Last week, Mayor Adrian Fenty proposed one of the first tactics in his homelessness reduction strategy: the construction of an apartment building to house 400 of the city’s chronically homeless. Unfortunately, the building’s site was originally intended for a homeless shelter. The plan is a bold and commendable move to protect Washington’s most vulnerable citizens, but the Mayor should keep the city’s shelters running until his permanent housing initiative proves successful at reducing homelessness.
Apartment residents will be selected according to a “Vulnerability Index” that gives preferences to those most at risk, according to the Washington Post. Selecting the city’s hardcore homeless—often stricken by mental illness or substance abuse—was a decisive move on the mayor’s part that should do much to help the city’s homeless. Besides housing, the formerly homeless will receive counseling to solve the problems that kept them homeless.
In addition to housing and services for the homeless, the apartment complex will have apartments for other Washingtonians to rent at reduced and market levels. This development will not only give the surrounding neighborhood a mix of incomes, but help integrate the homeless into society outside of the homeless-care system. Offering housing to other Washingtonians should also negate the complaints of the Not-In-My-Backyard neighborhood activists who opposed the homeless shelter.
Still, the city’s pride in its solution for homelessness borders on hubris. By taking land meant for a shelter, the city has removed a potentially lifesaving outlet for the homeless. If the permanent housing solution works, the demand for emergency homeless services will decline, but the city should wait for this to occur before reducing the number of shelters.
The Mayor’s plan is similar to Portland, Oregon’s 10-year plan to eliminate homelessness by 2015. Both plans center on providing services and shelter to the worst-off homeless while trying to reduce the root causes of homelessness. Portland’s success in the program bodes well for D.C. After three years, Portland has moved 1,681 homeless families into permanent housing, according to Toronto’s Globe & Mail.
Washington’s homeless are at once the mayor’s most vulnerable and least powerful constituency, and he deserves commendations for creating an innovative solution to help them. Still, he should wait until the apartment complex’s results are clear before reducing the number of homeless shelters.
