- States freed to use Medicaid money for housing, By Michael Ollove, November 20, 2015, Stateline: “Communities with big homeless populations are increasingly turning to a strategy known as housing first. The idea: helping chronically homeless people to find a permanent home—and stay in it—is the best way to help them lead stable, healthy lives. The approach has been used in cities like Chicago and Cleveland, as well as in several states, such as Massachusetts, Minnesota and Washington, as local nonprofits have worked to provide both housing and health care to homeless people…”
- ‘City of shanties’ in L.A. as homeless cluster in urban areas, By James Nash and Esmé E Deprez, November 18, 2015, Bloomberg: “Homelessness is on the rise in many of America’s biggest cities as wealth concentrates in urban centers, elevating rents and squeezing supplies of affordable housing in places like Los Angeles and New York, new federal data show. Homelessness in and around big U.S. cities increased 3 percent this year, even as the nation’s overall rate declined 2 percent, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released Thursday…”
- In one California community, a different approach to homelessness, By Gloria Goodale, December 1, 2015, Christian Science Monitor: “On a sunny morning in the beachfront community of Pacific Palisades, Steven ‘Boston’ Michaud perches confidently on a large dock tie just above the sand. He waves vaguely at the hills above the Pacific Coast Highway, indicating where he sleeps. ‘It’s up there, but you’ll never see me,’ he says, pointing to his own shadow on the ground, ‘because I’m a shadow and I don’t bother anyone.’ Mr. Michaud is one of about 170 homeless people in Pacific Palisades, an affluent waterfront neighborhood in Los Angeles. Pacific beaches have long been a magnet for the homeless from around the world…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty