While we agree with the concept of housing first to address the chronic homeless (who are the folks camping, often for years, in the Parkway) we don’t agree with this application of it, which places a 80 unit housing complex containing many of the formerly chronic homeless in one concentrated space within a neighborhood that could become quickly degraded.
We support the scattered site approach which we wrote about in a May 12, 2008 article published as a Sacramento Bee Commentary, Scatter homeless housing; don't concentrate sites, posted to our website.
The scattered site application is where existing housing is leased, scattered throughout the community, generally in the lower income areas to keep costs low, and the concentration will only be of two or three units rather than 80 or 90, a significant difference in terms of preserving neighborhood character.
Bottom line, it is crucial to help the chronic homeless—and housing first works—but not at the expense of degrading the surrounding community. This is what has been done in the Richards Boulevard/North 12th street area by the large concentration of homeless services which has encouraged large scale camping in the Parkway; all of which has reduced the ability of the adjacent communities to safely use their part of the Parkway.
An excerpt.
“More than 200 of those previously "chronically homeless" people have been placed in permanent housing, officials said. Most live in single-family homes or small complexes and are clients of Sacramento Self Help Housing, which supports the "housing first" concept. MLK Jr. Village is the first "high density" project of its kind in the area.
“The "housing first" approach has proved successful in other cities, including San Francisco and Portland, Ore., but it remains controversial, even among homeless advocates.
"Handing out housing to people is not the way to go," said Robert Tobin, director of Cottage Housing, which shelters and counsels homeless people and their children in the Sacramento area. "At Cottage Housing, a home is one of the services you get if you commit to certain changes," including becoming and remaining clean and sober, he said.
“MLK Jr. Village, a project of Mercy Housing California, cost about $15 million to develop, said Stephan Daues, regional director of housing development for the organization. Its cottages, each with about 400 square feet of space, have small kitchens, dining spaces and bedrooms. The complex, in a mostly commercial area near 47th Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, has wide streets and meticulous landscaping, a communal kitchen, staff offices and rooms for Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings and counseling sessions.”
