A Montgomery County plan to give permanent housing to the homeless will require participants to be drug-free, but some homeless advocates say a no-drug policy is a bad idea.
They point to a program in Denver based on the same “Housing First” model as the Montgomery proposal, which some say is successful, in part, because it allows drug users to participate.
“The idea was to focus on a group of people who eat up significant amounts of resources and see if we can get them housed and their lives stabilized,” Jean Tutolo, executive director of Metropolitan Denver’s Homeless Initiative who said the program has saved $4,745 per participant.
The Montgomery plan, sponsored by Council Member George Leventhal and Council President Mike Knapp, would transfer $4 million from the county’s housing-initiative fund in the coming fiscal year to pay for the construction or rental of permanent housing for the homeless in Montgomery neighborhoods and additional social workers to work with the residents. It would also require participants to be drug-free.
Tutolo says the drug-free requirement could backfire.
“The more barriers you throw in front of people, the less likely you are to get people inside,” she said. “We’ve done that for years to people and the new thinking is let’s get them a house first.”
According to local media reports, Denver saw a 36 percent drop in the number of people camped out under bridges and staying at shelters last summer.
Some in Colorado, however, complain that subsidized housing for drug users is a bad idea.
“They’re not fixing them, they’re warehousing them, treating them like stray pets,” said Bob Cote, the founder of Denver’s Step 13, a nonprofit group that helps the homeless beat addiction.
Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, said there are now 325 communities across the United States using the “Housing First” model, with various approaches to substance abusers.
“It is the local community that needs to figure that out,” Mangano said, saying there are many examples of both approaches working. “The important thing is the “Housing First” initiative works. It makes common sense and dollars sense and when put into place, 85 percent of the time it works.”
