Recently, NPR ran a three-part series on L.A.'s Skid Row, ending with a look at the current circumstance of Nathaniel Ayers, subject of a major motion picture "The Soloist." Starring Jamie Foxx, the movie opened as the fourth most popular movie in America, grossing nearly $10 million in its opening weekend a few weeks ago. That makes this particular (now formerly) homeless man, and his particular circumstances, pretty high-profile. Such attention is critical to rallying support for the mission of ending homelessness in this country - but it's not entirely a free lunch.
A broad audience means a lot of people to please, and sets a tough standard for success. The public likes to see unequivocal gains that can be directly replicated, among people who are "deserving." I have not seen the
Washington State ranks 25 out 50 states in our efforts to end family homelessness according to a comprehensive study, America's Youngest Outcasts, released yesterday by the National Center on Family Homelessness. I admit it - I am competitive by nature and ranking 25th out of 50 isn't good enough. We can do better. Fortunately, the report has enough details that we can understand our strengths and look more deeply into our weaknesses.
Our strengths:
- Political will to end homelessness is very high. We have done extensive planning to end homelessness, as demonstrated by plans to end homelessness being adopted at the State, county, and city levels. Washington State was one of the first states to include families in their 10 year planning efforts.
- The number of homeless children experiencing
(Stephen Norman is Executive Director of the King County Housing Authority and a member of the Building Changes Board of Directors. He delivered the following remarks to the Governing Board of King County's
Committee to End Homelessness (CEH) on February 20, 2009.)
Homelessness is a complex issue with many causes and no simple fix. Any successful local approach, however, must address the interconnected issues of housing supply, housing affordability and the availability and coordination of supportive services. I have been asked to focus today on the role that Federal housing subsidies play in addressing these issues.
Collectively, the King County Housing Authority (KCHA) and Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) administer 23,500 units of federally assisted housing - 7,800 units of public
In December, the Snohomish County Council approved a one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) sales tax increase to support mental health and chemical dependency services. This sales tax option is available to each county, as enabled by the state legislature in 2005. I think this makes Snohomish at least the tenth county to implement the local option (after Clallam, Clark, Island, Jefferson, King, Okanogan, Skagit, Spokane, and Whatcom Counties). You can see more information on the background and implementation of the local sales tax option for mental health and chemical dependency services here.
How does this connect to housing and homelessness? Sadly, in a great many ways. Study after study have shown that the people living on the streets disproportionately suffer from untreated mental illness
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