The Times of Trenton Editorials

'Opening Doors' echoes Mercer plan

Monday, June 28, 2010

A new federal approach to ending homelessness will sound very familiar to anyone involved in the work of the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness. Halfway to the ambitious goal it established in 2003, the Mercer organization continues to implement its 10-year plan with an emphasis on moving the county beyond a reliance on emergency and transitional shelters, as Executive Director Herb Levine has explained many times.

The Mercer Alliance focuses on providing permanent housing with the supports that will allow the formerly homeless to continue in residence.

Announced last week, the national initiative is dubbed "Opening Doors" and seems to take many pages from the Mercer playbook.

From now on, federal agencies will help the homeless find employment and health care in addition to a home as part of the national effort to finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in five years; prevent and end homelessness among veterans in five years; prevent and end homelessness for families, youth and children in 10 years; and set a path to ending all types of homelessness.

By integrating support services and applying state and local models at the federal level, according to the federal Interagency Council on Homelessness, the plan aims to relieve the heartbreaking reality that hundreds of thousands of people regularly roam the streets even during the bitter weather of winter and on blazing hot days of summer.

Not only will a viable solution to homelessness fulfill a moral obligation, especially to veterans who have sacrificed so much for their country, it is a much more economical approach. Providing the resources to end homelessness will be cheaper for taxpayers than continuing the costly cycling of people through shelters and hospitals, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said.

That's exactly what the Mercer Alliance and other local organizations across the country have found. In a recent piece for the Times, Mr. Levine addressed that issue: "Sixty-five cost-benefit studies have shown that it is less expensive to house people in their own apartments and provide them support through a case manager who helps them get the services they request. Families who now stay in transitional housing for up to two years could be in their own apartments for that whole period, receiving support without dislocating their children."

It all points to a better way of handling what Secretary Donovan calls "a preventable tragedy, a tragedy we can solve."

That's very similar to the mantra of the Mercer Alliance: "We can -- we must -- we will end homelessness in Mercer County."

It's not only possible; with the new federal emphasis, it seems probable.