Welcome to Quration - my take on the stand-out stories of technological disruption.
In today's edition, I throw my hands up in the air over homelessness!
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Disrupting Homelessness
My friend, Armand, is homeless. Itâs a joyless rollercoaster of ups, downs, twists and turns that leaves everyone on the ride drained and dizzy. So when I read Angela Spinneyâs claim that eliminating most homelessness is achievable, I was all in.
Earlier this week, Angela and the team at AHURI (Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute), published a watershed report: Ending Homelessness in Australia.
While focused on an Australian context, the shortlist of recommendations applies equally to any OECD member country:
focus on prevention and early intervention rather than a largely crisis response;
ensure every person is quickly provided with appropriate assistance via a âduty to assistâ protocol;
incorporate a Housing First response for people experiencing homelessness so that they can move as quickly as possible into needs and age appropriate long-term housing options; and
develop long-term plans for an adequate supply of social and affordable housing.
The global rise of technology has delivered a reduction in child labour, increased life expectancy, cheaper food, better health and more leisure time! Isnât it about time technology disrupted homelessness?
More than a statistic
The last time I saw Armand, I was helping him find crisis accommodation. He lay curled up on the seat of my car, eyeâs closed, crying. Hair matted with vomit and sweat, he complained of being freezing cold and boiling hot. I set the air-conditioner to medium. A perfect embodiment of the uselessness I feel when Iâm trying to help him.
âPlease, please donât make me go in there again. Please. Canât I just stay with you for a night or two while I sort myself out?â
As usual, I sat frozen. What Armand sees as dispassionate calm, I feel as crippling dissonance. Desperately wanting to help and painfully aware that I canât.
âThe causes of homelessness are complex. The stereotype is that it involves mental illness and substance addiction. But the more common denominators are poverty, unemployment and a lack of affordable adequate housing.â
Mental illness + substance addiction + homelessness. Armand is the stereotype.
Australia had 116,427 homeless people at last count, the U.S. 552,830. It appears to be an unavoidable malady.
The most startling number is the percentage of people âwho have ever been homelessâ. These are people reported to have slept at least one night on the street or in a homeless shelter. 4% of Italians (2.28M), 6.2% of Americans (17.98M), and almost 8% of the UK population (4.76M).
Dunbar suggested that the number of people one knows and keeps social contact with is 150. Someone you know has been homeless.
The Findings
As far as the inquiryâs findings go, itâs completely obvious that a coordinated, national strategy is an essential first step. What has been less obvious, prior to the last decade of trials, is the efficacy of a Housing-First response.
The Housing First model prescribes safe and permanent housing as the first priority for people experiencing homelessness. Once housing is secured, a multi-disciplinary team of support workers can address complex needs through services like drug and alcohol counselling or mental health treatment. However, an individualâs engagement with these support services is not required for them to maintain accommodation. Each individual is assisted in sustaining their housing as they work towards recovery and reintegration with the community at their own pace.
Reference: Ending homelessness in Australia: A redesigned homelessness service system, p.54
Between 2012 - 2016, Norway has experienced a 36% decrease in homelessness. In Finland, 4 out of 5 homeless people make their way back into a stable life. Both follow the Housing-First approach.
A longitudinal study of 225 people in the USA compared the outcomes of those using traditional services and those using a Housing-First program. The research found that 88 per cent of those in the Housing-First program retained their housing for two years compared to 47 per cent in the other programs.
An evaluation of the MISHA project by Mission Australia from 2010â2013, which used a Housing-First model, found that after two years 97% of clients were still living in secure housing; substance abuse dropped from 37% to 7%; and the associated cost savings to government equated to $8,002 per person per year.
Why is âHousing-Firstâ so effective?
Have you ever been on an extended holiday, moving from hotel to hotel, and living out of a suitcase? After a while, it becomes tiring. You donât feel settled. Hotel food gets monotonous. Maintaining a routine becomes difficult and itâs harder to keep up with your friends. And thatâs a holiday.
Imagine living out of a duffle bag. Going from couch to couch, if youâre lucky, never quite knowing when youâll have to check out and find your next accommodation. Thereâs no sight-seeing, no hotel meals, no memorable photos.
How do we expect people living under the stress of housing uncertainty to break free from the debilitating cycles of mental illness, substance addiction, poverty and unemployment?
A New Hope
What advancements in technology have the potential to deliver a positive disruption to homelessness?
đĄ Housing affordability
Housing affordability increases the challenge for unemployed and low-income / no-income people to find long-term accommodation.
Ikeaâs new collaboration, the Urban Village Project, takes its flat-packing capabilities to an ambitious level. Entire city centres of affordable living spaces. With common spaces and shared resources, this approach provides an interesting model for low-cost, high-quality urban development.
A variation of this concept might provide high-density living, with co-located support services, for homeless people.
Perhaps 3D-printed homes will be an even better option.
ICON, a construction company in Austin, Texas, and New Story, a non-profit focusing on housing, have come up with a 3D printer that can build move-in-ready houses for just $4000. The printer, called the Vulcan, is capable of printing a 650sqft, single-story home out of cement in 12-24 hours.Â
đĄ Movement in employment opportunities
A significant portion of government spend on homelessness is used to fund industry employees who provide specialist support services. As automation eats the world of traditional jobs, it creates an opportunity to retrain displaced people for roles in social support.
đĄ Mobile Apps
I guess homeless people donât represent a lucrative market for app developers, so the current pickings are slim. There are notable services that enable next-generation financial support for homeless people (Samaritan), and access to homeless resources (askizzy.org.au). But the usual product-market-fit booming service seems yet to be discovered.
If I were to suggest a hit list of must-have, easy-to-build features, it would include:
Easy access to an Electronic Health Record (EHR) that could be used to share personal ID + medical + homeless particulars. This could be used as a low-touch way to answer the long list of questions support providers necessarily ask;
A list of available local resources with direct dial and chat connections;
Reminders for medications (prescriptions + dosage) and medical appointments;
Remote check-ins with support providers; and
Condition tracking (activities, health, places slept, medical compliance).
These solutions arenât high-tech, just basic hygiene for any useful service app.
đĄ UBI and velocity of money
UBI (Universal Basic Income) has entered the vernacular. U.S. Presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, included it as part of his policy platform. Itâs not a new idea, and itâs not exactly tech, but the Utopian concept has the potential to be truly disruptive.
These days, people talk of giving every citizen $1,000 per month, without a means test or work requirement.
Advocates suggest it will dramatically boost GDP. Skeptics say it will lead to inflation and an idle workforce. CounterPunch provides an interesting perspective on how a UBI would fund itself here.
Implementing a UBI for homeless people, along with a housing-first approach, could go a long way to solving the problem. Iâm ill-equipped to go into too much detail, but hereâs my summary of the approach:
You could assume that upwards of 80% of the UBI provided to homeless people, would be spent on goods and services;
The OECD average tax-to-GDP ratio is 34.3% (28.5% in Australia);
The average velocity of money (i.e., the frequency at which a unit of money is used to purchase final goods and services) averages at 7 times per year in most OECD member countries (5-6 in Australia);
Annual UBI [$12,000] x annual velocity [7] x average tax [34%] = a self-funding UBI.
Given the heavy concentration of homeless people in urban areas, a targeted UBI would deliver direct stimulus to city businesses - and possibly be self-funding.
Disrupting Hopelessness
On a good day, Armand hopes for a life beyond his problems. Iâm hopeful the Housing-First response, and affordable housing disruptions, may be the solution.
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