Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Affordable housing is the first step to solving homelessness

At One Step Away we stress that there is no standard homeless experience. People fall into homelessness for a range of reasons and experience it in a variety of ways.

Public perceptions of homelessness are distorted by various forces, especially media, leaving many people with a very specific idea of what a "homeless person" looks and acts like. Often One Step Away customers do not even realize that the vendor selling them a paper is experiencing homelessness because the vendor doesn't fit the image in their head.  You can't simply look at a person and determine whether or not they have a home.

One goal of One Step Away is to challenge people's presumptions about what homelessness means. It does not imply any specific lifestyle. It is not a permanent condition for a person, but rather an experience, hopefully a temporary one. As a program, we hope to provide supportive tools to people going through this difficult time in their life, one that can be damaging to physical health, self-confidence, and social capital.

Street papers like One Step Away offer employment with a low barrier of entry, not only empowering vendors to gain work skills and confidence, but also providing them with the opportunity to earn an income to support themselves and to gain and maintain housing.

Homelessness has no one cause; people experience it in this country for such varied and diverse reasons. We see people who are struggling with addiction, with mental illness, with extreme poverty, with severe medical issues. But you can't begin to treat any of these issues unless you deal with housing first. Homelessness is so pervasive, so debilitating, that living on the street or in shelters tends to make whatever issue got you there far, far worse. Treating addiction, or mental health, or unemployment, while someone is living on the street is a nearly impossible task. The success rates are essentially zero.

But if you house people — and give them the tools to maintain housing, through employment programs like One Step Away — then you have a chance. All across the country, when we focus on housing first, we see dramatic results. Pathways to Housing PA reports that those who are provided with permanent housing have an 89 percent success rate of maintaining their living situation and never falling into homelessness again. A study of 9,000 individuals in Georgia who received rapid rehousing found that they were five times less likely to become homeless compared to those who were in temporary shelter.

"Homelessness is a housing-driven problem," says Nan Roman, the President and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. "Ending homelessness is about getting people housed, it's not about solving every issues."

Permanent housing is also the economical option. In fact, it is cheaper than doing nothing. According to Pathways to Housing, permanent housing costs 76 dollars a night. Per night, transitional housing costs 92 dollars, jail costs 164 dollars, and the emergency room costs 519 dollars. That means taxpayers save money when we give homeless men and women a permanent place to live, rather than to leave them on the streets.

A major obstacle, however, is the lack of affordable housing in this country.  U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donavan has stated that we are in the midst of the "worst rental affordability crisis" ever.  This issue hits poor Americans the hardest and, for those living in extreme poverty, it often results in homelessness.

It is an especially critical issue in Philadelphia. According to the Urban Land Institute (ULI), who broke down affordable housing in the United States, county by county, Philadelphia County only has 37 affordable rentals for every 100 extremely low-income households (ULI defines extremely low-income as less than $24,450 for a household of four people). A majority of these households are therefore left with unsatisfactory options, whether it is spending an unreasonable percentage of income on rent and letting other necessities suffer, or doubling up with another household and living uncomfortably.

Lack of affordable housing is a deeply embedded, systemic issue with no simple solution. Various remedies have been laid out, from zoning requirements for affordable housing, to increased investment, to a greater utilization of public lands, and probably a combination of approaches is required.  We just know that time is of the essence, and that the fight against homelessness depends on addressing this problem.

As a newspaper, we aim to thoroughly explore the realities of homelessness, and we do this through research and writing, but also by providing a platform through which the paper's vendors — who have firsthand experience with homelessness — can share their thoughts and insights. We are extremely grateful for their contributions. Vendors don't just distribute the paper; they provide invaluable insights and stories to One Step Away.

Our sincerest thanks to all of the vendors,

The One Step Away staff