Give those without a home an apartment first, ask questions later.

From NationSwell:

Utah has reduced its rate of chronic homelessness by 78 percent over the past eight years, moving 2000 people off the street and putting the state on track to eradicate homelessness altogether by 2015. How’d they do it? The state is giving away apartments, no strings attached. In 2005, Utah calculated the annual cost of E.R. visits and jail stays for an average homeless person was $16,670, while the cost of providing an apartment and social worker would be $11,000. Each participant works with a caseworker to become self-sufficient, but if they fail, they still get to keep their apartment. (read more)

Give them an apartment first, ask questions later.

Yes, that is sanity! This is a harm reduction method…it assumes people truly have basic needs that must be met before other issues can be face. I’ve worked for such programs…they are far less coercive and therefore more effective than most other sorts of social services. I worked for harm reduction programs in San Francisco which were really quite good and I’ve seen that they work. In fact I worked in a housing program for formerly homeless folk that neither required people be clean and sober nor that they take psych meds regardless of diagnosis…

The programs weren’t perfect because the employees were still often trained in the ways of coercion (a system wide issue still) — but they were far better than most programs out there.