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Of Note:

Helping even more homeless people

by Dr. Paul R. Ahr

Miami has made significant strides toward becoming the first major city in America to solve the problem of homelessness. The pioneering efforts of Alvah Chapman are being brought to maturity under the leadership of Ron Book and the more than two dozen agencies in Miami-Dade County supported by the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. According to the Homeless Trust, the number of people living on the street in this county has been reduced to less than 1,400 from more than 8,000 in just 10 years. As the overall number of people living on the streets has declined, the proportion of those who can be defined as ''chronically homeless'' has increased. These are people who have been homeless for a year or longer and have a disabling condition such as a serious addiction, mental illness and/or medical problem. They are well-known to Camillus House, where we have been serving individuals and families who are homeless since 1960.

A new page in Camillus' history of service to the Miami community began to be written in January 2007. To honor a promise to the business community, we opened the parking lot adjacent to our main shelter on Northeast First Avenue to all people who wanted to spend the night there under our watchful eye. Our goal was to relocate inside our gate the 40 or so people who had for years slept on the street in front of our door. Within months we were accommodating about 240 people a night. Initially funded by an unexpected one-time charitable gift -- now exhausted -- the ongoing monthly cost of $70,000 for our ''Courtyard Program'' needs to be raised from public and private sources.

During the ensuing 16 months, hundreds of homeless people have taken advantage of this new Camillus Courtyard Program. Our staff has interviewed 400 of these overnight guests, about three-fourths men and one-fourth women. They come from all racial backgrounds. Based on self-reports and staff observations, we estimate that on any night about half of our 240 guests can be considered ''chronically homeless.'' Another 80 or so have a disability but have been homeless for less than a year. The remaining 40 or so guests have not yet stayed long enough for us to determine their circumstances.

From the perspective of tourists and other visitors to downtown Miami, on most days or nights there are no people living on Northeast First Avenue between Miami Dade College and the I-395 overpass. Small clusters of homeless people sometimes gather on Northeast Eighth Street, and they are also welcome at Camillus for our services.

Camillus House visitors and staff are struck by the quiet, orderly, even polite demeanor of our guests. The guests themselves have created a community at Camillus and they have set and enforced the unwritten rule that ``street behavior should be left at the door.''

As for the hundreds of people who have benefited from this initiative, the first story told to me in January 2007 speaks to the impact of our new approach on homeless people themselves. I visited the courtyard one night, two weeks after opening. A man got up to thank me for letting him spend the night, proudly telling me that he had not done drugs for the past 10 nights because ''the drug dealers can't get to me here.'' Every guest who stays with us believes that Camillus House is a safer place to be than on the streets of Miami, reaffirming our belief that this approach is in the best interests of these homeless people as well as our community at large.

Becoming the first major city in America to end homelessness will depend on the extent to which this community provides effective treatment and appropriate housing for its residents who are or may become chronically homeless. The future Camillus House campus will provide in one location a comprehensive array of services for this vulnerable but difficult to treat population. Our courtyard experience enhances our confidence that this new campus will allow us, in less than 10 years, to eliminate chronic homelessness in Miami.

Working together with other fine agencies funded by the Homeless Trust, and with financial support from our community, we look forward to days and nights on which no one lives on the streets of Miami-Dade County. I urge you to support Camillus House's initiative to end chronic homelessness and make our community a better place for everyone.