Most Vulnerable Homeless

What we have realized as the HOPE for the Homeless coalition is that our system of assisting with getting people off the streets and into housing and social services is broken. We have been helping the "easy clients" because they are compliant, have good behavior, and are willing to easily fit into the rules and regulations of a housing program. This is backwards thinking if we want to help the people who need us most. The ones who need us most are the ones who have not lived in housing in years and do not know how to. They are the ones who bounce from program to program and never seem to get the intervention that helps them progress. This is why we as the coalition started working with a national 100,000 homes campaign (100khomes.org). Check out the nationwide progress so far!

What we have done is surveyed all of the homeless people in our region and used the survey to compose a list of the most vulnerable people. These people are vulnerable because they have a set of complicated medical, mental, and substance abuse issues.  This group of people are the ones that if we do not do something to house them they will die on the streets. We know this is a fact because we have already lost two men from this list. We have had this list since March 1st and this is what we know we have done so far.......

Agency                                                                                  # Housed

Easter Seals………………………………………………………… 3

Bossier Housing Authority (S+C)…………………………………… 7

Southern Oaks Nursing Home………………………………………..1

VOA Mental Health SIL Program………………………………..…..2

VOA Veterans Program………………………………………...……1

HOPE Street Outreach…………………………………………….…8

Housed By Family……………………………………………………2

**Transitioning waiting to get into housing……………………………………. 5

We are making a difference and are encouraging others to help in any way they can. If you are an agency that houses homeless people and are not on this list please contact me (Ryan) so I can add you to the list and get you credit for who you are housing. If you are not on this list and not housing these vulnerable people then you need to get involved! It will take all of us to do this!!!

-Ryan-