Three American mayors discussed their approaches to combating homelessness during a panel held at Harvard on April 17. The event brought together Patrick Farrell of Huntington, West Virginia; Kaarin Knudson of Eugene, Oregon; and Monroe Nichols of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who shared the challenges and solutions they have implemented in their respective cities.
The topic is significant as an estimated 770,000 people are homeless in the United States according to recent data. Of those individuals, about one-third are unsheltered while two-thirds live in shelters or temporary arrangements. The issue impacts not only housing but also public safety and health.
Monroe Nichols said that “public safety, public health: All the things we do as a city are impacted by the issue of homelessness.” Patrick Farrell explained that addressing homelessness was essential for broader community improvement. “We weren’t going to be able to attract businesses; we weren’t going to be able to fix the infrastructure,” Farrell said. “We weren’t going to be able to give hope to the young people in our city who want to stay. It became the first thing to tackle to be able to build everything else.” He described efforts such as bringing together hospitals, businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies and launching a public safety dashboard.
Nichols emphasized data-driven goals for Tulsa: “We have about 3,000 people who become homeless in our community every single year. So driving indicator No. 1 is, do we have 3,000 units in our community that we can get those people into? We’re not there yet, but that’s the goal.” He also noted success with reducing wait times for housing from an average of 220 days down to 37 days through what he called a rapid exit strategy.
Kaarin Knudson pointed out that good data showed Eugene did not need many more transitional housing units but needed better support for moving people into permanent homes: “We need maybe 100 more spaces, maybe 200,” she said. She cited federal funding cuts leading to fewer case managers as a barrier.
Moderator Howard Koh said: “We are here because we understand that homelessness represents a highly visible and highly unacceptable humanitarian crisis… But we can solve it if we have everybody in this room… stepping up and taking charge of this crisis that is growing by the day.”
The forum was part of Global Mayors at Harvard Day organized by the Bloomberg Center for Cities with participation from mayors representing multiple countries.
