Special Report Contents

The Drive to End Chronic Homelessness Reconstructing the "Projects" Affordable Rental Housing: The Sometimes Unwanted Neighbor "Top Down" vs. "Bottom-Up" Community Revitalization Casualties in the Drive for Homeownership The Federal Housing and Community Development Budget Key Organizations

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition in its 2008 Advocates' Guide, at least 3.5 million people are likely to experience homelessness in the United States in any given year. While less startling, the number of persons who are homeless on any given night is still distressing – nearly 672,000 on a single night in January, the federal government reports.In many communities, the most visible sufferers of homelessness are roughly one-fifth estimated to be chronically homeless, meaning they are homeless repeatedly or over a long time. In the last decade, many communities have radically altered the way they deal with chronic homelessness. Research has illuminated a high public cost generated from people living on the streets. Expenditures range from the daily operational costs of homeless shelters to charges incurred each time homeless individuals are taken to emergency rooms, and a series of other outlays. University of Pennsylvania professor Dennis Culhane and others have concluded that the same amount of money could be spent to provide individuals with housing and supportive services. This realization coincided with the experiences of homeless housing providers such as Pathways to Housing in New York City and Downtown Emergency Service Center in Seattle. Their perception that stable housing is a precondition of recovery has helped fuel the widespread adoption of what is called the "housing first" approach for chronically-homeless individuals, many of whom have addictions or mental health issues.

The shift was aided by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which urged communities to draft ten-year plans to end chronic homelessness by centering on outreach to chronically homeless individuals and permanent supportive housing. Under federal "homeless czar" Philip Mangano, the Bush administration launched a campaign to spread the movement around the country, and the federal government began directing more of its homeless grant funds to supportive housing and away from shelters. Hopping on board have been many big cities, such as Chicago, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Portland, Ore; numerous smaller communities, such as Quincy, Mass.; and states such as Minnesota, Illinois, and New Jersey.

Local officials and nonprofits began to work with the national nonprofit Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) on development partnerships. Some supportive housing developments, such as the Near North SRO in Chicago, designed by Helmut Jahn, are showcases of architecture and green building. To the cheers of veterans' advocates, the federal government reinstituted a long-dormant program to set aside Section 8 rental vouchers specifically for veterans as part of a joint HUD-VA effort. The aim of the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program (HUD-VASH) is getting homeless veterans off the streets and into supportive housing. And communities began to turn their attention to the systems that discharge people into homelessness: foster care, hospital emergency rooms, and prisons. In a high profile development, the Los Angeles City Attorney began filing lawsuits against hospitals caught "dumping" homeless patients on skid row.

HUD has funded roughly 35,000 new beds of permanent supportive for the homeless over the last five years, helping to raise the total number of such units nationwide today to more than 141,000.  Still, another 90,000 such units are needed, says Carol Wilkins, director of policy and research at CSH. And, indeed, cities such as those cited above, have been reporting drops in chronic homelessness. In July 2008, the federal government reported that the number of chronically homeless people living in the nation's streets and shelters fell from 175,914 in 2005 to 123,833 in 2007, a nearly 30 percent decline. Despite the successes, the support for targeting chronic homelessness is not universal. Housing developments for the homeless often face stiff community opposition. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a local zoning board in that city shot down a supportive housing project that had wide city backing. The paper cited resident fears that their neighborhood was "being oversaturated" with group living facilities. Such stories are, unfortunately, commonplace.  Opposition also comes from those who question the costs and effectiveness of the housing first approach. In a debate echoed in other public policy arenas, they wonder whether public investment would go further if it targeted temporarily homeless people who may need less assistance to become more self-sufficient.

Another often cited concern is that the focus on chronically homeless individuals has shifted attention away from families with children, who may also have long-term barriers to staying housed. Many local homeless efforts are broadening to reach those families, using the lessons learned from serving chronically homeless individuals. Will successes to date in housing the homeless carry current trends forward? Or will the worsening economy shift some focus and system dollars back to shelters and/or homelessness prevention? These are the kinds of decisions the system will be making in the years ahead.

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