The Baltimore Mayor's Office outlined a plan Wednesday to tackle homelessness in the city.
The plan was based on recommendations from the Mayoral Workgroup on homelessness, which was established by Mayor Catherine Pugh.
The city received approximately $24 million from the U.S. Housing and Urban Department this year, which is spent mainly on emergency shelters for the homeless. Baltimore devotes another $10 million to those shelters, as well as additional services.
According to Pugh, that is not enough. She said it will take $350 million to end homelessness in Baltimore.
"You have to treat homelessness as if it was you. What would you want if you were sleeping on the streets of the city and what kinds of services we should be providing," the mayor said.
The Mayoral Workgroup on Homelessness provided three recommendations to fight homelessness in Baltimore: strong leadership, a realignment of existing resources and substantial increases of public and private investment, and building permanent housing.
"We're talking about rapid re-housing, which is short to medium term rental support, wrap-around job skills training, mental health, addiction counseling, help with their kids, placement in schools, things to get people back on their feet quickly," said Terry Hickey, Director of the Mayor's Office of Human Services.
"It's about creating homes for the homeless," Pugh said.
