Transitioning From Homelessness

The international gospel for ending homelessness is a program known as Housing First. It has demonstrated itself to be so successful that many jurisdictions have tied their funding grants...

One unexpected benefit that all-too-briefly appeared during the COVID pandemic was the level of concern from national governments down to local ones for the plight of people who experience...

One80 Place is a shelter for people who experience homelessness in Charleston, South Carolina. Unusually for a shelter, it offers on-site legal services. A full time lawyer and paralegal...

Roughly one in three people who are chronically homelessChronic homelessness means homelessness lasting for a long time (typically six months) or multiple episodes of homelessness over an extended period...

If there's anything that everyone agrees upon, it's the inevitability of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). When the issue of new housing in a neighbourhood arises, almost nothing...

Is there an important lesson for all to be learned from precipitously "evicting" a homeless encampment? For Kansas City Council, together with its citizenry, it might be: slightly more...

As California's Homekey program is well aware, fighting homelessness is a three-pronged battle. Like an iceberg, the bulk of homelessness lies beneath the surface, invisible to the public. Addressing homelessness...

Medicine Hat is the first community in Canada to officially end chronic homelessness. The city is part of Built For Zero Canada, a national initiative to end homelessness. Asked...

The idea of getting homelessness down to zero might seem like an impossibility, but communities across Canada and the U.S. are working away at it. In fact, Medicine Hat,...

As hopes rise in countries where the pandemic may be on the wane, the homeless situation has not disappeared. Indeed, the threat of foreclosure on delinquent mortgages and well...

In the late 1800's in western countries, if people had problems they might seek help from family, neighbours or the local church. There were also hospitals, asylums, poor houses...

Here are two studies from the U.S. that discuss the merits of permanent supported housing for people who have prolonged experience of homelessnessBoth reports came to our attention via...

A 10 year old boy in the U.S. isn’t homeless any longer. His remarkable skill at chess has turned his family’s fortunes around and allowed them to leave a...

After hundreds of calls to landlords, Philadelphia's Office of Homeless Services has been able to put together a housing program to assist people who are homeless to leave the...

Utah's recent 63 million-dollar homeless "resource center" investment doesn't really put a dent in its visible homeless. Some of the reasons why are instructive for everyone. The Salt Lake City...

A recent article from London, Ontario expresses a problem made more acute in the pandemic. That city is home to a successful program based on getting housed immediately (Housing...

London, Ontario is one of the first communities to join Built For Zero Canada, a campaign that aims to end chronic and veteran homelessness. Built For Zero follows a prescribed set...

A useful article in the Kansas City Star explains with insight and compassion why the simple act of putting a chronic rough sleeper into their own home may well...

Who knows best about suitable treatments for someone with addiction and/or health issues? Why, the individual with the problems, of course! Well, maybe that person doesn't exactly know BEST, otherwise...

Ever ride a transit system and wonder where that homeless person dozing a few seats away will spend the night? Not in that seat, you'd probably predict with some...

Hotels and motels have always been dear to the emergency management heart. While some communities have other opportunities nearby (e.g. underused military barracks, student housing out of term-time), the...

How do tiny homes fit into a country's affordable housing scheme? The attraction of tiny homes is undeniable to certain kinds of imagination, impractical as they might seem to...

Well, we didn't actually go, there, but we found a story published in Australia that turned out to be exactly to the point. As free market renters, it never actually...

Lineups to get into stores have become a fact of life with COVID restrictions. Our local grocery store gives preference to front line workers. All they need to do...

Rosanne Haggerty first came on my radar in 1991, when the Times Square Hotel re-opened in New York City. Haggerty, who founded the non-profit Common Ground, knitted together sufficient...

This writer, planning a move from a long-held apartment, is in a flop sweat. Too much stuff! Well, lucky me. At least compared to those on housing waiting lists, owning...

Sir Michael Marmot doesn't mince words. As head of the Institute of Health Equity, he is critical of the United Kingdom government's COVID 19 response. His objections are based...

Finland is the only country where the number of people who are homeless is going down. The success has drawn a lot of international attention. Y-Foundation, a housing provider,...

The globally respected and successful Housing First program to help end homelessness could only be partially implemented in the UK's hurried Everybody In initiative over a period of two...

You might think that housed people who have pets would empathize with pet owners who are homeless. The health benefits of owning a pets, including daily exercise and companionship,...

When it comes to the creation of affordable housing, particularly truly affordable social housing, neoliberal government thinking still prevails after 50 years of questionable results. The tried but not-so-true...

A preoccupation with numbers may be getting in the way of helping people to leave homelessness. This insight comes from a report that focusses on making homelessness services more...

Before COVID-19, the City of Toronto was in the midst of an effort to add to the supply of housing that would help people to leave homelessness. Since COVID-19...

In Ontario, many agencies, governments and funders work to help people leave homelessness. They need to be able to work closely together to provide an effective and seamless service....

Here is news of a promising study from the University of British Columbia about New Leaf, a program that distributes lump sum cash payments to people who are homeless. The...

Canada's most recent Speech From the Throne states, "the Government is now focused on entirely eliminating chronic homelessness in Canada." Governments in many countries acted during the early phases of...

Interviews with people who are homeless leave no doubt that they would prefer to live in housing. The experience of finding and moving to housing highlights the challenges involved...

Will the tourist industry rebound? Sooner or later, COVID-19 will degenerate into one more everyday menace to be avoided (e.g. everything from catching the flu to falling overboard from...

In Western Australia, officials reacted with dismay and annoyance when a number of people who were experiencing homelessness "looked the hotel room gift horse in the mouth" and abandoned...

