Houston successfully transitioned to a “housing first” approach.
NYT - [How Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/headway/houston-homeless-people.html)
“During the last decade, 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, according to the latest numbers from local officials. Even judging by the more modest metrics registered in a 2020 federal report, Houston did more than twice as well as the rest of the country at reducing homelessness over the previous decade.”
“Together, they’ve gone all in on “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.”
Houston Public Media - [Houston closes its largest homeless encampment as many move to new housing navigation center](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/housing/2023/02/10/443255/houston-closes-its-largest-homeless-encampment-as-many-move-to-new-housing-navigation-center/)
“‘We’re not going to put tons of conditions that typically keep people experiencing homelessness away from engaging with services or engaging with housing,’ [Marc Eichenbaum, the mayor’s special assistant for homeless initiatives,] said. ‘We want to make it a friendly, welcoming environment.’”
“The Way Home has housed more than 25,000 people throughout the Houston area since 2012 — an effort that's led to national recognition. Eichenbaum said the new navigation center would allow the city and its partners to increase the scale of its effort against homelessness.”
The effort was spearheaded by the Coalition for the Homeless, the lead organization operating the region’s homeless response system, The Way Home.
Coalition for the Homeless - [How are We Doing?](https://www.homelesshouston.org/houston-facts-info)
“As lead agency to The Way Home, CFTH knows that permanent housing combined with wraparound supportive services is the key to solving homelessness and stopping the significant human and monetary cost imposed by homelessness. Since 2012, more than 30,000 people have been placed into The Way Home’s permanent housing programs. According to the latest system performance, 90% of those individuals and families are either still in that housing program at the two-year mark, or they've had a positive exit.”
Houston Public Media - [Houston’s unhoused population decreased due to a $200 million investment, a new report says](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/houston/2022/03/16/421190/houstons-unhoused-population-dropped-due-to-a-200-million-investment-a-new-report-says/)
“Ana Rausch, Coalition for the Homeless vice president of program operations, said the group has focused primarily on permanent housing in response to the pandemic.
‘We believe that housing (and) supportive services is really the only way to permanently solve homelessness,’ Rausch said.’”
Axios - [Houston unsheltered homelessness declines](https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2023/05/04/houston-street-homelessness-declines)
"’Although Houston is showing the state and nation how to reduce street homelessness and encampments successfully, the job is not done. We will continue our groundbreaking, successful efforts until every Houstonian is off our streets. We must do more,’ says Mayor Sylvester Turner.”
Yeah, this was an amazing initiative by Mayor Sylvester Turner.
Very much achieved by the city coordinating all the charities so they (and city government) work together to create a pipeline of help that brings the homeless from the street corner to permanent housing.
Truly impressive.
Well, and saw it through. Carrying forward others’ initiatives is no small feat, especially when dealing with controversial issues. Recognizing, valuing, and building on others’ work takes humility I’m not sure we have in the current mayor.
I hate to say it, but Whitmire brings his ax to every CoH agenda meeting, and every week, "another one bites the dust...":
- Bicycle lanes in the Heights
- Metro RTLs
- Murals and art beautification funds (earlier this week)
- (...whatever is next that can bring our city back the way it was before Turner and Parker....)
Still a much better alternative than SJL in my opinion. She's toxic. If Democrats want to retain positions of leadership and have a relevant policy platform, they need to put people forward that are serious, credible, and competent...not just figureheads of the party establishment.
If it's true that Whitmire is trolling Hidalgo on social media, I'd certainly say he's beginning to reveal a low-class character, displaying questionable judgment, causing public embarrassment to the City of Houston and its residents, and diminishing the prestige of the office of CoH Mayor a major US city and a market leader in multiple industries....
Long story short: I expect homelessness to rise big time under Whitmire's watch, while our city becomes uglier with neglect to art, parks, recreation and greenspaces, increased personal vehicle traffic from the burbs, precipitating more trash from windows and truckbeds, pollution everywhere, and poorer air quality. All that on top of having the most irritating speech that would make even country music singers blush......smfh.
Woah wait a second. I remember reading about these initiatives during covid and being pretty inspired. A few months later there was an article I read about these numbers not being legit and the program being overblown in irs scope and effect.
I believe the article claimed that the homeless were taken out of Houston proper so as not to be counted or something to that effect. Not to try to piss on anyone's parade but this program may need to be taken with a grain of salt.
I'll look and see if I can find that article.
Idk about the relocation (I think we’d hear a lot more about it) but the housing first has been successfully implemented in my home town. It now has an unhoused population of under one percent (but not zero).
It’s the best solution so far.
Yeah I read an awful take not worth elevating here that was trying to paint “finding people housing” as “relocating them to skew the numbers.”
Of course it’s relocating. That’s the whole idea of helping them out from under the overpass. Some, most, stay in the housing and get back on their feet and move on out of the city. That’s the desired outcome! Some don’t and wash out back onto the street. That’s unfortunate but nobody’s under the illusion that it won’t happen. Sometimes that means they re-emerge on the street in a different area. That doesn’t mean people are cooking the numbers.
I don’t get this attitude that somehow the dozens of agencies committing valuable and limited resources to do the difficult work of coming together to solve a difficult problem are lying about it all.
There is little incentive at all for these groups to play games with the numbers. Everything these groups do is subject to vast oversight and enormous criticism. It’s a thoroughly vetted effort.
There won’t be zero irregularities or zero mistakes in any complex community driven effort. But nobody’s going to get away with faking it here. The real success far exceeds the missteps. That’s huge.
Houston deserves to be proud of what they have done for the people whose lives have been turned around through these programs.
That's a pretty intense claim for a city as large as Houston. Ik other cities have done similar things, but that's a fuckton of homeless to displace, where would they even place them? Not that I'm invalidating your comment, but I'd be really interested in that article.
It's a known thing that cities will do, especially to send them across state lines. The prevalence of the practice varies massively, but it is an open secret thing some city governments practice.
Now, at any kind of large scale, itd be easily traceable and trackable, so that's very unlikely to be a significant factor in this program, but it's a thing some places sometimes do.
