Texas should create and employ a self-sufficiency optimization scale to incentivize and support homeless Texans in moving beyond dependence on life-long subsidized housing to achieving their full human potential.

Key points

  • By adopting a self-sufficiency optimization scale for the homeless, the state of Texas would refute HUD-defined success—the placement of a homeless individual in subsidized-for-life, no-strings-attached housing for six months.
  • Local governments and nonprofits would be required to measure and report on individual progress based on the self-sufficiency optimization scale to obtain non-HUD funding, thereby incentivizing all entities to work and measure beyond housing placement only.
  • The self-sufficiency optimization scale would create local-level transparency and accountability that does not exist today. Its data will be useful to the state and to local community members to hold homeless-serving organizations accountable beyond permanent housing placement.