Rehabilitation-focused homeless services face unfounded criticism across the country
Even Haven for Hope, one of the nation's most successful homeless shelters—the founding president of which previously led the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness—gets criticism. Its philosophy of encouraging independence is often vilified as “punitive” or “disengaged from reality.” But the results speak for themselves. Texas Tribune reports.
Robert Marbut Jr., the founding president of San Antonio’s homeless shelter Haven for Hope, will lead the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness [Editor's note: Marbut Jr. resigned from this position in 2021], which coordinates with 19 federal departments and agencies to address homelessness.
But aspects of Marbut's approach to addressing homelessness have garnered blowback from housing advocates. …
Responding in a tweet to the news of his appointment, Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, called Marbut’s guiding principles “paternalistic, patronizing, filled with poverty blaming/shaming.”
Gov. Greg Abbott, who has sparred with Austin leaders he accuses of being too relaxed on policies governing homeless people, didn’t respond to a request for comment. But he previously lauded the San Antonio shelter developed by Marbut, calling it “probably the best template” for addressing homelessness. …
From 2006 to 2010, Marbut oversaw the development of the 22-acre Haven for Hope shelter that provides services to approximately 1,700 people per day. The shelter has been credited for centralizing homelessness services.
Some leaders in San Antonio praised Haven for Hope’s model, which they say helps hundreds of families in the city.
“If we didn’t have them in this city, we would be at a major loss,” San Antonio City Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda said.
She said over the years she’s noticed the shelter increase its focus on adopting rehabilitation-oriented services for homeless people.
But others were critical of Marbut’s approach.
In the "guiding principles" listed on his website, Marbut writes that homeless people who exhibit good behavior should get “privileges such as higher quality sleeping arrangements, more privacy and elective learning opportunities.”
Amy Stone, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Trinity University who worked with Marbut during Haven for Hope's development, remembered his approach as “disengaged from reality of chronically homeless individuals.”
“Almost all his approaches to chronic homelessness were behavior modification ... as if you can be motivated out of substance use by promises of a nicer bed," Stone said. …
In developing Haven for Hope, Marbut and other planners visited 237 homeless shelter facilities in 12 states to develop "a best practice study" before concluding a single campus with centralized services would be most helpful to San Antonio's homeless population, according to information provided by the shelter.
The shelter’s opening resulted in a decrease in visible homelessness downtown, the organization’s CEO and president, Kenny Wilson, told the Tribune this summer.
“Homelessness in downtown San Antonio has dropped about 80% since San Antonio Haven for Hope opened,” Wilson said. “We're near downtown, as I said, and we have 1,700 people here. I often wonder where would they be if they weren't here. And many of them would be downtown and on the River Walk, in front of the hotels.”
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