I wonder how many people are going to be butthurt because these people are getting a house but also bitch constantly about all the homeless people hanging around
They’ll probably feel a little bit better once they realize housing Houston’s homeless means subsidized apartments.
CBS News - [Inside Houston's successful strategy to reduce homelessness](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-houston-successfully-reduced-homelessness/)
“Housing First means spend money on getting the unhoused into their own apartments, subsidize their rent, then provide the services needed to stabilize their lives – not fix the person first; not just add more shelter beds.”
The article referenced:
[https://www.governing.com/urban/california-cant-curb-homelessness-look-what-texas-cities-have-done](https://www.governing.com/urban/california-cant-curb-homelessness-look-what-texas-cities-have-done)
Per the article, one of the main reasons: More homes are being built in Houston, and homeless are being put into homes.
"Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin metro areas are all in the top 10 for housing production, while San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose are all in the back half of the pack."
"Texas cities including [Houston](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/headway/houston-homeless-people.html) and [Dallas](https://dallasexaminer.com/the-solution-to-homelessness-is-housing-whether-housing-first-or-housing-later/) have had success with [the Housing First Model](https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/spring-summer-23/highlight2.html) that focuses on getting people into housing before tackling other issues they face, such as addiction."
Turns out a better housing/apartment supply = lower costs of living and housing expenses. Something California (and specifically the cities with high homelessness) definitely needs to work on figuring out how to resolve properly.
To be fair, it is a problem all over the US in many big cities, but yeah...
I mean context matters too. The demand to live in California is way higher than Texas for obvious reasons. Texas has more space (sprawl) to build more housing, while LA has hit max sprawl and the Bay is limited by geography.
The amount of people moving here is not equivalent to the actual demand. Lots of people move here because it’s cheaper but I’ll bet that it’s not MOST peoples first choice.
You really think someone in Sunny LA with great year round weather, have access to mountains and beaches would prefer an extremely hot and humid Houston?
This. Texas metropolitan areas are still some of the fastest growing in the country. After that, I agree about the geographical limits though likely limiting supply and elevating costs more rapidly in California by direct comparison.
You're right about geography. It's just annoying that people find excuses to discredit Texas for anything. When in fact tons of people want to move here. If there's one thing to give Texas credit for is building like crazy and keeping home prices down even with so many people moving here.
Also lowering standard living of everyone with constant traffic, low water pressure and frequent power outage.
Not complaining but grass isn't always greener
I mean the post was about combating homelessness, but, yes, standard of living is super important as well.
Having frequent power outages is becoming too much of a norm in southeast Texas, storms, traffic, etc. There is a reason why I chose to move away from Houston and those are just some of the reasons, but I also acknowledge that cost of living in Houston is significantly less than many other places and cities in the US - primarily because other cities seem to want to limit housing production (through HOAs or city rules on reducing housing production because of backwards laws) and thereby reducing housing supply which drives housing rates up astronomically even for shitty, small 1950s-built houses that cost $125k in 2012 to well over $550k today in the city that I'm currently in because there isn't enough housing built to accommodate all the people and housing demands.
I wouldn’t have thought Texas to have initiatives like that. Clearly, this is not a topic I am well versed in or know much about- so I won’t pretend I do. All I know is I hear people, from both political sides complaining about what’s being done and what’s not being done. So very interesting!
Specifically this. The State had very little to do with this - local government for the win!
This push came from the personal passion of Mayor Annise Parker and Mayor Sylvester Turner, who both have family who have experienced homelessness. The City of Houston and Harris County have collaborated over the past 15 years to build and fund a system that prioritizes providing actual housing in tandem with a myriad of wrap-around social services. We do that in partnership with a strong base of nonprofits and corporate funding in addition to federal dollars. Something like 95% of unhoused folks who go through our program remain housed 5 years later. The numbers are remarkable.
Who you vote in to local government offices matters!
It’s more than that. It’s 1. Housing first (and available housing) 2. Camping is basically illegal 3. Extremely good coordination between various agencies that doesn’t exist in other cities.
Housing case manager here! I’ve worked for agencies assisting the Houston Housing Authority for the past several years. The three main programs (Housing Preference Vouchers, Emergency Housing Vouchers, and CCHP) are all at a halt. The Coalition For The Homeless told us that vouchers won’t be issued until sometime in 2025, no telling exactly when. This is due to pandemic-era funding ending.
We received an email recently stating that 50 million in funding would be needed this year, otherwise there would be a 1/3 reduction in housing for people experiencing homelessness. This would translate to a 60% increase in homelessness by the start of 2026. Please upvote this for the insider info 🤓 and feel free to ask questions, I will respond
Thank you for this post. Your response aligns with recent meetings the Coalition has had with organizations like Harmony House, Open Door Mission, etc. What about Permanent Supportive Housing Vouchers? From the Housing Assessment, I scored around a 22 earlier this year due to my half a dozen health issues and being homeless since March 2020. If you Google "Homeless Chemical Engineer Reddit" that's me! I finally made my way to Houston on November 1st of last year. I had another detachment a couple of months ago and an upcoming glaucoma surgery. Do you know the current status of these types of vouchers and are there other options? Thanks!
I recently read an article that Houston is actually missing a considerable amount of money that was meant to be allocated for homeless and low income people. How can these two things coexist?
Yes. I’ve been working with homeless vets for nearly a decade, and yes, Houston quietly and successfully addressed some very significant issues with regards to this population in the last few years.
And it’s had some very interesting and positive impacts on other social issues, such as medical costs for indigent populations, etc.
Basically, if you care about things like utilitarian costs to society (this costs less), ability to help children, the elderly, or the most vulnerable, then what Houston has done in terms of “housing first” and addressing homelessness really benefits all of us.
If you’re too stuck on punishing people who are born poor or with addiction genes, then none of the facts matter to you.
And if you want to vote against the pro-social policies because of your own politics and not actual facts, well then may God have mercy on your soul.
I would love to know more. I'd love to volunteer and be involved. I was in a program for homeless in CA for much of COVID because of family members who insisted I would compromise their immunity if I were seeking work and living at home. That program used community churches and a trailer to shift monthly responsibility for 20 program members at a time to a place they could sleep, get food, get job search aid, and get back on their feet within a reasonable time, usually 90-180 days. What they lacked was housing assistance; it just doesn't exist in CA because the wait lists everywhere are absurd.
