Bottelberghe, Harris, Sandoval, Sosa 1

Heather Bottelberghe

Heather Harris

Angela Sandoval

Morgan Sosa

Professor Cris Longhurst

English 2010

22 March 2017

Does the Housing First program work?

Over the last ten years, Utah has implemented the Housing First program in hopes of

moving homeless individuals off the street into permanent housing. As a benefit of moving into

the Housing First apartments in Salt Lake City, residents are given access to many rehabilitation

services to help them get back on their feet. The Housing First program is not the cure all for

ending homelessness in Salt Lake City, but it is a step in the right direction.

What makes a great program for housing the homeless? First and foremost a successful

housing program provides homeless people a safe home where they can start their journey to

recovery in a new functional lifestyle. The people housed in the program often need food and

other personal belongings such as clothing, personal hygiene products, and furniture. The

homeless also need counseling to resolve the issues that led to or perpetuated their circumstances

such as drug and/or alcohol addiction or mental illness. Some homeless people may need a

caseworker and most need assistance finding employment. From a communitys stand point, a

great housing program should reduce crime and decrease costs associated with caring for the

homeless.
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In 2005, Utah implemented Housing First. With this program, homeless individuals and

families could be placed into housing without having to jump through hoops by first getting

sober, finding a job, and attending other meetings. There are no prerequisites for receiving

housing and no one is turned away. The program is especially suited for those who are out of a

job, veterans, those who struggle with mental illness, alcoholics, and drug addictions (Peak).

The Housing First program also saves the state money per homeless person. On average

the state spent $17,000 annually per homeless individual, through the Housing First program,

that has dropped to $11,000 (Glionna). The program was spearheaded by the state Division of

Housing and Community Development and includes participants such as Volunteers of America,

Valley Mental Health, the 4th street clinic, and The Road Home (Smart).

The program does require some responsibility from its recipients. Those in the program

pay either $50 or thirty percent of their income, depending on which is greater. They also sign

and need to abide by a lease agreement and evictions have occurred because these agreements

arent followed (Peak). Most of those who enter the program leave with permanent housing after

two years, with only nine percent returning to homelessness (Tenny).

This program has worked for many, Crystal Spencer is one of those. When she lost her

job, she needed a place to stay with her children and found herself at The Road Home. From

there she was quickly placed into a two-bedroom apartment at Palmer Court and within 13

months she had caught up on her debt and was put on a waiting list for Section 8 housing (Peak).

When the Housing First program started in Utah, local members of The Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also called the LDS Church, volunteered time and effort organizing

furniture in the newly built apartments for the homeless. The LDS Church also donated food
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weekly to the residents of the new housing for the first several years of the program. Now food is

delivered weekly by Utah Food Bank (Carrier). Without this donated food, the Housing First

program would not be enough to set the homeless back on the right track to recover.

Another necessity for getting the homeless back on track is support and opportunities for

pursuing employment. In an article for NBC news Lloyd Pendleton, the director of Utahs

Housing Task Force is quoted as saying, We call it housing first, employment second

(Rascon). The main focus of Housing First was to move people off the streets and then

rehabilitate. Finding employment is part of the rehabilitation process that is offered to

participants of the Housing First program. Many homeless individuals who entered Salt Lake

Citys housing were able to use the housing as a starting point, and resources were available to

help them achieve new goals such as getting a job. In their apartment buildings caseworkers were

available to work one-on-one with them to apply for jobs and many successfully found

employment.

Once an individual or a family is in the Utah Housing First program, they are provided

opportunities with other programs on site. Depending on the certain needs of the applicants they

offer help with chronic illnesses, disabilities, mental health issues, and substance abuse disorder.

The most common programs that the Housing First helps people with is mental health issues and

substance abuse disorder. They provide options of group meeting or one-on-one counseling

(National Alliance to End Homelessness).

