NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION: REPLICATE WHAT WORKS
TO END CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS

The Ottawa Citizen last week editorialized on the promising results in ending chronic homelessness offered by Canada's current 5-city Housing First demonstration ("Get practical on homelessness," December 29, 2011). Calling the pilot (christened "At Home/ Chez Soi") "one national project that combines the best instincts of the political left with the best instincts of the political right," the Citizen rightly attributed the origins of the innovative and evidence-based, cost effective strategy to U.S. leadership.

This dissemination of innovation and the subsequent implementation is the result of the work of the American Round Table's President Philip Mangano during his 7-year tenure in Washington as the appointed Executive Director of the federal U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. The strategy of investment, innovation, partnership, and results continues to impact communities in both the U.S. and Canada - and the lives of those the Citizen calls "the hard cases."

The migration of the proven strategy of Housing First -through jurisdictionally-led, community-based, results-oriented Ten Year Planning and implementation supported by national government investment and partnership with business - was advanced by Mangano in multiple visits to national, provincial, and local government officials and business leaders who invited him to Canada. Among the meetings were several with Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien, resulting in numerous Citizen news stories and editorial coverage.  

Mangano collaborated with Canadian government peers in identifying and disseminating research and innovation to end homelessness, and he addressed Canada's first research conference on homelessness. He met with the Big City Mayor's Caucus (BCMC), Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA), Mayors of Toronto, Montreal, Victoria, Calgary, Red Deer, Abbotsford, Edmonton, and Vancouver, and United Way and Board of Trade leaders across the country.

The identification and rapid dissemination of "what works" is one legacy of those strategies. Housing First is the central technology, now internationally recognized as an evidence-based practice. According to the Citizen:  "It's an idea that originated in the United States. It's as idealistic as anything that the starry-eyed left can offer up, yet it's fundamentally conservative in its approach." Canada's demonstration in Moncton, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Winnipeg is being conducted by the Mental Health Commission and will operate through 2013.

The Citizen rightly notes the importance of the 2006 New Yorker article by Canadian Malcolm Gladwell, who reported the story of "Million Dollar Murray," a Reno man who died on the streets and whose random ricocheting through emergency and law enforcement systems proved more expensive than any solution of housing and services. 

Through Mangano's partnerships across the U.S., Gladwell was first introduced to the Reno police officers from whom he learned Murray Barr's story; Gladwell went on to interview other partners identified by Mangano and involved in cost benefit analysis in San Diego and Denver. Gladwell's article became the "must" reading of the decade for those adopting the new strategies and proved convincing for many who had argued that street homelessness was not an expensive problem. Said the Citizen: "There might be a kind of self-righteous satisfaction in waiting around for people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, but self-righteous satisfaction doesn't pay the hospital and policing bills."

The national reach of the Canadian demonstration is important. The Citizen points out that officials and researchers stand to gain new knowledge from commonalities that surface from the five current tailored local initiatives, including accessing housing in tough economic times and tight markets. Resulting evidence will provide the basis to step up efforts either through expansion or more targeting or other means, including interagency and partnership efforts. 

The editorial concludes by tying current "Occupy" efforts that highlight income equality to the Housing First initiative, noting: "The Occupy movement deserves credit for putting the issue of inequality on the political agenda in 2011. But the movement got the proportions wrong. Helping the small number of Canadians who are living in abysmal conditions - such as the chronically homeless, or the members of some neglected and dysfunctional First Nations communities - will have a much bigger impact than trying to make life a little better for 99 per cent of us."

The recent Ottawa editorial is one in a long line of news articles and editorials by the Ottawa Citizen and other papers from across Canada covering Mangano's work to promote Ten Year Plans and Housing First. Past news and editorial coverage from Abbotsford News, Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun, Edmonton Sun, Edmonton Journal, Red Deer Express, Toronto Star, Victoria News, and Victoria Times Colonist have focused on the new strategies. 

Read the Ottawa Citizen editorial here.