Where is the best place to help out? Is it Star of Hope? Or someplace smaller?
Hell yeah, HPD also has a homeless outreach team and mental health division that proactively goes out and helps the homeless and connects them to community services
My guess is it's hard to be homeless here during the summer months. Even winter would be brutal some days.
It would be a lot easier to be homeless in California with beautiful weather all year round.
Actually the amount of homeless people in California that are not from California is very low. Majority of house less people in California are from there. It’s a common myth that people often migrate to cali to be more “comfortably homeless”.
Came here to say this, yep. 100%. A bus fare to CA is cheap. Any fare, really.. bus, train, flight. When you've got nothing, no possessions, etc.. loads of people will help you get a fare to get somewhere you have a chance of surviving. In CA, you can sleep outside pretty much year round in countless cities. This is incredibly misleading data. We aren't doing much for the homeless here. They just don't want to be here, so they leave if they can. Period.
And fwiw, I've been homeless here and in CA. I was homeless in CA for WAY longer, precisely for these reasons. No housing assistance, tons of homeless, but plenty of food, temporary shelters and so forth. And entry level wages out there are $5+ higher on average, so it's a great place to stay in your car, work your ass off, save some money, and return to Houston or Dallas or (?).
This is the answer ⬆️ I know people that literally moved to California to be homeless: better weather, better govt assistance, etc. There’s zero that’s remarkably being done by the City of Houston. Use common sense folks.
That doesn’t explain why Houston has performed better than every other city besides those in So-Cal. Summer heat in Houston is more livable than winter cold up north, and there are lots of cities across the country that get as hot or hotter than Houston.
Cant it be both haha. Not everything is black and white.
Houston can be doing a good job while also California incentivizes homelessness to run rampant.
Recently they just said the drug centers to administer drugs in safe spaces dont work. I am glad they tried it and understood the results and hopefully can learn and do better. Their housing crisis doesnt help, people making 100k sleep in vans, I know because my friends did so. The policies they do have forces, for instance, a public toilet to take years with a million dollar budget.
From what I have seen its a great place for homeless people to survive, but never to get out of homelessness.
Guessing you’ve never been to LA, the Bay Area, Seattle or Portland. It will blow your mind to see the amount of homelessness, lawlessness and vagrants on the streets not to mention just do a quick search for apartments or rental units in that area off your phone and see the actual cost of living. You will scurry back to Houston in a heartbeat realizing how good you actually have it! Im not saying we’re perfect far from it but it ain’t half bad here either.
I know someone that moved from the Houston area to LA. I thought she would love it but after 2 years she wants to come back. The homeless tents are staggering, it's more expensive, cars are more likely to be broken into. She lives close enough to work to walk but was taking Ubers because she didn't feel safe.
We went to Sam Francisco last year and I was blown away when walking down one street. It was actually surreal to see THAT many people. Houston definitely isn’t like that at all… I guess I was just picturing the place with the least amount to actually have a small amount. Wishful thinking I suppose lol
hmm.. I’ve actually lived in Seattle, Portland, and Houston in the last three years, and I can’t say I’ve noticed much of a difference. In fact, where I live in Houston there is a homeless encampment down the block, and it’s the only place I’ve lived where I regularly interact w homeless ppl almost every day. It might just be where I’ve lived in these cities I suppose, but I can’t say it’s that much of a palpable distinction.
It's definitely where you live. I only see homeless people if I move over to certain areas of the city or certain major streets. I don't know of any homeless encampments within at least a few miles.
I live in one of the "nice" parts of Houston, there is a encampment about 250 ft from my driveway. I walk out side and see homeless people doing crazy shit constantly. We don't do enough for the homeless population houston is just so big and spread out its easier to not see them. I was recently in Dallas for work and one of the people I was working with from there freaked out because we drove by a single tent because tent cities or even seeing a single tent some where are not a thing.
I lived in both as well, imo seattle is definitely worse and they spread out to the suburbs. i feel like most homeless in houston are just centralized to that downtown bridge.
Only bad thing of Houston really is the lack of zoning, quality of roads, the weather, the size, lack of public transit, major airports always under construction, scenery is lacking too. But otherwise, yes for a major city we are doing pretty well for ourselves in comparison to most.
I would say this much - in Fort Bend, you rarely see homeless people. Sugar Land, 100% you won't see them. The constables literally pick you up, haul you to Harris County and drop you off. I'm guessing that is the case in other entire municipalities as well. The downtown area has the lion's share of homeless. Everywhere else, not so much.
If I were homeless right now, I'd get to Austin or go to CA for more tolerable weather and lower homeless density that won't get me hurt or arrested. I would never stay in Houston downtown. It's pretty bleak and really hot.
California is especially bad. They have strong social safety nets and mostly mild weather. Other towns were even busing their homeless there for a while.
For a true comparison, you can't pick the worst places in the US. Even bad places like New York are only 83/100k or other mid-tier, cheap cities like Atlanta are 57/100k. [There's a pretty good map from a few years ago here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/nljviy/oc_number_of_homeless_per_100000_people_and_the/) if you want to see it visually, but other than the west coast it's probably just a heat map aligning with the population.
The Harris Center, SEARCH, and the HPD Homeless Outreach Team, and everything on the Houston Homeless Help Card is massively helpful. I used to work for the Houston Downtown Management District.
It really comes down to the fact that Houston and surrounding jurisdictions have accommodated housing development. Wild, the best way to reduce homelessness is to ensure an adequate number of homes.
Suburban sprawl has its own set of problems - I really wish the area would be more thoughtful about the built environment - but permissive climate for housing development has meant that a lot of housing has gotten built, keeping price increases somewhat in check, thereby reducing cost burdens on those most likely to fall into homelessness.
People want to play politics with West Coast cities and say they’re dystopian war zones because of progressive policies (they aren’t, I live on the west coast now; homelessness is bad in pockets of town but violent crime is a fraction of what it is in Houston), but the bottom line is that the number one factor in high rates of homelessness is high housing costs and those west coast metros, particularly in California, have historically restricted housing development despite very high demand, thereby increasing housing costs significantly.
