So that’s sort of what the whole idea is—is to get them off this site, but not, not to get them in more trouble than they’re already in.” There is also evidence that the city does have a solution for the homeless: Housing first. On February 1st, the city will begin serving 100 people in the city’s housing first program in the next two weeks. It will be the first group of chronically homeless people to receive housing as a primary solution to their homelessness rather than as a last resort. “We need to bring it back to the housing first idea that the federal government developed a long time ago,” Haddad said. “I think most people in public and private would agree, that housing is the answer to homelessness, that people don’t become homeless because they’re mentally ill, because of drugs or alcohol, they become homeless because they’re out on the street and they don’t have a place to live and then they become mentally ill or drug addicted because they’re living in a world that doesn’t have enough room for them and they become homeless, for that reason.” In July 2012, the city’s new head of housing, Bruce Nierenberg, said the city needed to focus on creating 1,000 supportive housing units a year instead of 500 supportive housing units a year, the same number Seattle currently houses. The program is called “Housing First,” and it begins with identifying homeless people and getting them into housing before addressing their underlying problems like substance abuse. That is, the primary goal of the program is for people to get into housing, and then, in order to live in that housing, they have to sign up for support services and follow through with them. Many cities are implementing Housing First models. In New York, some homeless people went into supported housing without going into treatment or therapy first. The researchers found that they were no more likely to return to drugs or alcohol within 30 days than people who went into treatment first. Nierenberg says the “success” of the program will be measured by their own actions and not by their history of substance abuse. “One of the things that we’re trying to accomplish is to have them all to continue living in Seattle to be able to show us they’re not relapsing and we can support them. Then you’re doing good for the community in addition to doing good for the individual,” Nierenberg said. “We don’t need to spend the money on shelters, transportation, and other costs and if they can’t do that, then they need some kind of counseling services in order to manage their own lives.” Advocates also say the numbers are skewed and they don’t reflect the real lives of homeless people. Cristina Martin is a public school teacher and homeless shelter director. She has been homeless for four months, and says there are many people like her who are not accounted for. “I would think it’s a big thing because it’s going to make everything better. Then people who have mental illness can be more open about it and get the services they need. They should be able to do that,” she said. Martin says it’s frustrating that a lot of homeless people have addiction problems or mental health issues, but they don’t have any help. She said if it wasn’t for a few social workers she knows, she’d be dead. She doesn’t want to be known as “homeless.” She just wants to be known as a person. Martin lives in a women’s shelter with about 10 other people, but she doesn’t get any help for her addiction. She just wants to feel normal and forget the last six months of her life, and get on with her life. “It’s tough, you know, I’m looking at my roommate trying to remember what the story was but I think she gets my humor. I just feel like I need to laugh more. I get to laugh a little bit. I try to make sure that she gets my humor. That’s the only way you’re going to connect with someone when you’re homeless.” Martin says the way to keep people off the street is by giving them options, such as getting into housing first and getting them off the streets. “How do you get somebody to take me seriously if they think that I’m homeless just because I don’t have a place to live? You have to sit there and make a judgment about me as a person to make sure that I have a home or someone needs to give you some kind of help.” “I do think that there’s a good chance with the new approach of Housing First that the whole population of chronically homeless people will come down. I think the numbers that we’re seeing are going to come down considerably,” said Dr. Jim Withers of the University of Washington’s Department of Medicine. The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and was conducted under the direction of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Withers says it’s easy to see why homelessness is an epidemic, and why so many people don’t want to get off the streets. “It’s a little like a cancer in that even if people are aware that they have the disease, they don’t like the treatment,” he said. “The only way to convince people that this is a viable approach to get them off the streets is to get them the treatment so they’ll agree to be on the streets.” For those who aren’t homeless, advocates say they need to remember that you never know what they’ve gone through. “I know what they think about the people, their lives and they tell me that I need to get a job or I need to stop drinking and get myself together. I know that people don’t want to have to take care of me. I need people to know that homeless is not something you would do if you had a choice. I’m out here. This is my life and it’s a good one. It’s not an easy life but it’s OK,” Martin said. You can listen to the full audio of this report by clicking the SoundCloud player above. To hear reports from other homeless people, go to http://www.kjfa.org/news-events.