metro
10-15-2008, 09:01 AM
Oklahoma City fighting homelessness
WENDY K. KLEINMAN
October 15, 2008
A plan to beat the streets: EFFORTS can HELP make homelessness history in city, Official says History serves as a guide that political muscle is needed,
Homelessness will be a problem of the past in Oklahoma City and the state if 10-year plans released Tuesday take root, officials said.
Featured VideoSpeakers address...
The topic of better serving the homeless is discussed.
The goal is attainable with the right strategies in place — particularly providing permanent housing with support services, said Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, who spoke at a statewide conference on the topic.
"We’re already seeing results in communities in reducing those numbers,” Mangano said. "So yes, of course I believe that we can abolish homelessness.
"It doesn’t mean people won’t fall into homelessness. It means that we’ll be on the front lines in a different way, moving those people immediately off our streets, out of shelters and into housing.”
About 150 people are attending the 2008 Oklahoma Statewide Conference on Homelessness, which ends today at the Metro Technology Center in Oklahoma City, said Jane Ferrell, chairwoman of the Governor’s Interagency Council on Homelessness.
"What we’re hoping to gain and accomplish here is to come away with some new ideas on how to better treat and how to better serve the persons who are homeless, and certainly find them homes,” Ferrell said.
Why it could work
Mangano calls on historical examples to prove his point to those who are skeptical that any plan can end homelessness.
In the past, people thought slavery, the lack of voting rights for women and minorities and segregation were too ingrained in the social landscape to ever change.
But they all did.
And the 10-year plans from the state and city have their own short history of successes that have been seen in places using similar approaches.
The reason the recent crop of plans works is that there is political muscle behind them to ensure they don’t get shelved, Mangano said.
"If good intentions, well-meaning programs and humanitarian gestures, if they could end homelessness, it would have been history decades ago,” he said.
Article Player | NewsOK (http://feeds.newsok.tv/services/link/bcpid1766638491/bctid185693325)
WENDY K. KLEINMAN
October 15, 2008
A plan to beat the streets: EFFORTS can HELP make homelessness history in city, Official says History serves as a guide that political muscle is needed,
Homelessness will be a problem of the past in Oklahoma City and the state if 10-year plans released Tuesday take root, officials said.
Featured VideoSpeakers address...
The topic of better serving the homeless is discussed.
The goal is attainable with the right strategies in place — particularly providing permanent housing with support services, said Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, who spoke at a statewide conference on the topic.
"We’re already seeing results in communities in reducing those numbers,” Mangano said. "So yes, of course I believe that we can abolish homelessness.
"It doesn’t mean people won’t fall into homelessness. It means that we’ll be on the front lines in a different way, moving those people immediately off our streets, out of shelters and into housing.”
About 150 people are attending the 2008 Oklahoma Statewide Conference on Homelessness, which ends today at the Metro Technology Center in Oklahoma City, said Jane Ferrell, chairwoman of the Governor’s Interagency Council on Homelessness.
"What we’re hoping to gain and accomplish here is to come away with some new ideas on how to better treat and how to better serve the persons who are homeless, and certainly find them homes,” Ferrell said.
Why it could work
Mangano calls on historical examples to prove his point to those who are skeptical that any plan can end homelessness.
In the past, people thought slavery, the lack of voting rights for women and minorities and segregation were too ingrained in the social landscape to ever change.
But they all did.
And the 10-year plans from the state and city have their own short history of successes that have been seen in places using similar approaches.
The reason the recent crop of plans works is that there is political muscle behind them to ensure they don’t get shelved, Mangano said.
"If good intentions, well-meaning programs and humanitarian gestures, if they could end homelessness, it would have been history decades ago,” he said.
Article Player | NewsOK (http://feeds.newsok.tv/services/link/bcpid1766638491/bctid185693325)