Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • The Streets Are My Home: Evictions, Homelessness and COVID

    Restore Hope Ministries worked to prevent homelessness and evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic by using private donations, foundation grants, and CARES Act funds to provide rental assistance to 1,422 households. Each household received up to several months of rent, totaling $3.5 million in assistance, and targeting populations and neighborhoods most vulnerable to eviction and homelessness. The Tulsa Day Center also pivoted due to the pandemic and sheltered people identified as most vulnerable in place day and night, while working with the city and county to open up and run an overflow shelter.

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  • Here's What Happens When Social Workers, Not Police, Respond To Mental Health Crises

    Honolulu could benefit from adopting the approach to mental-health crisis calls to 911 that Eugene, Oregon, uses. But it would need to make big changes first in its critical infrastructure. Eugene's CAHOOTS program sends counselors and medics on 17% of the calls coming to its city's 911 center, saving millions on police, ambulances, and emergency room visits. Non-police responders de-escalate potential conflicts and get people the help they need without arrest or violence. Honolulu is primed to examine this approach, as many cities have done, but it's not a simple matter to start it.

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  • Cops and Hippies

    The CAHOOTS program, which sends medics and counselors on certain 911 calls instead of the police, has become a national model in the wake of 2020's criminal-justice protests. But its roots reach back half a century, when a free medical clinic serving the hippie counterculture emerged as a public-health response to drug, mental health, and other non-violent emergencies. CAHOOTS has grown into a 24/7 service that saves Eugene millions in policing and medical spending, and saves many on the streets from unnecessarily punitive interactions with the police.

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  • How does Portland's Street Response Team compare with a similar program in Denver?

    Although Eugene, Oregon's long-running, successful CAHOOTS program serves as one model for the new Portland Street Response, a more relevant model can be found in Denver's STAR program. Like CAHOOTS, STAR responds to mental-health and other crisis calls with medics and counselors rather than police officers. But Denver's size, demographics, and homelessness make it much more analogous to Portland. In STAR's first six months, it handled nearly 750 calls without a single arrest. Both STAR and PSR are starting small, so more resources are needed if the pilot projects succeed.

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  • The Tiny-House Village That's Changing Lives

    Agape Village, located on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon, is a housing community helping people in a state of homelessness get back on their feet. Although the cabins on the property lack plumbing and electricity, villagers are able to stay free of charge, receive weekly food pantry donations, as well as one-on-one monthly goal-setting from organizers. The aim of the community is to help transition villagers into permanent housing, but there is no limit to how long they can stay.

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  • 3D-printed homes build hope for U.S. affordable housing

    A new technology is providing affordable and sustainable housing through a process that is faster and with material that is more resilient to natural disasters. 3D-printed houses are providing aesthetically pleasing houses that can be built in about 48 hours. 3D printing technology within the construction industry is “on the cusp on major expansion” and is making waves within the affordable housing sector.

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  • For People Who Experience Homelessness, Art Catalyzes Economic Mobility and Rewrites the Narrative

    Arts From The Streets gives artists living with homelessness a path to economic mobility and housing stability by offering ways to make and sell their art. An annual show can bring in $100,000 in sales, 95% of which goes to the artists. The organization provides studio space, online marketing, and other sales channels. It's one of three programs or communities serving artists who are houseless profiled in this story. The others are MudGirls, an Atlantic City ceramic arts studio, and the thriving arts culture in Los Angeles' Skid Row neighborhood, which focuses on personal growth more than income.

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  • The Coffee Shop Giving Homeless Youth a Chance at Success

    A coffee shop is employing young people experiencing homelessness. Employment at the coffee shop provides the stability and support they need to find and maintain housing. Income, structure, and skills gained from employment at the cafe are the springboard needed for the young adults to secure stability. 

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  • Hawaii Homeless Program Failed After Prosecutors And Police Wouldn't Play Ball

    LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) proved itself in Seattle as effective at addressing the underlying problems of people experiencing homelessness, by waiving their criminal charges if they accepted needed services. But the program's two-year test in Honolulu failed to gain traction because only some police bought into it, and the prosecutor's office never did. Instead of using criminal citations as leverage, the program was stripped down to an ordinary outreach effort, and managed to enroll only 50 people, not all of whom were helped. A new prosecutor and the police will make another go of it.

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  • Denver successfully sent mental health professionals, not police, to hundreds of calls

    In its first six months, Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assistance Response) handled 748 emergency calls that in the past would have gone to the police or firefighters. Two-person teams of a medic and clinician helped people with personal crises related mainly to homelessness and mental illness. None of the calls required police involvement and no one was arrested. The city plans to spend more to expand the program, which is meant to prevent needless violence and incarceration from calls to the police that other types of first-responders can better address.

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