Boston centre stage again as we await the change in governor, hoping Charlie Baker proves as enthusiastic a SIB proponent as Governor Patrick.
A New Strategy On Shelter
Renée Loth – Boston Globe
Here’s a chance for Governor-elect Charlie Baker to mitigate the state’s opiate addiction crisis, save the Commonwealth money, apply market principles to solving a social problem, and support a proven strategy to end homelessness. It’s a win-win-win-win! So even though the $3.5 million “social impact bond” initiative launched on Monday is one of Governor Patrick’s last official acts, let’s hope Baker carries it forward.
The program — more than two years in the making — will provide permanent housing and support services for 800 of the most intractably homeless adults, more than half the state’s chronically homeless population. These are the really tough cases: people whose turbulent lives include drug or alcohol addiction, mental illness, poor educations, and, sometimes, criminal records. The program gets them into a subsidized apartment and provides case management, job training, and other services.
What’s new is that the initiative is funded not through direct taxpayer dollars but through private funders who assume the risk if the program doesn’t produce results. The investment comes from some of the usual suspects — the United Way and a national housing nonprofit organization — but also from Santander Bank, which is betting $1.25 million on the proposition that getting a person out of a shelter and into a stable home will not just prevent a return to the streets, but save millions in emergency room visits, Medicaid costs, and police activity.