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PATH PartnersVulnerable. It’s a word we often use to describe the clients our programs target—individuals who have serious health, mental health, and substance abuse challenges; who are frequent utilizers of hospitals and emergency rooms; and who are at high risk of dying on the streets. Veterans, seniors, families, and youth also often fall into that category. But, when we’re talking about more than 650,000 homeless people in our country, what does “vulnerable” really mean?
Tag Archives: housing first
San Diego Refines its Approach to Homelessness
Mar 4, 2013 – 7:11 pm
It took six years to get to this opening, from the formation of a vision task force in 2007 to the moving in of some of the city’s most chronically homeless citizens.
Housing First is not Welfare Housing
Mar 26, 2012 – 9:00 am
I was on the top floor of a downtown highrise talking with a corporate executive about the strategic impact of placing homeless persons in apartments that are supported with physical and mental health care, what many call today “Housing First.”
“No longer will our homeless neighbors languish on the streets,” I explained to him. “Or for that matter, will even have to hunker down in a homeless shelter.”
LA Times Chronicles Efforts to House Most Vulnerable
May 26, 2011 – 12:17 pm
The LA Times featured a pieces about efforts in Los Angeles to house chronically homeless persons. A group of community members and non-profit organizations conducted a survey of over 400 people living on the streets, applying the vulnerability index method popularized by New York based Common Ground. Even though the group originally lacked funding to [...]
Ending Homelessness is Strictly Business
May 16, 2011 – 3:06 am
For decades the business of addressing homelessness was based on simple, old-fashion approaches to charity that tugged on our heart strings, softened our compassion, or pierced our jadedness through guilt-ridden photos of hungry children. As a young adult, I learned years ago how charity raised funds the old-fashion way. The tattered, elderly homeless man sitting [...]
Prioritizing Homeless Services is Like Medical Triage: Most in Need First
Apr 25, 2011 – 3:18 am
Years ago, I stood in a dilapidated waiting room of a free health clinic in a northern town of Haiti, a country that many describe as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. The sick patients were so deprived they barely earned a living feeding themselves and their families, let alone having enough resources to [...]
Is The US Government Wasting Money on Homelessness?
Mar 28, 2011 – 2:15 am
Some conservative analysts are comparing the federal government’s annual financial allotment for homeless services as an exercise in careless spending, similar to the 1980s movie, “The Money Pit.” Remember Tom Hanks and Shelley Long buying that million dollar mansion only to find out that they had to pump in their life’s savings to keep the [...]
Rescue Missions Versus the World: Why Housing First is not the Single Answer to Homelessness
Mar 24, 2011 – 3:18 am
Editor’s note: This is the second post by Reverend Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, questioning the wisdom of rallying around Housing First as the single answer to homelessness. You can view his first post on the subject here. Despite the fact that Housing First seems to be the way the [...]
Housing First: A Costly Solution
Mar 22, 2011 – 4:33 am
Editor’s note: In this guest post, Reverend Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, questions the wisdom of rallying around Housing First as the single answer to homelessness. Maybe you’ve heard this recently: “We’d like to fund your program, but we are moving all of our resources to permanent supportive housing.” Or you’ve [...]
