The article, “Solutions for Change appoints new interim CEO in leadership shift,” about homeless services nonprofit Solutions for Change in the Dec. 16 issue of The Coast News, raised a troubling question that only time will answer.
What has led Solutions for Change to stand out from the pack of supposedly homeless-serving agencies that have gone through hundreds of billions in tax monies over the past decade, while the homeless problem has only worsened, is that Solutions has refused to play the “housing first” game.
Repeated studies have shown that “housing first” is a failure at bringing about long-term change. Without breaking the cycle of addiction, permanent change is not possible.
Instead, “housing first” simply enables the kind of self-destructive addictive behavior that led to someone’s son or daughter, brother or sister, mom or dad becoming homeless in the first place. It also makes it difficult, if not impossible, to effectively diagnose mental illness whose symptoms may be masked or mimicked by substance abuse.
Solution for Change’s new CEO’s statement to The Coast News that his focus is on “assessing Solutions for Change’s current position relative to funding opportunities“ sure sounds like the board is more interested in getting on the taxpayer-funded gravy train than in continuing to provide the kind of scientifically grounded services that allow people to regain their agency.
The problem with state grants that require “housing first” is that they incentivize the wrong measurables: Rather than looking at how many formerly homeless have become self-sufficient, state (and many private) grants are more interested in how many homeless come through a program.
By that measuring stick, agencies accepting these funds are perversely incentivized to keep people homeless so they can serve them again in the future and qualify for grant renewal.
Many adjectives could be used to describe such an upside-down scheme, but “humane” is not among them.
Far too many “homeless service” nonprofits exist more to provide career opportunities for their staff than they do to actually offer the kinds of services that many homeless need, including, above all, acquiring the tools necessary to achieve and maintain sobriety.
Should Solutions for Change abandon its sobriety and work-training program and become just another “homeless services” nonprofit that puts its own financial well-being ahead of those it claims to serve, it is difficult to imagine that many of its current supporters will continue to do so.
Jim Trageser is a freelance writer and the former longtime opinion editor of the North County Times. He lives in San Marcos.