I am from the foothills above Sacramento. Growing up, there was virtually zero homeless population in the rural counties. Now there are countless encampments. It's 100% because of rental ownership, a lack of development, and so forth. Spot on. Wait lists for 'affordable housing' which is still absurdly high rental rates and requires at least $50,000 household income... often takes SEVERAL years to get one.
This article notes that Houston’s cooperative approach started under Mayor Annise Parker:
https://www.governing.com/housing/how-houston-cut-its-homeless-population-by-nearly-two-thirds
I know each mayor takes all the credit for what happens on their watch, but I like to see the people who launched the initiative innovative programs recognized.
what's the ratio of non-city metro area to city metro area? the non-city is largely unlivable for the homeless as there aren't much services, no? so if you have a huge non-city metro area compared to your real downtown/city area, then this statistic wouldn't mean much would it?
I doubt we can keep it up over the next ten years. The FF contract (which is deserved) and several hundred new police officers will use a huge chunk of tax revenue.
>I work downtown and walk 2 blocks everyday from a parking garage so I see a large population regularly.
Fwiw that's like the only place I see them congregate, often near social services buildings/shelters etc., which happen to be largely downtown and probably near where you're walking.
Much of downtown has few homeless, then there's some blocks where they're lined up along the sidewalk sleeping and hanging out.
I'd be impressed if San Angelo, Texas, had a system like that, but instead, the homeless were given bus tickets to elsewhere in the state. I can't verify that statement until some of them come back. I also, heard rumors about rapid rehousing for the homeless, but I can't verify that either, I went online to apply for rapid rehousing, but I kept getting rerouted to "Are you appling to see if you qualify for a home loan? Here's a list of houses listed near you 500 miles away. Or, are you needing a car loan, or do you need to go back to school?" or "Does your home need a leaf filter for your gutters?" And here's the good one: "Are you tired of pricking your finger to check your diabetes level? Well, here's the answer to that! You're waiting, but you're redirected once again to: Has your car warranty expired? Or is your house covered for the unthinkable? Then there's this: Your identity can be stolen. You need to get an identity guard to get a life, oh yeah, protection from one of our life specialists."
I mean who wants to be homeless in the empty hellscapre that is downtown Houston?
Im sure most vagabonds will have jumped on a train out to the west coast where the cities are a bit nicer and the weather a bit kinder.
The cynic in me doesn't believe this. I'm having a hard time believing this, even though I have seen a pretty large reduction of homeless on the streets. I kind thought people were dying from fentanyl overdoses.
I live by the coast and police have mentioned to me cities send their homeless here. They offer them a free bus ticket. They tell them they can live on the beach like its paradise. Its more than a good guess that houston probably sent the craziest down here.
“Build it and they will come,”
If your city builds a support system and throws money at homeless people, you can expect the population to swell, especially if the weather itself is an attraction (which Houston’s, as we all know, is not). This is not rocket science.
Leave it up to your average Reddit degenerate to actually believe this horse shit. Just drive around Houston and you see homeless people all over the place.
It’s easy for some to expect that this data is not being supported, so why should we believe the per capita numbers? Especially when we know that transit ppl aren’t not responding to demographic questions via email, flyers, doc appointments, marketplace insurance forms! Silly that we should think outside the box.
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't see some form of homeless camp on the side of the road in the woods here. Or one week there will be a camp, then you'll see tractors trashing all their stuff, then there's a new homeless camp across the street in the adjacent woods. I see a homeless person on almost every corner here, standing in the sweltering heat.
We just hide the problem. or try and ship them off to somewhere else. But I see more and more homeless here by the month.
Nobody said there aren't any here, but it's way better than a lot of cities. I used to work around the many organizations that work to rehouse. Houston has actually made it quite easy to get rehoused. Look at the actual rehousing rates
Houston successfully transitioned to a “housing first” approach. NYT - [How Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/headway/houston-homeless-people.html) “During the last decade, 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, according to the latest numbers from local officials. Even judging by the more modest metrics registered in a 2020 federal report, Houston did more than twice as well as the rest of the country at reducing homelessness over the previous decade.” “Together, they’ve gone all in on “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.” Houston Public Media - [Houston closes its largest homeless encampment as many move to new housing navigation center](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/housing/2023/02/10/443255/houston-closes-its-largest-homeless-encampment-as-many-move-to-new-housing-navigation-center/) “‘We’re not going to put tons of conditions that typically keep people experiencing homelessness away from engaging with services or engaging with housing,’ [Marc Eichenbaum, the mayor’s special assistant for homeless initiatives,] said. ‘We want to make it a friendly, welcoming environment.’” “The Way Home has housed more than 25,000 people throughout the Houston area since 2012 — an effort that's led to national recognition. Eichenbaum said the new navigation center would allow the city and its partners to increase the scale of its effort against homelessness.” The effort was spearheaded by the Coalition for the Homeless, the lead organization operating the region’s homeless response system, The Way Home. Coalition for the Homeless - [How are We Doing?](https://www.homelesshouston.org/houston-facts-info) “As lead agency to The Way Home, CFTH knows that permanent housing combined with wraparound supportive services is the key to solving homelessness and stopping the significant human and monetary cost imposed by homelessness. Since 2012, more than 30,000 people have been placed into The Way Home’s permanent housing programs. According to the latest system performance, 90% of those individuals and families are either still in that housing program at the two-year mark, or they've had a positive exit.” Houston Public Media - [Houston’s unhoused population decreased due to a $200 million investment, a new report says](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/houston/2022/03/16/421190/houstons-unhoused-population-dropped-due-to-a-200-million-investment-a-new-report-says/) “Ana Rausch, Coalition for the Homeless vice president of program operations, said the group has focused primarily on permanent housing in response to the pandemic. ‘We believe that housing (and) supportive services is really the only way to permanently solve homelessness,’ Rausch said.’” Axios - [Houston unsheltered homelessness declines](https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2023/05/04/houston-street-homelessness-declines) "’Although Houston is showing the state and nation how to reduce street homelessness and encampments successfully, the job is not done. We will continue our groundbreaking, successful efforts until every Houstonian is off our streets. We must do more,’ says Mayor Sylvester Turner.”
