In the News - June Coverage Recap
Read about how Houston's success has garnered interest from cities across the country, become informed during this extreme heat and learn how some very famous Houstonians are collaborating with Harris County to create more permanent housing!
“Since 2012, more than 28,000 people who have experienced homelessness in the greater Houston area have been housed. This has resulted in a more than a 60% decrease in overall homelessness in just over a decade.
“So, what changed? In 2012, we came together as a unified, regional, homeless response system called The Way Home and chose the nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County as our lead agency.”
Read the full opinion piece on CNN.
“Pittsburgh's newly formed city council homeless committee is taking notes from other cities to see how they're solving the issue of homelessness.
“In this segment of "Chronicle," we traveled more than 1,500 miles to Houston, Texas, which is one of the cities that Pittsburgh is watching closely to inform its solutions for tackling homelessness.”
Watch the full story on WTAE.
“Texas recorded a 28% drop in homelessness since 2012, while California’s homeless population grew by 43%. What’s behind the diverging trends, and what can California learn from programs in Houston, Austin and San Antonio?”
Read the full article on CalMatters.
“Houston-area homeless outreach groups have been taking to the streets to prepare the region's unhoused population for potentially life-threating heat.
“In an email, a spokesperson for the Coalition for the Homeless, which operates the region’s homeless response system, said partner agencies have been spreading the word about the incoming heat wave in Harris County to ensure people living unsheltered are informed about and protected from the extreme heat.’”
Read the full story on Houston Public Media.
“The number of unsheltered people experiencing homelessness in Harris County dropped by just over 17% in the past year, continuing an ongoing trend that has seen a nearly 63% decline in overall homelessness in the county since 2011.
“The latest numbers, released May 3, were celebrated by city and nonprofit leaders in Houston as payoff for more than a decade of effort and financial investments into initiatives to reduce homelessness. Having housed more than 28,000 homeless people since 2011, The Way Home has helped Houston emerge as a national leader in the conversation on how to keep people off the streets, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said.”
Read the full story on Community Impact.
“Mike Nichols, CEO and president of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston and Harris County, told ABC13 this case is just a reminder of why their work to get people off the streets is so important.
‘Recent studies have shown that people who are experiencing homelessness are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of violence,’ Nichols said. ‘Someone like the gentleman who died this weekend, it is awful. It is an awful thing that if they were housed, it's much less likely that they'll have those kinds of traumatic issues.’”
Read the full story on ABC13.
“‘Harris County and the city of Houston, jointly with the coalition for the homeless, have reduced homeless in the middle of the pandemic by 20 percent, and we've been able to hold that reduction,’ Hidalgo said in a press conference Tuesday morning. ‘We just did the homeless count again, so it's initiatives like this one I certainly will be supportive of it no matter whose behind it, but it's especially interesting, I think, because there are these names of Beyonce and Kelly Rowland, who, of course, have been supportive of the community for a very long time.’”
Read the full story on Chron.
