Homes for the Homeless

It seems too easy- the answer to homelessness is . . . homes? But increasingly researchers and social service workers on the ground have found that more shelter beds are not the real answer to homelessness, because when clients are ready to leave the shelter there still aren't homes, affordable homes, to move into. The problem of homelessness isn't a lack of housing. It's a lack of affordable housing. Especially in the most expensive parts of the US, like the Bay Area, housing that those with the lowest incomes or those on fixed incomes can afford is almost non-existent.

In both NY and San Francisco, the problem with homelessness is being addressed in a more dynamic way than before. Rather than treating shelter beds as "holding spaces" while waiting for very scare housing units that the client can afford, shelter beds become short-term solutions while waiting for newly created affordable housing. This movement, called Housing First, creates housing specifically for very low-income clients and for clients with disabilities.

Shelter space, in this new thinking, is used for crisis management. Longer term support services, provided once the client is in housing, tackles the underlying problems that contributed to homelessness. Provision of these services helps to keep people in housing who previously periodically lost housing due to their disability. Shelter space is able to turn over more quickly which brings homeless families and individuals in off the streets more quickly.

Tri-City Homeless Coalition's partnership with Allied Housing, allows TCHC to move forward towards a "Housing First" model that will make a real impact on the number of homeless people in southern Alameda County.