Can four walls, heat and electricity, a laundry and on-site nurse and social worker solve Duluth's homelessness and street alcoholism problem?
It's a start, and for the foreseeable future, a better alternative than leaving homeless people to panhandle and eke out an existence on the streets.
That future began Monday with the official opening of the New San Marco apartments, a 70-unit, sliding-scale low-income complex in the Central Hillside built to accommodate chronic homeless people and alcoholics.
The logic -- part of a cooperative effort between the Bush administration and dozens of cities nationwide -- is to end homelessness by giving the homeless a place to live. The theory is by doing so, local governments will spend less on police calls, emergency room visits, substance abuse treatment and other services incurred by people living on the streets.
So far, all indications are that it works, with impressive statistics such as a 28 percent reduction in homelessness in Dallas, a 26 percent decrease in San Francisco, and an amazing 70 percent in Portland, Ore., according to Philip Mangano, the head of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Like Duluth, those cities and others have committed themselves to 10-year plans to end homelessness.
ADVERTISEMENT
And therein lies the real test. Inspiring as the early results are, it's crucial to remember the program is experimental, and long-term results won't be known for years. Will the formerly homeless revert to the streets? Will substance abusers seek treatment and stay with it? A grim reminder of once-heralded social engineering gone wrong was the development of massive public housing projects in the mid-20th century, a failure that decades later literally and figuratively imploded.
The anticipated immediate positive effects of the New San Marco are welcome, as is the humanitarian relief offered to its residents. Victory will be measured in its long-term results.
