Minnesota roommate program hopes to improve caregiving for people with disabilities in Minnesota

A two-hour investigation places America’s heroin crisis in a fresh and provocative light -- telling the stories of individual addicts, but also illuminating the epidemic's years-in-the-making social context, deeply examining shifts in U.S. drug policy, and exploring what happens when addiction is treated like a public health issue, not a crime.

With the promise of community care, psychiatric wards were unlocked 30 years ago. Today, the sickest patients live in squalor.

Many subprime borrowers in the United States are financially unable to buy a home themselves. An unconventional lender is trying to make it easier for low-income people to buy houses despite the tighter requirements that other lenders adopted after the mortgage bust.

An innovative program by an unusual bank allows low-income people in Cambodia to take out a 15-year fixed mortgage with little or no documentation - contradicting traditional loan assumptions and creating means for some of the country's poorest people to completely change their lives. The bank and its investors are now making a profit, and more than 700 mortgages and building loans have been provided.

In San Francisco, 23 percent of homeless people return to the street after transitional housing programs. A New York program gives the mentally ill and homeless individual apartments alongside average New Yorkers and has had an 84 percent retention rate.

The living conditions in refugee camps in the Middle East are very poor. Architects are piloting the Re:Build construction system that utilizes materials in the natural environment to construct homes, schools, and clinics. The system engages refugees in the process of building so that they can take ownership of their success and develop skills to integrate in returning to their home country.

Solitary confinement has long been shown to exacerbate mental health problems and is considered to be inhumane for long periods of time. Colorado is taking steps to reduce the amount of time prisoners spend in isolation, and Wisconsin is looking to do the same.

Three Part Series, "America Beyond Detention": For decades, immigrant advocates have argued that the federal government should increase the use of residential shelters - like Casa Marianella in Austin - as an alternative to detention. The shelters are generally less expensive, treat immigrants more humanely, and are better equipped to integrate people into their new communities.

Almost 4 years ago, Opportunity Village was established in Eugene. It’s a community of tiny houses for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

American humanitarian aid and programs by the United Nations have proved beneficial to equip Middle Eastern refugees with resources for self-settlement outside of camps. The self-settlement model has empowered refugees to become more productive members of society when they return home.