In the News

DRMM CEO Chad Audi proposed a three-tiered approach that would include rapid housing for the economically displaced. The first tier includes short-term rental assistance programs of up to 12 months of financial relief, financial literacy instruction, employment training and job placement programs and working with landlords to implement a tenant reintegration program that mitigates discrimination against previously unhoused individuals.

The second tier focuses on transitional housing with support services that would increase transitional housing units in the state, with structured programs lasting six to 24 months and mandating mental health counseling, addiction treatment and life skills training.

There would also be requirements to ensure transitional housing residents have graduated pathways to permanent housing with ongoing support as well as a more robust case management programs for young people aging out of foster care to access stable housing and employment opportunities.

The third tier would mean long-term housing for the chronically homeless and mentally ill through the development of permanent housing facilities with on-site mental health professionals, social workers and medical staff and a state-funded medication management program to assist those who cannot manage prescriptions independently. The recommendations also include expansion of a mobile mental health unities that provide psychiatric care and crisis intervention.

These proposals hit at the reality of the problem of homelessness in Michigan and in Detroit. But is there any appetite in Lansing right now to tackle this problem?

What happened in Detroit to the Currie children, whose mother made earlier calls for help to the city’s referral system, CAM (Coordinated Assessment Model), could happen anywhere in the state. No community is immune to the fact that so many people have been relegated to the shadows because they can’t find a home.

“This is a daunting issue that requires a non-partisan approach and the intervention of a task force. While several of my colleagues have committed to helping in the fight against homelessness, this issue deserves the attention of the entire legislature,” says state Sen. Sylvia Santana, a Detroit Democrat whose district also includes Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. “Mental health and healthcare management can also be significant challenges for our unhoused populations. When a person is displaced, the gaps in Medicaid services impact the proverbial cycle of homelessness. I’d like to see that remedied as well.”

Santana says she’d like a taskforce to first deal with the recommendations coming from DRMM and other providers who are alarmed over the rate of homelessness and want the state to finally do something about it. Whether that means legislation would follow immediately remains unclear.

“I would be more interested in trying to figure out how to support providers by improving our current system and removing some of the red tape to allow them to swiftly place people into permanent, income-driven housing,” she says.

She added, “This crisis is occurring because affordable housing is neither affordable, nor safe. People with jobs are even struggling to make ends meet. At the federal level, the HUD housing vouchers program takes far too long to get people into a stable environment; the approval process taking eighteen months is an egregious delay of action.”

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bankole@bankolethompson.com

Bankole Thompson’s columns appear on Mondays and Thursdays in The Detroit News.