Kristi Schulenbury and Josua Johnson from the National Alliance to End Homelessness (Homeless Response Crisis System) attended as they did last month. Their presentation was mainly a defense of the “housing first” model. Housing First’s Five key points are:
- Housing – no conditions or requirements
- Client driven (“consumer choice”) – self determination, not shelter or case worker determined.
- Recovery Orientation – client finds their own recovery (even though they can’t take care of holding a job and staying sober…)
- Individualized – personal driven support: pets, partners, self-determination… (in other words, its a one way street that caters to the clients, rather than reforms the bad habits)
- Social and community integrations via an “equity lens”– (I don’t see it; it is addicts hanging out with addicts)
My take – Joshua’s presentation about Housing First:
- It was a defense of the “housing first” model
- Attempted to define the rules of the game for addressing homelessness
- Attempted to lay down the assumptions/frameworks we all must work from
- Did not mention Housing First’s failures in LA, SF, Portland or Seattle…
- It was a sales presentation to the new HIAC advisors.
- Housing First federalizes a response rather than using local responders
- Housing First competes with local shelters: it offers a home with no conditions, whereas shelters offer beds and recovery via a program to get sober, get work, and be accountable. But Addicts will obviously select a room with no conditions rather than a program
- Asheville has had the housing first model for over 10 years, and homelessness continues to grow, and the funding increased.
- I don’t see ABCCM, WCRM attending. Why not? One rep from Salvation Army was there.
Kristi from the Nat’l Alliance to End Homelessness then spoke about:
- Wrapping up the focus Group inputs
- Extended the community survey 2-3 weeks. Over 1,700 responses received so far
Emily Ball, City employee, spoke about:
- Recruiting three more staff members
- HIAC application deadline for new members is 9/26.
- More beds will be available this year and are needed because the homeless numbers are up.
- Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) – for $128K. Reviewed who is applying for the funding. The list included: Helpmate, Homeward Bound (where Emily worked for 8 years), and Salvation Army.
| Asheville Homeless Numbers: | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 580 | 547 |
| Chronic | 123 | 110 |
| Vets | 256 | 218 |
| Families | 41 | 70 |
| < age 25 | 29 | 15 |
2022 PIT (point in time) Count:
- 637 homeless, up 21% from 2021.
- 232 unsheltered, which is up almost 2x from 2021.
- $4.7M city funds are slated for the homeless.
2022 PIT Breakdown:
- 191 identified as female.
- 91 identified as female.
- 442 identified as male.
- 4 identified as transgender.
- 470 were white.
- 124 were Black or African American.
- 16 were American Indian or Alaskan Native.
- 24 were multi-racial.
- 3 were unaccompanied children.
What We Are Not Hearing:
- How many beds do the shelters have?
- How many homeless were housed this month?
- Homeless crime rate up or down?
- The number of panhandlers, up or down?
- Incident reports from downtown, up or down?
- How many homeless found jobs, and which shelters did they come from?
- What is the cost benefit analysis of $4.7M for 637 homeless?
Our current model does not seem to be how to get the homeless off the street and into employment or recovery but rather how to raise funds, get grants, qualify for federal money so that the city can grow its homeless programs which in turn grows the number of homeless people seeking free housing without any conditions.
We can look at LA, SF and Portland to see where this is leading.
Doug – you are spot on with your closing remarks. It does seem like this has a lot to do with accumulating funds and spending them. Especially at the county level: you often hear Brownie boast about how this program or that one was rated in the top ten by some organization.