A national advocate for ending homelessness says the problem is actually solvable, with some changed approaches.
Steve Berg of the National Alliance to End Homelessness says Madison's doing a good job of getting resources to homeless people. But, Berg says, it's important for the city to have a system that monitors the results of its work — specifically, how efforts impact the number of homeless people. “Everything needs to be really judged in terms of, 'What effect is it going to have on the number of people homeless?'”
Berg was the keynote speaker at the first Dane County Summit on Homelessness. He believes it's possible to solve the problem. He says some communities have had success by developing local systems to track results and having a “housing-first” mentality when helping homeless people: putting people in housing and then helping with other issues.
Leadership Greater Madison's Martin Day, who helped put the event together, says Berg brought a national perspective to the event. Day says the summit was an opportunity to bring people working on the issue together to talk about successes, setbacks, and possible solutions. “It's really a networking opportunity, that we'd like to see different organizations work together.”
Day hopes the summit will facilitate further discussion.
