How communities are helping, not criminalizing, their homeless residents Last week, Bergen County, New Jersey, was declared the first community in the U.S. to end chronic homelessness. At a press conference, Housing and Urban Development officials said a reason behind Bergen County?s success was a $11 million ?one-stop shop? facility, where homeless residents can stay while they receive on-site treatment and housing assistance.
"By securing safe, permanent housing for individuals who were chronically homeless, we're providing these most vulnerable residents with the stability they need to address other challenges that have limited their ability to prosper in our communities," said Bergen County executive James J. Tedesco.
What Tedesco described is a ?housing first? policy, an approach to ending homelessness that?s gaining popularity in many communities. Housing first means getting people housed while they receive counseling or medical attention, instead of requiring people to be employed or sober before they are given a place to sleep. This method is not only proven to help people stay housed permanently, it also saves cities lots of money (for example, paying for preventative medical care is way cheaper than paying for repeated emergency room visits). Amid a debate over who qualifies for social services, however, a ?housing first? approach remains radical. The traditional approach is for cities to criminalize homeless behavior in the hopes of deterring i...