Edward (Ed) Johnson’s Post

"Time and again, we see resources poured into enforcement tactics — clearing encampments, criminalizing those forced to live in their vehicles — without offering viable alternatives. Where’s the long-term plan? This approach merely shifts the problem from one neighborhood to another while further traumatizing the very people we claim to want to help." Study after study shows that high housing costs are the root cause of our homelessness crisis, and we cannot and will not meaningfully reduce homelessness if we don’t continue expanding affordable housing options in our community. In recognizing the importance of interim shelter, we must remember that the measure of our success is the number of people who can achieve permanent housing stability. The only true solution to homelessness is permanent housing. Read the full article by Thomas Knight from the Lived Experience Advisory Board of Silicon Valley: https://lnkd.in/ggKXC98v #svathome #affordablehousing #homelessness #sanjose #measureE #endhomelessness #housing

As policymakers, public administrators, and the public continue to ask the question of what will it take to see substantial reductions in homelessness, All Home continues to support our Bay Area partners in answering that question. Through our technical assistance, we use data-driven methods to help local governments understand the resources needed to expand the capacity of their homelessness response systems, and then use that data to inform funding strategies and advocacy endeavors. The City of Berkeley recently observed a 45% reduction in unsheltered homelessness, and a 21% reduction in overall homelessness according to the 2024 Point-in-Time Count. All Home recently partnered with the City to perform system analytics in alignment with the Regional Action Plan that will help inform and guide the city administration as it continues to push forward in reducing homelessness in their community. Kudos to Dr. David Amaral for leading our engagement with the City, and thanks to Berkeleyside and Supriya Yelimeli for covering such an important topic. https://lnkd.in/gTpy3_Pn

At a time when bipartisanship feels rare, Congress has provided critically needed increases to HUD and VA homelessness programs in the FY 2024 budget. From the Alliance's Chief Policy Officer, Steve Berg: "This year was especially notable because in this Congress the bill required and received support from leaders in both parties. The 11.5 percent increase is one of the largest one-year percentage increase since FY1999. That was the year when Republican support for new Housing First approaches started nearly two decades of increased investments in homelessness programs. This further demonstrates that bipartisan support is critical for funding the programs that get people out of homelessness and into housing." https://lnkd.in/e9Vyfpyc

"...The most effective way to end unsheltered homelessness is to provide stable, affordable housing with case management, voluntary mental health and substance use treatment, and employment services. In Athens County, we offer a robust range of services and programs, but our efforts are hindered by the fact that we lack an emergency shelter. As a community, we are seeking to tackle this need head on, through a coalition of community stakeholders including representation from the behavioral health system, health department, libraries, philanthropic sector, local government, domestic violence shelter, Ohio University, and more. We are pursuing efforts in advocacy, education, fundraising, and identifying innovative solutions that span the housing continuum. This includes an aggressive goal to open a low-barrier shelter in Athens as soon as we possibly can. If you care about this issue and want to get involved, please reach out. We need all hands on-deck to ensure that every member of our community has access to safe, decent, secure, and affordable housing." We invite you to be part of the solution. Connect with us by sending an email to [email protected], and let's explore how we can create impactful changes together. --------------- This initiative is part of Project Co-Create. Learn more about Project Co-Create at https://lnkd.in/g32DyqjJ https://lnkd.in/gXDMfwqd

⚖ The Supreme Court is about to rule in the case of the City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, the first major case on homelessness to be heard by the Supreme Court since the 1980s. The case will determine the constitutionality of ticketing, fining, or arresting people for sleeping outdoors on public property, even if leaders have failed to produce enough affordable housing or shelter for everyone in the community who needs it. But let’s be real: even a favorable ruling will not bring us any closer to ending homelessness in this country. It will, however, make clear the responsibility of elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels to produce sufficient permanent housing solutions and shelter accommodations for every person in their communities who needs them. For that, we need significant investments in evidence-based solutions to homelessness – like low barrier shelter; affordable housing; and services at the federal, state, and local levels. Before a decision comes out, read the latest from my colleague Marcy Thompson for the National Alliance to End Homelessness. #endhomelessness #housingfirst #scotus https://lnkd.in/ew6-VvnX

