Homeless trauma: Stress of loss, joy of new home

Lewis Lopez walks briskly across the corridor and taps an electronic key to open the door to his studio apartment. A former homeless resident of Boston, Lopez is proud of his home and proudly describes changes he made since moving into the apartment. Lopez clearly is proud of his home and every little touch he made to it to reflect his taste. "I've been in jail. I've been... I've been in shelters. I've been in rehabs," Lopez says, putting his pride into context. Lopez's studio apartment is the result of a Boston strategy that has the city and area nonprofits using extensive outreach to get people who've been on the streets for more than a year into apartments and then provide services such as drug treatment and life-skills training like budgeting with the help of case managers. Lopez says the homeless life is hazardous, and he found it easier being in prison. In Boston, the number of people sleeping on the streets and in shelters has dropped 25% over two years as service providers focused on finding permanent housing for those who've been on the streets the longest. But homelessness is expected to be up nationally when the federal government releases results from an annual count later this year in the first full count conducted since the coronavirus pandemic began. Experts say with the end of pandemic relief measures that kept many people housed, the crisis is deepening.