Homeless addicts get help without getting clean, sober

Four years ago, Ellison, now 42, says she was a crack cocaine and alcohol addict who slept on park benches. Today she has a place to live and has taken classes at Everest College, in Arlington, Va., in a medical assistants program.

Ellison received her apartment through Housing First, a controversial nationwide initiative to house chronically homeless people without first requiring them to get treatment for their addictions.

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Publication Date: 
2011
Location: 
United States