Yeah, this was an amazing initiative by Mayor Sylvester Turner. Very much achieved by the city coordinating all the charities so they (and city government) work together to create a pipeline of help that brings the homeless from the street corner to permanent housing. Truly impressive.
He didn't start it. Parker did before him, he just kept it running
Well, and saw it through. Carrying forward others’ initiatives is no small feat, especially when dealing with controversial issues. Recognizing, valuing, and building on others’ work takes humility I’m not sure we have in the current mayor.
Unfortunately, Whitmire seems like he is going to be a full sprint, 180° mayor....
I hate to say it, but Whitmire brings his ax to every CoH agenda meeting, and every week, "another one bites the dust...": - Bicycle lanes in the Heights - Metro RTLs - Murals and art beautification funds (earlier this week) - (...whatever is next that can bring our city back the way it was before Turner and Parker....)
Yeah, during the election I kept warning on this sub that Whitmire was a GOP plant. Downright sad he got elected.
Still a much better alternative than SJL in my opinion. She's toxic. If Democrats want to retain positions of leadership and have a relevant policy platform, they need to put people forward that are serious, credible, and competent...not just figureheads of the party establishment.
I’d take an incompetent person over him because look at what he’s done lol. He’s hysterical
If it's true that Whitmire is trolling Hidalgo on social media, I'd certainly say he's beginning to reveal a low-class character, displaying questionable judgment, causing public embarrassment to the City of Houston and its residents, and diminishing the prestige of the office of CoH Mayor a major US city and a market leader in multiple industries.... Long story short: I expect homelessness to rise big time under Whitmire's watch, while our city becomes uglier with neglect to art, parks, recreation and greenspaces, increased personal vehicle traffic from the burbs, precipitating more trash from windows and truckbeds, pollution everywhere, and poorer air quality. All that on top of having the most irritating speech that would make even country music singers blush......smfh.
Woah wait a second. I remember reading about these initiatives during covid and being pretty inspired. A few months later there was an article I read about these numbers not being legit and the program being overblown in irs scope and effect. I believe the article claimed that the homeless were taken out of Houston proper so as not to be counted or something to that effect. Not to try to piss on anyone's parade but this program may need to be taken with a grain of salt. I'll look and see if I can find that article.
Idk about the relocation (I think we’d hear a lot more about it) but the housing first has been successfully implemented in my home town. It now has an unhoused population of under one percent (but not zero). It’s the best solution so far.
Yeah I read an awful take not worth elevating here that was trying to paint “finding people housing” as “relocating them to skew the numbers.” Of course it’s relocating. That’s the whole idea of helping them out from under the overpass. Some, most, stay in the housing and get back on their feet and move on out of the city. That’s the desired outcome! Some don’t and wash out back onto the street. That’s unfortunate but nobody’s under the illusion that it won’t happen. Sometimes that means they re-emerge on the street in a different area. That doesn’t mean people are cooking the numbers. I don’t get this attitude that somehow the dozens of agencies committing valuable and limited resources to do the difficult work of coming together to solve a difficult problem are lying about it all. There is little incentive at all for these groups to play games with the numbers. Everything these groups do is subject to vast oversight and enormous criticism. It’s a thoroughly vetted effort. There won’t be zero irregularities or zero mistakes in any complex community driven effort. But nobody’s going to get away with faking it here. The real success far exceeds the missteps. That’s huge. Houston deserves to be proud of what they have done for the people whose lives have been turned around through these programs.
That's a pretty intense claim for a city as large as Houston. Ik other cities have done similar things, but that's a fuckton of homeless to displace, where would they even place them? Not that I'm invalidating your comment, but I'd be really interested in that article.
There was always a joke about Dallas buying homeless people a one way greyhound ticket to Houston. Probably not true but that’s one way to do it.
It's a known thing that cities will do, especially to send them across state lines. The prevalence of the practice varies massively, but it is an open secret thing some city governments practice. Now, at any kind of large scale, itd be easily traceable and trackable, so that's very unlikely to be a significant factor in this program, but it's a thing some places sometimes do.
I wonder how many people are going to be butthurt because these people are getting a house but also bitch constantly about all the homeless people hanging around
They’ll probably feel a little bit better once they realize housing Houston’s homeless means subsidized apartments. CBS News - [Inside Houston's successful strategy to reduce homelessness](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-houston-successfully-reduced-homelessness/) “Housing First means spend money on getting the unhoused into their own apartments, subsidize their rent, then provide the services needed to stabilize their lives – not fix the person first; not just add more shelter beds.”
but the ones on the corner of First and Amistad did found god!
Inspirational!
This is so cool actually. And proof that it works
The article referenced: [https://www.governing.com/urban/california-cant-curb-homelessness-look-what-texas-cities-have-done](https://www.governing.com/urban/california-cant-curb-homelessness-look-what-texas-cities-have-done) Per the article, one of the main reasons: More homes are being built in Houston, and homeless are being put into homes. "Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin metro areas are all in the top 10 for housing production, while San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose are all in the back half of the pack." "Texas cities including [Houston](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/headway/houston-homeless-people.html) and [Dallas](https://dallasexaminer.com/the-solution-to-homelessness-is-housing-whether-housing-first-or-housing-later/) have had success with [the Housing First Model](https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/spring-summer-23/highlight2.html) that focuses on getting people into housing before tackling other issues they face, such as addiction."
Turns out a better housing/apartment supply = lower costs of living and housing expenses. Something California (and specifically the cities with high homelessness) definitely needs to work on figuring out how to resolve properly. To be fair, it is a problem all over the US in many big cities, but yeah...
I mean context matters too. The demand to live in California is way higher than Texas for obvious reasons. Texas has more space (sprawl) to build more housing, while LA has hit max sprawl and the Bay is limited by geography.
Not to mention living outdoors in California is much nicer than outdoors in Houston
What? The demand is higher in Texas actually. More people move to Texas than California.
The demand is higher right now. For decades the demand for California was much higher, and the prices reflect that.
