Myra Griffin
The Houston Sun

The city wide initiative to end chronic homelessness has become a pressing issue for Mayor Annise Parker. On May 15, 2013, Parker gave a report on her findings from a survey taken as volunteers and herself canvassed the streets of Houston taking account of the homeless in order to see how they can service them.

More than a 160 volunteers, Council members Adams and Costello as well as the mayor went out surveying and chronicled each person according to their own specific needs and specific problems and history.
“We announced January 2012 we were going to have an intensive focus on homelessness in Houston and we are going to make a difference in homelessness. We intend to end chronic homelessness in Houston and we are going to put in place a three part plan to do that,” said Mayor Parker. “We have to have the resources in place first then the outreach and then what we hope to have a success placement for the chronically homeless in Houston.”

There are more than 8,000 people across the city that is homeless. The main focus is to place the chronic homeless first which is approximately 2,000 people.
“We are trying to identify and prioritize the most vulnerable homeless individuals and place them into permanent housing and provide services and treatments around that housing to make sure that we don’t make it easier, better or more comfortable to be on the street we make it possible and imperative that people get off the street,” said Mayor Parker.

Registry week deemed successful as the homeless were asked 33 questions off of a questionnaire that resulted in a list of 847 chronically homeless individuals classified and pin pointed so the city knows exactly who and where they are and what their specific needs and services.

“We did learn some things such as out of the 847 chronically homeless individuals interviewed 18% were veterans, 15% were women, 20% had been victims of some form of domestic violence, nearly half have identified mental health issues, nearly half suffer from one or more serious chronic health condition such as kidney disease, diabetes, liver failure, a third have been victims of a violent attack since becoming homeless and a third are employed despite sleeping on the streets every night,” said Mayor Parker.

Parker also rolled on with the statistics of how the homeless soak up city resources in the criminal justice and medical system. The city has received data that 50% of the homeless go to the hospital and emergency rooms for healthcare, 964 visits went to emergency room care in the last three months, 695 visits ended up as inpatient hospitalizations in the last year and 81% of the homeless have been jailed for unpaid tickets.

The information gathered, which was a part of Houston registry week that is encompassed with the national 100,000 homes campaign, has already gone into use by the Houston Police Department homeless outreach team and many other organizations. The goal is to access all 2,500 chronic and near chronic citizens in the very near future, according to the Mayor.

“We have started to place some of our most vulnerable into permanent housing with supportive services,” said Mayor Parker. “It’s not just hey we find you an apartment and give you a key and you’re good to go, you have to wrap services around it. We already have five we’ve interviewed and they will be in housing by the end of the week. We are continuing forward momentum on homeless veterans and our next goal is to house 300 more veterans in the next 80 days to go through the list identified.”

Mandy Chapman- Semple, the Mayor’s point person for the Homeless Initiatives in the city added more information as she thanked the Coalition for the Homeless, Health and Human Services and the Houston Housing Authority.

“The registry was just the first step in our three part plan and the next step is really about creating more supportive housing opportunity and really bringing the services to these units and individuals so they can stabilize long term in this housing,” said Semple.
The assessment used during the registry will now be used on a daily basis by homeless outreach teams so as they encounter individuals they didn’t find during registry week they will be assessed and placed according to their vulnerability and needs. The assessment will also be accompanied by their picture

The Housing Authority’s focus will be on finding the units and buildings and providing the housing subsidy. The services that accompany housing the homeless is the problem that still needs to be worked out.

“Homelessness is down one quarter and it’s not as simple as I just need a place to sleep,” said Mayor Parker. “We have shelters all across the city that isn’t always adequate in number for shelter with beds but there are options and opportunities.”

Services will be tailored to the problems of the individual and the most severe will be handled first. The city will not force anyone into an apartment. This is an opportunity for the chronic homeless to find stability in a residence and with supportive measures.