RAND Corporation Rethinks Homelessness

[The Straight Story]

RAND Rethinks Homelessness
Terence Lyons, Mirror Staff Writer

Having a world-renowned think tank in one's hometown can have its uses. RAND Corporation has been studying homelessness for 20 years, having published its first report on the subject in 1988, as noted by Iao Katagiri, its Deputy Vice President of External Affairs and Director of Community Relations. And so, "Rethinking Solutions to Homelessness in Los Angeles" was the subject of RAND's most recent Policy Forum Thursday, February 22, at the research nonprofit's Main Street headquarters.

...

Torie Osborn called Los Angeles "the only major city in the U.S. without a coordinated plan to end homelessness," noting that 220 cities in America have such a plan. She characterized the "Bring L.A. Home" report as a good foundation, but said that it did not have the necessary "metrics, strategy and plan of action" to get the job done. Paul Koegel did not think that Los Angeles was yet thinking in terms of ending homelessness rather than merely managing it. Osborn said that of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County, only 25 do anything at all to address homelessness. She quoted a New York deputy mayor as saying that Los Angeles is today where New York was 20 years ago and as hoping that LA can learn from the New York experience.

Suzanne Wenzel described the 1950s image of the homeless as older white male alcoholics – a traditional “skid row” image – and explained that the face of homelessness changed in the 1970s and early 1980s with deindustrialization, the loss of manufacturing jobs and the gentrification of less expensive residential neighborhoods. All of the panelists acknowledged that the problem today results from both structural factors (lack of housing, shifts in the economy) and particular personal limitations (mental health, substance abuse). "Skid row has been our regional solution to homelessness for 100 years: out of sight, out of mind," said Osborn. The causes today require more comprehensive solutions.

"Don't pour more money into shelters, but go straight to permanent housing: that is the fix for chronic homelessness." That was the New York deputy mayor's advice to Osborn, she said. All panelists urged a massive push toward what they called "permanent supportive housing" – meaning subsidized, permanent housing coupled with support services (health, employment, counseling and the like). The thinking seems to be that it's tough to find a job when you're sleeping in a shelter and all day carrying around a backpack/suitcase/bedroll that screams, "Homeless." This "Housing First" model is the solution of choice produced by the rethinking process.

http://www.smmirror.com/MainPages/DisplayArticleDetails.asp?eid=5035

[Jack Sprat]

1. Violent convicts have a room and 3 squares

with heat/air, but society cannot provide the same for people down on their luck and not prone to breaking the law. Unreal.

[grannylib]

2. Gee, I woulda thunk Chimpy had ended homelessness, just like hunger

Don't people "experience shelter instability" or some such crap like that???? Nobody's REALLY homeless in 'Murka, I'm SURE of it...:sarcasm:

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. "Don't pour more money into shelters" says Bloomberg shill for a city of millionaires & billionaires

Whose past two mayors (Giuliani and Bloomberg) have done everything in their power to criminalize the homeless, along with the recent neoliberal mayors of DC and San Francisco (Gavin Newsom and Tony Williams).

Not to mention what they've done to community gardens and other obstacles to developer driven gentrification.

"Housing first" = "build transitional housing that will slowly transition into upper middle class housing after the problem has been solved and there are no longer any poor people within city limits"

I speak from personal experience, people will not ALLOW shelters or transitional housing to be built unless it serves a certain MAXIMUM of actual troubled, poor individuals... the entire structure of the legal and zoning apparatus, down to the parking, is designed for that effect.