HOM.IT – Page 8

Homelessness Can be Ended; Santa Clara County Has The Formula

The Mercury News: Homelessness Can be Ended; Santa Clara County Has The Formula

June 24, 2016

We’ve long believed homelessness is a charitable cause, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that.

When faced with a plethora of social issues, there are some that seem solvable and some that do not. For decades we thought of homelessness in a worthy but unsolvable category. If we could ease human suffering, we thought we were doing the best we could.

But several years ago we, like many other communities, embraced Housing First, a best practice solution. It promotes permanent supportive housing, which means including health care and other services individuals need for stable lives. Our local data currently shows an 84 percent success rate for formerly homeless people maintaining this housing after one year. These are the same men and women who had been on our streets for decades and often considered “too hard to house”. Click here for the full op-ed.

We’ve Been Talking About Homelessness Like It’s New And Like It’s The ‘Worst Ever’ For 30 Years

SFist: We’ve Been Talking About Homelessness Like It’s New And Like It’s The ‘Worst Ever’ For 30 Years

June 28,2016

“The annual homeless crisis came to San Francisco early this year,” the Chronicle’s Abe Mellinkoff wrote on October 16th, 1986. “Usually we don’t hear much about it until the weather really turns cold. It’s so much easier to feel for those without homes when we are snug inside while winter’s winds are blowing at the door.”

Mellinkoff, who joined the Chronicle in 1935 and died in 1992, was familiar with San Francisco’s seasons and news cycles. “This latest outburst of homelessmania revealed that our town, like others across the country, is stumped by this social disease. The basic problem is that nobody can agree on who is involved and how many there are. The latest local figures range from an official low of about 5,000 to a maximum double that, according to some social activists. To be safe, give or take a few thousand at either end of the scale.” Click here for the full article.

Solution to SF’s Homeless Problem Starts with Supportive Housing

SF Chronicle: Solution to SF’s Homeless Problem Starts with Supportive Housing

June 29, 2016

Fixing San Francisco’s homelessness problem is possible.

It will require the addition of thousands of housing units for the hardest-core homeless people — the ones who wander the streets, screaming at the invisible, the ones who live in tents on sidewalks and shoot up in plain sight. The ones who make people who live and visit here think San Francisco has lost its way.

The solution is compassionate. It puts counselors on the sites of those thousands of new housing units, to help the hard-core homeless with their mental problems and drug addictions. The solution is open-ended. Many of those now-homeless people will be in taxpayer-funded housing for the rest of their lives. Click here for the full article.

How 5 SF Mayors Tackled Homelessness

SF Chronicle: How 5 SF Mayors Tackled Homelessness

San Francisco has plans to do more

By Ed Lee

Our city is struggling with the humanitarian crisis of people experiencing homelessness on our streets. This challenge isn’t unique to San Francisco — cities up and down the West Coast, and in fact across the nation, are seeing spikes in their homeless populations.

In San Francisco, we’ve moved 20,000 homeless individuals indoors over the last decade, and given them the social and emotional support they need in our city or back to their hometowns. But, clearly, we need to do more. Click here for the full article.

San Francisco Creates New Department to Address Homelessness

KQED: San Francisco Creates New Department to Address Homelessness

June 28, 2016. This Friday, the city of San Francisco will launch a new Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing with Jeff Kositsky at the helm. Kositsky, who has advocated for homeless rights for more than twenty years, most recently headed the Hamilton Family Center, an emergency shelter for homeless families. We’ll talk with Kositsky about his priorities as the department’s inaugural director, including the city’s goal of establishing six navigation centers to serve homeless around the city in the next two years. Click here for the full interview.

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