Their needs and society’s cost have propelled a national push called Housing First that offers permanent supportive housing — apartments or assisted living with case management — to chronically homeless people without first requiring that they get sober, get healthy or have jobs. It reflects a thrust by the government to get chronically homeless people off the streets and, some skeptics point out, off homeless census counts.

Proponents say it can save lives and money. One recent study of formerly homeless alcoholics in Seattle reported a $30,000-per-person savings a year.

Opponents warn it can detract from emergency shelters, which long have been in the business of providing care to the homeless and can keep closer tabs on them.

Read more of this Omaha World Herald story by Erin Grace on February 13th: http://www.omaha.com/article/20120213/NEWS01/702139945#from-under-a-bridge-into-a-home

….Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Mr. Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called the earned-income tax credit. He has signed up his three school-age children to eat free breakfast and lunch at federal expense. And Medicare paid for his mother, 88, to have hip surgery twice.

Read the rest of this New York Times story by BINYAMIN APPELBAUM and ROBERT GEBELOFF from February 11, 2012,  here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/us/even-critics-of-safety-net-increasingly-depend-on-it.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage.

….Johns and O’Bryan realized that if you totted up all his hospital bills for the ten years that he had been on the streets—as well as substance-abuse-treatment costs, doctors’ fees, and other expenses—Murray Barr probably ran up a medical bill as large as anyone in the state of Nevada.

“It cost us one million dollars not to do something about Murray,” O’Bryan said….

Click here to read the whole article: http://www.gladwell.com/2006/2006_02_13_a_murray.html

by Brandon Vogel

It was the first day — the first 6 a.m. shift — of Omaha Registry Week, a local effort to find and interview the city’s homeless population. Organizers and volunteers hoped to find housing for the most vulnerable folks. I was riding with Methaney and Smolsky, two of almost 75 volunteers helping with the weeklong search.

The Metro Area Continuum of Care for the Homeless (MACCH) hosted the event in collaboration with the national 100,000 Homes campaign. Spearheaded by the New York non-profit Common Ground, the goal is to house 100,000 homeless people nationwide by July 2013.

Omaha is home to more than 1,400 homeless people as of January, according to MACCH, which hoped to interview 300 of the people last week. Through one hour of searching, we’d interviewed one.

For the full story : http://www.thereader.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1287599915&archive=&start_from=&ucat=6&

By Erin Grace

 Being homeless can kill you.

Living on the street can shave 25 years off a person’s life. And death can come within seven years when being homeless is paired with one of eight risk factors, like age, disease and multiple emergency room visits.

 Published Wednesday October 6, 2010 -

Click here for the rest of the story: http://www.omaha.com/article/20101006/NEWS01/710069906/-1#program-s-goal-make-homeless-healthier

In Nashville, most homeless outreach agencies believe a home is something that must be earned. Roughly four years ago, the Metro Homelessness Commission decided that approach wasn’t cutting it, that too many chronically homeless lingered on the streets and it was costing the city money. The commission adopted a program called Housing First as the solution, but it’s been slow to gain traction.

Click here for more: http://wpln.org/?p=20630

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010, by Anne Marshall

For more, click here: http://www.good.is/post/in-america-11-000-a-year-is-not-poor/?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=outbrain

for more click here: http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/16/news/economy/Census_poverty_rate/index.htm?hpt=T2

Is the Housing First program in your community faithful to the principles of the theory?

This is a more important question than you might realize. After all, Housing First programs  have data going back at least 10 years which shows both incredible cost savings and better personal outcomes for the homeless individuals who participate. Housing First, which is just what it sounds like, emphasizing getting people in apartments rather than routing them through a continuum of care, is a win-win for everyone, but if your community does not stick to the original ideas, it won’t experience all the benefits.

Click here for more: http://homelessness.change.org/blog/view/is_your_housing_partner_faithful

The housing would be primarily for homeless veterans but also for other low-income veterans, she said.

One floor of the building would have office space for counselors and case managers who would help the veterans find jobs and provide assistance such as enrolling for VA health benefits, she said.

Some of the social service workers would be VA employees. Others would work for outside agencies.”

For the whole article by Michael O’Connor from the Omaha World Herald: http://omaha.com/article/20100819/NEWS01/708199899#project-would-give-vets-homes