![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lawatthemargins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Vigil4-1024x683.jpg\")
There is a way out of America\u2019s homelessness crisis. It starts by meeting the homeless where they are with daily outreach and ends with access to affordable, permanent housing.<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\nBy Joseph Young and Robert Warren
<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nEditor\u2019s note: This story was produced in partnership with <\/em>Street Sense Media<\/em><\/a>, a street media paper in Washington, D.C., and is part of \u201cThe Right to a Home,\u201d a <\/em>Community Based News Room<\/em><\/a> (CBNR) series that examines homelessness issues across the United States. CBNR is a project of <\/em>Law@the Margins<\/em><\/a>, and the series is supported by a <\/em>Solutions Journalism Network<\/em><\/a> grant. <\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Henry Wilson, 46, awoke to the sounds of Washington, D.C., police officers scuffling by his tent in the M Street NE pedestrian underpass on this summer night. A woman’s body lay on the sidewalk in front of the tent parked next to Wilson’s.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
None of the other people living in the homeless encampments that have sprung up in the NoMa neighborhood seemed to know much about the deceased woman now covered in a white sheet. Wilson, her neighbor, only knew that she went by the name Tink.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lawatthemargins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Michelle-Hydier-2-1024x1024.jpg\")
Michelle Hydier, 52, has lived on and off the street since she was 30 years old. (Joseph Young)
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMichelle Hydier, 52, who has been living at the M Street underpass for the past six months assumed this woman died from a drug overdose.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They could send drug counselors here,” Hydier said. “If the city was supportive of [people with substance use disorders], I think that would eliminate the problems they are having.”
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hydier has bouts with schizophrenia. So does her friend, Ricky McNeill, whom she shares a tent with.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the NoMa neighborhood, the underpasses at K, L, M and First Streets shelter just a fraction of the more than 600 homeless people living on the street \u2014 out of the 6,521 people experiencing homelessness in Washington, D.C. \u2014 including McNeil, Hydier and Wilson.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McNeill, 46, also has a bipolar disorder. He has been homeless since the age of 14 and self-medicates with illegal substances. “He is just hurting himself,” Hydier said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hydier wants the city to do more. She said the city has failed to provide mental health services to those living at the homeless underpass encampment.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of all \u201cunaccompanied adults\u201d counted as homeless in D.C.<\/a> by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments in January 2019 \u2014 sheltered or not \u2014 30 percent had a history of mental illness and 20 percent had a history of substance abuse.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nHowever, a Street Sense Media survey of 25 NoMa encampment residents at the K, L, M and First Streets NE underpasses found that 52 percent of respondents reported a problem with drugs, such as K2, PCP, marijuana, heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. Of that 52 percent, approximately 31 percent had a problem with more than one type of drug.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A staggering 80 percent of the encampment residents surveyed reported having a diagnosed mental illness, including schizophrenia, ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, depression and bipolar disorder.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lawatthemargins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/picture-18.jpg\")
Two homeless men with their belongings in Washington, D.C. (Joseph Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n“Some of the people that are mentally ill should be getting medication, and they are not getting those services,” Hydier said. “That causes a problem in the encampment.”
