HOUSTON (AP) - The homeless population in the Houston metropolitan area has continued to decline, prompting advocates to declare they’re on track to meet a federal goal of housing virtually all chronic and veteran homeless by the end of 2015.
The source of their encouragement was Thursday’s release by the nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless of its annual count showing 5,351 people were living on the street or in a shelter on the night of Jan. 30. That is a 16 percent drop from the snapshot taken last January and a 37 percent decrease from 2011.
Advocates attribute the reduction to an unprecedented level of local collaboration and new federal priorities backed by increased funding.
“We are working together to create community-wide strategies,” coalition President Marilyn Brown said. The nonprofit group coordinates dozens of service providers in Harris and Fort Bend counties that receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for homeless initiatives.
Homeless advocates acknowledge the one-night count cannot be exact, especially in a city so large, but federal housing officials require the annual estimate to keep them accountable for progress on ambitious federal goals set in 2010.
On the night of the count, volunteers visited 61 homeless shelters or were assigned to tally and survey the street population within assigned geographic areas. Professionals from service agencies visited out-of-sight homeless camps, and young adults from shelter programs sought out homeless youth at popular hangouts. The tally was reviewed by social scientists at the University of Texas for accuracy.
The first federal deadline - to end chronic and veteran homelessness by 2015 - once intimidated local service providers and advocates. They admitted to being uncertain about its practicality, in part because new federal rules required unprecedented collaboration between groups that historically had competed for the same funding. Encouraged by the results to date, local leaders now say ending long-term homelessness is possible. Brown even suggested that all homeless veterans could be housed by the end of this year.
Despite the promising statistics, Brown said the region’s network of homeless services still needs work.
For instance, the second local attempt to count homeless youth - defined as anyone younger than 24 who is not accompanied by a parent - flopped again, as it has in cities nationwide. The January count tallied only 62 young homeless. Advocates say the young homeless tend to hide more, avoid services or bounce between friends’ homes, if they identify themselves as homeless at all.
And while hundreds of homeless have received housing vouchers set aside for veterans, Brown said many former service members who remain on the street likely would not qualify for services offered through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs because they did not receive an honorable or general discharge, according to the January count.
Houston homeless advocates remain optimistic. They say focusing on one challenge at a time is a key reason they have had success at all.
“We’ve gone from managing homelessness to ending it,” Tory Gunsolley, president and CEO of the Houston Housing Authority, told the Houston Chronicle (https://bit.ly/1kpajE9 ).
That was the vision President Barack Obama set out in 2010 and Mayor Annise Parker affirmed. National advocates and federal officials since have highlighted Houston’s progress as among the fastest. Last month, Mandy Chapman-Semple, the mayor’s special assistant on homeless initiatives, was invited to testify at a congressional hearing.
An improved economy has played a part in reducing the population of new homeless families and increased federal funding has expanded the reach of service providers, but local advocates attribute the bulk of the decline to priorities shared citywide. They have reserved space and funding for veterans and the chronic homeless - people who have been homeless longer than a year, or four times in three years, and have a disabling mental or physical condition.
The number of people placed into permanent supportive housing, which has no limit on how long a person can stay and is connected with intensive social services, has jumped 81 percent over three years, according to the coalition. Neal Rackleff, leader of the city’s housing department, said the region is on track to build the last 1,000 units needed by the deadline.
The housing-first philosophy contends people are more likely to stay housed if they have the guarantee of a home as long as it takes them to manage financial, physical and mental health challenges. Advocates also cite a local government review that found it is at least three times cheaper for taxpayers to fund a unit of permanent supportive housing than pay for emergency room visits, jail time and temporary shelter.
“It saves lives,” Brown said.
Curtis Randle counts himself among them.
“I got to a point where sometimes I felt like today or tomorrow I’m dead and to a certain degree it didn’t matter,” he said, standing outside the downtown housing complex where Brown had announced the results of the January count.
The 52-year-old has lived in a small efficiency apartment at the site for eight months after living on the street in Greenspoint or in the woods in Spring for eight years. He said he became homeless when student loan debt became oppressive and a drug addiction led to a burglary charge.
Previous attempts to get off the streets met with too much red tape, he said.
This time, he said, thanks to changes in Houston’s homeless system, he is encouraged and grateful that he is on the path to stability again.
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Information from: Houston Chronicle, https://www.houstonchronicle.com
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