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San Francisco's new homeless street teams make progress, garner praise

Joshua Sabatini

June 04, 2021 |

San Francisco Examiner |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

San Francisco's Street Crisis Response Team is a pilot project meant to divert 911 calls for mental health emergencies from police to new teams of mobile counselors. Though it started with only one team and later expanded to four, the project in less than six months took 20% of the eligible calls. More than half the clients were helped on the streets, while most others were hospitalized or connected with shelters. The city is proposing a major expansion of this and related teams aimed at reducing the reliance on police in non-violent situations.

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A couch is not a home: Where the hidden homeless get housing vouchers

Jingnan Peng

June 04, 2021 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

Boston used vouchers to help "doubled-up families" – those with school-age children sharing crowded apartments with other families – jump the line of people waiting for subsidized housing and get their own homes. Schools identify children living in this limbo status that often isn't visible or recognized as homelessness. They referred families to FamilyAid Boston, which put about 300 families into their own homes. Doubling up, which often violates leases and can quickly put families on the streets, is the most common homeless status of public-school students.

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Hotels for those left unhoused by wildfires

Hanna Merzbach

June 03, 2021 |

High Country News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oregon

Hotels and motels are being converted into free housing for people experiencing housing instability in Oregon. Project Turnkey is a state-funded initiative that buys potential housing units and puts local organizations in charge of running them. The program was a response to displaced victims of wildfires that tore through a number of communities in 2020 but future plans include housing people experiencing homelessness for any reason.

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Enlisting Mental Health Workers, Not Cops, In Mobile Crisis Response

Rob Waters

June 01, 2021 |

Health Affairs |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

The long-running CAHOOTS program, which replaces police with medics and social workers to respond to non-violent, non-criminal mental health crises, suicide threats, and problems stemming from homelessness, serves as a model for similar programs in the nationwide push to reimagine policing. CAHOOTS teams de-escalate crises at first simply because they are not armed police. They also take the time and have the training to calm situations and get people the help they need. Programs in Phoenix and Denver demonstrate how the idea plays out in larger cities.

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SEPTA is testing a new way to help people struggling with addiction on the system

Darryl C. Murphy

May 26, 2021 |

WHYY |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A pilot program in Philadelphia’s transit system is providing social services for people struggling with addiction. Loitering violations in and around SEPTA stations are on the rise in the wake of the pandemic, spurring the city to reach out to those experiencing homelessness and addiction instead of solely policing the vulnerable populations. The project will be implemented in several other stations around the city as well.

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In San Francisco, Help Hits the Streets with a Crisis Response Team

Natalie Mead

May 21, 2021 |

What's Next Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Six San Francisco neighborhoods are now served by the city's Street Crisis Response Teams, which answer 911 calls for non-violent mental or behavioral health crises without police involvement. In its first two months in one neighborhood, the Tenderloin, the team handled 199 calls without any violent incidents or any need for police intervention. That led to the expansion to five more neighborhoods. The program is modeled on Eugene, Oregon's CAHOOTS project's street medics and counselors, but with an additional "peer specialist," someone with lived experience to counsel unhoused people on the streets.

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Homeless Oaklanders were tired of the housing crisis. So they built a ‘miracle' village

Gabrielle Canon

May 11, 2021 |

The Guardian |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

A group of people experiencing homelessness have created Cob on Wood, a place where members can access free hot showers, food, shelter, clothing, books, a health clinic, gardens, and even an outdoor pizza oven. Most importantly, Cob on Wood provides a sense of community and dignity for the almost 300 unhoused people who live there. Local artists and organizations came together to create structures and provide the resources needed to bring the vision to reality.

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How Bakersfield, California Ended Chronic Homelessness

Jared Brey

May 11, 2021 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Bakersfield, California

Bakersfield became the first California city to all but abolish a category of homelessness using the Built for Zero campaign's tactics of combining the use of data with a sustained, communal effort. From 2017 to 2020, Bakersfield identified and then housed all but two of the 72 people it identified as chronically homeless. Working from lists of people, the Bakersfield Kern Regional Homeless Coalition met regularly to whittle down the caseload. The county housing authority helped by leasing a bloc of eight units to sublet, easing landlord worries about dealing directly with people experiencing homelessness.

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A Canadian study gave $7,500 to homeless people. Here's how they spent it.

Sigal Samuel

May 07, 2021 |

Vox |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia

A lump sum of $7,500 was handed out to people experience homelessness in Vancouver as an experiment. The results show that recipients benefitted by accessing stable housing faster and eventually achieving financial stability sooner, in addition to spending less money on alcohol, tobacco, and drugs.

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Vaccines and shelter for the unhoused in Montreal

Laurence Brisson Dubreuil

May 07, 2021 |

The Eastern Door |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Canada, Montreal, Quebec

A nonprofit day shelter, Resilience Montreal, partnered with public health officials to provide vaccines to members of the indigenous community who are experiencing homelessness. Vaccinations were provided without the need for appointments or identification cards in Montreal. Advocates are calling for more permanent solutions for housing amid a rising need since the onset of the pandemic.

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