Other communities have ended chronic homelessness — can Chattanooga?
While most people who experience homelessness return to housing relatively quickly, there are more than 400 people in Hamilton County who are chronically homeless. Here's what we can do.
By William Newlin
Fast facts
Permanent supportive housing is a tool to reduce chronic homelessness by providing residents affordable housing and supportive services like mental health counseling
The Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition estimated 1,008 people in Hamilton county were unsheltered, including 429 people considered “chronically homeless,” during the last count in February 2022
Four other U.S. communities have ended chronic homelessness, all incorporating permanent supportive housing
What is chronic homelessness?
For most people who experience homelessness in Hamilton County, it’s temporary — they return to housing after a few weeks or months.
For instance, in the last two years, well over 2,000 people experiencing homelessness in Hamilton County received help finding housing (and many more returned to housing without agency help). And of those who received assistance, the vast majority remain in housing now, according to Sam Wolfe, the City of Chattanooga’s director of homelessness and supportive housing.
Still, at last count, more than 400 people in the county were considered “chronically homeless,” meaning they’ve experienced 12 months of homelessness in the past three years and have a disabling condition, such as a mental or physical disability or substance abuse disorder.
What is permanent supportive housing?
Service providers agree: People who are chronically homeless need more than just a place to stay.
Permanent supportive housing is a model that goes further than other housing options, coupling a subsidized home with dedicated case management to help people access support services like mental health care or drug and alcohol counseling.
“The reality is a lot of people get stuck, and if they don't have the housing that's affordable to them or the services to help them, they're gonna continue to be homeless,” Wolfe said.
The 4 communities that ended chronic homelessness
Despite a 15% increase in chronic homelessness nationwide since 2020, at least four communities in the U.S. have ended it:
Lancaster City & County, Pennsylvania
Rockford, Illinois
Bergen County, New Jersey
Southwest Minnesota (18-county region)
In each case, permanent supportive housing has been a key part of the success.
Justin Vorbach works for a housing partnership in Southwest Minnesota. He said they ended chronic homelessness by prioritizing the most vulnerable and using landlord agreements, state and federal subsidies, and new construction to expand housing availability.
Between 2011 and 2021, the total number of permanent supportive housing units in Vorbach’s region almost doubled.
He thinks their approach to solving chronic homelessness is replicable in other communities. But it takes a clear commitment and shared data among service providers.
“There’s certainly evidence and examples of when you target a problem like chronic homelessness or youth homelessness or veteran homelessness (that) if you say, ‘We’re gonna end this,’ significant progress is made,” Vorbach said.
In fact, in 2019, Chattanooga gained national attention for ending veteran homelessness, though since the pandemic, Chattanooga no longer holds that distinction.
What's the outlook in Chattanooga?
Chattanooga currently has about 160 permanent supportive housing units, which are all occupied. Wolfe estimates we would need 450 total units to end chronic homelessness.
While still in the early stages of renovation, the city-owned Airport Inn on Lee Highway will add an additional 75 units. The city plans to contract with a service provider to run operations at the former hotel, where each resident will have a case manager. The city also plans to give residents access to an on-demand CARTA shuttle to better connect them with necessities and off-site support services.
“The impact (of the renovation) will be immediate and will be felt across our community in terms of people that have been waiting sometimes upwards of 10 years for a place to call home,” Wolfe said.
A resident's perspective
The CHATT Foundation manages permanent supportive housing in on-site apartments and two group homes. It offers “intensive case management” to residents, regularly meeting with them to address trauma related to homelessness and work toward long-term goals.
Leonard Jenkins and his two sons live in one of the CHATT Foundation’s apartments. After years living in motels, his car, and friends' houses, Jenkins' experience with a 90-day counseling program through the foundation got him back on his feet.
Fast-forward a few years, and he said having a permanent place to stay — and case managers just a phone call away — give him a backbone of stability he didn’t have before.
“When you got people willing to help you, and show you love … and giving you encouragement — that’s a big difference,” Jenkins said. “That means you’ve got a pathway to lead to success.”
Traci Hefner, director of case management at the CHATT Foundation, believes their model is the right approach to mitigate chronic homelessness.
She said the majority of people living in the foundation's housing have been there for a couple years. The need now is to expand housing availability and focus on engagement with case managers and services.
“I think if you're just looking at getting people into housing and then walking away, I think we're gonna have more problems,” Hefner said.
How you can get involved
Donate to the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition. Its Flexible Housing Fund offers restriction-free financial assistance to people facing barriers to stable housing. You can also contact the coalition to volunteer time, expertise, or resources.
Donate to or volunteer at the CHATT Foundation (previously known as the Chattanooga Community Kitchen).
Support Help Right Here, the nonprofit managing the sanctioned encampment at 12th and Peeples streets. See its website for a list of needed donations.