Author: Marty Graham

San Diego Program Shows Value of Housing First

Advocates for the homeless have long argued that the “housing first” model for moving homeless people into shelter and services without demanding that they change their behavior was not only more humane but also more likely to help people rebuild their lives, with the potential to improve their health and save taxpayer dollars in the long run. Now there’s new data to back up that claim.

San Diego tries housing first for homeless

San Diego, which in 2013 had the fourth largest homeless population in the U.S., has committed $30 million to an aggressive housing-first strategy that grew out of test projects putting the city’s most hard-core homeless indoors. The new push is being heralded as a paradigm shift from a spectrum of temporary shelters, transient housing and services spread across agencies and nonprofits to a focus on getting people into homes while working on the problems and issues that left them homeless.

Why unemployment is harder for older adults

San Diego area resident Teresa McConnell, 54, remembers the seven months of her unemployment clearly. “I didn’t want to talk to anyone any more, I didn’t want to hear myself say I didn’t have a job and watch people pull away,” she said. “I felt sick and ashamed just saying it.”

X Close

Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists

* indicates required
Email Lists