Arlington County volunteers took to the streets this week to survey 153 homeless people in the county, 100 of whom will be given homes based on a vulnerability index designed to chronicle who is in most need of immediate help. The survey was part of the county’s “100 homes campaign,” part of a broader nationwide effort to find 100,000 homes for 100,000 homeless people by July 2013.
“The survey will rank people by those who are most vulnerable and those who are most likely to die on the streets,” said Kathy Sibert, executive director of A-SPAN, a nonprofit that helped with the survey. “It really is the smart way to do the right thing because what they’ve proven is if you can get people into permanent supportive housing, housing where there is a subsidy as well as a case manager, it’s much less expensive for us than to have them in the jails or in shelters. It’s a much better use of resources.”
The recipients of the housing, chosen from among those surveyed by volunteers, will be informed in the near future, according to the nonprofit group.
The Arlington survey found that 55 percent of those surveyed suffered from mental illness, and 71 percent had a history of substance abuse. Many of the respondents also had health problems, leading to 119 hospitalizations in the last year and 183 emergency room visits in the last three months — at a total cost of $3.2 million per year, according to Arlington staff’s estimates.
Those ranked most vulnerable by the survey will be given an apartment to live in and a case worker — services provided out of Arlington’s current $13.6 million budget for addressing homelessness. The survey determines vulnerability by number of years homeless, health problems, substance abuse problems and other factors.
Homelessness greatly increases the odds that people will meet an early death, campaign spokesman Jake Maguire said, adding that the survey was not a straight ranking. “We don’t say, ‘You’re No. 1 on the list.’ What it is is, ‘You’re vulnerable, so you’re prioritized,'” he said.
