The biggest flaw of the Housing First model is the ‘Voluntary Personalized Services’ component. This means a person placed in free permanent housing gets to voluntarily decide if they want to stop using drugs, take mental health medication or work on any other barriers that 
either led them to the streets or has kept them on the streets. Without any expectations or requirements what do you think they choose most often? And because it’s permanent there is also no incentive to reach self sufficiency. They will now be taken care of the rest of their
lives. Some though do eventually recover but never move out because their rent is paid for life. I used to work with someone that lived in government housing for 15 years. He was sober for 14 years and worked full time. He paid zero rent and had accumulated two hundred thousand
dollars which is easy when you have no bills and work full time. This is the blaring flaw in the permanent housing first model. I’m a strong believer in shelter first housing earned. I want everyone off the streets today because it is unacceptable that we allow people to languish
and die on a sidewalk where they will never get their needs met. We need to shelter everyone then work on any barriers they have with the goal of helping them reach self sufficiency. We do this we will end this humanitarian crisis in months not years and save billions doing it
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