Coalition for the Homeless Responds to USICH's new strategic plan, “Expanding the Toolbox”

Catherine Villarreal • Oct 21, 2020

New USICH report disheartening, partisan, disregards the facts

Earlier this week, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) released its new strategic plan, "Expanding the Toolbox: The Whole-of-Government Response to Homelessness."

We're disheartened by the partisan nature of the USICH’s new strategic plan. By denigrating Housing First, the plan appears to be trying to pit political philosophies against each other, instead of looking at the facts or data, or consulting the experts, to solve homelessness in our country.

The fact is, Housing First is a set of policies that allows us to set aside the problematic concept of “housing-ready” in favor of “housing as a human right” — and it has proven to be effective. Housing First means that our homeless response system works to provide needed, customized wraparound services to our most vulnerable residents while they are in housing — not making them wait for housing until they are deemed “worthy” by a service provider.

In fact, contrary to the USICH plan’s assertions, it is Housing First that has allowed us to have so much success in reducing homelessness in The Way Home Continuum of Care in the Houston area (which encompasses Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties, Texas). Since 2011, The Way Home has placed more than 19,000 people in permanent housing, 85% of whom have remained successfully housed. This represents a 53% decrease in overall homelessness.

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