About Us

THE PROBLEM                 

• Over the course of a year, between 2.5 and 3.5 million people will live either on the streets or in an emergency shelter. This population, if it was a city, would be the third largest city in the U.S., ranking between Los Angeles and Chicago.

• 23 percent of homeless people are chronically homeless, meaning that they have been homeless for a year or more or four times in the past three years and they suffer from mental or physical disabilities.

• 16 percent of all homeless people in America suffer from mental illness.

THE SOLUTION

Pathways’ Housing First approach to ending chronic homelessness for people with mental disabilities has been proven to work. The principles are:

• Provide immediate housing without prerequisites.
• Listen to clients—offer them the support and services needed to achieve recovery on their terms.
• Integrate clients in the community—provide independent apartments in buildings across a city, rather than in designated “homes.”

THE EVIDENCE

• The number of chronically homeless people in the United States dropped by almost 30 percent between 2005 and 2007. Administration official attribute much of that one-third drop to the Housing First Strategy. 
• Public cost of an average chronically homeless person per year, living on the streets and in shelters: $40,000.

Public cost of an average chronically homeless person per year, living in a supportive housing program like Pathways to Housing: $16,000  

• Pathways to Housing clients have an 85% five-year retention rate and drastic drops in emergency room visits, contacts with law enforcement, and psychiatric hospitalizations.

•  More than 200 cities in the US and Canada adopted 10-year plans to end chronic homelessness, 67% of these plans include a Housing First program.