Evidence proves homeless benefit greatly from interim shelters
St. Gregory Distributing His Worldly Goods to the Poor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Despite mountains of data to the contrary, the local Housing Industrial Complex is still busy filling local media op-ed pages with dubious and false arguments supporting Housing First, and disputing the success of provisional housing for the homeless. The data speaks for itself, below.
Interim housing saves lives
Study by the National Bureau of Economic Research reveals that homeless individuals who take advantage of provisional housing experience:
Fewer ER visits
Lower short-term mortality
Crime reduction
In fact, Permanent Supportive Housing fails the homeless on most measures
Despite nearly doubling the nation’s stock of Housing First units since 2007, there is no compelling evidence that overall homelessness has been reduced.
According to the National Academies of Sciences, there is “no substantial published evidence as yet to demonstrate that [Housing First] improves health outcomes or reduces health care costs.”
--Christopher Ruffo
Reality: Housing First actually increases homelessness
"The problem with the Housing First strategy is that, unlike other federal safety-net programs such as Pell Grants and unemployment, Housing First disconnects participation requirements (in this case to treatment and recovery programs) from government subsidies.
In fact, it goes so far as to outlaw participation requirements by homelessness service agencies such as the Salvation Army and Citygate Rescue Missions if they receive federal funds."
--Robert Marbut, in Dallas Morning News
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