Houston leaders say they're developing a plan to tackle homelessness

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The newly appointed director of the City of Houston's Housing and Community Development Department said he is working alongside Mayor John Whitmire to combat homelessness.

Mike Nichols previously served as the president and CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston and Harris County. He has been in his current role for eight weeks.

He and the mayor are working to build off of the plan already in place to reduce homelessness further.

Nichols said the focus will be to get those living on the street into housing, particularly those in encampments. They want to provide paid case managers to work with the individuals and subsidies for rent.

He said the additional piece of this is trying to help people who are left on the street because of severe mental health problems and finding ways to get services to them.

Collaboration and increasing outreach are two other factors that Nichols said will play a role in reducing the homeless population.

"What we've seen time and time again is when people are housed and have those wraparound services. They do better," Nichols said. "This is a finite problem that is solvable."

Numbers for 2024 have not yet been released, but according to the latest report released by the Coalition for the Homeless, the number of unhoused persons dropped by 17% from 2022 to 2023.

"Our data shows that leaving somebody on the street, having them homeless on the street, cost literally tens of thousands of dollars," Nichols explained. "One study showed almost $90,000, much of that in emergency room hospital visits, which, as you know, are hugely expensive. Once they get housed, that is reduced tremendously. It costs about $22,000. That includes the voucher, the services, and the apartment to have somebody housed for a year."

Within the last week, Nichols and Whitmire traveled to D.C. to advocate for more money for housing vouchers.

"It's also a plan that takes into consideration the changing funding streams," Nichols explained. "There was additional funding that came available during COVID-19, and some of that will go away in the next year, so we have to begin looking at other funding streams to do that."

Funding became a recent issue for the meals served at 61 Riesner St. near downtown four days a week. A lack of funding put the program at risk of shutting down.

The Housing and Community Development Department said the initial agreement was to provide meals for 100 people experiencing homelessness, but the program far exceeded that number.

Since starting May 2023, Bread of Life, which partners with the city, has served 33,845 meals.

Nichols said Whitmire approved more funding to keep the program going for a few more months until they can secure other funding.

The director does not believe the city's limited budget will affect their operations.

"We have always dealt with that," Nichols explained. "One of our expertise here at the Department of Housing and Community Development is using federal funds, and we will continue to have that federal expertise, and we will continue to build on that."

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