⛺️In CA, 78% of people experiencing homelessness live unsheltered, facing severe health risks and violence.  Today, we released a brief and two resources to help communities across the nation resolve this crisis: 🔍 Most unsheltered Californians (72%) are people of color, highlighting the role structural #racism plays in the #homelessness crisis and the need to ensure outreach, shelter, and housing services are culturally geared toward people of color. 💡 We can solve unsheltered homelessness with a robust blend of prevention, evidence-based encampment resolution strategies, and more accessible temporary shelter and permanent housing options. 🛠️ Alongside our new brief, we’ve developed the Encampment Resolution Guide & Prioritization Tool to help communities transition encampment residents to stable housing. Click the link below to access the topic brief and accompanying tools: https://lnkd.in/gpdFP738 Authors: Margot Kushel MD; Marc Dones; Marisa Espinoza, MPA; Eve Perry, MPP. #endhomelessness #healthequity

From CSH: "Punishing people for experiencing homelessness is ineffective, costly, and harmful. Criminalizing homelessness perpetuates cycles of poverty and institutionalization and diverts law enforcement resources away from preventing crime, protecting the rights of all individuals, and responders to emergencies. "Punitive measures fail to deter homelessness, exacerbate poverty and grow incarceration rates. They disproportionately harm vulnerable individuals, hindering efforts to connect them with essential services. In contrast, there is definitive proof that more cost-effective alternatives like investments in affordable housing, support services, and opportunities for economic security, work better for individuals and communities long term." The McGregor Fund is honored to support several exceptional grant partners who are deploying proven strategies to end unsheltered homelessness in Detroit, including the CSH, the Source for Housing Solutions, Homeless Action Network of Detroit (HAND), Noah at Central , Community & Home Supports Inc, the Detroit Phoenix Center, Alternatives For Girls, the Ruth Ellis Center and COTS. 

I'm a strong believer in the value of shelter and transitional housing for folks and the role these services can play to support people as they start their journey along the housing continuum and further as they attempt to navigate a system that is in crisis and burdened with barriers. Historically, there has been a de-emphasis in funding for these types of initiatives, which has led to many services being trapped in cycles of under resourcing and pure survival and even more services that have been lost. Post that, we saw shelter and transitional housing underplayed and hidden as a dissuasion in Reaching Home dollars. But this funding announcement is a positive direction to securing the resources needed for shelter and transitional housing to allow these services and organizations to play a more robust and consistent role in helping the community solve the issue of homelessness and further properly show up for individuals in the ways they truly need us to. Further hoping the provincial government shifts its attitude and seizes this opportunity more robustly and remains open to understanding that the solution is beyond individuals, beyond just a job, and beyond just semi-affordable housing for the missing middle.

“We have, right now, a 91% acceptance rate for individuals accepting housing,” Warren said. “So it's really not the case in most cases that people don't want resources, and they don't want housing. They do. Often, it's just that the system has failed them, and they've lost confidence in it.” This stat echoes what we saw in the #CAHomelessnessStudy. Participants desperately wanted housing but everywhere they turned, they came up against barriers: poor credit, no savings, no phone to receive calls, no documents, no transportation, no money for rental applications. We can solve unsheltered homelessness in communities across the nation, with a robust blend of prevention, evidence-based encampment resolution strategies, and more accessible temporary shelter and permanent housing options. Learn how: https://lnkd.in/gn4eUwte https://lnkd.in/g-ty5ve3

Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should It’s important to note that this case may prevent certain lawsuits. Still, it doesn’t force communities to take specific actions or actively engage in criminal punishment of unsheltered people. Instead, it makes it easier for communities to do that. Elected officials who insist on going down that path will quickly learn that it won’t change the realities of homelessness. Criminal penalties such as fines, tickets, and arrests make homelessness worse and cost communities much money that should otherwise be spent on housing, supportive services, and street outreach. With record numbers of people entering into homelessness systems for the first time (more than 18,000 people per week in 2023, according to new U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] System Performance Measure data), we must remind leaders that what solves homelessness is housing, together with supportive services needed to help people stabilize in housing. And these are investments that benefit the entire community, not just folks who are experiencing homelessness. https://lnkd.in/e8VuttDB