This article mainly speaks about one of five Innovation Delivery Teams, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies with the goal of helping city halls around Georgia solve problems holistically. Atlanta's team is focusing on homelessness and customer service. The team partnered with government agencies and community stakeholders to create solutions that substantially reduce homelessness and create an entirely new way for residents to access information.
The main issue in finding a way to reduce homelessness is the fact that the issue touches so many different government agencies. Focusing on a single one causes the government to overlook opportunities that may be more impactful.
In 2012, the team started developing a plan to reduce the 4,400 people who were either homeless or living in emergency shelters. Data they found concluded that homelessness has caused mounting public costs of around $63 million, $2 million to the local police department, and over $61 million to a single local hospital. Data also revealed that out of over the one hundred programs that service the homeless, there were no common goals. This made it difficult for the government to channel money into a more comprehensive strategy.
With this and other data, the team constructed and launched Unsheltered No More, a "collective action campaign" that planned to house over 800 homeless by December 2013. That goal was exceeded, with the program housing over 1,000 people. The team also worked to enact policies and set up a nonprofit dedicated to resource distribution to make sure that their efforts were sustained and built upon.
I think that this was a great idea. In big cities with more temperate climates, homelessness is rampant. There are so many types of people forced onto the streets and so many vastly different efforts being employed to help them. Streamlining the goals of public organizations and government entities in order to come up with a clearer goal and specific channels through which to reach that goal. The Innovation Delivery Team's work in Atlanta proves that many more people can be helped and given shelter if there is a common goal. I believe that programs like this should exist in all big cities because it not only helped bring people off the street, but immensely reduced the monetary cost of homelessness to local organizations.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/11/news/economy/atlanta-kasim-reed-innovation/index.html?iid=A_E_News
This is amazing! Go Atlanta! I think very few people realize the monetary impact homelessness can have on a city. There are a lot of naysayers who believe that trying to house and care for the homeless will be a huge financial burden, without realizing the costs of not helping. This article is a great example of things a city can do to help people while saving money. So good to see.
ReplyDeleteIt's great that they are doing their job there! Government should do everything in their power to help people live better lives. It's great that they took the time and effort to come up with a solution in Atlanta. A lot of other places don't care. The fact that they are saving money while helping people is a plus.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a great and very efficient program that have developed. Homelessness is a huge problem everywhere around the world, and it is not surprising that it's costing the government tens of millions of dollars. By helping them, they can help their economy, especially if housing the homeless can possibly finally allow them to find a job, thus boosting the economy and lowering unemployment.
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