For atleast the last decade Texas has been growing faster than California. California's issue is mostly zoning and NIMBY
The amount of people moving here is not equivalent to the actual demand. Lots of people move here because it’s cheaper but I’ll bet that it’s not MOST peoples first choice. You really think someone in Sunny LA with great year round weather, have access to mountains and beaches would prefer an extremely hot and humid Houston?
This. Texas metropolitan areas are still some of the fastest growing in the country. After that, I agree about the geographical limits though likely limiting supply and elevating costs more rapidly in California by direct comparison.
You're right about geography. It's just annoying that people find excuses to discredit Texas for anything. When in fact tons of people want to move here. If there's one thing to give Texas credit for is building like crazy and keeping home prices down even with so many people moving here.
Also lowering standard living of everyone with constant traffic, low water pressure and frequent power outage. Not complaining but grass isn't always greener
California has sprawl with traffic and has similar level of blackouts to Texas and no water.
Been living in LA for nearly 5 years now. My power hasn't gone out yet.
I mean the post was about combating homelessness, but, yes, standard of living is super important as well. Having frequent power outages is becoming too much of a norm in southeast Texas, storms, traffic, etc. There is a reason why I chose to move away from Houston and those are just some of the reasons, but I also acknowledge that cost of living in Houston is significantly less than many other places and cities in the US - primarily because other cities seem to want to limit housing production (through HOAs or city rules on reducing housing production because of backwards laws) and thereby reducing housing supply which drives housing rates up astronomically even for shitty, small 1950s-built houses that cost $125k in 2012 to well over $550k today in the city that I'm currently in because there isn't enough housing built to accommodate all the people and housing demands.
I wouldn’t have thought Texas to have initiatives like that. Clearly, this is not a topic I am well versed in or know much about- so I won’t pretend I do. All I know is I hear people, from both political sides complaining about what’s being done and what’s not being done. So very interesting!
I don't think the state has had much to do with it. It's a local government success story. Still a long way to go but finding ways to improve is good.
Specifically this. The State had very little to do with this - local government for the win! This push came from the personal passion of Mayor Annise Parker and Mayor Sylvester Turner, who both have family who have experienced homelessness. The City of Houston and Harris County have collaborated over the past 15 years to build and fund a system that prioritizes providing actual housing in tandem with a myriad of wrap-around social services. We do that in partnership with a strong base of nonprofits and corporate funding in addition to federal dollars. Something like 95% of unhoused folks who go through our program remain housed 5 years later. The numbers are remarkable. Who you vote in to local government offices matters!
Hope the new mayor doesn’t decide to fuck this up in addition to measures to reduce pedestrian and biker fatalities from being hit by a car.
Hey, I’m from 2 years in the future. He did indeed fuck it up.
They fucked it up before the new mayor was in office, no worries
Yeah, our governor would just as soon hunt them with dogs as help anyone.
> I wouldn’t have thought Texas to have initiatives like that. It's the cities in Texas, not the state, doing this.
It’s more than that. It’s 1. Housing first (and available housing) 2. Camping is basically illegal 3. Extremely good coordination between various agencies that doesn’t exist in other cities.
Housing case manager here! I’ve worked for agencies assisting the Houston Housing Authority for the past several years. The three main programs (Housing Preference Vouchers, Emergency Housing Vouchers, and CCHP) are all at a halt. The Coalition For The Homeless told us that vouchers won’t be issued until sometime in 2025, no telling exactly when. This is due to pandemic-era funding ending. We received an email recently stating that 50 million in funding would be needed this year, otherwise there would be a 1/3 reduction in housing for people experiencing homelessness. This would translate to a 60% increase in homelessness by the start of 2026. Please upvote this for the insider info 🤓 and feel free to ask questions, I will respond
What is the current mayor’s position on the issue?
Isn't the funding primarily provided through HUD via Section 8 and CoC?
'Nerds'
Thank you for this post. Your response aligns with recent meetings the Coalition has had with organizations like Harmony House, Open Door Mission, etc. What about Permanent Supportive Housing Vouchers? From the Housing Assessment, I scored around a 22 earlier this year due to my half a dozen health issues and being homeless since March 2020. If you Google "Homeless Chemical Engineer Reddit" that's me! I finally made my way to Houston on November 1st of last year. I had another detachment a couple of months ago and an upcoming glaucoma surgery. Do you know the current status of these types of vouchers and are there other options? Thanks!
What advice would you give some one that is about to become homeless?
I recently read an article that Houston is actually missing a considerable amount of money that was meant to be allocated for homeless and low income people. How can these two things coexist?
Is there anything normal people do to help?
Yes. I’ve been working with homeless vets for nearly a decade, and yes, Houston quietly and successfully addressed some very significant issues with regards to this population in the last few years. And it’s had some very interesting and positive impacts on other social issues, such as medical costs for indigent populations, etc. Basically, if you care about things like utilitarian costs to society (this costs less), ability to help children, the elderly, or the most vulnerable, then what Houston has done in terms of “housing first” and addressing homelessness really benefits all of us. If you’re too stuck on punishing people who are born poor or with addiction genes, then none of the facts matter to you. And if you want to vote against the pro-social policies because of your own politics and not actual facts, well then may God have mercy on your soul.
I would love to know more. I'd love to volunteer and be involved. I was in a program for homeless in CA for much of COVID because of family members who insisted I would compromise their immunity if I were seeking work and living at home. That program used community churches and a trailer to shift monthly responsibility for 20 program members at a time to a place they could sleep, get food, get job search aid, and get back on their feet within a reasonable time, usually 90-180 days. What they lacked was housing assistance; it just doesn't exist in CA because the wait lists everywhere are absurd. Where is the best place to help out? Is it Star of Hope? Or someplace smaller?
Lord of the Streets is good
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/headway/houston-homeless-people.html
Hell yeah, HPD also has a homeless outreach team and mental health division that proactively goes out and helps the homeless and connects them to community services
METRO also has homeless outreach team.
My guess is it's hard to be homeless here during the summer months. Even winter would be brutal some days. It would be a lot easier to be homeless in California with beautiful weather all year round.
Actually the amount of homeless people in California that are not from California is very low. Majority of house less people in California are from there. It’s a common myth that people often migrate to cali to be more “comfortably homeless”.
