First and foremost, we need to massively scale housing across this country. Housing needs to be delivered quickly, and it needs to be delivered without reservation. It can't be based on perceived merit, or it can't be a reward dangled at the end of making your transition through recovery.
Housing is the foundation that everything else is built on. You can't ask somebody who has experienced long-term homelessness and addictions.... You can't take away the addiction first, because the addiction is what they're using as the band-aid. Taking somebody's addiction away without them having stability and a home.... You can't fix that without taking away the reason they're using in the first place. That would be my first suggestion.
My second strong suggestion is that we need to really integrate systems together, but we need to make sure everybody is talking and that it's one voice. We have too many people and too many different agencies controlling different parts of housing lists. We have too many people who only work on their component, but the extra needed component is just one more thing out of their reach. They say, “That's not mine. That's that guy's to do.”
We really need to take the red tape out of the way, not just for the clients and the people trying to transition from homelessness but for the housing agencies working with them too. There are a lot of people who work in the field all day who have very little understanding of where they get help from certain points. If somebody like that, who's educated in the system and works within it all day, can't figure it out, then you know the system is not working.
I'm being mindful of time, so I'm going to cut it off there.