Successful Houselessness “Best Practices” Approach in Medford, Oregon — WHY not in the Lakes Region?
HOUSELESSNESS is in the news cycle throughout America, especially in municipalities and regions where elections are taking place. The Lakes Region in New Hampshire is no different. HOUSELESSNESS is in the newspaper again. update 08/26/2025 So let’s consider this for a moment with this graphic.
Some say: Criminalization of HOUSELESSNESS is one solution which is suggested by a few such as the author of the Letter to the Editor recently published in The Laconia Sun (Aug. 26, 2025). The suggestion has a premise. HOUSELESSNESS is caused by drugs mental health issues, enabling gateways, etc. That may well be true for “some” HOUSELESS people. However, those conditions are shared as well by many people who live in homes in the Lakes Region. And according to DATA of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in The 2024 Annual Homeless Report to Congress (AHAR) (117 p. PDF), the primary cause of HOUSELESSNESS is the rapidly expanding GAP between income and expenses for rent, mortgages, property taxes, energy, food, and other costs common to both HOUSELESS individuals and families; also being a condition which is shared by people currently living in a home.
Yet opinions persist with the public bringing to mind the subjective aphorism:
“When you are a hammer — every problem looks like a nail.”
But is there another Way to Approach HOUSELESSNESS? One which is already implemented and successful? YES! In a region demographically similar to the Lakes Region in New Hampshire; one contained in a Balance of State Continuum of Care (BoSCoc) region; similar to the Belknap County BosCoC comprising 11 cities (towns); Medford, Oregon has incorporated addressing HOUSELESSNESS in a “Best Practices” manner.
What is different? Medford has a plan it has published discussed and linked directly from its website on a landing page entitled “Addressing Homelessness” to an 87 page PDF entitled “Homeless System Action Plan”. (April 2019, revised June 2020) Separate headings and sections to that report have separate webpages with relevant descriptions. For purposes of space the graphics appear immediately below:
For those readers who are interested, accessing the landing page entitled “Addressing Homelessness” to the 87 page PDF entitled “Homeless System Action Plan”. (April 2019, revised June 2020) — is highly recommended. In fact the Table of Contents by itself is instructive:
The following slides from the report presented in2 different panels focus in on the thoroughness with which Medford has approached HOUSELESSNESS:
Slide Pane One:
Slide Pane Two:
