Advocates of “Housing First” as the solution for homelessness are praising a new study that supposedly proves their case. The trouble is, the study — conducted by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) — proves no such thing. In fact, it highlights what federal and state officials keep dodging, the problems of drug addiction and mental illness within the homeless population.
The study, “Toward a New Understanding: The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness,” surveyed 3,198 participants and did in-depth interviews with 365. The data reveals complex, multifaceted causes behind homelessness and a population suffering disproportionately from severe mental illness and substance use. This is far from a slam dunk for “Housing First” proponents.
But, of course, the corporate media have been quick to skew the study for their own purposes. For example, The New York Times recently cited the study in an article, claiming it to have found that “a lack of affordable housing, not mental illness or substance abuse, was the main driver of homelessness in California.”
Similarly, the Los Angeles Times used the study in an attempt to correct the “common perception” that has “tied the road to homelessness with mental illness and drug addiction,” citing “precarious poverty” as the true cause.
“Housing First” policy — free housing with no requirements for treatment or training — was adopted as federal housing policy by the Obama administration in 2013 with the claim that it would end homelessness by 2023. Yet while spending on free
