Success In Dealing With Homelessness?

Sue Ann Levy, who is on my A list when it comes to columnists, trumpets the finding of housing for homeless people as a success and while I will support putting a roof over someones head I have always objected to giving priority to squatters, etc.

While the city was finding accommodation for 700+ homeless how many people on the list for affordable housing were bypassed? How many of the people on this list were moved into accommodation that large and medium sized private apartment accommodation and and were given a subsidy to top up the rent they were already paying out of their own pocket?

We have moved the homeless off the streets but I don't see anything about how much they are contributing. How many are able to work? How many are willing to work?

I am sorry but I don't see this as a solution to homelessness and is akin to cleaning up the house when company is coming by moving the "junk" into the basement.

Off the street at last Millerites learn the homeless actually want homes -- imagine if they'd listened earlier

By Sue-Ann Levy

A report to yesterday's community services committee declares that 783 street people are now cozily ensconced in their own homes, thanks to the mayor's $18-million-plus Streets to Homes strategy, initiated 17 months ago.

And the report -- one of a slew of pre-election good news reports emerging at City Hall this month -- maintains that 86% of those people "continue to have a stable housing situation."

Iain De Jong, the acting manager of the Streets to Homes initiative, says 65% of those who've been housed to date are in large- and medium-sized private apartment complexes.

The report says Streets to Homes is "solution-focused" -- meaning that the team of 12 city-funded outreach and housing workers work to provide housing and long-term treatment for the hardcore homeless they find.

De Jong told me there is now only one remaining city-funded "outreach" van that delivers soup, blankets and other comforts to people on the street "in very limited circumstances." But even then, the focus is on finding clients housing.

City outreach workers, says the report, also now help clients "navigate" through the unwieldy support network and accompany clients to appointments instead of simply sending them on "blind referrals."

And city-funded agencies are now expected to submit weekly reports on a client's progress and follow-up notes once their clients are housed.

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Levy_Sue-Ann/2006/09/12/pf-1828862.html