought in to help, because they have become absorbed in the program to get people off the streets.
Homelessness in New York is also ongoing, but housing options have not been provided like in Houston
Police can help identify homeless people by accessing arrest records that reveal fingerprints. They also often “testify that someone has been homeless.”
These outreach workers in Houston also have each homeless person fill out a questionnaire about benefits and possible income, and even look for family members who might be able to find a house for them in the meantime.
Another challenge the coalition faces is that many landlords are reluctant to rent apartments to the homeless.
To combat that problem, the city pushed these homeowners to join the movement, then offered an incentive of $1,600 per unit.
The coalition told The New York Times that the cost of housing in Houston and supporting people experiencing homelessness is estimated at $20,000 per year, of which $13,00 goes to housing and $7,000 goes to case management.
While this housing initiative is a step in the right direction, homelessness is more than a lack of housing as mental health and substance abuse still play a significant role in the community.
Homeless people are seen on 1st Avenue between 20 and 21st streets in Manhattan, New York
In Portland, Maine, private security guards were hired to help clear large homeless encampments
Houston made this initiative possible with help from their Covid relief fund, which will soon be depleted.
Local philanthropic leader Ann Stern told The New York Times, “Public funding is obviously going to be needed to keep this resolved.”
Dallas, the other densely populated homeless city in the state of Texas, has adopted Houston’s housing approach as they have seen a 14 percent drop in the number of people living on the streets over the past year.
Other major US cities, such as San Francisco, New York and Portland, have opted for a 10-year plan to combat the epidemic, but have not yet come as far as Houston.
According to The New York Times, compared to Houston, California has a shortage of about 3.5 million homes and Oregon has 140,000 homes.