It Takes A Village: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach to Solving Homelessness in America
Coalition for the Homeless outreach team in action. * Credit: Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County / Allison Zapata
Homelessness in America cannot be summarized in a sound bite. Too often as a society, we search for a simple solution when faced with overwhelming complexity. We have seen that a one-size-fits-all model has failed miserably.
The only way we can successfully address the problem is to build comprehensive, targeted systems of interventions to address the unique needs of each population. The type of housing and the level and kind of services required are different for women and children than they are for veterans and for unsheltered individuals with chronic substance abuse.
Case studies across the country have demonstrated that when political will is matched with adequate public funding and engagement from corporate and civic leadership, homeless individuals can and will move into permanent housing. Common sense tells us that affordable housing must be accompanied by adequate and appropriate support services including, to name a few, mental health and substance use treatment, child care, transportation, and financial planning.
That's what they've done in Houston. That is why they are seeing progress.
Houston has experienced the success of a multi-pronged intervention, which shows that government can create a sustainable, scalable solution through policy, appropriations, and funding. However, public dollars must seamlessly blend with local civic, philanthropic, and business support to create unique solutions and bring them to scale. Successful models are not built in a day or a year. They take time to demonstrate impact. Patience is necessary to prove that we can make progress. Private and civic support for pilot program enhancements, proof of concept, and community engagement are essential to create the political will to see the solutions to their successful conclusion.
In 2012, Houston, the fourth largest city in the U.S., had 12,000 homeless individuals living within its borders. Since 2012, the Houston community, led by the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston, has provided permanent supported housing to 28,000 people and achieved an 85% success rate for people staying in housing. The pillars of their success were political leadership, corporate engagement, and trusted service provider collaboration.
Houston’s success resulted from organizational and political risk — such as defining a priority population, reorganizing the board of directors and changing the role of service providers coupled with collaboration at every level. A centralized front door and no wrong door provided coordinated access that prioritized housing and services to those most vulnerable. An oversight board of directors minimizes provider competition while maximizing engagement from the philanthropic and corporate communities. This collaborative model allowed providers and government to partner, allowing them the ability to identify each individual’s need and tailor services to end their experience of homelessness.
While we know what works, public policies often interfere with a community’s ability to succeed. One example is the elimination of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-funded supportive service grants that could be layered over housing, resulting in a patchwork of services that may or may not reach clients most in need. We need to conduct a thorough examination of policies that govern HUD’s Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act and its ability to blend with other federal funding sources to create robust support service models. Some of the policies create significant barriers to successful interventions. Another example — pertinent to the nation’s opioid crisis — is an individual’s opportunity to remain enrolled in substance abuse treatment for as long as they need. In order to remain eligible for Permanent Supportive Housing, you are only allowed to attend treatment programs for 90 days. If an individual needs to stay longer to complete treatment, they lose their homeless housing eligibility status. This has the inadvertent consequence of homeless individuals being discharged from treatment back to shelters or the streets, creating a vicious cycle of situations that trigger relapses and new crises.
Michael Nichols, head of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston, said it best during a conversation with us: “Our first job is overcoming the bureaucratic obstacles that get in the way of actually serving clients in need.” We recommend addressing this and other treatment and service conflicts to allow for comprehensive effective services.
Policies must make sense on the ground. Houston has done an excellent job of creating a comprehensive system; however, most of the necessary support service funding has come from federal emergency response efforts (American Recovery Act, COVID response dollars), which are designed to sunset and leave effective programs and collaborations without a sustainable funding option. In the long run these services must be funded and incorporated in the HUD system to maintain a robust response. They must be flexible enough to allow for the community to design systems of care that maximize all resources available and allow for on-the-ground collaboration. Excerpts from the Houston’s Coalition for the Homeless policy recommendations appear below. Based on the Houston experience as well as our experience in this space, among our suggestions to improve the homeless situation, we propose the following:
Streamline and reduce the complexity of federal funding that is intended to help people living in poverty, including those experiencing homelessness. Currently, federal funding is difficult to spend quickly and effectively because of so many regulations. This results in communities frequently being slow to spend funds, funds sometimes being returned to HUD despite community needs, and a lack of willingness to innovate and create locally appropriate solutions.
Create flexible, non-Continuum of Care (CoC) funding to local jurisdictions (paired with supportive service funding).
Increase case management/supportive service funding. Any increase in housing vouchers or funding for rental assistance should be paired with an increase in CoC funding for corresponding services. Too often, new rental subsidies/funding is provided without any money for corresponding supportive services. This makes it difficult for jurisdictions to responsibly utilize the rental assistance and support housed clients. Furthermore, additional supportive service funding is needed to match industry pay scale standards.
Eliminate and/or reduce the local match requirement for CoC and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). Many homeless agencies and systems, especially those in historically under-resourced communities, do not have eligible sources of funding that qualify as match. At a minimum, expand funding categories that qualify as match.
Increase the ESG and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) formula allocation to high performing cities further incentivizing best practices.
Building a scalable plan for the community requires replicating Houston’s model of community collaboration. Focused targeted plans based on population need and nonprofit partnerships can and should be replicated for scalability throughout the nation. It will take political will, adequate funding for housing and services, incentives to create local housing inventory, and federal policies — all supporting long-term viable solutions.
About the Authors:
Melinda Giovengo, Ph.D. worked as Executive Director of YouthCare in Seattle for 16 years serving young people who have experienced homelessness. She was the chair of the National Network for Youth and the co-chair of Washington State’s Office for Homeless Youth's Advisory Board for 6 years. Currently she serves on the CoC board for Boston and is Chief Program Officer for Victory Programs, working with chronically homeless adults and families. Melinda is passionate about the root causes of homelessness and creating systems that work collaboratively to solve these problems.
Betsy Schwartz served as President of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston in the 1980's when she was CEO of the Greater Houston Mental Health America. She served as Vice President of Public Education of the National Council for Wellbeing where she led Mental Health First Aid in the United States. Betsy has been a lifelong advocate for people living with mental health challenges. She is a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative and a Senior Editor at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Social Impact Review.