This Week in Social Impact: Housing First Is Not the Problem — The System Around It Is | Week of May 19, 2026
- Giovanne Schachere
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
This week’s headlines expose a truth that anyone doing real work in social services already knows: you cannot solve complex human problems with one-dimensional solutions. From housing policy to reentry funding to healthcare innovation, the news this week reveals both the consequences of systemic failure and the sparks of genuine leadership. Let me walk you through what matters — and why.
Housing First Is Under Fire — But the Real Problem Is Everything Around It
One of the most important pieces I read this week came from Next City: an op-ed by Harvey Lieberman, a clinical psychologist with five decades in public mental health and supportive housing in New York. His argument is straightforward and powerful — Housing First was never designed to be the entire system. It was one correction in a continuum of care. But as psychiatric infrastructure collapsed, addiction treatment capacity shrank, and long-term rehabilitation programs weakened, Housing First became the default catch-all for populations with increasingly complex needs.
Lieberman points to Utah’s recent attempt to move homeless residents to a mandatory treatment campus — which collapsed amid concerns about costs, civil liberties, and the absence of a clinical plan — as a cautionary tale of replacing one oversimplified approach with another.
This resonates deeply with what we see every day at Mysti’s Adult & Family Services. Housing is the foundation — I have always believed that. But a roof alone does not heal trauma, treat addiction, or rebuild trust. As someone who has spent years serving families in crisis, I know that wraparound services, care management, and genuine community connection are what turn a housing placement into a stable life. We have to stop asking one model to carry the weight of an entire broken system.
North Carolina Takes a Whole-of-Government Approach to Housing
On Monday, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein signed Executive Order No. 36, establishing a coordinated statewide strategy to tackle the affordable housing crisis. The numbers are staggering: North Carolina faces a gap of more than 750,000 housing units through 2029. Approximately half of all renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Teachers in 23 counties cannot afford average rent where they work.
Stein appointed Janneke Ratcliffe — formerly of the Urban Institute — as Senior Advisor for Housing Policy, tasked with aligning state agencies, local governments, and cross-sector partners around measurable housing goals. This is the kind of bold, systems-level leadership I respect. As a father of seven, I think about housing security every single day. Housing security is family security. Every state should be building this kind of coordinated infrastructure.
Massachusetts May Cut Lifelines for 66 Reentry Organizations
In Massachusetts, the Community Empowerment and Reinvestment Grant (CERG) program — which funds 66 community organizations providing reentry services for people returning from incarceration — is poised to lose all state funding in next year’s budget. Neither Governor Healey’s proposal nor the House-passed budget includes CERG funding. Senator Liz Miranda has proposed a $15 million amendment to keep the program alive.
The stories from the ground are gut-wrenching. Jamal Gooding, executive director of People Affecting Community Change in Brockton, described men coming home from prison "with clothes that wouldn’t even fit and nothing else." People returning from incarceration need more than a job posting — they need IDs, mental health support, housing, and someone walking beside them. Cutting reentry funding does not save money. It costs communities more in recidivism, emergency services, and human potential lost.
Charlotte’s Green Reentry Incubator Shows What Innovation Looks Like
Here is a story that gives me hope. Dream.Org launched a Green Reentry Incubator pilot in Charlotte, connecting formerly incarcerated people to clean energy careers in solar, EV infrastructure, and weatherization. The eight-week program provides hands-on training, nationally recognized certifications, wraparound support, and a $3,200 stipend. Nationally, only 37% of people released from prison find employment within a year. Programs like this change those odds by meeting people where they are and connecting them to a growing industry.
As Candace Beverly, a program participant, put it: when people are given a real chance to work, contribute, and feel proud of what they do, they are far less likely to reoffend. That is not just hope — that is research-backed reality.
Also On Our Radar
CalAIM Gets a Major New Clinical Trial: A new cluster-randomized trial called COMPASS-CalAIM will evaluate whether comprehensive Enhanced Care Management under California’s CalAIM initiative — bundling ECM, Community Supports, and Transitional Care Services — reduces hospital readmissions for high-risk Medi-Cal members. With 1,200 planned participants, this is a significant test of whether integrated care coordination actually moves the needle. For those of us doing ECM-adjacent work, this study matters.
D.C.’s Affordable Housing Market Hits a "Breaking Point": The National Housing Trust released a fact sheet documenting the District’s worst affordable housing construction numbers in 15 years. Investors are pulling out, agencies are losing capacity, and operating deficits threaten existing affordable units. It is a stark warning for cities everywhere about what happens when we treat affordable housing as optional.
What This Means for Our Communities
Step back from the individual headlines and a clear pattern emerges: we are at an inflection point in social impact. The models that carried us through the last decade — Housing First, grant-funded reentry programs, patchwork safety nets — are being tested like never before. Some are breaking under the weight of expectations they were never designed to bear.
But this week also showed us the path forward: comprehensive approaches that coordinate across systems, innovative programs that connect people to real economic opportunity, and leaders willing to build statewide strategies instead of settling for quick fixes. As the host of The Giovanne Show and as a CEO who has spent years building programs that serve our most vulnerable neighbors, I believe the solutions exist. They require political will, sustained investment, and the kind of leadership that does not flinch when the work gets hard.
Join the conversation. Subscribe to Giovanne’s Inner Circle for weekly insights on the issues shaping our communities. Visit schachere.com to connect, learn more, and be part of the movement for lasting social impact.