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Behavioral Health<\/a> (DBH) in the District of Columbia is listening. It also has the financial resources from the District to act and is implementing an action plan to better serve the needs of individuals who are experiencing homelessness. In 2019, the budget for DBH<\/a> was $285 million, a $7 million, or nearly 3 percent, increase from 2018 (after adjusting for inflation). In 2020, the proposed budget<\/a> is $319 million, a 10 percent increase. A lot of that money is going toward outreach services, such as the DBH Community Response Team (CRT), which is a new 24-7 direct service team that includes homeless outreach, mobile crisis, and pre-arrest diversion.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe had three different programs that merged and then expanded,\u201d said Jordan Gulley, the homeless services coordinator at the Department of Behavioral Health. \u201cWe had our mobile crisis, which responded to the crisis concerns throughout the community. We had the homeless outreach program, which did outreach in the community and tends to work specifically with people with more complex behavioral health issues. And then our pre-arrest diversion programs, which identify individuals through low-level offenses that might be directly related to behavioral health concerns. And rather than arresting them, they will be diverted into the pre-arrest programs. The community response team is a merger of [those] three existing programs that were at DBH and then expanding our services.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lawatthemargins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Ricky-McNeil.jpg\")
Ricky McNeil. (Joseph Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe response team does active outreach into the community to identify individuals living on the streets who need help with health concerns, mental health issues, substance abuse problems, and they actively engage with them.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe try to get them connected to resources, determine the level of care of service that they might need and then kind of facilitate that connection,\u201d Gulley explained. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of money toward homeless outreach services that are run through DHS [Department of Human Services]. So there’s a lot of coordination between teams right now, a lot of boots on the ground trying to really work with individuals who are experiencing homelessness on a gamut of services.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This robust collaboration has all come together and grown over the past year, and in earnest since June. The first full alert of the season for the Community Response Team was a week before Christmas.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI worked until 5:45 this morning, from about seven,\u201d said Gulley. \u201cBut with our team, we have three shifts so that we have 24-hour coverage. There are always people in the community. We are doing community outreach as well as crisis response.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Getting People Into Permanent Supportive Housing First<\/strong>
<\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe Department of Behavioral Health is not the only organization responding to the needs of the community and connecting people to services. Pathways to Housing DC is on a mission to end homelessness through housing first and serves more than 3,500 adults each year who are experiencing homelessness or at risk for homelessness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2004, when the nonprofit organization was founded, Pathways has moved over 900 people into its permanent housing program, with 92 percent of them remaining in its housing program and 100 percent of the people its serves overcoming mental illness, substance use or severe health challenges.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome people just need more support. … It\u2019s really hard to work toward any type of concrete goals without the stability of housing,\u201d said Emily Hill, a program manager for Pathways to Housing DC<\/a> and former outreach specialist.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lawatthemargins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-12-22-at-8.17.18-AM-1024x592.png\")
Mercedes Dones-Patricelli, a homeless outreach specialist with Pathways to Housing DC, talks with a woman. (Christine Halsey \/ Pathways to Housing DC)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe nonprofit receives multiple contracts from city government to provide street outreach and housing. It is a branch of the national organization founded by Sam Tsemberis<\/a>, who pioneered the housing first model by documenting how much more expensive it is to pay for emergency services for people on the street than it is to pay for housing and supportive services.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWhen working with a population that has dealt with so many difficult things throughout their lives, it may be the first time they\u2019ve had their own apartment in a long time or ever. And, really, that type of stability takes a lot of assistance,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThat\u2019s why PSH [permanent supportive housing] is so valuable, because the caseworker works with the consumer to be successful and maintain their housing, which we believe is a human right. The amount of support an individual needs is always different. Some people might need help setting up their utility payments. Or they might need help doing meal prep, things like that. Also being a resource for them if they need more intensive services, such as mental health resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The local government of Washington, D.C., formally adopted this \u201chousing first\u201d approach to homelessness in 2008, which focuses on housing people before requiring them to be employed, sober or on medication.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to improve access to housing for vulnerable individuals and families by ensuring we fund Permanent Supportive Housing programs that use a Housing First model,\u201d states the city\u2019s most recent strategic plan<\/a> to end homelessness. \u201cSome programs within our system have so many eligibility requirements that we are unable to place into permanent housing the very individuals and families that the programs were funded to serve.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lawatthemargins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Henry-Wilson-805x1024.jpg\")
Henry Wilson, a 46-year-old homeless man in Washington, D.C. (Joseph Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAaron Howe, a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant at American University in the department of anthropology, is passionate about ending homelessness. Howe has been attending homeless encampment cleanups about twice a week for over a year and knows many homeless residents and people at the organizations working with them, including the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless<\/a> (which provides legal services to the homeless) and Bread for the City<\/a> (which provides food). He has done a lot of research, including interviews, on the government and private agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the NoMa Business Improvement District (BID) and would like to see the city do more to create humanzing solutions that work.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n“Of course, non-punitive drug rehabilitation or maintenance, as well as mental health services for those who want it, should be provided,” Howe said. “I believe, however, that housing must be the first step.”