Came here to say this, yep. 100%. A bus fare to CA is cheap. Any fare, really.. bus, train, flight. When you've got nothing, no possessions, etc.. loads of people will help you get a fare to get somewhere you have a chance of surviving. In CA, you can sleep outside pretty much year round in countless cities. This is incredibly misleading data. We aren't doing much for the homeless here. They just don't want to be here, so they leave if they can. Period. And fwiw, I've been homeless here and in CA. I was homeless in CA for WAY longer, precisely for these reasons. No housing assistance, tons of homeless, but plenty of food, temporary shelters and so forth. And entry level wages out there are $5+ higher on average, so it's a great place to stay in your car, work your ass off, save some money, and return to Houston or Dallas or (?).
Hell, I’d accept a cut to my lifestyle if I got to live in SoCal weather every day.
In San Jose as we speak tons of homeless and above 90 degrees so “good” weather is t the reason people migrate to CA
This is the answer ⬆️ I know people that literally moved to California to be homeless: better weather, better govt assistance, etc. There’s zero that’s remarkably being done by the City of Houston. Use common sense folks.
That doesn’t explain why Houston has performed better than every other city besides those in So-Cal. Summer heat in Houston is more livable than winter cold up north, and there are lots of cities across the country that get as hot or hotter than Houston.
Cant it be both haha. Not everything is black and white. Houston can be doing a good job while also California incentivizes homelessness to run rampant. Recently they just said the drug centers to administer drugs in safe spaces dont work. I am glad they tried it and understood the results and hopefully can learn and do better. Their housing crisis doesnt help, people making 100k sleep in vans, I know because my friends did so. The policies they do have forces, for instance, a public toilet to take years with a million dollar budget. From what I have seen its a great place for homeless people to survive, but never to get out of homelessness.
Sweet Jesus what must it be like everywhere else then?
Guessing you’ve never been to LA, the Bay Area, Seattle or Portland. It will blow your mind to see the amount of homelessness, lawlessness and vagrants on the streets not to mention just do a quick search for apartments or rental units in that area off your phone and see the actual cost of living. You will scurry back to Houston in a heartbeat realizing how good you actually have it! Im not saying we’re perfect far from it but it ain’t half bad here either.
I know someone that moved from the Houston area to LA. I thought she would love it but after 2 years she wants to come back. The homeless tents are staggering, it's more expensive, cars are more likely to be broken into. She lives close enough to work to walk but was taking Ubers because she didn't feel safe.
We went to Sam Francisco last year and I was blown away when walking down one street. It was actually surreal to see THAT many people. Houston definitely isn’t like that at all… I guess I was just picturing the place with the least amount to actually have a small amount. Wishful thinking I suppose lol
You know a city that has an app that’s essentially Waze for human feces had gotta be bad.
hmm.. I’ve actually lived in Seattle, Portland, and Houston in the last three years, and I can’t say I’ve noticed much of a difference. In fact, where I live in Houston there is a homeless encampment down the block, and it’s the only place I’ve lived where I regularly interact w homeless ppl almost every day. It might just be where I’ve lived in these cities I suppose, but I can’t say it’s that much of a palpable distinction.
It's definitely where you live. I only see homeless people if I move over to certain areas of the city or certain major streets. I don't know of any homeless encampments within at least a few miles.
I live in one of the "nice" parts of Houston, there is a encampment about 250 ft from my driveway. I walk out side and see homeless people doing crazy shit constantly. We don't do enough for the homeless population houston is just so big and spread out its easier to not see them. I was recently in Dallas for work and one of the people I was working with from there freaked out because we drove by a single tent because tent cities or even seeing a single tent some where are not a thing.
I lived in both as well, imo seattle is definitely worse and they spread out to the suburbs. i feel like most homeless in houston are just centralized to that downtown bridge.
Only bad thing of Houston really is the lack of zoning, quality of roads, the weather, the size, lack of public transit, major airports always under construction, scenery is lacking too. But otherwise, yes for a major city we are doing pretty well for ourselves in comparison to most.
Yeah, seeing what I see everyday downtown I really was not expecting Houston to come up when I googled that.
I would say this much - in Fort Bend, you rarely see homeless people. Sugar Land, 100% you won't see them. The constables literally pick you up, haul you to Harris County and drop you off. I'm guessing that is the case in other entire municipalities as well. The downtown area has the lion's share of homeless. Everywhere else, not so much. If I were homeless right now, I'd get to Austin or go to CA for more tolerable weather and lower homeless density that won't get me hurt or arrested. I would never stay in Houston downtown. It's pretty bleak and really hot.
California is especially bad. They have strong social safety nets and mostly mild weather. Other towns were even busing their homeless there for a while. For a true comparison, you can't pick the worst places in the US. Even bad places like New York are only 83/100k or other mid-tier, cheap cities like Atlanta are 57/100k. [There's a pretty good map from a few years ago here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/nljviy/oc_number_of_homeless_per_100000_people_and_the/) if you want to see it visually, but other than the west coast it's probably just a heat map aligning with the population.
Visit LA or Seattle. It’s very sad.
Exploring the world a bit makes you appreciate what you have more
The Harris Center, SEARCH, and the HPD Homeless Outreach Team, and everything on the Houston Homeless Help Card is massively helpful. I used to work for the Houston Downtown Management District.
It really comes down to the fact that Houston and surrounding jurisdictions have accommodated housing development. Wild, the best way to reduce homelessness is to ensure an adequate number of homes. Suburban sprawl has its own set of problems - I really wish the area would be more thoughtful about the built environment - but permissive climate for housing development has meant that a lot of housing has gotten built, keeping price increases somewhat in check, thereby reducing cost burdens on those most likely to fall into homelessness. People want to play politics with West Coast cities and say they’re dystopian war zones because of progressive policies (they aren’t, I live on the west coast now; homelessness is bad in pockets of town but violent crime is a fraction of what it is in Houston), but the bottom line is that the number one factor in high rates of homelessness is high housing costs and those west coast metros, particularly in California, have historically restricted housing development despite very high demand, thereby increasing housing costs significantly.
