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Why not start by giving homeless people a place to live?

Joshua McNichols
/
KUOW

Seattle was one of the cities that pioneered a strategy to fight homelessness called “Housing First.”
That meant getting people into housing before they were sober, or their mental illness had stabilized. The most famous example was housing for chronic inebriates that opened in 2005. Letting alcoholics drink in their rooms was controversial at the time. But “housing first” is now a broadly accepted strategy.
Washington State has built a lot of housing on this model.

Seattle was one of the cities that pioneered a strategy to fight homelessness called “Housing First.”

That meant getting people into housing before they were sober, or their mental illness had stabilized. The most famous example was housing for chronic inebriates that opened in 2005. Letting alcoholics drink in their rooms was controversial at the time. But “housing first” is now a broadly accepted strategy.

Washington State has built a lot of housing on this model.

Rob Gilroy had a wife, kids, and a good job as a garbage collector. Then, a divorce kicked his butt.

Gilroy: “I was grieving. And so, unfortunately I turned to drugs. And the bottom line when it comes to drugs is you’re gonna end up with nothing.”

Days added up to weeks, which added up to years. Gilroy became what you’d call “chronically homeless.”

Gilroy: “Getting housing – seemed so out of reach. Because you’ll hear these stories of people saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve been on the waiting list for 8 years and I still haven’t got my housing. And so it seemed so far away.”

Gilroy says the shelters he stayed in never tried to convince him otherwise. But then he came to the Blaine Center, a homeless shelter near the Space Needle. They follow a “housing first” model. That means they try to get you out of the shelter and into permanent housing – first. Before you’ve resolved your addiction issues, or mental illness issues, or whatever. The idea is that once people get into housing, they’re more receptive to treatment.

Gilroy’s case manager at the shelter was Juanita Unger. She says – Housing First works. But there aren’t enough places to put people.

KUOW: “How often do you fail to find a place to put somebody?”

Unger: “Umm.. often.”

So it was a big deal when Unger managed to get Gilroy an apartment in a building like that in the Interbay neighborhood. Still, when Unger told Gilroy about the apartment, he balked.

Unger: “He was pretty apprehensive.”

Unger told him: you need to take this apartment. There are probably a hundred people waiting for your shelter bed.

People who need a little bit of help, so they can bounce back.

Unger told Gilroy: You may not stay in our shelter forever.

Unger: “That’s a hard conversation to have with people and he did not like it either. He was pretty angry at me. You know, there’s kind of a risk. Could this push him over the edge where he doesn’t accept the housing and he goes into a loop of depression or addiction or whatever…”

Gilroy took the tiny studio apartment. 6 months later, he’s still getting used to it. Security here is tight – not just anyone can drop in and visit him. And then there’s the constant reminders of addiction. When the guy down the hall is coming down from a high, he yells.

Gilroy is trying to make it feel like home. He’s really proud of a beautiful white couch where he sleeps.

Gilroy: “I bought this furniture for 50 bucks, from some guy, it was a really good deal. I used to have a bed, but I’d rather have it like a living room. It’s more comfortable for me.”

He’s using a lot less meth than he used to. He says some day he hopes to kick it altogether. Get a job driving a garbage truck or a metro bus. He’s got a case worker from the Downtown Emergency Service Center to help him out. And he’s started on a new leg of his journey now.

Gilroy: “That’s what this building… and DESC - has kind of helped me do – is get my independence back, get my self worth back.”

So what lies at the end of that journey? Sandra Andrews of Federal Way can tell you. She’s enjoying a celebratory meal with a couple of social workers. She got to choose the restaurant. She chose Denny’s. She’s about to dig into her favorite meal.

Andrews: “Oh biscuits and gravy are my favorites, every time I go to a restaurant I want biscuits and gravy.”

And also some strawberry pancakes. Andrews is graduating from a housing program kind of like the one Rob Gilroy just got into. Her apartment will be signed over to her name. She’ll be independent.

Long ago, Andrews was living in a boat in her brother’s back yard, hooked on heroin, struggling with mental illness and making money as a prostitute. She ended up at Western State Hospital. And then got into low-barrier housing through a non-profit called NAVOS. That helped her transition to a life where she can take care of herself. She’s clean and sober now. She’s been applying for jobs recently. No bites yet, but she’s hopeful. And her peers are noticing her success.

Andrews: “It makes me feel really good. I’ve never, you know, been a role model before in my life. But you know, I’ve changed a lot.”

This is how Housing First works.

Mascuch: “It’s an incredibly successful intervention as far as the stability it provides.”

That’s Laura Mascuch from New York. She runs the Supportive Housing Network of New York, a group that includes 200 non-profit housing and service providers. Her state has spent more built more low-barrier apartments per capita than any other state. It began in the mid 1990s. Since then, New York has cut its population of chronically homeless single adults by half. In other words, it’s been a long slog. But Mascuch says it’s worth it, because it saves taxpayers money.

Mascuch: “You know, somebody who’s homeless is cycling in and out of shelter, emergency rooms, prisons, state psych beds – and those systems are incredibly expensive.”

New York state has built over 28,000 low barrier apartments for single adults. Washington State has built has built around 7,000. That’s more than a lot of states.

But that might not be enough. And as rents continue to rise, it’s possible the number of people pushed into homelessness could outstrip whatever additional housing supply we manage to build. But like Rob Gilroy and Sandra Andrews, we have to start somewhere.

Copyright KUOW 2016