The US is living through an affordable housing crisis - in fact, we are short millions and millions of affordable housing units. During the pandemic, homelessness flattened with an influx of resources to help keep people housed. But, those resources have long expired and now we are seeing an uptick in homelessness across the country. Jeff Olivet, the director of USICH (United States Interagency Council on Homelessness), says the problem is complex – but the math isn’t. We need more affordable housing. 

We discuss:

• Biden’s proposed budget, which includes guaranteed vouchers for every low income veteran and person aging out of foster care
• The new frontier; pairing emergency response such as shelters with robust prevention strategies
• How prevention starts with helping families through periods of financial crisis
• What happens when heat crises turn deadly for people who are homeless

Jeff reminds us that the people affected most by the affordable housing crisis are those who have experienced trauma and domestic violence:

“50 years ago, we still had domestic violence, we still had addiction, we still had mental illness, and we didn't have perfect systems to address that – but we had enough housing for everybody, and we did not see homelessness on the scale we see it today. So when we're responding to homelessness, it's critical to individualize support for people to make sure they have access to the care they need in terms of health and mental health and recovery and all of those important things. But if we don't solve the underlying structural stuff, the lack of affordable housing, the ongoing discrimination that people of color and LGBTQ people face in jobs and trying to buy a home or rent a home in the criminal legal system, in education, if we don't solve that underlying stuff, we're gonna keep seeing homelessness for a very long time to come.”

Relevant Links

Jeff Olivet testimony to Congress on strategies to reduce Veteran homelessness

Federal actions to increase housing supply and lower housing costs 

HUD-VASH vouchers to support homeless veterans 

USICH guidance document for healthcare

Article about the SCOTUS ruling 

About Our Guest

Jeff Olivet is the executive director of USICH. He has worked to prevent and end homelessness for more than 25 years as a street outreach worker, case manager, coalition builder, researcher, and trainer. He is the founder of jo consulting, co-founder of Racial Equity Partners, and from 2010 to 2018, he served as CEO of C4 Innovations. He has worked extensively in the areas of homelessness and housing, health and behavioral health, HIV, education, and organizational development. Jeff has been principal investigator on multiple research studies funded by private foundations and the National Institutes of Health. Jeff is deeply committed to social justice, racial equity, gender equality, and inclusion for all. He has a bachelor's from the University of Alabama and a master's from Boston College.

Source: https://www.usich.gov/about/staff

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