Utah, the state giving free homes to the homeless

IT SOUNDS too simple, and perhaps too expensive as well. But one American state has actually tried this, and the results are truly incredible.

WHEN I visited San Francisco recently to visit some of the many tech giants with headquarters in the city, I was struck most by one thing.

Beside the flashy offices, educated entrepreneurs and ambitious young professionals, there were bedraggled-looking men and women with shopping trolleys of old clothes shuffling on corners. Doorways were packed with bodies wrapped in dirty blankets and entire neighbourhoods were labelled too dangerous to walk through at night because of the dislocated people who live there.

San Francisco’s homelessness crisis has become an intractable problem, with more than 6000 on the streets and the city failing to ease the ‘epidemic’ with a 10-year plan that ended last year.

Low wages, high inflation and overpriced housing have now made the average two-bedroom rental in all US markets unaffordable with minimum wage, Aeon reports. Australia is going the same way, with homelessness soaring and housing becoming prohibitively expensive.

The solution may come from a highly unlikely quarter: the conservative US state of Utah. It has succeeded in reducing chronic homelessness by 91 per cent over the past decade, with a unique strategy called Housing First.

The scheme has a simple idea at its heart: give the homeless homes. Most of the dwellings are subsidised apartment buildings located away from the downtown business district and closer to residential areas. They have been described as more like college dorms than institutions.

Putting people in these residences has worked so well that hundreds of cities are trying to implement it too, although few have got far, because the idea is widely unpopular.

Many Americans believe the homeless either want, or deserve, to be where they are. In many states, homeless people have to find jobs, begin treatment for mental health problems or addictions or live in a shelter before they can apply for apartments. With Housing First, there are no conditions.

One in every 200 people in Australia is homeless every night. Picture: David Smith

Crucially, it’s not expensive. It works by redirecting existing resources from government and aid agencies. University of Washington researchers showed that giving people homes is far cheaper for governments than the millions usually spent annually on shelters, healthcare and other support for the homeless.

Housing First provides permanent housing with support for the chronically homeless and fast rehousing assistance for others, who are usually helped to find cheap accommodation and given basic living expenses for a few months.

Social worker Tanya Tull, who piloted Housing First in Los Angeles in 1988, told the LA Times: “I decided in ’87 we were doing something wrong. We needed to fill in the gap. We needed to get families from emergency shelters to agencies through which they would be relocated to permanent housing. Once you are in a residential neighbourhood, that’s where you create self esteem. It helps break the cycle of hopelessness and fear.”

Australia faces similar challenges, with more than 105,000 homeless people recorded in the 2011 census, including 17,845 children under 10, of whom around 400 sleep on the streets.

“After domestic violence, housing affordability is the main driver, wrapped up with financial issues,” Glenda Stevens, CEO of Homelessness Australia, told news.com.au. “The number of people coming to homelessness services every year is increasing, and we expect the census next year to reflect that.

“The problem is growing among older women of retirement age and vulnerable young people.”

Young, vulnerable people and retirees are particularly at risk.

Ms Stevens believes a Housing First program could work in Australia. Brisbane’s small-scale Micah Project saw 97 per cent of the chronically homeless people given homes still living as tenants after a year.

“The key to these programs working is that they are secure and sustainable in the long term, and that you have strong support services,” said Ms Stevens. “The case worker plays a crucial role in helping tenants stay housed.”

For the first 18 months a case worker will help a homeless person to adjust to living in a home, develop the socialisation skills needed to thrive in a new community and work through the mental health and substance abuse issues many are battling. They will also be a go-between with the landlord. And this is still cheaper than the existing setup.

“Long term, a Housing First solution is less expensive than having someone in and out of boarding houses and shelters, and health and incarceration rates are much improved,” said Ms Stevens. “With domestic violence cases, if long-term accommodation is available quickly, the outcomes for women and children would be greatly enhanced.

“But it requires a large upfront commitment. In Australia, we need 550,000 more dwellings, an investment that the federal government is not willing to underwrite.”

We have seen various ad-hoc programs, such as the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS), which encouraged investment in social housing, but they’re far from adequate. Housing First may not be appropriate for everyone — traumatised people who need round-the-clock support, for example — but in most cases, it’s been proven to work.

Several cities and states in the US are now pushing forward with Housing First schemes, with the support of the government. Lloyd Pendleton, head of Utah’s Homeless Task Force, told Aeon that the key was involving governments, non-profits, faith-based organisations and businesses. “When you go to a homeless summit, the only people there are homeless service providers,” he said. “You need that higher community buy-in, a higher level of coordinated effort.”

Australia has a long way to go to solve the problem, as numbers rise and with 73 people in every 1000 homeless in the Northern Territory. But there may be some rays of hope.

Ms Stevens said the latest survey of attitudes by Homelessness Australia showed people now think the problem is the responsibility of governments and communities rather than that of charities, as they used to believe.

With Australians starting to recognise the cost of homelessness to society and communities as well as the individual, we could see a breakthrough.