Homeless residents sleep in tents. | Wikimedia Commons/Gillfoto
Homeless residents sleep in tents. | Wikimedia Commons/Gillfoto
In a speech for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Robert Marbut spoke of the importance of requiring homeless individuals to participate in recovery or treatment programs, or offering incentives to encourage participation in these programs.
Marbut is the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), and is committed to ending homelessness, especially in Texas, where he is the President and CEO of the San Antonio shelter Haven for Hope. He is also a former city council member and Mayor Pro Tem in San Antonio.
“Once you’re in the program, whatever the program looks like, you have to have treatment recovery that’s customized for you," Marbut told KXAN. “And if you’re not doing it, it has to either be incentivized or required. Whatever it is, it has to be customized to your issue that has catalyzed your event — whatever you lost your house to in the first place.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development does not require homeless individuals to participate in treatment or recovery programs in order to participate in housing programs or other services.
In this panel, Marbut presented data that showed a 15.6 percent increase in the number of emergency shelter beds, rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing beds over the past five years, there are 20.6 percent more homeless individuals since 2015. Marbut told the panel that the data supports a theory that increased funding and options alone do not reduce the problem of homelessness.
Austin News reported on Feb. 6 that there has been an increase in homelessness in the City of Austin, with 1,086 individuals counted in 2019, although there were 1,169 sheltered individuals the same year. In 2018, there were 1,014 homeless individuals, and 1,133 sheltered individuals, as reported by the city’s Ending Community Homelessness Coalition’s Point in Time Count.