Baltimore's plan to spend about $6 million to create a permanent shelter for the homeless may strike some as a costly concession that the homeless will always be with us. But people are constantly forced out of their homes for a variety of reasons. Having a place that's devoted to helping in emergency situations as well as getting people into permanent homes is an effective way of dealing with a continuing problem.
On any given night in Baltimore, 3,000 people are homeless, according to city officials. They certainly need a place to come in out of the cold. But they also need intensive help in the form of support services. This past winter, the city offered both - keeping its shelter facility open 24 hours, seven days a week, and providing on-site links to a variety of services.
Since it opened in December, the shelter has drawn more than 300 people a night, including a man with advanced degrees left destitute because of staggering medical expenses, a longtime drug user tired of being consumed by his habit, and a mother with four children who was kicked out of public housing after someone she was trying to help sold drugs from her unit.
The shelter has been a place to sleep, shower and have a meal. But it also has offered access to a network of nearly two dozen social service agencies and health facilities. Through the combined efforts of outreach workers, case managers, health care providers and others, nearly 2,300 people have been helped with such basics as securing identification, claiming benefits and getting job referrals; 675 have been connected to mental health services; 269 have been sent to substance abuse treatment programs; and 323 have been placed in permanent or transitional housing. That's an impressive short-term record.
The city's idea of converting a building it owns along the Jones Falls Expressway into a permanent shelter in 2009 is consistent with a new emphasis on offering the homeless a safe place to go for reliable help that can get them back into permanent homes. It will be a costly conversion, and in tight fiscal times, an anticipated $2 million from the state's capital budget and $3 million from the city's reflect a solid commitment. But the experience from the winter shelter makes clear that restoring more homeless people to permanency and productivity is worth the investment.