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Just_One_Hit t1_iwfju5n wrote

Reply to comment by SerendipitySue in Salt Lake City's city council voted in favor of a project to build a small community of tiny homes for people experiencing chronic homelessness! by Taintastic

It looks like the Albuquerque tiny home village got rid of the 30-day sober before entry requirement, they're just required to be sober while living in the village now (source):

>Two of the major hurdles the village faced earlier on in filling the 30 homes were a lack of funding for staff and the requirement that people are already sober before they move in. Chavez says the 30-day sobriety policy is now no longer part of the vetting process; however, there are still rules residents need to follow. Applicants must be willing to take part in a harm reduction or recovery program and follow rules of no drug or alcohol use within the tiny home village.

Denver also has successful tiny home villages running for a half decade now (source). There's no magic sauce. People just need to have realistic expectations for harm reduction programs, and realize that housing first is the humane and fiscally responsible option.

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Northstar1989 t1_iwfnzoe wrote

>30-day sober before entry

>housing first

This was the problem.

It's not really housing first if you start adding difficult requirements (staying sober an entire month while dealing with the extreme stress of homelessness and likely untreated mental illness is extremely hard and not exactly a low bar to entry for someone with an addiction) to even get the housing.

The whole point of Housing First is that by giving people a stable place to live, it becomes feasible to actually start dealing with problems like addiction (a difficult issue to tackle even for people who have never been homeless).

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londonladse t1_iwg5gyd wrote

This. I couldn't even begin my sobreity journey until I had my own roof over my head.

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mcslootypants t1_iwgzsoq wrote

Policy makers never heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy apparently.

Nothing can be accomplished until basic needs are met. Coping mechanisms (substance abuse) exist because those have been absent.

Or let’s put the cart before the horse and then blame the horse for being lazy! Genius.

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Northstar1989 t1_iwjcyr3 wrote

Pretty spot-on.

'Cept I don't think they don't know better.

I suspect the malice and lack of understanding is intentional. A lot of politicians get elected through resentment-fueled politics nowadays.

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mcslootypants t1_iwjkmhy wrote

You’re right, I was being generous assuming no mal-intent. They absolutely have access to mental/public health and policy experts.

Blaming individuals for moral failure rather than addressing systemic issues must be hella convenient though.

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siggydude t1_iwhkfyq wrote

This is so encouraging to hear! I was part of the design for the Albuquerque Tiny Home Village and was really disheartened when I heard early on that they only had like 5 out the 30 tiny homes filled because of the requirements

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