Cities Provide Apartments for Homeless

Andrew Adams looks out over the street from the walkway in front of his apartment in Norfolk, Va., Wednesday, March 21, 2007. Adams moved into his apartment last fall as part of Norfolk's Housing First initiative, a program that puts homeless into existing housing and then tries to address their mental health or substance abuse issues. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) (Steve Helber - AP)

Norfolk, Virginia's second-largest city, cut the number of people sleeping on the street by almost half in a single year.

Mangano has worked with about 300 communities to develop 10-year plans to end homelessness.

The plans vary by city, though all emphasize moving homeless people into housing rather than shelters. In many programs, tenants can stay indefinitely as long as they follow a few rules and are not disruptive to their neighbors.

They must regularly allow counselors into their apartments. In some programs, tenants are required to be sober or to take medications for mental illness; in others, they are merely encouraged to do so.

Most programs rent private apartments, though some cities have bought buildings. Rent is usually 30 percent of a tenant's income, if the tenant can work or qualify for government benefits. The cost is often subsidized by federal low-income housing programs.

In 1999, Congress began mandating that about one-third of federal homeless grants go to permanent housing programs. The Housing and Urban Development Department offers financial incentives to communities that emphasize housing instead of shelters.

As a result, the number of beds in permanent housing units devoted to homeless people jumped by 83 percent, to nearly 209,000, from 1996 to 2005, HUD says. During the same period, the number of emergency shelter beds shrank by more than one-third, to about 218,000.

"The shelter is there to catch you on a freezing cold night or even on a warm night when you need a roof over your head," said Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City. "But permanent supportive housing is the answer."

Advocates for the homeless say housing programs are cost effective because they reduce emergency room, police and jail costs associated with people who live on the street.

New York City uses 20,000 apartments to house formerly homeless people. A University of Pennsylvania professor analyzed the city's program for people with severe mental illness and concluded that savings in emergency services nearly offset spending on housing and counseling.

But there is no single source of money to pay for apartments, case managers and mental health and substance abuse counseling. That leaves cities to cobble together federal, state and local money for housing and services, as well as private donations for furniture and clothes.

Norfolk's experience illustrates the complexity.