The St. Louis region can dramatically decrease its unhoused population by changing its approach and strategically coordinating resources in its seven counties and the city of St. Louis. That new system could effectively rehouse individuals living outside and in encampments, build its capacity to deliver services, increase safety, reduce harm, and ultimately save lives.
This was the ambitious preliminary outline of a plan for action heard Monday by more than 120 regional leaders during East-West Gateway’s Housing First STL summit on homelessness. The full-day event focused on developing a housing first model of response for homelessness across the region.
“You are here because you are leaders. You are here because you care deeply about humans who are suffering. And, you are here because you want to do something to help,” said East-West Gateway Executive Director Jim Wild at the start of the summit. “We will start thinking regionally on how to build a new system that puts people quickly and permanently into homes so the work of healing can begin.”
The proposed housing first system focuses on the rapid placement of unhoused individuals into permanent housing first, versus concentrating entirely on temporary emergency shelters – the latter of which can often result in long waits for housing or in chronic homelessness. Chronic homelessness can fuel the growth of outdoor encampments, puts lives at risk, drains public resources, and may tax the public’s will to invest in services for the unhoused.
Housing First: A Best Practice
The housing first approach has been increasingly recognized as a best practice for regions across the country. In the model, stabilization through rapid permanent housing becomes a top priority that sets the foundation for coordinating needed mental and physical health, employment, education, and other services.
The model works remarkably well in stopping the cycle of chronic homelessness, said Dr. Sam Tsemberis, a keynote speaker for the summit and the founder of the housing first model first utilized in New York City more than 40 years ago. Tsemberis said his team was intrigued when they studied the outcomes and found that about 86% of their original participants remained in housing and did not return to living on the street. More recently, cities of varying sizes both in the U.S. and abroad have utilized this model with successful results, including Houston, Dallas, and even Los Angeles.
Fragmentation Hinders the Unhoused
The St. Louis region has roughly 2,000 individuals who are unhoused at one time, and that average is increasing as housing costs and household expenses continue to rise. Yet, there is not a comprehensive net of regional services, funding, and rehousing coordination. The region has seven continuum of care agencies functioning separately in different jurisdictions. (These agencies, required by law to obtain federal funding for their jurisdictions, are defined as regional or local planning bodies that coordinate housing and services funding for unhoused families and individuals.)
Federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also flows through separate districts operating in Illinois and in Missouri. Direct services are provided through dozens of public, private, and nonprofit groups and agencies. Leaders and providers throughout the region generally agree this geographical fragmentation is not effective and fails to address that the unhoused typically migrate in and out of differing jurisdictions in search of shelter and resources.
This past summer, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, also the chair of East-West Gateway’s board of directors, requested that East-West Gateway, in its role as a council of governments (COG), help facilitate regional conversations to collaborate on solutions to homelessness across jurisdictional boundaries. The summit on Monday and ensuing practicum workshops that started yesterday and will run through tomorrow mark the first steps.
Building a New System
The work to design this new collaborative system for the St. Louis region is being facilitated by Mandy Chapman Semple, another keynote speaker at the summit this past Monday. Through her organization, Clutch Consulting, she has worked with cities around the United States to build similar models. This week, Semple is leading intensive workshops in St. Louis with key stakeholders, including continuum of care leaders and private and public funders through the practicum.
Participants said they were excited and enabled by the practicum to work collectively to envision a coordinated, region-wide model of service and further define the system change that needs to take place. The new system would more rapidly reduce homelessness and effectively scale-up services and available funding through a united system. They, along with the funders, built a shared vision of a new system, referred to as a “regional theory of change.”
Participants concluded a key hindrance to reducing homelessness was a lack of housing and supports to stabilize unhoused individuals. The group determined that key components of the new system would include a coordinated regional strategy and structure that would pivot to focus on a regional rehousing system. That system could scale-up housing subsidies and dramatically increase accessible services. On Thursday, the group was excited to learn about the potential for increased federal, state and local sources of funding that would become available if services were delivered on a larger, more coordinated regional scale. Indeed, the region was leaving considerable money on the table by not action regionally on homelessness, Chapman Semple said.
Next Steps
The practicum concludes tomorrow. East-West Gateway anticipates hosting a mid-November “report-out” event to inform the regional community and the stakeholders who attended the summit and practicum of the basic plan and next steps.
Chapman Semple said it typically takes three years for a city or region to build the new system to see the anticipated decreases in homelessness. She warned the work ahead is not easy. Groups that had not previously worked together will need to rethink how they function so they can act collaboratively to build up their services. Funding models would likely change in support of the new system. Working against market trends to provide and create affordable and stable housing takes creativity. And regional leaders need to remain committed to changing the system, which often means maintaining momentum amid potential administration changes and a changing pollical climate.
Thank You
The Housing First STL summit and practicum was held in financial partnership with Greater St. Louis Inc., House Everyone STL, and Think Big. The event was planned in partnership with representatives from East-West Gateway, St. Louis city and county government officials, Greater St. Louis Inc., and House Everyone STL.
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