In Seattle, a unique method addresses the needs of people experiencing homelessness and those of businesses and homeowners.
When business and neighborhood groups and advocates for homeless people collaborate, mutual distrust tends to decline and innovation is sparked. |
 | | Michelle McClendon, an outreach worker, chats with a repeat resident, Taylor Bohm, and her partner, Michelle, as they fill out paperwork.Grant Hindsley for The New York Times |
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When it comes to dealing with problems that accompany homeless encampments, businesses and homeowners typically feel they have no choice but to call the police. |
Unfortunately, law enforcement tends to do little more than move the problem around and worsen it in the long term, because arresting and jailing homeless people can make it more difficult for them to find the employment, health care and housing they need to get back on their feet. |
But what if there were another organization that people could call? One that could respond in real time and provide housing and services based on the best data we have about what actually works for chronically homeless people? |
When I learned about such a project in Seattle, called Just Care, I knew I wanted to write about it. I was especially intrigued by the fact that it was created by a coalition that included business and homeowner groups who were working together with community advocates and nonprofits, rather than opposing one another's efforts. It uses a harm reduction approach, and its main goal is to help people get housed and get healthier, rather than mandating abstinence from drugs and other risky behaviors above all. |
Approaches to addiction that don't involve law enforcement and coercion seem counterintuitive to many people. But in both red states and blue states, "housing first" methods have done a better job of addressing the needs of both businesses and homeless people than the crackdowns we've returned to over and over and over without success. |
As a journalist who covers addiction — and who was addicted to cocaine and heroin in my 20s — I've long been frustrated by the complete disconnect between what we know works to treat the addiction and mental illness that often contribute to long-term homelessness and the strategies we actually employ. As I hope you'll see from my reporting, we have better options. |
| MORE ON HOMELESSNESS IN AMERICA | | | | | |
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