Streetvet, a cadre of volunteers in England, offers veterinary services to over 1,000 pets that belong to people who are homeless. During the COVID-19 lockdown, local councils offered emergency...

The foremost affordable housing charity in the world proved the method: unskilled volunteers can be enticed to pay to travel to another continent, make a cash donation, then contribute...

'Housing First' is a world-respected program designed to rescue individuals from homelessness. It has been very successful. Indeed, its success has been communicated to city councils everywhere to the...

So where did it come from — all the COVID-19 homelessness good news that actually wasn't? Affordablehousingaction.org thought that Everyone In, which directed local councils to provide housing for everyone who was...

If you think about people who experience homelessness at all, do you wonder why it seems so difficult to simply insert a certain number of street people into the...

England's Everyone In program drew a lot of attention. On Mar 27, 2020, the national government gave local Councils 48 hours to find housing for everyone who was sleeping...

The mission of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness is pretty self evident. These days, it’s making the case that ending homelessness should be part of Canada’s COVID-19 recovery...

In the article linked below, researchers in Wales report about how strategies to prevent homelessness can be undermined, rendering them imaginary. Iolo Madoc-Jones and colleagues wanted to investigate the effects...

A recent article reports on the actions of one woman in Oakland California who decided she had a moral duty to both her community and her neighbours who had...

Thanks to a FOXBusiness report, the world is aware that Secretary Ben Carson of HUDHUD — the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has recently 'called out' the...

For Atlanta, Georgia's homeless population, persistence has paid off. The city lays no claim to a magic formula for getting people out of the streets and into homes. Other...

Cities in more advanced countries have made do for decades with handfuls of emergency shelters for the homeless, their number expanding in the winters of harsher climates. In many...

Have you wondered how people who are homeless leave the streets and move to housing? How does Housing First, a program proven to help people who are homeless move...

Housing First is a program that supports people who are homeless to move into housing.For more on Housing First, see What Is Housing First? Why Is It So Popular?...

Housing First is a much respected world wide housing program. It has been so successful in helping individuals who are chronically homeless to leave the streets that its approach...

The annual report of the NLIHC (National Low Income Housing Coalition) places Nevada in the thick of America's housing crisis for low income workers and families. In 99% of...

How can we support people who are homeless to leave the streets and move to permanent housing? The link below leads to a Canadian research study that tackled this...

Rapid housing and client choice are two of the hallmarks of Housing First programs. For an introduction to Housing First, try: What Is Housing First? Why Is It So...

In Seattle, a project that began with such hope is winding down. Tiny homes were assembled on a site and made available to people who were homeless. The lucky...

Signs of the times: No overnight parking. Violators will be Towed. (Or more likely, harassed by security guards or police and forced to move on.) Lawyers argue that parking lots need...

Words can be misused cynically, or simply by ignorance. During a local, regional or even national housing crisis, misuse of words can lead to both public and political confusion....

Housing First, a widely promoted approach to ending homelessness, is based on the idea that people who are homeless cannot properly focus on sorting out their often complex lives...

So why would a landlord ever want to rent a market rate apartment to a homeless person? It's exactly what you thought. They don't. Small and large studies in America show...

NIMBY almost inevitably marred a recent heart-warming Toronto tale of a single family's selfless gift to homeless women. A family purchased a mansion-sized house on a five lane commuter corridor...

What do you call a small residence squirrelled away on the grounds of a principal residence? They may be known as accessory dwelling units (ADU's), garden flats, second suites,...

How do you get from, "Hey, there's too many folks sleeping on our streets!" all the way to "Wow! We've got all our homeless stabilized in housing?" A current Fort...

In an age of increasing homelessness, the alarm is sounding in civic councils. They are struggling to find constructive, supportive ways to tackle the problem of people with nowhere...

Out of sight, out of mind? By banning homelessness camps in public places, Cincinnati hopes to solve their affordable housing crisis. If you can't see it, the crisis must...

Whoever you are, the first time you climb onto a housing ladder of any kind, whether rental or ownership, you most probably face an immediate crisis. Sure, there are exceptions....

Humans are by and large sociable animals. Or, if you prefer, sociable God's creatures. Indeed, religions are both powered and empowered by the social magnet of their communities. They...

Squatter's rights: hard to believe they have any. But they do, along with a host of wrongs, such as trespass. Ask Steven DeCaprio. He's been there. A squatter living in the...

Check it out, state by state. By and large, there is a consistent relationship between the states with the most homelessness and the states with the most affordable housing....

Wisconsin Coalition Against Homelessness  has published a paper they hope will receive active consideration from the State Legislature. They point to the current interest in the respected Housing First concept as...

In the United States, the current Republican-dominated congress, the president, big businesses and wealthy cronies have dined out on a 1.5 trillion dollar tax break which will supposedly more...

NIMBY: Not in My Back Yard. Part of an ongoing collection of articles exploring some of the many ways that a worldwide affordable housing crisis is opposed.

In a world plagued by a lack of affordable housing, and rising homelessness, the Finnish have seemingly achieved a miracle by eradicating homelessness in their nation. The 'saint' responsible...

Does the idea of life in a stack of sewer pipes sound like a nightmare? Do you shudder when you imagine a creepy high rise of tubular sleeping coffins?...

Authorities have discovered that growing tent cities of homeless people can be torn down. But without taking steps to address the actual problem, a homeless encampment, just like a...

Can a temporary homeless shelter provide dignity and privacy? These are underlying principles of a San Jose, California initiative to create little villages of tiny, lock-upable homes instead of...