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You've said we can largely obliterate the problem in 10 years. Really?

We have cities that are up to their fourth year of their 10-year plans. Cities actually have the first reductions in street and chronic homelessness that they have ever seen. Between 2005 and 2007, there was an overall 12 percent decrease in homelessness, the first documented national decrease in homelessness.

Are these people who made it through the system now self-sustaining?

I wouldn't say they are self-sustaining. Their homelessness is ended. The strategy was working; then, unfortunately, the economy collapsed. The economic situation is double trouble. It's the foreclosures coupled with job losses. For the chronic population on the street, that double trouble skims over their heads. Over the last eight months, chronic homelessness has stayed down. However, all around our country, families are falling into homelessness. Think about the three million jobs lost. That affects many more than those three million people. You think about one million foreclosures. That affects many more than the million people.

Are certain groups more important to target than others as you work on the 10-year plans?

The administration is prioritizing those who have a disability and long-term homelessness. These are the most likely to be living and dying on our streets or languishing in our shelters.

Is there a second group targeted?

The rapid increase in families with children falling into homelessness has created an imperative for that population. A new initiative targets those who are the victims of double trouble with a high priority on prevention, preventing that family from spiraling down into homelessness.

We changed the equation of homelessness. We used to think that people had to earn the right to go into housing, when they finally got to a certain level of moral goodness, a certain level of sobriety. Let's get people into housing, the central antidote to homelessness, just as quickly as possible. Then, in the stability and security of that place to live, let's deliver services.

How have traditional shelters reacted to the rapid re-housing strategy?

Initially, they were agnostic about rapid re-housing. But as we began to see results, churches and nonprofits began to see that folks who were mentally ill or addicted could be placed in housing, and that housing could be sustained.

We don't romanticize homeless people. Just like the rest of us who are housed, they have problems. Think of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan stops, tends to the wounds, picks that person up, takes him to the inn, doesn't just leave him at the inn, but talks to the innkeeper and says, "Do whatever you need to do for this person. Serve him. Give him what he needs to make sure he stays stable here."

How do communities with little open land and scarce affordable housing implement a rapid re-housing strategy?

Go where the opportunities are. Right now, for the first time in a very long time, housing costs have either leveled off or gone down. Foreclosed properties are available. The $3.9 billion Neighborhood Stabilization Program allows communities to purchase foreclosed properties and make them available for families who have been victims of the foreclosure crisis. All over the country, local communities are looking at the opportunities in the midst of difficulty.

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May 2009, Vol. 53, No. 5, Page 52