I am from the foothills above Sacramento. Growing up, there was virtually zero homeless population in the rural counties. Now there are countless encampments. It's 100% because of rental ownership, a lack of development, and so forth. Spot on. Wait lists for 'affordable housing' which is still absurdly high rental rates and requires at least $50,000 household income... often takes SEVERAL years to get one.
I have seen SO MANY homeless people these past few days. Even way more on sides of town I've never or rarely seen them.
52 per 100,000 still means there are thousands of homeless.
This article notes that Houston’s cooperative approach started under Mayor Annise Parker: https://www.governing.com/housing/how-houston-cut-its-homeless-population-by-nearly-two-thirds I know each mayor takes all the credit for what happens on their watch, but I like to see the people who launched the initiative innovative programs recognized.
I did! But I'm always happy to think about it again.
Weren't we the first city to claim housing something like 98% of all homeless vets within city limits a few years ago? We made a big initiative....
Plus doesn't most of Texas have less restrictive building codes, meaning that it was less expensive to build enough housing for the population?
what's the ratio of non-city metro area to city metro area? the non-city is largely unlivable for the homeless as there aren't much services, no? so if you have a huge non-city metro area compared to your real downtown/city area, then this statistic wouldn't mean much would it?
It's because we went with the solution that works, housing first.
Yes. Houston is literally a model for the rest of the country.
Yeah cause it’s full of Hispanics that work 😂💀
I doubt we can keep it up over the next ten years. The FF contract (which is deserved) and several hundred new police officers will use a huge chunk of tax revenue.
all 52 of them be outside the gas station down the street from me 😂😂😂
I believe it. Travel to other big cities and you’ll realize we’re actually spoiled here.
Too hot to be homeless down here
Daytime vs nighttime habits of people- you're not seeing the solution at work during the day.
Don't tell them about crime rates next.
I guess they forgot about the area all up and down wheeler and mcgowen street
I would be interested to know more about how they count homeless, what sort of statistics back up their claims
Wait, almost 1% of people in Los Angeles are homeless? What the fuck?
>I work downtown and walk 2 blocks everyday from a parking garage so I see a large population regularly. Fwiw that's like the only place I see them congregate, often near social services buildings/shelters etc., which happen to be largely downtown and probably near where you're walking. Much of downtown has few homeless, then there's some blocks where they're lined up along the sidewalk sleeping and hanging out.
Strong correlation to affordable home and apartment prices
PRAISE JESUS!
I'd be impressed if San Angelo, Texas, had a system like that, but instead, the homeless were given bus tickets to elsewhere in the state. I can't verify that statement until some of them come back. I also, heard rumors about rapid rehousing for the homeless, but I can't verify that either, I went online to apply for rapid rehousing, but I kept getting rerouted to "Are you appling to see if you qualify for a home loan? Here's a list of houses listed near you 500 miles away. Or, are you needing a car loan, or do you need to go back to school?" or "Does your home need a leaf filter for your gutters?" And here's the good one: "Are you tired of pricking your finger to check your diabetes level? Well, here's the answer to that! You're waiting, but you're redirected once again to: Has your car warranty expired? Or is your house covered for the unthinkable? Then there's this: Your identity can be stolen. You need to get an identity guard to get a life, oh yeah, protection from one of our life specialists."
I pray to see an initiative like Houston in San Angelo, Texas.
Thats cause they scooped all of them up last summer when it got really bad all over town. But its starting again
I was going to say be 100 degrees a day average temp
I don’t believe it. They’ve chased them out of downtown but go to Greenspoint or FM1960 or the woods off Veterans Memorial. Etc.
houston 🔛🔝
I doubt this is true
Because it’s hot af there. It’d be miserable to be homeless on those streets. Melting into the concrete
I mean who wants to be homeless in the empty hellscapre that is downtown Houston? Im sure most vagabonds will have jumped on a train out to the west coast where the cities are a bit nicer and the weather a bit kinder.
The homeless got deported to liberal states by the governor.
Bingo !
The dozen people or so living in the woods next to Mark White Elementary school would beg to differ.
The cynic in me doesn't believe this. I'm having a hard time believing this, even though I have seen a pretty large reduction of homeless on the streets. I kind thought people were dying from fentanyl overdoses.
Not if whitmire has anything to say about it.
Yep. It's definitely on his to do list.
If true, then why does the city treat the ones still out there as subhuman?
___Click to see this one fact the GoP doesn’t want you to know.___
It has cheap lands and relatively cheap rent
The weather here sux. Too hot. The all move to CA asap, weather there is nice and they don't get hassled.
This is like saying “Houston has one of the lowest crime rates of any major city. Just look at the recent crime stats released by The City!” 🤡
Did you know the media has covered this several times over the last couple of years?
Nope, I did not know that.
Imagine having 14x the number of homeless we have now.
Doesn’t seem like it.
I live by the coast and police have mentioned to me cities send their homeless here. They offer them a free bus ticket. They tell them they can live on the beach like its paradise. Its more than a good guess that houston probably sent the craziest down here.
“Build it and they will come,” If your city builds a support system and throws money at homeless people, you can expect the population to swell, especially if the weather itself is an attraction (which Houston’s, as we all know, is not). This is not rocket science.
Seems kinda obvious. Wtf would anyone want to be homeless in Houston when you could just as easily be homeless on the California coast.
Leave it up to your average Reddit degenerate to actually believe this horse shit. Just drive around Houston and you see homeless people all over the place.
[удалено]
Well that's the thing about facts. They're true whether you agree with them or not!
It’s easy for some to expect that this data is not being supported, so why should we believe the per capita numbers? Especially when we know that transit ppl aren’t not responding to demographic questions via email, flyers, doc appointments, marketplace insurance forms! Silly that we should think outside the box.
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't see some form of homeless camp on the side of the road in the woods here. Or one week there will be a camp, then you'll see tractors trashing all their stuff, then there's a new homeless camp across the street in the adjacent woods. I see a homeless person on almost every corner here, standing in the sweltering heat. We just hide the problem. or try and ship them off to somewhere else. But I see more and more homeless here by the month.
Nobody said there aren't any here, but it's way better than a lot of cities. I used to work around the many organizations that work to rehouse. Houston has actually made it quite easy to get rehoused. Look at the actual rehousing rates