Houston philanthropic organizations have launched a $48 million, three-year fund aimed at rehousing individuals within 90 days of experiencing homelessness.
Roughly 70% of the goal, or $34 million, has already been raised from private philanthropy. The initiative, called Pathways to Independence (P2I), was unveiled to the Houston City Council.
“Through P2I, the streets will no longer be the waiting room for homeless services,” said Ryan Dolibois, executive director of Sarofim Foundation and chair of the P2I executive leadership committee. “P2I builds on our existing homeless response system by adding faster, more flexible interventions, better access to getting help, stronger healthcare and law enforcement coordination, and greater collaboration among those who are on the front line of this work. This model is truly unprecedented, and so is the funding source.”
Black individuals remain disproportionately represented among those experiencing homelessness, accounting for 57% of the total population, according to data from the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County (CFTH).
What will the money be used for?
The Brown Foundation, Cullen Foundation, Houston Endowment, Kinder Foundation, and Sarofim Foundation were the first funders.
Mayor John Whitmire said the initiative made “history” in the city.
“Even before I got here… we had national recognition,” Whitmire said of the city’s progress in addressing homelessness. “The challenge is, though, waiting for a home…we know they spend money pretty freely in Washington; why haven’t they made this a national priority?”
Substance abuse, mental health challenges, lack of affordable housing, and domestic violence contribute to the homelessness crisis in Houston, he added.
“It’s a regional problem,” Whitmire said. “It’s a state problem.”
Flexibility in funding can help resolve the crisis that federal dollars alone cannot address, said Kelly Young, president and CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County.
“The federal dollars that we get that pay for most of that homelessness work hit a certain group, but they don’t hit everybody,” Young said. “So these flexible dollars are helping us be able to help someone who might have just ended up on the street yesterday, and try to figure out what that next first step is for that person, and move them along more quickly. They don’t have to wait a year until they’re eligible for permanent supportive housing.”
The plan arose from data on roughly 11,000 new people who request services each year through the region’s coordinated entry system, Young told the Defender.
Some require permanent supportive housing, but many do not. Meanwhile, others might need help with mental health treatment. In this regard, money can shift based on the need, which is how the new funding can help.
“The focus is on the data, what those people need, what’s the right intervention, and they’re applying the dollars for them,” Young said. “We could have a storm in a year from now, and we’re gonna have to want to shift those dollars over to solve that issue.”
Making homelessness ‘rare’
Mike Nichols, director of the Houston Housing and Community Development, said the city has allocated more than $80 million toward making homelessness “rare, brief, and non-recurring.”
Per Nichols, philanthropic money matters as government money is “very complex to spend,” owing to “rules and regulations.”
“This philanthropic money, used the way it’s going to be used, leverages those dollars but allows the system to get people off the street more quickly and more efficiently, and that’s a big deal,” he said.
The initiative builds on 419 Emancipation, the city’s new facility. It’s a ‘Super Hub’ aimed at addressing homelessness. Nichols said it is now full with 200 people, the capacity of the facility.
It has helped 423 people so far, according to the city. Both Whitmire and Nichols stressed that the 90-day aim of rehousing unhoused individuals is a goal.
“The challenge is waiting for a home…we know they spend money pretty freely in Washington; why haven’t they made this a national priority?”
John Whitmire, Mayor of Houston
“Some people here take longer,” Nichols said. “These are individuals with individual issues that have to be solved.”
Meanwhile, Young said that the 90-day goal is a “self-imposed deadline to make us work harder, smarter, faster, and really create more of an expediting system.” She added that an executive leadership committee, on which Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Larry Satterwhite, director of public safety and homeland security, serve.
Along with local funding, Houston will also receive federal aid.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded Houston $12 million over four years, $3 million annually, under a “treatment first” program for homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse issues.
