A new model heeds what homeless people have long been telling advocates: they need housing first, to get ahead, without the requirements of sobriety or treatment.

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 7, 2005

BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- A permanent roof over their heads and support services can help long-term homeless people get on their feet, with more success and less expense than if they cycle through shelters, hospitals, treatment facilities and prisons, advocates say.

That's the theory behind a campaign launched yesterday to end long-term homelessness in Rhode Island.

The theory is based on model programs across the country that have stabilized the lives of thousands of previously long-term homeless people, according to the national Corporation for Supportive Housing. The corporation has created at least eight such supportive housing sites nationwide.

The Rhode Island campaign, part of a 10-year national initiative led by The Partnership to End Long-Term Homelessness, aims to draw key community leaders to its side.

"What we have seen when we do this and we do this right, we see miracles. We see an entire life transformed," said Anne Nolan, president of Crossroads Rhode Island," a multiservice agency whose facility includes 16 units of permanent supportive housing. "It really is stunning."

But until now, states have dealt with homelessness primarily by creating shelters, according to Nolan, who said that just doesn't work.

"We put them in a shelter and we don't give them services. And we treat them worse than we treat animals, and it's just wrong and people fail miserably at life when we treat them like that," Nolan said.

"So this whole effort is about creating safe, clean, affordable housing," Nolan said, with built-in support services designed to help the tenants stay housed and obtain skills for independent living.

Rhode Island House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox and Rep. Thomas C. Slater, both D-Providence, architects of legislation to promote housing with flexible support services, launched the campaign at a gathering at Crossroads that drew people from the business, religious, philanthropic and housing sectors.

"The lightbulb has gone off . . . that for what we're spending in homelessness, we can have people in housing, with much better outcomes," said Noreen Shawcross, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless.

Shawcross said the year-long campaign will reach out to community leaders "to inform them about the benefits of supportive housing and hopefully engage them in our work, by spreading the word that supportive housing can end homelessness."

Shawcross described the new model as one that heeds what homeless people have long been telling advocates: they need housing first, to get ahead, without the requirements of sobriety or treatment.

"What we're finding is, you get folks in housing and then they're much more likely to engage in services," such as mental health treatment or substance abuse counseling, Shawcross said.

The new rules are, "be a good tenant, pay your rent on time, be respectful of your neighbors, and choose from a list of services what might be applicable to a person's particular situation," she said.

The Corporation for Supportive Housing Web site, www.csh.org, includes profiles of eight supportive housing communities across the country.

It notes that many of the new buildings have been constructed to be indistinguishable from surrounding market-rate buildings. Support services range from educational activities, health services, and substance-abuse counseling, to tenant education and customized employment services.

Karen Lee Ziner can be reached at 277-7375, or kziner [at] projo.com