海角大神

A radical change in how states address homelessness has fueled a 17 percent decline in homelessness since 2005 鈥� a trend that has withstood聽financial panic, a foreclosure crisis, and the Great Recession.

The come from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which sees the recent success as the "giant untold story of the homelessness world," according to Stephen Berg, vice president of policy and programs.

The shift comes as the prevailing wisdom that homeless individuals need to get a handle on other social problems in their lives before they can receive housing gives way to new thinking. In recent years, many states have started to flip that idea and have adopted what鈥檚 known as a 鈥渉ousing first鈥� approach.

鈥淚nstead of trying to fix all the problems that homeless people have while they are homeless, [housing first] gets them into housing right away, then they end up taking care of a lot of other problems from a stable home,鈥� Mr. Berg says.

It points to an openness to new ways to address persistent problems.

鈥淚t鈥檚 always hard when you see a big national change to give credit to one thing for it,鈥� Berg says. 鈥淏ut I think communities are changing the way they are arraying their homeless resources and that鈥檚 got to be part of what鈥檚 bringing this trend about.鈥�

Utah鈥檚 Department of Housing and Community Development has used the housing-first approach to slash chronic homelessness by 73 percent since 2005, says HCD director Gordon Walker.

鈥淲e used to say to people, 鈥楥hange your life and then we鈥檒l give you housing,鈥� 鈥� Mr. Walker says. 鈥淲e changed that to, 鈥榃e鈥檒l give you housing, and if you want to change your life, that鈥檚 up to you.鈥� 鈥�

Walker insists that housing first makes perfect fiscal sense.

鈥淏y doing this, we actually save money.鈥� Walker says. 鈥淚f we house an individual, it costs about $12,000 a year; if we leave them on the street it costs society about $20,000 a year in emergency room services, incarcerations, polices interventions, and cleanup.鈥�

The US Interagency Council on Homelessness has been advocating for housing first since the 2010 launch of Opening Doors, a federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness, says council Executive Director Laura Zeilinger.

This has been a major focus of the federal Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, Ms. Zeilinger says.

That effort has paid off, with a 24 percent reduction in homelessness among veterans and a 30 percent decrease in unsheltered homelessness among veterans from 2010 to 2013, she says.

鈥淲e鈥檙e showing that when we invest and we use those resources strategically, this is a problem we can solve,鈥� Zeilinger says.

However, the housing-first approach only works if there is enough affordable housing to go around.

In Boston, housing is so tight that it is not uncommon for people to wait four to 10 years for affordable housing, says Kelly Turley, director of legislative advocacy for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless.

Massachusetts is one of 20 states that reported an increase in homelessness from 2012 to 2013.

鈥淥ver the past year, Housing and Community Development saw an all-time high in terms of families that they were servicing through emergency housing programs,鈥� Ms. Turley says.

The increased need for emergency housing has become so great that the state has had to resort to placing families in motels because there are not enough shelters.

鈥淎s of last Friday, there were 4,400 families living in shelters and motels, and of those, 1,891 were living in motels,鈥� Turley says.聽

[Editor's note:This article has been updated to reflect the correct the percentage of decrease in unsheltered homelessness among veterans.]