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everyday people in the community agree. “There\u2019s not enough affordable housing in the city,” said Antonio Haskell, 82, who rides the NoMa-Gallaudet U Metro. “Being on the street is not healthy. It’s not safe.”
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are some positive signs. According to a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments report<\/a>, the 2019 annual Point in Time (PIT) count of homeless people in the D.C. metro region was 9,794, the lowest number of people counted as homeless since the count began in 2001. It also was the first time that the number of homeless has been below 10,000 people.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nOne reason cited for the decline in homelessness was the region\u2019s increased supply of permanent supportive housing. This year, 10,856 formerly homeless persons were counted in permanent supportive housing, a 2 percent decrease from 2018. But between 2015 and 2019, the region added 2,226 permanent supportive housing beds to its year-round facility inventory, a 26 percent increase since 2015.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the fiscal year that began in October, the local budget includes the largest one-year investment in permanent supportive housing<\/a> for single adults in Washington, D.C.\u2019s history, according to advocates with The Way Home Campaign<\/a>. It\u2019s enough to provide PSH for 615 additional individuals and 180 more families.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lawatthemargins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/picture-35-scaled.jpg\")
First Street NE. (Joseph Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe campaign also celebrated investments in street outreach, which includes supporting the largest outreach team Pathways DC has ever had to meet people where they are and help them pursue housing and any other services. Shifting priorities at the federal level were going to reduce street outreach funds based on previous budgets, but instead, Pathways now has a brand-new outreach team funded by the D.C. Department of Human Services.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The approved budget includes $15.9 million in new funding to provide PSH to 586 individuals. This is just one-third of the estimated need of 1,644 slots, and it is just 59 percent of the target of 986 slots set by The Way Home campaign, according to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute<\/a>.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re taking a step in the right direction, but obviously we\u2019re not able to get there yet,\u201d Hill said. \u201cWe\u2019ll get more data in 2020 in terms of how many people are experiencing homelessness. With the numbers [homeless people] being in the thousands and the number of [PSH] vouchers being in the hundreds, it\u2019s clear we need more [investment].\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three percent of the city\u2019s budget goes toward housing programs, according to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. A report <\/a>from the nonprofit think tank shows the city\u2019s FY2020 budget includes $291.3 million for its main housing programs, while the District\u2019s general fund for FY2020 was $9.9 billion, up $780 million from FY2019.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese resources are well spent. In 2015, The Advisory Board Company<\/a>, an international health-care consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., found that the average annual cost to provide emergency services such as emergency-room visits, ambulance rides, police interactions and in-patient hospital stays to chronically homeless people is $40,000 per person. The average annual cost to provide permanent supportive housing \u2014 including professional case management \u2014 is $20,500. According to 2015 HUD data cited in an Urban Institute report<\/a>, rapid rehousing cost about $10,000 per family per year, or half the cost of permanent supportive housing.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lawatthemargins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Tent-encampments-1024x681.jpg\")
A tent encampment in a NoMa underpass. (Sean McBride \/ Street Sense)
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThat is a lot of savings on emergency services, but when you compare PSH to other programs that don’t include supportive services or are not permanent, such as rapid rehousing, other programs can be less than PSH.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yet despite the influx of investment in PSH, most of those resources will not reach encampment residents like Hydier. According to Hill, 25 percent of the 500 city-funded PSH vouchers for fiscal year 2020 are available to unsheltered individuals. DHS has reserved the other 75 percent for people who stay in shelters, which would not include those living in encampments.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s inherent challenges in trying to engage anyone who is experiencing homelessness. We\u2019re dealing with the most ostracized and failed group of society,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThey\u2019ve fallen through every other systematic crack. They have well-earned trust issues. And building rapport is a big part of our work.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a real challenge because there\u2019s less resources for the people Pathways works with most, and there\u2019s not enough for all of those in need, sheltered and unsheltered.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Increase the Supply of Affordable Housing<\/strong>
