County News

Wraparound services needed to remedy homelessness

Cook County, Ill. Board President Toni Preckwinkle details the Cook County Promise for the Large Urban County Caucus July 22 at NACo's Annual Conference in Travis County, Texas. Photo by Denny Henry

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  • County News Article

    Wraparound services needed to remedy homelessness

    To alleviate the country’s crisis in housing and homelessness, national and local leaders are urging large urban counties to go beyond merely providing more housing and address broader societal issues, like lack of access to health care, food insecurity and substance use disorder.

    “We know we could put people in an apartment and take the subsidy, but if we don’t provide really good wraparound support services to address their mental health needs, trauma histories, struggles with drug and alcohol issues, opportunities for education and work — all of those wraparound supports are what keep people housed,” said Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. “So, the real recipe that we know works is a combination of housing and services, it’s not ‘either or.’

    Large Urban County Caucus 

    July 22, 2023

    NACo Annual Conference - Travis County, Texas

    “… We need to have an expansive understanding of what homelessness is — it’s driven by structural factors, like the lack of affordable housing, like structural racism, but it also is about the individual,” he said. “If we don’t acknowledge that people have serious needs around behavioral health, health care — around exits from domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking — we have to understand both the structural and the individual.”

    Kevin James, a senior program manager for the Corporation for Supportive Housing, pointed to the Denver Supportive Housing Social Impact Bond, which offers supportive housing as well as referrals to transportation, food resources and legal and integrated health services, as an example of what can be done at the local level to help avoid the cycle of homelessness. 

    Over half a million people are experiencing homelessness in the United States, and moving forward, there needs to be more of a priority on preventing homelessness as opposed to beginning to provide support once people are already experiencing it — much of which can and should be done at the local level, Olivet said. 

    “When I think about prevention, I think about counties,” Olivet said. “Because I start thinking about public health, I start thinking about corrections and re-entry, about the role of health, about intervening in child welfare and foster care so that no young person ever ages out of foster care and into homelessness … If we don’t go upstream with preventing homelessness in the first place, we’re going to be at this work for a long time.”

    Implementing Universal Basic Income (UBI) — consistent, unconditional cash payments — is another way that counties across the country, including Cook County, Ill. and Los Angeles County, Calif., are supporting residents. While UBIs by nature provide direct payments under no condition, data from Cook County’s Promise Guaranteed Income pilot shows that the funds are primarily used to pay for housing, food, transportation and medical bills. 

    “The Promise pilot is rooted in strong evidence that direct cash benefits are spent wisely and support economic mobility,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. “These programs are effective in improving entire families’ financial, educational, physical and social outcomes, and it’s a great example of the principles of good governance, because it focuses on high impact, accessible benefits paired with low administrative costs that save taxpayer dollars.”

    To alleviate the country’s crisis in housing and homelessness, national and local leaders are urging large urban counties to go beyond merely providing more housing and address broader societal issues, like lack of access to health care, foo
    2023-07-22
    County News Article
    2023-08-17

To alleviate the country’s crisis in housing and homelessness, national and local leaders are urging large urban counties to go beyond merely providing more housing and address broader societal issues, like lack of access to health care, food insecurity and substance use disorder.

“We know we could put people in an apartment and take the subsidy, but if we don’t provide really good wraparound support services to address their mental health needs, trauma histories, struggles with drug and alcohol issues, opportunities for education and work — all of those wraparound supports are what keep people housed,” said Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. “So, the real recipe that we know works is a combination of housing and services, it’s not ‘either or.’

Large Urban County Caucus 

July 22, 2023

NACo Annual Conference - Travis County, Texas

“… We need to have an expansive understanding of what homelessness is — it’s driven by structural factors, like the lack of affordable housing, like structural racism, but it also is about the individual,” he said. “If we don’t acknowledge that people have serious needs around behavioral health, health care — around exits from domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking — we have to understand both the structural and the individual.”

Kevin James, a senior program manager for the Corporation for Supportive Housing, pointed to the Denver Supportive Housing Social Impact Bond, which offers supportive housing as well as referrals to transportation, food resources and legal and integrated health services, as an example of what can be done at the local level to help avoid the cycle of homelessness. 

Over half a million people are experiencing homelessness in the United States, and moving forward, there needs to be more of a priority on preventing homelessness as opposed to beginning to provide support once people are already experiencing it — much of which can and should be done at the local level, Olivet said. 

“When I think about prevention, I think about counties,” Olivet said. “Because I start thinking about public health, I start thinking about corrections and re-entry, about the role of health, about intervening in child welfare and foster care so that no young person ever ages out of foster care and into homelessness … If we don’t go upstream with preventing homelessness in the first place, we’re going to be at this work for a long time.”

Implementing Universal Basic Income (UBI) — consistent, unconditional cash payments — is another way that counties across the country, including Cook County, Ill. and Los Angeles County, Calif., are supporting residents. While UBIs by nature provide direct payments under no condition, data from Cook County’s Promise Guaranteed Income pilot shows that the funds are primarily used to pay for housing, food, transportation and medical bills. 

“The Promise pilot is rooted in strong evidence that direct cash benefits are spent wisely and support economic mobility,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. “These programs are effective in improving entire families’ financial, educational, physical and social outcomes, and it’s a great example of the principles of good governance, because it focuses on high impact, accessible benefits paired with low administrative costs that save taxpayer dollars.”

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About Meredith Moran (Full Bio)

County News Junior Staff Writer

Meredith is NACo’s junior staff writer. She is responsible for contributing content for each bimonthly issue of the print newspaper of County News, including interviewing sources, completing revisions after copy editing and gathering images to accompany articles.

  • Conference

    2023 Large Urban County Caucus Symposium

    The 2023 NACo Large Urban County Caucus (LUCC) Symposium will gather county executives, governing board members and other senior elected officials alongside national thought leaders and partners in Orange County, Florida to identify urban challenges and elevate solutions through peer-to-peer information exchanges and national policy discussions.
    Orange County, Fla.
    10
    04
    8:00 am

    <p>The 2023 NACo Large Urban County Caucus (LUCC) Symposium will gather county executives, governing board members and other senior elected officials alongside national thought leaders and partners in Orange County, Florida to identify

  • Basic page

    Large Urban County Caucus

    America’s urban counties play a prominent role in 160 MILLION RESIDENTS’ LIVES every day. We foster conditions for economic strength, build and maintain transportation systems and critical infrastructure, promote community health and well-being, champion justice and public safety and implement a broad portfolio of federal, state and local programs.
    page

    <p>America&rsquo;s urban counties play a prominent role in 160 MILLION RESIDENTS&rsquo; LIVES every day.

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