Myths of Homelessness

I attended the 2018 Skeptical conference today and one of the speakers, Carrie Sager, was challenging us to be skeptical of common myths about homelessness. That position was based on her long experience as Marin County homelessness program coordinator.

1. People want to be homeless

Carrie cited the #vanlife movement and people living on boats so they could claim to be under maritime law - all technically "homeless". But in her experience, these are the exception, not the rule. The vast majority would rather not be living on the street.

She mentioned that just because people reject housing or shelter doesn't mean they want to be homeless. They can issues with such an offer such as:

• Safety, crowding, pets, bad experience with provider (requirements for sobriety etc.)
• Housing is in the wrong area away from friends and community
• A deeply held feeling that accepting help is a weakness

2. Everything is good once they have housing

This is seldom true initially. But eventually, given plenty of time and support can be. Longtime homeless people need to relearn skills because people become adapted to being homeless. Things that are easy for us homed people are often difficult for them such as planning ahead because being homeless can be such a day-to-day challenge. Other times housing comes with restrictions like sobriety and no fraternizing with former friends. This can be a challenge.

3. These people aren't from here they just come for services

Carrie cites many statistics from counties across the US fro the West to East coast. The number is generally more like 70+ % of people are local. In Alameda County (California) it is 82%. In New Jersey, it is 95%.

4. If we start housing people they will start coming here

Carrie cited data where an area near to a major city has done work to dramatically reduce homelessness but has not seen an influx of homeless from nearby areas. She admitted there is always mobility, but it seldom seems to be large.

Specifically, New York City has 76,000 homeless. Nearby Bergen county has virtually ended homelessness. But people are not flooding to Bergen. Montgomery County Maryland has 7,000 homeless and cut numbers in half. And is close to Washington DC but there has been no influx of people.

5. You can't just put a junkie in a house

Instead of a progression from a shelter, transitional housing, to permanent housing - going straight to permanent housing without preconditions seems to be much more likely to succeed. Carrie cited a study that showed an increase in success rate from 30% to 70% comparing transitional to housing first policies. Many other studies have confirmed that housing first is more effective than transitional programs.

Reasons for this are that each step in transitional policies introduces a hurdle people must cross and that straight to housing may have more lax conditions because people are usually in a less shared environment.

6. Let's do what they did in Utah

Utah is doing housing first. See #5. What they did that is unique is convincing Republicans to support it based on demonstrated savings from decreased service usage. That's not reproducible everywhere.

7. We can't solve homelessness because there isn't enough housing

There are other strategies to increase housing available to homeless:

• Increase rent payments - give housing vouchers for rent
• Landlord incentives - indemnify against damages or double deposits
• Provide dedicated hosting location services
• Have people in housing with roommates, some people actually prefer that with the right roommate

8. What about tiny homes?

Converting existing multi-family dwellings requires less city space and is cheaper. For cities this is more advantageous than large lots with individual tiny homes.

9. Micro-apartments?

They can work if done right. One study showed old rundown SROs with shared bathrooms have a retention rate of 30%, but new clean SRO with private bathrooms had 70% retention rate.

After the presentation, Carrie took questions from the audience some of which were suitably skeptical for a skeptics convention.

Carrie's closing remark was that the #1 goal for her program is trying to help those who are most likely to die. A sobering thought. Yes, people really do just die of neglect on the streets of America, the richest country in the world.

You can read more about Carrie's work on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarrieESager