Looking into an experiment going directly to supportive housing, while skipping the shelter
Weekly highlights of our our reporting plus bonus content.
A photo above of the entrance to the local Cares Campus shelter compound from earlier this month.
What if we had decided as a community to bypass this mega shelter model and go only to a no barrier supportive housing system instead?
An article and podcast episode with Jennifer Egan for the New Yorker shows that based on a recent and still ongoing experiment in the 90 Sands building in Brooklyn supportive housing works for 90% of people, whatever their condition when they move in, mental health and/or substance use challenges included.
Some tragically died, some are still using, but most are succeeding, working on reinserting themselves into society with new goals while remaining housed. The key to success seems to be constant check ins with case managers who care. It’s a housing first model which skips the shelter component.
It’s costly but as Egan points out most unhoused people cost cities $70,000 a year on average in shelter, emergency, ambulance, care, hospital, outreach, police and other accrued fees. It’s estimated the Brooklyn model costs half that per person.
Egan also points out that in California 70% of the unhoused are living in their cars, compared to just 6% in New York City, which has a right to shelter law, meaning a bed must be provided to anyone requiring one. Neither Nevada nor California have universal rights to shelter. In fact, Massachusetts is the only state in the nation with a “right-to-shelter” law statewide. That could be another local point of discussion.
For the entire country, Egan says an opportunity was missed when the Build Back Better Act fizzled in Congress. As initially drafted, it would have provided more than $170 billion to make housing more affordable, including $24 billion to expand the Housing Choice Voucher program.
Here in Reno, motels are being bought out and leveled or converted into $1,000 plus studios, out of reach for many of our most vulnerable citizens.
Our Reporting Highlights This Week
Our social media recently got traction concerning a new mural behind the Waldorf Saloon (above) and the story of the muralist behind it. Here below were our main articles:
Washoe County Educators to Get 20% Raise Over Next Two Years
Police Check in at the Jacobs Entertainment Bought Out Desert Rose Inn
Immigrants of Reno: Miya Hannan, Expanding Views of Death in Her Art
Bike Film Festival Adds to Ky Plaskon's Relentless Effort to Make Reno Bicycle Friendly
