Excellent Positive Piece on PSH on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered

Sunday afternoon, NPR’s Weekend “All Things Considered” had a great piece about LA’s Skid Row (http://www.npr.org/2014/10/26/359112842/as-downtown-l-a-grows-so-does-urgency-to-fix-skid-row). About half of the piece was devoted to an extremely comprehensive and positive portrayal of a Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) project, the Star Apartments on Skid Row, developed by the non-profit Skid Row Housing Trust. The piece succinctly explained the idea behind PSH (and Housing First, though the latter is not mentioned by name), “The best way to tackle homelessness, as well as handle all the chronic health and mental health problems, is to get people housed first and then work on the other issues — issues which can seem extremely challenging.” It profiled a specific resident, Jude Burns, and vividly described how this project essentially saved his life. It quoted Dennis Culhane, a professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania, “The research is very robust. It shows that about 85 percent of the people who are placed in this housing remain there one year later. Even among the people who exit, many of them are exiting to other planned arrangements. Only a few percentage is actually returning to homelessness." Finally, the piece highlighted how much money is saved through PSH, as opposed to the other options out there.