No, Dr. Marbut, “Housing First” is hardly the cause of an increase in #homelessness. It marks a data-driven change in paradigm (since 2005) based on what works & what doesn’t. Your assessment is incorrect and, in your position, highly irresponsible. 1/ wsj.com/articles/new-h…
“Housing First” is not “Housing Only.” It envisions intensive supportive services simultaneously. True, it doesn’t require abstinence or participation in treatment. But research proves that once housed, people are far likelier to enter treatment & are more successful in it. 2/
As a paradigm, “Housing First” is best understood in contrast to the previous federal paradigm (what data and experience tell us is a failed one) of “Housing Readiness.” Housing ends homelessness. And supportive services help people stay housed and reconnect with community. 3/
It’s hardly a methodology of intervention (of ending homelessness) that is driving the increase in homelessness. Poverty & income disparity increase homelessness. Rising private market costs with no balancing federal intervention increases homelessness. 4/
Efforts to further criminalize homelessness (policies you have championed in your career) serve to increase homelessness. Cuts to safety net programs increase homelessness. Policies of exclusion furthered by your administration increase homelessness. 5/
Armed with ideological half-truths about housing-focused paradigms & practices, you make the same philosophical errors as Dr. Drew—setting up a strawman version of the paradigm only to burn it down... 6/
...and falsely assigning “blame” to the most effective way to end (and prevent) homelessness: Housing—with supportive services, if needed. Rather than pronounce, take the time to learn what your own agency has learned over the better part of 4 decades— across party & ideology. 7/
Housing ends homelessness.
Full stop.
8/8
Full stop.
8/8
