REVERSING HOMELESSNESS: THE NEED FOR HOUSING SOLUTIONS (Excerpt)

Despite the multiple entryways and variations in the duration of homelessness, there is only one exit from homelessness: housing! This does not mean that housing alone will resolve the issues that led to the homeless episode in the first place, but without housing no homeless individual or family can become “unhomeless.”

New strategies to address homelessness increasingly recognize the centrality of housing to ending homelessness and discard the notion of “housing readiness” that underpins many transitional and shelter-based strategies for a “housing first,” or “rapid re-housing,” approach that focuses on quickly getting homeless people into housing and helping them stay there. Effective exit strategies recognize and address the causes of homelessness facing each individual and family.

The biggest barrier to obtaining or maintaining stable housing is cost. In the Bay Area, 64% of extremely low-income households pay more than half of their incomes for housing, putting them at high risk of losing their homes, particularly in the event of a family or health crisis. Neither the private market nor most “affordable” housing provide rents that those with the lowest incomes can afford. A significant increase in the supply of deeply affordable housing would go a long way to stem the tide of homelessness.

But strategies to end homelessness cannot ignore the many entry ways that lead to homelessness or the other issues that prolong its duration. The type of housing needed for a formerly homeless person or family to be successful living there depends, in many cases, on their pathway into homelessness. For households whose primary entry way into homelessness is the economic disconnect between incomes and housing costs, access to low-cost housing or housing subsidies can permanently end homelessness. For many households with the potential for earning growth, time-limited subsidies with service support and an emphasis on increasing income is enough to get into housing and remain stable. For persons with significant barriers to housing, such as chronically homeless people with disabilities, ongoing supportive services attached to the housing may be needed to ensure stability and prevent reentry into homelessness.