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In Louisville, Kentucky, an old motel has been turned into transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness. It's taken on an unconventional model, focusing on housing first and treatment later, and they've had some success. Roberto Roldan with Louisville Public Media tells us more about the Arthur Street Hotel.
BONNIE BAKER: Hi. Is it OK if we run down the stairs?
ROBERTO ROLDAN, BYLINE: Bonnie Baker wakes up at the crack of dawn each day to catch a van to the methadone clinic.
BAKER: Every morning, I'm making a mad dash to the van.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: There you go (ph).
BAKER: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR DOOR SHUTTING)
ROLDAN: On the way, the van drives under Interstate 65, where we spot city workers clearing a small homeless encampment.
Is that what they're doing?
BAKER: Oh, my gosh, I hope not.
ROLDAN: I think they are.
BAKER: No they...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah, I think they are.
ROLDAN: Yeah, they are.
BAKER: Oh, my god. How crazy is this?
ROLDAN: For the past five years, Baker was that person living on the street. The 52-year-old lost her home when her mother died. While homeless, she navigated drug addiction and an abusive relationship. Now, after months of waiting and working with a case manager at the Arthur Street Hotel, she's about to move into a new home. At the clinic, Baker has a short wait before she gets a little cup with methadone syrup. Baker says she wasn't really considering sobriety when she first arrived at the Arthur Street Hotel-turned-shelter in February. But a few months later, her federal housing voucher came through, and she had a realization.
BAKER: Just these old ways and old behaviors and things like that, it's not going to hold up, and I've seen a lot of people fail and lose their houses, like, right away. I want to keep this.
ROLDAN: Baker says if the staff at the Arthur Street Hotel had tried to force her into treatment in order to get housing, she'd probably still be on the streets.
BAKER: I'm so tired of people not letting me choose, you know? And if you're ready, you will choose the right things yourself.
ROLDAN: Baker's journey from chronic homelessness to stable housing and her own decision to reduce her drug use are the ideal outcome for advocates of the housing-first model. The theory is simple. You provide stability and safety before you start working on other challenges. Donny Greene, one of the hotel's cofounders, says people often change the relationship with drugs once they get housed.
DONNY GREENE: But you have to get to that first point, and that is - that's housing in a nonjudgmental way, OK, without all the systemic barriers that currently exist for most housing programs.
ROLDAN: The Arthur Street Hotel has about 70 guests at any given time. They get access to mental health care and medication-assisted drug treatment. It's just not required, and people can also bring their pets. The goal at Arthur Street is to get a federal Section 8 housing voucher that pays rent and utilities, and they've gotten more than 200 people who stayed at the hotel into housing in the last two years. Arthur Street has found success in Louisville, but the model has its critics.
JOHN HODGSON: You can just go into a safe, warm place to use drugs and invite your friends in, compounding the misery for those people on the street.
ROLDAN: That's Republican state Representative John Hodgson. He was successful in passing the Safer Kentucky Act, which criminalizes sleeping on the street and bans housing-first programs that don't require treatment from getting state funding. He says places like Arthur Street enable addiction, and they don't lead to long-term success.
HODGSON: There's got to be at least some minimal step that someone makes in order to get the housing. They've got to agree to, you know, not committing crimes or not using drugs in the facility.
ROLDAN: Arthur Street has so far operated without government money. It's been funded through a nonprofit to the tune of $3 million per year. The hotel tries to reduce harm by responding quickly to overdose and partnering with a local syringe exchange. Greene says lawmakers and the public should support housing-first programs as there's plenty of research showing that, if managed well, it's effective at getting people into housing.
GREENE: What we really offer is what housing creates for everyone who's currently housed, and that's stability. So that they don't disappear off the map. They don't end up in jail for crimes of poverty.
ROLDAN: Arthur Street's housing model worked for Bonnie Baker. She's proud of her new home.
BAKER: Oh, isn't it beautiful? Let me get some light in here.
ROLDAN: Baker now lives in a one-bedroom house with a big kitchen. Standing in her new backyard with her dog Wren, she says she can't wait for the feeling of comfort.
BAKER: Seeing myself cooking something and cozying up on the couch with Wren, watching a movie and watching the leaves fall from inside, you know?
ROLDAN: Baker is now having to think about work and how she's going to afford things like clothes and Wi-Fi. For now, she says she's just content to volunteer at Arthur Street. Baker wants to help other people in their transition and give back to a place that she says saved her life. For NPR News, I'm Roberto Roldan in Louisville.
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