An open letter to Baltimore on how we can work together to end homelessness
Since the beginning of 2022, 1,089 individuals and families experiencing homelessness have been rehoused through our collective, Baltimore efforts. However, it was estimated that on just one day in February, when Baltimore City conducted the annual point-in-time census, 1,597 Baltimore citizens were still in need of housing. Every day, additional neighbors, friends and family have found themselves in a crisis of losing their homes and have reached out for help.
1,089 housing placements are not enough.
For the past year, we have served as Chair and Vice Chair of Baltimore City’s Continuum of Care Board. This group of elected volunteers includes people with lived experience of homelessness, service providers, systems leaders and citizens of Baltimore. We represent the hundreds of members of the Continuum of Care working together to make homelessness in Baltimore rare, brief and non-recurring.
The Continuum of Care (the CoC) sets the strategy for how to address Baltimore homelessness, engage those experiencing homelessness, and leverage the approximate $25 million dollars in federal CoC funding so that it has the greatest impact. Most of this funding goes directly to people experiencing homelessness in the form of rental assistance and housing provided right here in Baltimore.
$25 million is not enough.
The CoC recognizes that there are many systemic and personal factors that have resulted in losing one’s home. We reject the harmful stereotypes that homelessness is a personal failing and that every individual can solve their own experience of homelessness without any support. Homelessness has many faces including parents, children, and teenagers. We believe that ALL people are deserving of dignity and respect. We strive to not put human beings in harm’s way. Encampments formed out of people’s need for survival are best addressed with a combination of trauma informed engagement and the provision of safer housing options. Decades of research has shown that forced enclosure of encampments is ineffective and counterproductive. Approaching the relocation of encampment residents must be based on real health and safety concerns and must be done respectfully. When we treat homelessness as a criminal issue, real people are harmed, and communities are fractured. Our collective efforts in Baltimore are making a difference. From Baltimore’s own point-in-time count, the number of unsheltered (on the street) individuals counted in 2022 was 58% lower than in 2020.
We won’t stop until everyone is housed.
We advocate for a unified strategy focused on the idea that housing IS healthcare. Housing IS safety. Housing supports economic development and thriving neighborhoods. The Continuum of Care has been working on real, systematic change since the Board reformed in 2018. Efforts are focused on five evidence-based strategies to end homelessness.
- Increase affordable housing that is safe, healthy, spread throughout the City and is paired with services to help people stay housed.
The CoC is working with the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services (MOHS) and the Department of Community Housing and Development to leverage $32.5 million in federal HOME American Rescue Act and American Rescue Act Plan funds to create a Housing Accelerator Fund. This is the single largest investment in housing in the last three decades. The CoC is supporting legislation to dismantle exclusionary zoning. But we need developers and investors, and we need to look at ways to keep rents reasonable without sacrificing safety and health.
- Ensure a properly resourced system to identify a personal housing crisis quickly and compassionately and then divert those individuals and families from experiencing homelessness in the first place.
The City has a coordinated entry system to efficiently and equitably distribute scarce resources. American Rescue Act Funds are being used to set up a fund to rapidly resolve housing crises and prevent homelessness. The CoC and MOHS are working on ways to recruit and support landlords willing to provide safe, affordable housing to people exiting homelessness.
- If homelessness cannot be avoided, then provide safe and trauma-informed interim housing with trained and compassionate staff and peer advocates who can help return people to their own housing as fast as possible.
This includes ensuring that our community has specialized services for youth, LGBTQ+, veterans, people experiencing domestic and/or sexual violence, people returning from incarceration, and people experiencing a mental health or behavioral health crisis.The CoC is working on ways to ensure that services provide dignity to people in crisis and do not add to the trauma of homelessness.
- Increase access to employment and income that can support Baltimore citizens in their housing and basic living needs.
In 2016 the Abell foundation reported that 57% of Baltimore citizens were paying more than 30% of their income on housing and 33% of citizens paid more than half of their income on housing. The CoC is working on ways to provide access to meaningful employment opportunity.We must advocate to ensure that when employment is not possible, the safety net of income sources are enough to keep people from becoming homeless.
- And most important, address the inequity that was created through redlining and disinvestment in communities of primarily Black and Brown citizens.
That same Abell report found that even though Black families were living in less expensive housing than their White counterparts, they were more likely to be paying more than 30% of their income on housing. 73% of those experiencing homelessness in Baltimore are Black or African American. As we build new systems, the CoC is committed to listening and learning from those who have experienced homelessness. We are committed to rebuilding systems that do not perpetuate the harms of the past.
Join us in this important work.
The CoC encourages everyone to be part of the fight to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring in Baltimore. There are opportunities to act, opportunities to invest, and opportunities to advocate for the resources we need to win this fight. We can act without placing people in harm’s way.
Together we can end homelessness.
Janice Miller, MPH, MSW, LCSW-C
Continuum of Care Board Chair
Anthony Williams
Continuum of Care Vice Chair
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