I recently read the article by Eliza Billingham about a group of citizens walking at 5 am every morning to pressure our city leaders to combine forces into a regional authority to address homelessness. (“Unexpected Collab,” March 6.) The group is trying to solve the wrong problem. Everyone in the article portrays a regional board controlling all of the funds as the end solution. That is nonsense, as we know that housing is the solution to homelessness. To focus on the structure is a distraction from our real issue.
In 2022, I raised money and hired Corner Booth Media to produce a series titled “Housing and Help.” We asked Gavin Cooley to be the host and went to work. The five episodes touch on Camp Hope and then dive into the success seen in Houston. Gavin, myself and the production team spent significant time interviewing and touring Houston. What we learned was very clear. Houston needed a regional homeless authority to force the community to spend the consolidated funds on building more housing with services.
If you watch the series at housingandhelp.org, you absolutely see that the “magic sauce” is getting someone in housing with help. (The Inlander covered this in “Houston, We Have a Problem,” Sept. 22, 2022.)…