This month, a seldom-quoted document called the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness got a bit of a makeover.
It’s only five years old, but the nation’s only comprehensive policy for addressing homelessness was falling behind the times. One of the most notable is the realization that it’s a lot tougher than just pointing a finger at states and demanding results: In fact, the feds have pushed the goal for ending chronic homelessness back two years to 2017, blaming a lack of Congressional support.
The changes also include adding an operational definition for an end to homelessness. Yes, the 2010 original seems to have left out that bit of whimsy.
As proposed, the new operational definition states that an end to homelessness means that every community will have a system in place that ensures homelessness is prevented whenever possible or is otherwise a rare, brief, and non-recurring experience.
Maybe that will put an end to the shifting sands of defining homelessness that has been problematic since states began implementing 10-year plans to end homelessness. Regardless, it’s a needed definition, emphasizing the imperative on prevention and pleasantly void of complex parameters that parse those declared worthy from the simply destitute.
The changes to the federal plan also emphasize the connection between housing and health care and link services for people experiencing homelessness. Medical respite programs, like our Recuperative Care Program in Multnomah County, are proven to be cost-effective alternatives to long-term hospitalization. More importantly, it is humane treatment for people experiencing homelessness who are discharged from hospitals yet are too sick or injured to recover on the streets.
Getting the health care system working in tandem with housing makes common sense, as each network is highly influenced by the success of the other. The federal Housing and Human Services is promoting using Medicaid assistance to include permanent, supportive housing for people experiencing and at risk of homelessness. And it should. Housing is a social determinant of health.
And, of course, the plan recognizes the obvious: The need for more affordable, stable, low-income housing. It also encourages public-private partnerships, and synching networks between the streets and housing and assistance opportunities, and promoting “housing first” and rapid-rehousing programs. All well and good and in many cases working tremendously right here in Portland and Multnomah County.
All great, but where’s the money?
The president’s 2016 budget includes nearly $5.5 billion dedicated to homelessness assistance, plus additional housing vouchers to help a whole range of low-income families, youths and veterans. That’s a $345 million increase over the previous budget and is to be dispersed in the form of state and local grants.
It’s a start, but the forces of under-unemployment, suppressed wages, social displacement and a skyrockting housing market, among other economic factors, remain unfettered and continue to work against us. Reversing poverty has to be a nationwide priority with all those factors in our scope, because homelessness is their creation. Until then, we will continue to see the dates extend into the future, on an obscure federal document, to meet our endless goal of ending homelessness.