Applicants with long-term or repeated homelessness are given priority before short-term

homeless individuals. Housing First has determined a greater need for long term counseling due

to a more pervasive state of mind. The applicants are assigned a case worker that will track their

progress with the program. Depending on the applicant the program either gives them
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information on the program they need and go by themselves or they make them prove they have

been getting help with the program. The case worker checks with the individual, and sometimes

with the program director to establish progress. After they have targeted their needs with one of

the programs, the case workers make sure the individual or family can be self-sufficient and

remained housed (National Alliance to End Homelessness).

Since 2009 the Road Home has served more than 3,000 households with the rapid

Rehousing and Progressive Engagement model. Around 50% of families they serve only use

emergency shelter services for a very short period, resolve their homelessness and never return to

shelter (The Road Home). The Road Homes rehousing program works with the homeless people

in Salt Lake City to help them get into Housing First apartments. Unfortunately, a handful of

families have been evicted due to violations with their lease agreements (Peak). This means that

the Housing First program is not always successful.

A man named Mike Whiteman, a former tenant of low income housing in SLC

underlined a rule prohibiting threats against other tenants. He was promised action would be

taken, and within a month the staff of Palmer Court resolved the complaint by evicting

Whiteman. Mike Whiteman doesnt deny that he made threats after he was threatened, but was

baffled by the double standard that bounced back at him for his threat. He ended up living in his

car for a month, while the other tenant still calls Palmer Court home (Peterson). Housing First

does not accommodate for all cases of homelessness, Whiteman is an example of one case where

the Housing First program was unable to successfully rehabilitate a resident.

Many journalists have reported that chronic homelessness in Utah has been eliminated,

but there are situations like Whitemans where the current system is still not working. The

Housing First program works for many cases of homelessness but it has not cured homelessness
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in Salt Lake City. If we accept what we have been told about homelessness being eliminated we

will never move forward to find a solution that can help everyone receive the services they need

to recover.
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Works Cited

Carrier, Scott. "Room for Improvement." March/April 2015. Mother Jones. Web. 21 March

2017. <http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/housing-first-solution-to-

homelessness-utah>.

Glionna, John. "Utah is winning the war on chronic homelessness with "Housing First"

program." 24 May 2015. Los Angeles Times. Web. 9 March 2017.

<http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-housing-first-20150524-story.html>.

National Alliance to End Homelessness. "Fact Sheet: Housing First." April 2016.

endhomelessness.org. Web. 21 March 2017. <http://www.endhomelessness.org/page/-

/files/2016-04-26%20Housing%20First%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf>.

Peak, Chris. "Utah Set the Ambitious Goal to End Homelessness in 2015. It's Closer Than Ever."

28 January 2015. NationSwell. Web. 9 March 2017. <http://nationswell.com/utahs-

housing-first-to-end-chronic-homelessness/>.

Peterson, Eric S. "Trouble in Palmer Court." 11 November 2009. Salt Lake City Weekly. Web. 21

March 2017. <http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/trouble-in-palmer-

court/Content?oid=2141712>.

Rascon, Jacob. "Utah's Strategy for the Homeless: Give Them Homes." 3 May 2015. NBC News.

Web. 21 March 2017. <http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/utahs-strategy-

homeless-give-them-homes-n352966>.

Smart, Christopher. "Will Utah end chronic homelessness in 2015?" 20 October 2014. The Salt

Lake Tribune. Web. 9 March 2017. <http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58501056-

78/housing-hardy-homeless-utah.html.csp>.
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Tenny, Austin. "'Housing First' program fights chronic homelessness in Utah." 17 November

2015. The Daily Universe. Web. 9 March 2017.

<http://universe.byu.edu/2015/11/17/housing-first-program-fights-chronic-homelessness-

in-utah1/>.

The Road Home. "Housing Programs." n.d. The Road Home. Web. 21 March 2017.

<https://www.theroadhome.org/services/housing/rapid-rehousing/>.