Hey Folks, I have an opportunity here very soon to have some say in the affordable housing situation in my town (we’ll see). While I read over the planning and studies the town has already done, I’d like to get a sense of the field for what effective policy looks like, what current left thinking on the matter is.
I don’t know what I don’t know, you know? Obviously, any advocacy I do will need to be a synthesis of the conditions of the place I live and whatever current leading thinking is on the matter, while dealing with the limitations of liberal democracy. I figured this was a good place to ask.
What little I know about successful public housing initiatives are that they’re very rarely successful on their own. Housing first, yes, but support needs to be an immediate second. Addiction support or mental health support or medical support or food support, etc. It’s rare at least in my area that someone is unhoused and has zero other issues that either contributed to their being unhoused or became an issue as a result of them being unhoused. Putting someone in a safe place is critically important but also will not fix anything on its own beyond “now you are in a safe place.”
So anything you can do to keep people safe and healthy in their home will mean the dollars spent on putting them in that home are more effective.
Not sure what you could impact on that front but if you can include some guidance or future planning or even direct funding for those other things too as part of the program it’ll be more successful.
Yeah at work we have a whole Augmented Case Management program for folks getting into housing while still having a high support need. It is kinda expensive per person but helps reduce housing churn and utilization of other services