NYTimes: How Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own

How Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own https://nyti.ms/3NRUBaS

"Houston, the nation's fourth most populous city, has moved more than 25,000 homeless people directly into apartments and houses. The overwhelming majority of them have remained housed after two years. The number of people deemed homeless in the Houston region has been cut by 63 percent since 2011" 

""housing first," a practice, supported by decades of research, that moves the most vulnerable people straight from the streets into apartments, not into shelters, and without first requiring them to wean themselves off drugs or complete a 12-step program or find God or a job...a different logic: When you're drowning, it doesn't help if your rescuer insists you learn to swim before returning you to shore. You can address your issues once you're on land."

The stage was set with the shuttering of psychiatric hospitals in the wake of abuse scandals and the introduction of new psychotropic medications... Reagan-era tax reforms encouraged the construction of high-end, single-family homes but not of affordable multifamily rentals.

" nearly everybody in Houston involved in homelessness got together around what works. That's our secret sauce.""

" housing costs are rising faster than incomes.. ."

"...in broken America it's still possible for adversaries to share facts and come together around something contentious and difficult."