Solving Homelessness In Austin: Rapid Rehousing

Moms for Housing reclaim vacant homes owned by investors to provide a place for single mothers to live. Advocating for housing as a human right, 13 organizers are currently living in these unoccupied houses and through civil disobedience, managed to negotiate temporary housing as they continue fighting for permanent solutions to the area’s housing crisis.

Austin’s Rapid Rehousing Program offers up to two years of rent assistance for people exiting homelessness alongside other support services that help connect them to the resources they need.

What was originally conceived of to help protect homes from flooding has instead trapped homeowners in an endless cycle of filing claims and rebuilding their homes. The National Flood Insurance Program was supposed to discourage development in flooding zones and ease the costs after disasters. With lobbying money and power from developers, realtors associations, and others with vested interests, any opportunity to redesign the system through Congress have haven’t gone far.

Far too many Americans are homeless, and with congress dragging their feet in implementing funds, it is up to individual places to set up programs to help provide housing. Counties in New Jersey have enacted legislation to fund housing and other services, but in other areas the fight is still on to pass legislation.

Between 2004 and 2014, San Francisco’s mayor attempted to rid the city of chronic homelessness with a ten-year plan. Despite dramatic successes in moving thousands of homeless from the streets, the homeless population numbers remain the same and chronic homelessness may never be eradicated. In reexamining the problems from the ten-year plan, the current administration has new ideas to decrease their number of homeless.

Cities like Lexington have partnered with a nonprofit called Undue Medical Debt to wipe out unpaid medical bills for residents. Through the agreement, the city contributed $1 million in order for Undue Medical Debt to wipe out $90 million in debt overall for roughly 50,000 residents, while other cities have chosen to crowdfund their contribution rather than using public funds.

A homelessness prevention program in Santa Clara County, run by nonprofit Destination: Home, provides targeted financial assistance, about $6,500 per household, to people at imminent risk of losing their housing. Using a risk-assessment questionnaire to identify eligible participants, the program has grown from a $1 million pilot serving 200 households in 2017 to a $30 million annual program serving 2,500 households today.

Community organizations in Milwaukee's Metcalfe Park neighborhood are tackling the city's homeownership crisis through lease-to-own programs that convert foreclosed properties into affordable homes for long-term renters. Metcalfe Park Community Bridges' Reclaim and Restore initiative purchases foreclosed homes from the city, rehabs them using donor and foundation funding, and transfers ownership to neighborhood residents through an equity-based lottery system with monthly payments as low as $901.

As rents in Madison, Wisconsin, skyrocket, alternative housing options are emerging. One such option is cohousing, a form of community living in which residents live in multiple units. One unit, Linden Cohousing, has 75 members living across its 45 units, enjoying not only affordable housing but also the community aspect of cohousing. Madison currently has four active cohousing communities, with more on the way.

Kaua'i County Housing Agency uses a community engagement model for its master-planned affordable housing developments, involving community advisory committees, multiple public meetings, surveys, and online tools that allow residents to shape key housing and community decisions. The agency has applied this model for over a decade, with great results, including Lima Ola, a 550-unit workforce housing community.