Houston's street-to-home model paid landlords bonuses from private donations

Vox's Rachel Cohen Booth describes the approach of Mandy Chapman Semple, who designed Houston's street-to-home encampment response. Houston's homelessness rate fell 60 percent between 2012 and 2016. The model uses public subsidies to pay rent but covers apartment hold fees, application fees, security deposits and furniture with private donations, which are not subject to the same federal rules.

Her team builds relationships with landlords, and might offer an extra $1,000 for a unit that is about to open up if the team gets first offer. It tries to house everyone in an encampment at once. Landlords and formerly homeless tenants each get a team to call, the city permanently closes the camp, and signs, fencing or police keep others from returning.

Semple now works through Clutch Consulting with New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Dallas and Hartford. Clutch and its clients say over 90 percent of people offered an apartment say yes, even those who had refused congregate shelters.

Even tight, expensive rental markets have unit turnover, so a bonus can put the city first in line.

Private donations can pay costs that federal housing subsidies cannot.

Moving everyone in a camp at once makes permanent closure possible.

Giving landlords a support team lowers their fear of renting to tenants with serious problems.

Split funding by what each source may legally pay for: restricted money for the core cost, flexible money for the incentives that make the core work.

The article reports criticism. Some providers want to keep focusing on shelters, a New Orleans social worker said Clutch rushed people into apartments with coercive tactics, and some advocates say help goes to areas that cause leaders political headaches rather than to the most vulnerable. Others worry it cannot scale as rents rise.