露宿街头

　　One home at a time

　　房子的救赎

　　How to cut the number of street dwellers—and save money, too

　　减少倒卧，节约开支

　　HANDING a homeless alcoholic the keys to a free furnished flat may seem foolish, unfair or both. That was certainly what Ted Clugston, the mayor of Medicine Hat, a Canadian town of 61,000, used to think—but experience has changed his mind. No-strings housing offers have helped bring the town within sight of a goal it set itself five years ago: to end homelessness by 2015. At the time over 1,000 people passed through its homeless shelters each year, many between spells on the street. If the municipality succeeds, it will be the first in North America to do so.

　　将免费的带家具的公寓的钥匙交给一个无家可归的酒鬼看起来是荒谬的、不正当的，或者是既荒谬又不正当。这也正是拥有6.1万人的加拿大小镇梅迪辛哈特的镇长Ted Clugston以前所认为的，但是一番经历使他改变了主意。不带任何附加条件的房屋供给已将该镇纳入了一个在5年前制定的目标之中：在2015年杜绝无家可归。当时每年有超过1000人获得过该镇的收容，其中许多人是长期流落街头。如果该镇成功，那将是此举在北美的首创。

　　房子的救赎.jpg

　　Most of the long-term homeless are mentally ill, alcoholic or drug-addicted, often all three. The standard way to help them has long been the “staircase” approach: requiring them to quit drink and drugs before shepherding them through emergency shelters and temporary lodging until they are deemed ready to be housed. But many refuse to sign up. Those who do often fall off the wagon. Typically, fewer than half make it all the way to a (usually subsidised) permanent home.

　　大多数长期无家可归者是精神病患者、酒鬼或瘾君子，或者是三者兼而有之。帮助他们的通常的做法长期以来是“梯级解决”法：首先要求他们戒酒戒毒，然后引导他们获得临时收容和临时住所，最后，他们才被认为有资格被安置。但大多数人不干。即使这样做的人通常也会重蹈覆辙。通常，只有不到一半人可以坚持到最后，（通常是通过补贴）得到一个稳定的住所。

　　In 1992 Sam Tsemberis, a professor of psychiatry at New York University, started a programme that turned that sequence on its head. Pathways to Housing gave rough sleepers furnished flats in poor districts. Medical care, treatment for addiction and help in learning to cook, pay bills and so on were offered, but not required. After five years 88% remained housed.

　　1992年，纽约大学精神病学教授Sam Tsemberis开始一项计划，力图改变人们头脑中的固定思维方式。这个被称作“安居之路”的计划为贫困地区的无家可归者提供拎包入住的公寓。并给予医疗保健、成瘾治疗、以及在学习做饭、付账等方面的帮助，且并不强迫。该计划实施5年后，88%的人得到最终安置。

　　Since then dozens of cities around the world have seen similar success with what has come to be known as “housing first”. The premise is simple: to end homelessness, give out homes—even to people who may have lived on the streets for years.

　　此后全球数十个城市已经通过名为“住房优先”战略见证了类似的成功。前提很简单：结束流浪，分配住房—即使对于多年住在街面上的人也是如此。

　　Homeless people are triaged much like arrivals at a hospital emergency room: those deemed most at risk of dying on the street go to the top of the queue. The approach is becoming standard in Denmark and Finland, and is being tried in over a dozen other European countries, as well as Australia and Japan. Over 200 American cities have ten-year plans to end homelessness, following a national plan drawn up four years ago that features the housing-first model. Canadian cities are drawing up similar schemes.

　　无家可归者像在医院急诊室挂号一样排号：那些被认为最可能死在大街上的人排在队列前面。此法成为丹麦和芬兰的标准，并且正在被多达数十个欧洲其他国家试用，也包括澳大利亚和日本。在美国，4年前起草以住房优先模式为重头戏的为国家计划之前，已经有超过200城市拥有了结束无家可归的10十年计划。此外，加拿大的一些城市也正在起草类似的计划。

　　Perhaps surprisingly, the new approach seems to save taxpayers money. Typically, long-term rough sleepers are about 15% of all homeless people but use more than half of all public spending on services for the homeless as they cycle through emergency medical care, detox and jail. Denver, Colorado, reckons each of its 300 “heaviest utilisers” costs taxpayers $37,000 a year and that putting them straight into housing with intensive support from social workers would cost less than half as much. Calgary, the first Canadian city to use a housing-first approach, saw average annual savings of more than $30,000 per person from housing its most acute cases.

　　该新政似乎能节约纳税人的钱，这或许出人意料。一般而言，长期的露宿者占全部无家可归者的15%，但是他们耗掉了为无家可归者服务的政府开支的大半，因为他们一次次经历紧急医疗护理、戒毒和拘押。科罗拉多州的丹佛市，估算该市300位“烧钱大户”每人每年花费纳税人3.7万美元，而直接把他们塞进住房里，并且由社工提供精心扶助的花费将比原来少一半。第一个使用住房优先方法的加拿大城市卡尔加里，依靠为最困难的露宿者提供住房，见证了每人平均结余每年3万美元的奇迹。

　　Savings from housing rough sleepers with less complex problems are lower, and sometimes non-existent, says Nicholas Pleace of the Centre for Housing Policy at the University of York. But getting them off the streets at least means less wasteful use of public services: a police officer's time is better spent fighting crime than arresting vagrants for trespass.

　　纽约大学的住房政策中心的Nicholas Pleace认为，安置无家可归者的所产生结余并不高，有时甚至没有。但是让他们离开街面至少意味着较少的公共服务使用上的浪费：一名警察的时间应该花在打击犯罪，而不是去逮乱窜的流浪汉。

　　Critics view such programmes as rewarding bad behaviour: many of those housed continue to drink and use drugs, and remain unemployable. Advocates point to the harms avoided: a recent study in Canada that randomly assigned participants to housing-first or a standard programme concluded that housing them did more to improve their quality of life and their functioning in the community. Such findings help win over those who favour doing what is most humane, says Paul Howard of Community Solutions, a charity that champions the housing-first model. The criticism will fade further, he thinks, as more people come to see addiction as a grave health problem exacerbated by rough sleeping, rather than a choice.

　　批评者认为这种项目会奖励不良行为：许多被安置者继续酗酒吸毒，并且仍然失业。而支持者指出这种危害可以避免：加拿大最近一项研究标明，将申请者纳入住房优先或者是一项标准计划的结果就是：为他们提供住房大大提升了其生活质量和社会职能。这些发现有助于，社区解决机构的Paul Howard认为：这些发现有利于争取那些最热衷于最大限度行善的人，而社区解决机构一直是住房优先模式的捍卫者。他认为，随着更多的人把成瘾看成由露宿街头加剧的一种严重的健康问题而不是由个人选择而决定的时候，批评将进一步褪去。

　　For many cities seeking to house rough sleepers, finding homes is the hardest part. Rents are soaring, and waiting lists for subsidised housing growing ever longer. Medicine Hat cleared its housing-first waiting list in August. Even so, Mr Clugston is reluctant to declare homelessness beaten before a planned public-housing development comes through.

　　对于寻求安置无家可归者的许多城市而言，最难的是找房子。租金在飙升，而等候补贴性住房的名单越涨越长。Medicine Hat今年8月安置完了他们住房优先的候选名单。即使这样，Clugston镇长不得不宣布，在规划好的公共保障住房新区建成之前，又一波无家可归者来袭。