We Know Now How to End Long-Term Homelessness: PC Professor Hirsch on LIVE
We Know Now How to End Long-Term Homelessness: PC Professor Hirsch on LIVE
“Every year on a Wednesday night in the last week of January, we count over 1,000 people experiencing homelessness,” said Dr. Hirsch. “Roughly one hundred of those persons are at Harrington Hall, the state's largest congregate shelter. Shelters do not solve the problem of homelessness. Let's move Rhode Island from being a shelter state to a permanent housing state, and provide the housing units, rental subsidies, and services necessary to end long-term homelessness.”
The report, which was authored by Hirsch in collaboration with Crossroads Rhode Island, HousingWorks RI at Roger Williams University, and the RI Coalition for the Homeless, is entitled How to End Long-Term Homelessness in RI.
The report is part of HousingWorks RI’s newly launched Scholar Series, which examines contemporary issues in housing by scholars and students.
The report suggests there are certain policies the state might consider adopting:
o create a cabinet-level Department of Housing and Community Development;
o take steps to close Harrington Hall, and provide permanent supportive housing to those in need;
o double the state’s Rapid Re-Housing funding from $2 million to $4 million annually;
o fund 100 low restriction permanent rental subsidies;
o support Pay for Success program to fund rental subsidies and supportive services for 125 chronically homeless persons over four years;
o build or rehabilitate additional very low-income housing units.