Doug Pawson (he/him)’s Post

There is no single solution. It’s hard work, and not as fast as we all want. But the strategy is showing results and we must stay the course, continuing to scale up outreach, encampment closures, rehousing assistance and wraparound services. We hope what we’ve learned will help our colleagues across the country reduce homelessness. Together, we can help our neighbors move home. Housing Forward https://lnkd.in/gFyyEZRS

🏠 Whitestone & Co. is dedicated to addressing the pressing issue of homelessness in our communities. We're partnering with federal, state, and local agencies to support efforts to combat homelessness. Together, we can tackle this challenge and work towards a future where homelessness is a thing of the past. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, revealing more than 650,000 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, marking a 12% increase from 2022. The report also includes the Housing Inventory Count of shelter and housing resources to serve people experiencing homelessness. While these numbers are concerning, we remain committed to making a positive impact. Our mission to provide affordable housing and utilize the Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8) is now more vital than ever. We're actively working to create affordable, safe, and sanitary shelter for those in need. Join us in supporting proven solutions and strategies that help people quickly exit homelessness and prevent it in the first place. Together, we can make a difference. #AffordableHousing #CommunityImpact #EndHomelessness #WhitestoneCo https://lnkd.in/eAbaF3Dp.

HUD released the 2023 point-in-time data today and it shows what many of us were expecting. We know what ends homelessness: permanent housing. And, this country's homeless programs have transformed over the past 10 years to increasingly implementing evidence-based permanent housing programs and re-housing more people in permanent housing than in prior years. But, with COVID resources disappearing, more people than ever are entering homelessness. Reducing homelessness requires more people to be exiting than entering. And, the lack of a comprehensive affordable housing investment plan from Congress has resulted in more people struggling to afford housing than ever and more people experiencing homelessness. "The data released today do not represent failures of the past year of homelessness response. Instead, these new data represent the effects of ongoing and continuous disinvestment in affordable housing." Read More:

We’re going to see a lot of debate in days and months ahead about the marked increase in homelessness across our nation. We know what works, and we need the commensurate resources to respond effectively. Historic HUD and Biden-Harris administration investments have done a tremendous amount of good that rightly need to be recognized and successes built upon, but our sectors and communities are also facing many pandemic era resources drying up. We need Congressional action to meet this moment at the scale of investment and policy will that is needed. And at the heart of it all, this Urban Institute feature headline captures the true driver. Homelessness Is Solvable, But Only with Sufficient Investment in Housing. We need A LOT more housing and a range of types to meet the needs of our neighbors at ALL income levels, including starter homes for families and accessible options for people with disabilities and our growing population of seniors.

More affordable housing needed. Highlights from reposted article: “Some politicians and influential figures have argued that people experiencing homelessness do not want housing, and are homeless by choice. Research from Urban and others clearly debunks this myth: people want safe, affordable housing. The problem is that they struggle to access…. A recent Urban report echoes the City of Seattle’s findings. In a survey of women experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles, we identified a lack of affordable housing (63 percent) and long waiting lists for housing assistance (56 percent) as the barriers women most frequently face in securing permanent housing….. Veteran homelessness has dropped by 52 percent since 2009, when the US Department of Housing and Urban Development first began collecting veteran homelessness data. This decline corresponds to an increase in the number of supportive housing beds for veterans. In 2009, more than 73,000 veterans were experiencing homelessness; by 2023, that number had fallen to under 36,000….. With homelessness increasing nationwide, policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels should invest in evidence-backed solutions that help people exit homelessness and achieve greater stability. To prevent entries into homelessness, however, policymakers will need to address its underlying causes, such as by creating and funding a comprehensive affordable housing plan.”