<\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe critical need is to increase the supply of affordable housing for the lowest-income households and provide appropriate supportive resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen any person \u2014 man, woman, child, elderly, veteran \u2014 does not have a safe place to sleep, then we have failed as a society,” says Scott Schenkelberg, the president and CEO of Miriam’s Kitchen<\/a>, on the company’s website. The organization was founded in 1983 to meet the urgent needs of people experiencing homelessness in Washington, D.C., and its mission is to end chronic homelessness<\/a> in the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n“Housing is the solution to homelessness,” they preach, and it’s not an impossible dream. That’s why Miriam\u2019s Kitchen expanded its operations in 2014 and started providing supportive services<\/a> to 95 residents in the District\u2019s permanent supportive housing program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Editor\u2019s note: This story was produced in partnership with <\/em>Street Sense Media<\/em><\/a>, a street media paper in Washington, D.C., and is part of \u201cThe Right to a Home,\u201d a <\/em>Community Based News Room<\/em><\/a> (CBNR) series that examines homelessness issues across the United States. CBNR is a project of <\/em>Law@the Margins<\/em><\/a>, and the series is supported by a <\/em>Solutions Journalism Network<\/em><\/a> grant. <\/em> WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Henry Wilson, 46, awoke to the sounds of Washington, D.C., police officers scuffling by his tent in the M Street NE pedestrian underpass on this summer night. A woman’s body lay on the sidewalk in front of the tent parked next to Wilson’s. None of the other people living in the homeless encampments that have sprung up in the NoMa neighborhood seemed to know much about the deceased woman now covered in a white sheet. Wilson, her neighbor, only knew that she went by the name Tink. Michelle Hydier, 52, who has been living at the M Street underpass for the past six months assumed this woman died from a drug overdose. “They could send drug counselors here,” Hydier said. “If the city was supportive of [people with substance use disorders], I think that would eliminate the problems they are having.” Hydier has bouts with schizophrenia. So does her friend, Ricky McNeill, whom she shares a tent with. In the NoMa neighborhood, the underpasses at K, L, M and First Streets shelter just a fraction of the more than 600 homeless people living on the street \u2014 out of the 6,521 people experiencing homelessness in Washington, D.C. \u2014 including McNeil, Hydier and Wilson. McNeill, 46, also has a bipolar disorder. He has been homeless since the age of 14 and self-medicates with illegal substances. “He is just hurting himself,” Hydier said. Hydier wants the city to do more. She said the city has failed to provide mental health services to those living at the homeless underpass encampment. Of all \u201cunaccompanied adults\u201d counted as homeless in D.C.<\/a> by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments in January 2019 \u2014 sheltered or not \u2014 30 percent had a history of mental illness and 20 percent had a history of substance abuse. However, a Street Sense Media survey of 25 NoMa encampment residents at the K, L, M and First Streets NE underpasses found that 52 percent of respondents reported a problem with drugs, such as K2, PCP, marijuana, heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. Of that 52 percent, approximately 31 percent had a problem with more than one type of drug. A staggering 80 percent of the encampment residents surveyed reported having a diagnosed mental illness, including schizophrenia, ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, depression and bipolar disorder. “Some of the people that are mentally ill should be getting medication, and they are not getting those services,” Hydier said. “That causes a problem in the encampment.” The Department of Behavioral Health<\/a> (DBH) in the District of Columbia is listening. It also has the financial resources from the District to act and is implementing an action plan to better serve the needs of individuals who are experiencing homelessness. In 2019, the budget for DBH<\/a> was $285 million, a $7 million, or nearly 3 percent, increase from 2018 (after adjusting for inflation). In 2020, the proposed budget<\/a> is $319 million, a 10 percent increase. A lot of that money is going toward outreach services, such as the DBH Community Response Team (CRT), which is a new 24-7 direct service team that includes homeless outreach, mobile crisis, and pre-arrest diversion. \u201cWe had three different programs that merged and then expanded,\u201d said Jordan Gulley, the homeless services coordinator at the Department of Behavioral Health. \u201cWe had our mobile crisis, which responded to the crisis concerns throughout the community. We had the homeless outreach program, which did outreach in the community and tends to work specifically with people with more complex behavioral health issues. And then our pre-arrest diversion programs, which identify individuals through low-level offenses that might be directly related to behavioral health concerns. And rather than arresting them, they will be diverted into the pre-arrest programs. The community response team is a merger of [those] three existing programs that were at DBH and then expanding our services.