Font ResizeFAIRBANKS - San Diego, Philadelphia, Seattle and Anchorage have taken a successful, new approach to ending homelessness by providing housing first, then addressing treatment. The Homeless Coalition is interested in bringing this plan to Fairbanks because the members agreed - homelessness is not cheap for the community.
Keeping people off the streets costs local taxpayers millions of dollars per year in hospital care and public services. It also has a negative impact on tourism and downtown business.
In the past decade, Fairbanks has faced a revolving-door dilemma: chronic inebriates are shuffled off the streets by the Community Service Patrol and Fairbanks police to the hospital's emergency room, the Fairbanks Correctional Center or the Detox treatment center. These organizations keep people off the streets temporarily, but they aren't helping to end homelessness.
"We have focused extensively on trying to provide a continuum of care from the detox center to the jail and the hospital but we've never worked on a plan to end homelessness," David van den Berg said. Since becoming executive director of the Downtown Association, Van den Berg has become highly involved in curtailing homelessness.
He hosted a discussion last week with public officials and members of the Homeless Coalition to take a closer look at ending it, largely because he wants to improve the local business climate downtown, he said.
"Downtown Fairbanks is a long way from where it should be,"
He wanted local officials and public servants to hear from Paul Carlson, a coordinator for the housing program from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, who was visiting Fairbanks. Carlson is responsible for building
10-year plans to end homelessness throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.
The plan is based on the psychological theory of Abraham Maslow, who argues that human beings must have their basic needs - food, clothing, shelter and safety- met before they can address mental illness and addictions.
"Until those needs are met, these people are distracted and unable to focus on overcoming their illness," Carlson said.
What convinced coalition members most was Carlson's point that the housing-first solution was cheaper in the long run than Fairbanks' strategy: shuffling people from the jail, the hospital or detox.
"It's expensive at first, sure, but it's cheaper in the long run," Carlson said. "We have study after study that didn't just verify that it was cheaper, it provided convincing evidence that there is a viable solution to end homelessness."
Mayor Terry Strle, Councilwoman Vivian Stiver, and Fairbanks Police Chief Laren Zager met with Carlson earlier that day. Both Strle and Stiver said they walked away with an interest in the housing concept, but each noted a few of the challenges in making the plan work in Fairbanks.
"It's certainly outside of the box for most people, and it's encouraging that they've had success in other communities," Strle said. The Mental Health Trust Authority has offered to pay for public officials to visit the housing community in Seattle and discuss the workings of it with Seattle public officials in early 2010.
Stiver said in an e-mail that this was something she'd be interested in.
"I believe this is the first step in a ten-year plan - researching this approach," Stiver said. But she clarified her support for the plan, stating it would require a close community partnership.
"If I am skeptical, it is in regard to the ability of these groups to come to the table honestly and directly," she stated. "Fairbanks has some unique issues, but they can be overcome with all groups coming to the table." Stiver also said that at first glance, she thinks the plan is feasible.
The details of the housing plan include full-time case managers and primary medical care for tenants. The emphasis of the housing plan is to teach homeless people the necessary life skills to take care of themselves, Carlson explained. The qualifications would remain strict but cater to those suffering from mental illness and addiction who were incapable of caring for themselves.
"We're not qualifying people for housing on the basis of sobriety," Carlson said. "If we gave mortgages away based on sobriety, we wouldn't have as many people living in the suburbs."
Strle said that while she could certainly stand behind a plan to end homelessness, she doesn't see how the city could afford to support it. "It's just the reality of the city budget right now," she said. On Friday, Strle issued a gloomy projected budget for the coming year that included six staff layoffs.
Van den Berg and others agreed that discussions on housing have been somewhat limited in Fairbanks. There was a consensus in the room that attributed the lack of discussion to the widespread local belief that supplying housing to this population might be enabling.
Jeff Jessee, the chief executive officer for the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority agreed with the group, saying the enabling argument is a huge barrier in the Fairbanks community.
"But we're already enabling them. We spend a huge amount of money to enable them now," he said. "Either we can continue to enable them the way we are now or we can free up our police and hospitals to let them do their jobs."
Jessee said the bottom line is that there is no free option for the community and made the argument that it's a lie that people choose to be homeless.
"Otherwise why would we have inebriates who have been through treatment 16 times? If they chose to be homeless why would they bother going," he said. "We can either pay more and do the same thing we're doing now by tying up our police, emergency rooms, and jail, or we can pay less for housing," he said.
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Carlson said the community has to tackle homelessness using a native blanket toss analogy. "The more people you have around the blanket, the higher they can go," Carlson said, referring to those in need. The housing coalition recently received a federal money for a coordinator to develop a 10-year plan. The group appeared optimistic about the strategy, but Carlson warned that it is simple in concept but complicated in execution. "We have to be human in the way we go about it," Carlson said. He ended his discussion with a challenge to the Fairbanks community. "Do not let an effort to curtail homelessness fail," he said. "Good advocates are creatures of opportunity. If you want to end homelessness, you have to take political risks."
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