Blog note: this opinion piece notes that the 2017-18 grand jury endorsed the strategy.
Growing community consensus behind the “Housing First” strategy for effectively responding to Marin’s homeless problem is promising.
The Marin Organizing Committee, longtime advocates for creating another year-round emergency shelter, has endorsed the program, which places homeless people in longer-term, county-subsidized apartments.
The committee, which grew from a coalition of Marin parishes, has provided sites and volunteers for Marin’s Rotating Emergency Shelter Team program that has provided a safe night-time respite to homeless men and women during cold and wet months.
Recently, the 2017-18 Marin County Civil Grand Jury’s report endorsed the “Housing First” strategy, but also stressed the county needs to come up with a replacement for REST, which was started as an emergency stop-gap nearly 10 years ago while the county came up with a better plan.
The Marin Organizing Committee for many years promoted the creation of another year-round shelter. We supported its vision, but sadly finding a politically acceptable location proved difficult.
The committee’s decision to discontinue the REST program is understandable. So is its trust in the “Housing First” model, which has garnered support from the county, cities and many nonprofits involved in providing services to help the homeless.
Since the start of the county’s program in October, 32 men and women, considered chronically homeless, have found housing. That’s an impressive start.
The goal is to within four years make a difference in getting people off the streets.
It is an ambitious plan and one that is going to take strong community support, especially for programs that provide individual help, counseling, health care and support. The county calls it “whole person care,” a premise that housing can reduce costly problems such as interaction with law enforcement, trips in emergency rooms and a cyclical dependence on social services.
But “Housing First” relies on finding housing, which is no easy feat in our high-priced county and will likely require the county and cities to support construction — which also is not easy around here.
The building of a community consensus in support of this initiative is a positive sign in the county’s dealing with a growing issue, one that people complain about because it has become so visible, but one that is far larger than what we can see.
Still, a sign of effective solutions will be a reduction in the number of homeless people found in our downtowns and parklands, in our jails and in our hospital emergency rooms.
May 28, 2018
Marin Independent Journal
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