Just another in a recent spike in homeless arrests. 20 percent arrested this month have
been homeless. You get arrested just because you're homeless.
The typical long-term chronic homeless person is being put in jail a lot, because of small petty crimes, open containers,
trespassing, loitering, all those kinds of things. Columbia, South Carolina, another
city criminalizing homelessness. Well where are the homeless people supposed to go?
The homeless end up in criminal justice systems, because there hasn't been a better alternative.
I served three and a half years at the Utah State Prison, so I've been homeless a little
over a year now.This morning I had got out of jail, sat down like this, the officer had
pulled up on his motorcycle. He told me I was going to jail. This was the same officer
who had just taken me to jail not even 24 hours ago. Our homeless need long-term treatment
solutions, instead of just incarcerations and then put them, put them back in the street.
Just because I don't have a car, I don't have a credit card in my pocket, or change in my
pocket, or a home to go, does not make me a criminal.
We did a survey here -about 20,000 dollars per person, per year, on the street, because of emergency services costs.
Jail time, EMT runs, emergency room visits, and so when we realized we were incurring
those costs anyway, there's a much more humane and economic way in order to meet their needs.
You'd be surprised whose homeless. Most people who are homeless, they are running away from
problems, they are running away from, you know, drug addiction. I got molested when
I was a kid, about 6-years-old, started drinking early age of 13. I couldn't deal with my problems.
I've been homeless for the last 20 years. About 10 percent of the homeless population
were chronically homeless. A chronic homeless individual that's been homeless a year or
more or four times in three years. A lot of mental health issues, substance abuse issues.
We decided to adopt a housing first model. Instead of asking people to change their
lives before we gave them housing, we chose to give them housing, along with the supportive
services and then allow them to change their lives if they wanted the supportive services
and then allow them to change their lives if they wanted to. We can house them for about
7,800 dollars per person, per year, for case management and rental assistance in a
housing unit. 2005, in order to get into housing, you needed to be clean,
dry, and sober, and if you fell off the wagon, then you lost your housing and case management.
Well, we weren't reducing homelessness. In 1998, we got kicked
out because I was using drugs. We went back again, like a routine for the last 15 years.
I mean, it was hard. Having a house is the stable base for everything. If you don't have
a stable place to live, that's going to be the
biggest crisis on your mind every day when you go to bed, whereas, when you're in own
home, that whole level of stress is taken away, and now you can focus on everything
else that you need to focus on in your life. Well it works, because we've come down 72
percent from our high in 2005. Getting my house in here, literally saved my life. Well
they arrested me at least 18 times. Ended up at the detox. So police brought me in there,
I was pretty sad, I was shaking hard, but after they moved me in here, I mean, I had
towels up there, clean sheets, pots and pans, they brought me a big
boxful of canned goods. He said, well, anything you need, call me. And I looked around and
I told him, I said, no Ed, I've got it from here. We've been able to show that if you
house people properly and correctly, is that it takes them out of the judicial system and
the recidivisim rate decreases. It's kind of like a security place for me. I know I got
a place to stay, it's a good, good feeling. If I was still a homeless guy, I would have
continued on, drank myself to death at this point. My first complete, 100 percent sober
year, and it's a good start, I feel, you know? Not the end of my program [laughing],
but it's a good start! The ultimate goal is to eliminate chronic homelessness here in
Utah by the year 2015, and the results here prove that that is an
achievable goal. The old approach of emergency shelters and transitional housing has been
a failure. Housing first has been accepted nationally. This is the key to ending chronic
homelessness. The Casper Housing Authorities trying out
a system they first saw in Salt Lake City. Staff say they've already seen success stories.
Now with the housing first, we're much more successful in getting them housed and out
of the criminal justice system and off the street, and help them integrate back into
society. We're actually moving out today. It means
a lot to me to have my family back in, We're actually moving out today. It means a lot
to me to have my family back in, where we can by ourselves. It does help you if you
do need to come here, everyone needs a helping hand here and there. It is most cost-effective.
We can serve more people with the same amount of dollars than if we didn't do this
program, but it's also the right thing to do. It just makes sense.