Shelter is a basic need. A stable home is a determinant of health. And fresh legislative momentum on a strategy rooted in these most fundamental principles – housing first – stands to transform the lives of thousands of Mainers.

As we reported last week, a proposal by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross would redirect $13 million in real estate transfer tax revenue from Maine’s general fund to a new fund dedicated to establishing permanent housing with 24/7 services for residents – a potent combination that, across America, has succeeded time and again in lifting people with complex needs out of chronic homelessness.

The new housing first fund would be operated by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and, crucially, would serve various parts of the state.

“As we all know, homelessness is not just a southern Maine problem,” Talbot Ross said last Tuesday. “It is a problem that must be addressed in communities across the state. Whether it be Lewiston, Augusta, Bangor, Waterville or Presque Isle, a housing first model can be scaled to meet the needs of the community.”

We’ll be plain about it: If chronically homeless Mainers can access the style of support offered by a housing first program, they are less likely to die.

The sequence of the housing first philosophy (the clue’s in the name) starts by giving people a dependable base. With that secured, personal issues and challenges that stand little chance of being appropriately addressed in the streets – addiction, legal struggles, significant physical or mental illness among them – come into reach and can be brought under control. Steady case management becomes possible. Pressure is taken off emergency services and policing.

The number of homeless people in our state is now said to be at its highest point in at least 15 years. It follows that the most vulnerable group within that group, the chronically homeless population, is also growing.

A crippling housing crisis has starkly shown up the shortcomings of the shelter system. If there is slack in that system, then people cycle in and out of it. If there is no slack at all, as is the case in Portland and elsewhere at the moment, then the system seizes up and fails people.

To give one example of the potential upside of L.D. 2, a community action program in Bangor has secured 41 new homes for homeless residents that are in the process of being renovated. Without the support of a housing first fund, however, it says it can’t move forward with a true and dependable housing first operation.

The nonprofit Preble Street supports three such operations owned and managed by Avesta Housing in Portland: Florence House, Logan Place and Huston Commons. This work provides an undeniable proof of concept right here in Maine: 89% of their residents did not return to homelessness over a five-year period.

By operating without traditional preconditions or strings attached, the housing first model allows people to break from a cycle. Housing first programming can act as a foundation for people who wish to return to education or employment, or as a foothold to people who dream of reconnecting with their families. Interventions and transitions like these are challenging if not rendered impossible by years spent in public places or shifting from shelter to shelter.

As well as acknowledging the moral and civic imperatives for the development of housing first in Maine, testimony given in favor of the Talbot Ross bill last week also acknowledged the economic imperative for the centralized, cost-effective provision of services with state backing.

Housing first is generally regarded as having started in New York City in the early 1990s with a man named Sam Tsemberis. In interviews, Tsemberis has routinely pointed out that it is “housing first,” not “housing only.”

What Maine and Mainers must now realize that although the bill and the support for it represent a momentous and hopeful breakthrough at the Legislature, this is not a magic-wand intervention that can pay off without sustained public support.

It will require consistent investment in the necessary 24/7 services that are part and parcel of the model. That will require championing and encouragement by more and more involved communities across Maine. This most sound of ideas will not work without these things. Housing first – not housing only.

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