\u201d The response team does active outreach into the community to identify individuals living on the streets who need help with health concerns, mental health issues, substance abuse problems, and they actively engage with them. \u201cWe try to get them connected to resources, determine the level of care of service that they might need and then kind of facilitate that connection,\u201d Gulley explained. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of money toward homeless outreach services that are run through DHS [Department of Human Services]. So there’s a lot of coordination between teams right now, a lot of boots on the ground trying to really work with individuals who are experiencing homelessness on a gamut of services.\u201d This robust collaboration has all come together and grown over the past year, and in earnest since June. The first full alert of the season for the Community Response Team was a week before Christmas. \u201cI worked until 5:45 this morning, from about seven,\u201d said Gulley. \u201cBut with our team, we have three shifts so that we have 24-hour coverage. There are always people in the community. We are doing community outreach as well as crisis response.\u201d The Department of Behavioral Health is not the only organization responding to the needs of the community and connecting people to services. Pathways to Housing DC is on a mission to end homelessness through housing first and serves more than 3,500 adults each year who are experiencing homelessness or at risk for homelessness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 2004, when the nonprofit organization was founded, Pathways has moved over 900 people into its permanent housing program, with 92 percent of them remaining in its housing program and 100 percent of the people its serves overcoming mental illness, substance use or severe health challenges. \u201cSome people just need more support. … It\u2019s really hard to work toward any type of concrete goals without the stability of housing,\u201d said Emily Hill, a program manager for Pathways to Housing DC<\/a> and former outreach specialist. The nonprofit receives multiple contracts from city government to provide street outreach and housing. It is a branch of the national organization founded by Sam Tsemberis<\/a>, who pioneered the housing first model by documenting how much more expensive it is to pay for emergency services for people on the street than it is to pay for housing and supportive services. \u201cWhen working with a population that has dealt with so many difficult things throughout their lives, it may be the first time they\u2019ve had their own apartment in a long time or ever. And, really, that type of stability takes a lot of assistance,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThat\u2019s why PSH [permanent supportive housing] is so valuable, because the caseworker works with the consumer to be successful and maintain their housing, which we believe is a human right. The amount of support an individual needs is always different. Some people might need help setting up their utility payments. Or they might need help doing meal prep, things like that. Also being a resource for them if they need more intensive services, such as mental health resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The local government of Washington, D.C., formally adopted this \u201chousing first\u201d approach to homelessness in 2008, which focuses on housing people before requiring them to be employed, sober or on medication. \u201cWe need to improve access to housing for vulnerable individuals and families by ensuring we fund Permanent Supportive Housing programs that use a Housing First model,\u201d states the city\u2019s most recent strategic plan<\/a> to end homelessness. \u201cSome programs within our system have so many eligibility requirements that we are unable to place into permanent housing the very individuals and families that the programs were funded to serve.\u201d Aaron Howe, a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant at American University in the department of anthropology, is passionate about ending homelessness. Howe has been attending homeless encampment cleanups about twice a week for over a year and knows many homeless residents and people at the organizations working with them, including the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless<\/a> (which provides legal services to the homeless) and Bread for the City<\/a> (which provides food). He has done a lot of research, including interviews, on the government and private agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the NoMa Business Improvement District (BID) and would like to see the city do more to create humanzing solutions that work. “Of course, non-punitive drug rehabilitation or maintenance, as well as mental health services for those who want it, should be provided,” Howe said. “I believe, however, that housing must be the first step.” Everyday people in the community agree. “There\u2019s not enough affordable housing in the city,” said Antonio Haskell, 82, who rides the NoMa-Gallaudet U Metro. “Being on the street is not healthy. It’s not safe.” There are some positive signs. According to a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments