Panel pushes housing solutions to help end homeless

“Housing, housing and housing,” Michael Stoops, executive director for the National Coalition for the Homeless, said at a forum at the University of Maryland’s School of Social Work Wednesday.

The forum, “Poor, Brutish and Short: A Discussion of Homelessness, Health and Life and Death on the Street,” chaired by William Breakey of Johns Hopkins University, featured four expert guests who discussed the severity of homelessness in Baltimore and ways the problem could be eradicated.

“We came to this session to sit down, and there were four seats and five of us. It seemed like that was the perfect metaphor for the experience of homelessness in our country. There just aren’t enough seats,” said Fred Osher, director of Health services and system policy for council of state government.

“Research in several cities has shown that death for homeless people is four times that for the general population,” Breakey said.

The panelists said the government needs to promote more efficient housing plans, and create an affordable health insurance system where homeless people with disabilities can more easily have access to help.

“There are many people out there entitled to disability benefits who don’t have them because they have to prove how disabled they are,” Osher said.

The panel highlighted such programs like the Healthy Maryland Initiative — a coalition formed to endeavor to provide health care for all residents of Maryland as a stepping ground toward the right direction for solving homelessness.

Peter Beilenson, former health commissioner in Baltimore and guest panelist, said efforts have to be made nationally before homelessness can be solved on the local level.

“There’s got to be more than just people like us who are concerned about this,” he said.

“We need to elect a president who will make homelessness a major issue for him or her. Once we have a president in power, we have the resources to go about solving the problem.”

obourne@baltimoreexaminer.com