The caveats: We recruited older adults who were homeless at any point in their journey, which biases toward those with long-term homelessness. (Had we found people right as they became homeless for the first time, perhaps housing outcomes would be better).
@ucsfbhhi.bsky.social

5/fin

☑️ The irony: Last week, the Trump administration announced their new policy to dismantle long-term housing supports---which will send many seniors, people with disabilities--back into the streets.
4/5

✅ The take-home: Homelessness is dynamic. People move in and out of housing. Housing Vouchers (for some, PSH, for others, simply a housing voucher) keep people housed.
3/5

✅ The good news: 80% returned to housing (returning to housing with family or friends was the most common)
✅ The bad news: Half of them returned to homelessness!
✅ What kept people housed: HOUSING VOUCHERS

2/5

First, they came for....We all know how this ends.

/fin

Don't let this cruel up is down administration trick you into thinking that internment camps are compassionate. Don't let them hijack your frustration into a total abdication of rights. Don't leave those with the least power in internment camps.

7/x

Yes--we are all frustrated with people left to die on the streets. You know how to fix that? Provide people with the services they need to thrive in the housing they need to end their homelessness.

6/x

So why are they cutting the funding for treatment?

The irony of cutting funds for housing---that is actually at the heart of homelessness and replacing it with a camp on the outskirts of town. Out of site, out of mind. There is NO way to end homelessness without housing.

5/x

The irony of cutting Medicaid--which pays for actual treatment that people need (mental health and substance use services) to drag people out of site, beyond the legal system, with no due process. What "treatment" will they get? YES--people need treatment.
4/x

The conflation of homelessness with mental health & substance use problems is a ploy to exploit your frustration and fear. (And yes, there is an enormous overlap, but it is bidirectional). We do KNOW how to treat these disabilities.
3/x

Couched in the language of compassion, the proposal for relocating people who experience unsheltered homelessness is no different than internment camps of yesteryear. No civil liberties, no choice, no due process. Locked away in a place out of site. To what end?
2/x

Community safety comes from having a healthy democracy, held in check by a free press...

Community safety comes from ensuring that everyone can pray to the whomever they want, whenever they want (or not)---and not fear being shot. Community safety comes from allowing everyone to live as their authentic self, loving who they want, how they want.

Community safety comes from ensuring that we prevent and control infectious disease. Community safety comes from ensuring that have agency over their reproductive choices. Community safety comes from ensuring that children can go to school without fearing being shot.

Let’s fight for a society that actually values people and provides them with the safety and security they need. And let’s call out those who use dehumanizing rhetoric. Even those whose rhetoric and actions fall short of these truly horrific examples.

No one wants there to be homelessness. Least of all the people who experience it. No one wants people to struggle with the devastating health and social effects of addiction (which is different than just using drugs which many people do, of course). Least of all the people who are suffering from it.

But pay attention. These comments and actions are the (perhaps logical?) result of the constant dehumanization of people who experience homelessness & people who use drugs by so many in our…mainstream culture and politics. Including those who otherwise might oppose what Fox News stands for.