The Plan For Eradicating Homelessness - 1203 Words

In addition to the creation of greater housing services, funding dedicated to eradicating homelessness in Seattle should go towards increasing the availability and accessibility of supportive services such as substance abuse and mental health programs. In 2005, The Committee to End Homelessness in King County (CEHKC) began its implementation of â€Å"A Roof Over Every Bed in King County: Our Community s Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness. This plan outlined strategies to end and prevent homelessness with a focus on increasing permanent housing (Ryan, 2015). While many individuals have been housed, there are still long wait lists and the number of people on the streets has actually increased in the Seattle area since 2005 (Ryan, 2015). Mayor Ed†¦show more content†¦Not including transitional housing and homeless shelters, a total of 4,505 were found to have inadequate housing and were living on the streets of King County (â€Å"Street Count Results,† 2016). This is a 1 9% increase from the previous year. In the 2015 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report, King County was found to have the third largest homeless population in the United States (Henry, Shivji, Sousa, Cohen, 2015). There are many things contributing to homelessness including unaffordable housing, untreated addiction and mental illness, unemployment and poverty. Mental illness and substance abuse are major contributing factors to unemployment and homelessness. Supportive Services to Eradicate Homelessness All new housing developments should have a clear and accessible link to supportive services, such as mental health and substance abuse programs, in order to prevent future homelessness. This concept is often referred to as the Housing First model, which is an approach that centers around providing stable housing to individuals before providing supportive services (â€Å"What is Housing First,† 2006). Substance abuse is often an obstacle in mental health recovery and the ability to maintain stable housing. It is estimated that approximately 50–70% of homeless individuals with severe mental illness also abuse substances (Padgett, Stanhope, Henwood, Stefancic, 2011). Padgett et al. (2011) compared the Housing First approach to the Treatment First approach