The Queensland Government's commitment to allocating $23 million in funding and acquiring an 84-room Brisbane hotel to provide essential accommodation for those at risk of homelessness is a crucial step forward. As the only national provider of housing and homelessness services for women and their families, we welcome the announcements from the Queensland Government today. 📉 Recent data from National Shelter and SGS Economics has highlighted a concerning decline in rental affordability nationwide. Addressing this issue requires immediate action, and increased housing supply is pivotal to driving affordability and lowering rental costs. 🏨 The acquisition of hotels, motels, and retirement villages across Queensland is one way to unlock additional housing supply and quickly. Our CEO Michelle Phillips said that "Urgent and targeted interventions are also crucial in alleviating acute housing stress and mitigating its profound and lasting impact on the lives of women and their families”. 💪 YWCA Australia applauds the Queensland Government's commitment to injecting $23 million to support access to emergency accommodation for families experiencing homelessness. This move is both necessary and welcomed. We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with the Queensland Department of Housing to deliver more housing solutions and homelessness supports for women and gender diverse people. Read our full statement: https://lnkd.in/gjiJuk45 Meaghan Scanlon MP Department of Housing Queensland.

In December 2023, Mecklenburg County Community Support Services  released the 2023 State of Housing Instability & Homelessness (SoHIH) Report, a comprehensive analysis of current data on housing instability and homelessness in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. This report is a crucial tool for ensuring well-informed policy decisions, optimizing resource distribution, and enhancing systems of care. The report delves into three pivotal aspects of the housing continuum—housing instability, homelessness, and stable housing. This is the final blog in a series that has taken a deeper dive into these three aspects of the housing continuum. This final blog post examines the findings from the third housing continuum component: stable housing. It spotlights key findings related to stable housing and shares information about North Carolina’s forthcoming participation in the Housing and Services Partnership Accelerator and the promising practice of establishing community land trusts to increase access and availability of stable housing. https://lnkd.in/eUpRMYJZ

I really like this article but I have some critiques on areas to focus on, mostly directed on legislative actions that would be needed. 1) companies like black rock should be limited to the amount of properties they can buy. There’s no reason to make more housing if hedge funds will just buy them and make them rental properties, subjecting people moving out of homelessness to continually raising rent costs. 2) while I appreciate families that enter into real estate, right now we need to provide permanent affordable housing to individuals instead of long term rental properties. There needs to be a limit on the amount of properties that a single family can hold onto.  3) a direct effort needs to be made to address blight in low income neighborhoods. Studies are showing that when blight is addressed, crime rates seem to decrease, and there is an increase in neighborhood pride, making the area more livable. 4) building contracts should not be bloated. Considerations for fair market value and appropriate costs for both materials and labor should be considered. A fair wage for a fair job. 5) municipal taxes must be managed and tax hikes must be capped. In Allegheny county specifically, we’ve seen some municipalities raising their taxes 30,40, even over 50 percent in some areas. If someone exits homelessness moves into one of these neighborhoods barely getting by, to subsequently be hindered by a substantial tax hike, we threaten to return them to their previous circumstance as a sacrifice for a dollar.

Homelessness Strategies - are any community strategies effectively working to reduce the number of people affected, to reduce the awful pain of this modern scourge? This week St. Catherines, Ontario was to open a new residence, a quick turnaround solution using a modular shelter previously housing northern camp workers. Cool idea, right? But so much of what is tried has failed to help much at all. - St. Catherines spent $500,000 on a downtown washroom with the best of intentions, but it has had plenty of problems to overcome - Hamilton Ontario is trying desperately to set up their HATS project, tiny homes as a stop-gap measure for a very limited number of exposed persons, (but used elsewhere successfully enough). Even that very modest proposal has become terribly difficult to deliver - some communities have managed to retro-fit unused secondary office space to residences, despite a push back in many places that this is insufficient, too costly etc. Surely a managed residence with support services, nurse practitioners and social supports would reduce wider problems to a degree that decrease societal and medical costs in equal measure to the build-out costs What effective strategies has your city or community enacted for sufficient support for the homeless and longer-term solutions? How has your business community helped make this happen to a degree that it encourages others to join in the fight? https://lnkd.in/g9Eu3wxt

My latest  deep feature for HousingWire — also picked up by Yahoo Finance — is focused on the vexing homelessness problem facing the Dallas area (and many other cities across this land). https://lnkd.in/gkparjvQ A similar story focused on Seattle's homeless crisis that I reported and published earlier this year can be found here: https://lnkd.in/gfKf6K46 Homelessness is not a red or blue state problem. It's both. And successful solutions will require the best minds, public and private dollars, street-tested strategies and, importantly, a unified effort across the political and service sectors.