Press Room

The Birmingham Coalition of the Homeless and its supporters have invited political candidates, elected officials, police and community members to sit down with the homeless and take part in discussions.

Exact numbers of homeless people around the nation are hard to determine, and Wyoming is no exception. However, sources report an increase in the numbers of homeless people served in shelters, clinics, soup kitchens and food pantries.

On the brink of homelessness, Brandee Berry touched base with Penny Lane Centers, the social service that guided her through foster care, and learned about a newly constructed apartment building that provides permanent housing for former foster youth and low-income families.

The scope of the problem, homeless advocates say, calls for a new approach in how governments regulate people sleeping in their vehicles. Business owners fear shantytowns on public and private lots.

Already embraced in large cities across the country, including Denver and Sacramento, the "housing first" model has been considered in ongoing discussions of how best to deal with homelessness in Stockton. While the approach has gained support elsewhere, several local leaders say they have reservations about whether it could work here.

Billings Forge is home to about 250 people in 98 units that range from studios to three-bedroom apartments. Just outside the neat, red-brick apartments is a community center where residents of all ages attend classes and workshops. Once a week, a farmers' market takes place in the courtyard. The one-square-block development also contains an artists' studio, a bakery, a catering service and, perhaps most intriguingly, an upscale restaurant.

In York County Prison, 480 inmates -- or about 21 percent of the population -- have a mental illness. In some cases, the only reason they have committed a crime is because of their mental illness, and sometimes they spend more time behind bars because of a lack of housing, according to officials and a recent study conducted for the county's Criminal Justice Advisory Board. And in the long run, it costs taxpayers more money, the study showed.

How some of the major spending in the stimulus legislation will be shared among the states, an interactive map from the Wall Street Journal.

I was at the National Alliance to End Homelessness Conference in Washington, DC from July 28-31, listening to U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan sum up what's been accomplished in recent years and what remains to be done to prevent and end homelessness...

By next spring, North Park Inn will reopen as a 17-unit supportive-housing development for graduates of the Pathfinders program for formerly homeless men recovering from a drug or alcohol addiction. Diamond One’s plans call for a kitchenette to be added to each room to allow occupants to live independently, and a house next door that was used for motel overflow will become Pathfinders’ new headquarters. Not only will the buildings get interior overhauls, but when they re-open next April, the former neighborhood eyesores will be two of the prettiest structures on the block.