Building homes for homeless proves cheaper for government, and over time more efficiently cuts homelessness.
"Women, young, liberal boost - Finland's new 34-year-old prime minister to be youngest in the world, backed by all-female leaders"
This is an excerpt from one of the related stories in the post this sits in reply to.
Finland builds homes for homeless
He said Finland had investigated the issue of homelessness and decided "it's not that complex".
"They said 'the first thing we need to deal with people's issues is housing', so they built a lot of housing for homeless people," he told ABC Radio Melbourne's Dave O'Neil.
"From 2008 to 2015 they built 6,000 units specifically for homeless people."
These permanent, supported homes have reduced Finland's need for crisis accommodation, he said.
"In Dublin, where I'm from, back in 2008 we had about 600 emergency shelter beds in Dublin, they had the same in Helsinki in Finland.
"Today we have about 2,200 emergency beds; in Finland they have 54."
Permanent housing cheaper for government
Dr O'Sullivan said there was a general perception that the best way to help a homeless person was to make them "ready for housing" by putting them in emergency or transitional accommodation while dealing with any personal issues they might have.
He said the housing-first movement, which began in the United States, posits that a person's personal issues were best dealt with once they were in stable accommodation.
In Los Angeles, California in 1988, the "Housing First" Program for families was launched at Beyond Shelter by Tanya Tull in response to a sharp increase in the number of homeless families with children.[3] The "housing first" approach for families includes in-depth screening and assessment for child safety. Families should not be relocated to rental housing if there are indicators that a child might be in danger. In "housing first" for families, services are available before, during, and after relocation to rental housing - but engagement is not a requirement for participation. Unfortunately the "housing first" philosophy was often misinterpreted in later years and, today, many government programs promote faulty application of "housing first." For households with children, appropriate services and monitoring may be delivered through home visits, outpatient treatment, or linking to appropriate services in the community at-large.[4]
In 1992 Dr. Sam Tsemberis, a faculty member of the Department of Psychiatry of the New York University School of Medicine, founded Pathways to Housing in New York City. Housing First for the chronically homeless is premised on the notion that housing is a basic human right, and so should not be denied to anyone, even if they are abusing alcohol or other substances. The Housing First model, thus, is philosophically in contrast to models that require the homeless to abjure substance-abuse and seek treatment in exchange for housing.[5]
Housing First, when supported by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, does not only provide housing. The model, used by nonprofit agencies throughout America, also provides wraparound case management services to the tenants. This case management provides stability for homeless individuals, which increases their success. It allows for accountability and promotes self-sufficiency. The housing provided through government supported Housing First programs is permanent and "affordable," meaning that tenants pay 30% of their income towards rent. Housing First, as pioneered by Pathways to Housing, targets individuals with disabilities.[6] This housing is supported through two HUD programs. They are the Supportive Housing Program and the Shelter Plus Care Program.[7] Pathways' Housing First model has been recognized by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as an Evidence-based practice.[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_First#History_and_evolution
-
Ben Carson is right about one thing when it comes to homelessness
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson speaks during his visit to the Vaux Big Picture High School in September. (Matt Rourke/AP)
By Robert Gebelhoff Assistant editor and Opinions contributor Dec. 15, 2017 at 8:21 a.m. GMT+11
The Department of Housing and Urban Development released new data .. https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2017-AHAR-Part-1.pdf .. last week showing that homelessness may have inched up slightly, based on an annual count of homeless people during one night in January. Although not perfect, this is the best measurement we have to get an overall picture of homelessness and how it changes year to year.
This is the first year since 2010 that we saw an increase, and experts say it’s mostly driven by surging housing prices in West Coast cities. Clearly, our economic recovery hasn’t affected everyone the same.
He’s not wrong. It’s totally fair to say that we shouldn’t accept government policies that simply throw money at problems hoping that will solve them. But this is a straw-man argument — nobody wants to just throw money at a problem blindly.
[...]
If Carson and his fellow Republicans seriously want to tackle the disturbing increase in homelessness in the United States, start with what we know. Don’t trash the system we have in place and attempt to reinvent the wheel.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
