Article about SOCIAL HOUSING by By H. Jacob Carlson and Gianpaolo Baiocchi -June 6, 2023

Article about SOCIAL HOUSING by By H. Jacob Carlson and Gianpaolo Baiocchi -June 6, 2023

Housing Post suggested by Zerita J.

Link to article from NPQ

Link to article from Shelterforce.org

Commentary by Sandra C.

What if we had something more humane than Section 8, which is public access to housing as an equal right for those with low income?  What would that look like?

Imagine "Social housing" as Non-Profit Community owned property where costs may be subsidized as needed.  Shelter could be supported as much as food and health because it is a very important environmental factor for mental and physical health.  Arguably, housing is also integral to social, occupational, and intellectual health, which are all basic tenets of dimensions of whole health.

This article was first published June 6th and was reposted on June 30th, 2023, and it covers many cogent points about what might go into public policy planning to aid the welfare of anyone needing social housing.  

One or two points it probably could have also covered would have been- what happens when anyone who has been housed has addiction problems, or needs treatment with other behavioral problems that would affect others in the community?  How do we best give the mental health community safe space and comfort boundaries to keep everyone in the community the care that may seem unattainable when people "relapse" or have patterns of behavior or symptoms that may lead to self-harm or violence?

Here's an article from frontiersin.org that describes the United States' past with residential care and supportive housing, sharing the current principles & challenges behind them.

Here's another article from madinamerica.org about soteria houses, which offer non-medical treatment and shelter for people with mental & behavioral health issues.

Here's an article about the first soteria house in the 70s from San Jose, CA.  Now soteria houses are more common in the European Union countries like Sweden than they are here.

In this article additionally in Germany there are two other names for their non-coercive treatment facilities.

Many of these Soteria Houses offer alternative treatments, often providing doctors who have new approaches to healing, such as "doing with" & "being with" social therapy solutions.  Their model is similar to Fountain House which started in the 1940s in upstate New York with a "clubhouse"

In fact, France, in particular Paris also offers the clubhouse model as described in this article. This International Clubhouse is more of a walk-in facility and does not offer housing, but it does help people with finding both housing and employment.  As a person who frequents Paris, I want to know if membership is strictly for people with French language skills or European Citizenship.  I'll have to ask when I go again, and revisit this blog post with an answer.