report<\/a>, the 2019 annual Point in Time (PIT) count of homeless people in the D.C. metro region was 9,794, the lowest number of people counted as homeless since the count began in 2001. It also was the first time that the number of homeless has been below 10,000 people. One reason cited for the decline in homelessness was the region\u2019s increased supply of permanent supportive housing. This year, 10,856 formerly homeless persons were counted in permanent supportive housing, a 2 percent decrease from 2018. But between 2015 and 2019, the region added 2,226 permanent supportive housing beds to its year-round facility inventory, a 26 percent increase since 2015. For the fiscal year that began in October, the local budget includes the largest one-year investment in permanent supportive housing<\/a> for single adults in Washington, D.C.\u2019s history, according to advocates with The Way Home Campaign<\/a>. It\u2019s enough to provide PSH for 615 additional individuals and 180 more families. The campaign also celebrated investments in street outreach, which includes supporting the largest outreach team Pathways DC has ever had to meet people where they are and help them pursue housing and any other services. Shifting priorities at the federal level were going to reduce street outreach funds based on previous budgets, but instead, Pathways now has a brand-new outreach team funded by the D.C. Department of Human Services. The approved budget includes $15.9 million in new funding to provide PSH to 586 individuals. This is just one-third of the estimated need of 1,644 slots, and it is just 59 percent of the target of 986 slots set by The Way Home campaign, according to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re taking a step in the right direction, but obviously we\u2019re not able to get there yet,\u201d Hill said. \u201cWe\u2019ll get more data in 2020 in terms of how many people are experiencing homelessness. With the numbers [homeless people] being in the thousands and the number of [PSH] vouchers being in the hundreds, it\u2019s clear we need more [investment].\u201d Three percent of the city\u2019s budget goes toward housing programs, according to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. A report <\/a>from the nonprofit think tank shows the city\u2019s FY2020 budget includes $291.3 million for its main housing programs, while the District\u2019s general fund for FY2020 was $9.9 billion, up $780 million from FY2019. These resources are well spent. In 2015, The Advisory Board Company<\/a>, an international health-care consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., found that the average annual cost to provide emergency services such as emergency-room visits, ambulance rides, police interactions and in-patient hospital stays to chronically homeless people is $40,000 per person. The average annual cost to provide permanent supportive housing \u2014 including professional case management \u2014 is $20,500. According to 2015 HUD data cited in an Urban Institute report<\/a>, rapid rehousing cost about $10,000 per family per year, or half the cost of permanent supportive housing. That is a lot of savings on emergency services, but when you compare PSH to other programs that don’t include supportive services or are not permanent, such as rapid rehousing, other programs can be less than PSH. And yet despite the influx of investment in PSH, most of those resources will not reach encampment residents like Hydier. According to Hill, 25 percent of the 500 city-funded PSH vouchers for fiscal year 2020 are available to unsheltered individuals. DHS has reserved the other 75 percent for people who stay in shelters, which would not include those living in encampments. \u201cThere\u2019s inherent challenges in trying to engage anyone who is experiencing homelessness. We\u2019re dealing with the most ostracized and failed group of society,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThey\u2019ve fallen through every other systematic crack. They have well-earned trust issues. And building rapport is a big part of our work. \u201cThat\u2019s a real challenge because there\u2019s less resources for the people Pathways works with most, and there\u2019s not enough for all of those in need, sheltered and unsheltered.\u201d The critical need is to increase the supply of affordable housing for the lowest-income households and provide appropriate supportive resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen any person \u2014 man, woman, child, elderly, veteran \u2014 does not have a safe place to sleep, then we have failed as a society,” says Scott Schenkelberg, the president and CEO of Miriam’s Kitchen<\/a>, on the company’s website. The organization was founded in 1983 to meet the urgent needs of people experiencing homelessness in Washington, D.C., and its mission is to end chronic homelessness<\/a> in the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Housing is the solution to homelessness,” they preach, and it’s not an impossible dream. That’s why Miriam\u2019s Kitchen expanded its operations in 2014 and started providing supportive services<\/a> to 95 residents in the District\u2019s permanent supportive housing program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nGetting People Into Permanent Supportive Housing First<\/strong>
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nIncrease the Supply of Affordable Housing<\/strong>
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