This is the lesson that the working-class city of Everett has learned: It takes a community to rescue the hardcore homeless. For starters, the city put together a team that would track the 25 most costly and vulnerable cases, and hover over each one individually until he or she was in treatment or housing. Officials also are pushing new permanent supportive housing and sending social workers out with police officers. The crisis had become so dire that Everett city officials became the first to sue the manufacturer of the painkiller OxyContin in January. Without permanent housing, advocates and city officials say the homeless will end up back on the street after completing their treatment, repeating the cycle.

Source: ABC News December 13, 2017 08:15 UTC