People-driven, data-informed social worker. Pragmatic idealist who puts health and housing policy into practice.
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.
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:
Passionate advocate. Servant leader. Winning strategist. Dedicated to system change. Offering humble reflections from mission-driven career in social justice nonprofits and government.
10moYes, and yes, and yes. And, there are things we can do in the meantime to make our systems work better. Instead of relying only on the Point in Time Count we could incentivize using by-name data to know by name in, in real time each and every person experiencing homelessness. Making our systems data informed enables better cross system coordination for better outcomes, and a better understanding of the dynamics of inflow and outflow. With transparent dashboards we can better define and address the problem and drive reductions. This is the method behind built for zero movement that is showing promising results in over 100 communities across the country. Yes, Stephanie Meyer, MSW, LSW #HomelessnessIsSolvable