Thanks to the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), I spent Monday and Tuesday of t his week in Seattle, Washington with a group of housing developers from Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston. CSH organized the meeting so that we could "go to school" on Seattle's 10-year plan to end homelessness.For this city ending "chronic" homelessness--the national goal, is not enough.
This community intends to wipe out homelessness of every type.
As a matter of fact, I sat in on a community task force meeting where it became clear that the group's goal is to eliminate all shelters in the city by 2015.
Amazing!
As might be expected, Seattle's plan is bold, comprehensive, unrelenting and clear.
The results to date have been remarkable.
Working together, the city and its housing partners have produced thousands of new units for formerly homeless persons.
A couple of aspects of their strategy stand out.
For one thing, they have identified the most expensive homeless persons in the city--those who make frequent visits to emergency rooms, end up in the criminal justice system time after time, depend on shelters and use large amounts of other community services due to their homelessness and associated problems.
By targeting this subset of its homeless population and by investing strategically in these men and women, Seattle is on a track to saving the community millions of dollars.
Most remarkably to our Texas group, the citizens of Seattle have voted four times--count 'em--four times to tax themselves to insure that the poorest persons in the city are cared for and directed toward lives of self-sufficiency and productivity. As a result of this community-wide commitment and smart leveraging of this consistent funding source, the City of Seattle is able to spend $40 million annually on housing development!
I left the city inspired and sobered. I'll post again about what I perceived of the "spirit" of this very special community from just one person I observed in the hotel where I stayed.
Dallas needs to build on the recent success we've managed around our new Homeless Assistance Center.
Amazing!
As might be expected, Seattle's plan is bold, comprehensive, unrelenting and clear.
The results to date have been remarkable.
Working together, the city and its housing partners have produced thousands of new units for formerly homeless persons.
A couple of aspects of their strategy stand out.
For one thing, they have identified the most expensive homeless persons in the city--those who make frequent visits to emergency rooms, end up in the criminal justice system time after time, depend on shelters and use large amounts of other community services due to their homelessness and associated problems.
By targeting this subset of its homeless population and by investing strategically in these men and women, Seattle is on a track to saving the community millions of dollars.
Most remarkably to our Texas group, the citizens of Seattle have voted four times--count 'em--four times to tax themselves to insure that the poorest persons in the city are cared for and directed toward lives of self-sufficiency and productivity. As a result of this community-wide commitment and smart leveraging of this consistent funding source, the City of Seattle is able to spend $40 million annually on housing development!
I left the city inspired and sobered. I'll post again about what I perceived of the "spirit" of this very special community from just one person I observed in the hotel where I stayed.
Dallas needs to build on the recent success we've managed around our new Homeless Assistance Center.
But our goals going forward should focus primarily on the development of high-quality, permanent housing for the poorest people in our community.
We can and must do much better as a city.
We can and must do much better as a city.
