A San Diego nonprofit organization that provides homeless individuals and families with more than just a dwelling unit may have hit upon the key to breaking the cycle of homelessness.
UC San Diego’s Homelessness Hub, an applied research center, released a study Friday of nonprofit Humble Design finding a “remarkable” level of success in addressing homelessness.
The nonprofit’s mission is to design and fully furnish home interiors for individuals, families and veterans emerging from homelessness.
Community members and local companies donate all furniture and home goods used in the homes. More than 50 social service agencies around the county refer clients.
UCSD studied the organization for 10 months, conducting 169 surveys and 30 interviews with client individuals and families.
“Our findings are remarkable: nearly 98% of Humble’s clients stay housed after receiving Humble’s services,” said postdoctoral fellow Stacey Livingstone. “This housing retention rate is more than 10 times higher than the county average, according to statistics from the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.”
“What we discovered is that having a sense of home — rather than merely having access to housing — improves client physical, mental, social, and financial health,” Livingstone said.
The researchers said that based on their findings, Humble Design should scale up its capacity through flexible public funding and increased philanthropic support.
Drew Moser, CEO of the Lucky Duck Foundation, has announced a $100,000 challenge grant to the community to invest public and private funding for Humble Design’s services. Lucky Duck will match contributions dollar-for-dollar through Oct. 31. Donations may be made online at humbledesign.org/sandiego.
Humble Design is active in four other cities, Chicago, Cleveland Detroit and Seattle.
