Government Launching New Initiative To End Homelessness

[laughingliberal]

WASHINGTON — The government is launching a sweeping plan to try to end homelessness over time, promising smarter coordination among the many agencies that try to help people find stable housing and economic security.

The plan suggests a big shift is needed so that programs targeted to solve homelessness are integrated with health, education and human services efforts.

The goals are ambitious. This effort calls for the end of chronic homelessness - the problem of people cycling through shelters and hospitals - in five years. It seeks to end homelessness among veterans in five years. <snip>

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/22/government-launching-new_n_620710.html

It is encouraging to see this issue has gotten on the radar screen for the first time in years. Will be looking forward to more details.

[Donnachaidh]

1. watch the wingnuts lose their freaking minds over giving something to the homeless

They think those people just want to sit around and smoke pot all day long.

Fox News is gonna have a field day --- Glenn Beck will have to buy a case of hand lotion because of this announcement. 'Teh Crazy' is going to go into overdrive.

[laughingliberal]

2. No doubt. Should be a very interesting debate. nt

[Oregone]

3. Mandate private home purchases

Its the only pragmatic solution to address this crisis


When finished, mandate happiness, and end depression for once and all

[bvar22]

4. My thoughts exactly.

They could simply follow the Democrat's Blueprint for Health Care Reform...
simply establish a mandate for the homeless to BUY houses.
Problem solved!

[laughingliberal]

5. I did have the thought that it could go the way of HCR. I really hope not but HCR shocked me. nt

[zipplewrath]

6. Mel Martinez

Secretary Martinez is ensuring that HUD - as the federal agency that oversees the nation's affordable housing and provides housing assistance for low-income persons - improves the quality and availability of public housing. The plan by Martinez to stimulate affordable housing production by increasing FHA multifamily loan limits represents the first such increase in nearly a decade.

By reactivating the Interagency Council on Homelessness and the joint homeless task force, Secretary Martinez has brought a new commitment within HUD to those who have no home to call their own. Martinez is ensuring that the resources of the federal government work efficiently together to provide better services to the homeless, and ultimately, end chronic homelessness.


For those with a strong Christian faith, I'd remind them that Christ himself told us that the homeless would always be with us. You can't "end" chronic homelessness. At best you can minimize the magnitude of the permanent damage the symptoms and causes create.

[Mojeoux]

9. I think He said the "poor" will always be with us.

Poor=Homeless: Probably same thing.

This is amazing news. With all the empty houses and people who need hames, it seems a no-brainer.

[zipplewrath]

12. Not nearly that simple

Take your average homeless person, stick them in a home, they'll be homeless with in 3 months.

Homelessness is about far more than not having a house. The series of actions, decisions, and their effects on the mind and body that bring one to the point of homelessness are generally neither quick, nor particularly "reversible". You don't "go back" to your old life. To a great degree you typically don't want to go back to your old life.

Although putting a person in housing is a very important first step, it is only one of many, and can be as tragic and tramatic as living under a bridge if the associated support isn't there. Job training (typically from scratch since the person often may not have any real sustainable and profitable skills), addiction counseling, and general counseling are all very important in making them become the relatively "self sufficient" people they, and we, want them to be. And it takes years. 2 years is fast. 5 is probably more realistic, especially in an economy like we have now.

I applaud efforts to get people into housing sooner rather than later. Trying to live in shelters and simultaneously get back into the economic mainstream is very difficult, even more so for folks who have demonstrated a capacity to fail at it already. But in the absence of any significant additional support, it is merely a delaying of the inevitable.

[laughingliberal]

7. Kicking. Am shocked this has not warranted more attention.

First administration in years to address homelessness.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

8. It is nice to see it on the "radar screen"

[salguine]

10. Yeah, like they solved health care. They'll force everyone to buy a house or be fined.

[Hannah Bell]

11. so -- what will be different from the one they launched less than 10 years ago,

where homelessness was going to be ended in 10 years?

All funded state & local gov'ts & agencies had to work up their personal plans to end homelessness in ten years.

***

History of the Ten Year Plan

In 2000, the National Alliance to End Homelessness released A Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years. Drawing on research and innovative programs from around the country, the plan outlined key strategies in addressing the issue locally, which cumulatively can address the issue nationally. The plan outlined four key elements of a plan to end homelessness:

Plan for outcomes. Every jurisdiction should collect data that allows it to identify the most effective strategy for each sub-group of the homeless population and jurisdictions should bring those responsible for mainstream as well as homeless targeted resources to the planning table.

Close the front door. Communities should prevent homelessness by making mainstream poverty programs more accountable for outcomes of their clients.

Open the back door. Communities should develop, and subsidize when needed, an adequate supply of affordable housing.

Build the infrastructure. Ending homelessness can be a first step in addressing the systemic problems that lead to crisis poverty, including a shortage of affordable housing, incomes that do not pay for basic needs, and a lack of appropriate services for those that need them.

Since the release of this blueprint, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Bush Administration endorsed the idea of planning to end chronic homelessness in ten years, the US Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) challenged 100 cities to create plans to end homelessness. The momentum built across the country—to date, there are 234 completed plans to end homelessness across the country.

http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/1786

***

i attended a planning session on that one as a volunteer with our local homeless shelter -- a lot of whiteboard, a lot of happy talk, a lot of bullshit -- & $$$ for the well-meaning but useless consultants who ran the planning sessions.

the director said on the way to the meeting: "here's where we all pretend we believe we're going to wipe out homelessness in ten years".

sorry, i have no faith in the latest plan unless it includes guaranteed money for

1. homes
2. jobs



The current system of dealing with the homeless is, imo, part of the surveillance state.

If I were homeless, I absolutely *would not* go to a shelter.

[datasuspect]

13. i didn't see anything about walmart, faith based organizations, or privatization in the article

. . .

[4_TN_TITANS]

14. Nice thought, but it isn't going to happen...

With the way social programs are being bled dry (medicare payments, public education, etc.), why would one think that any social program will improve.

Given that Repubs could gain control of at least one house of congress and maybe the presidency within five years, this idea won't last long.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

15. kick