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tive and long-lasting. Service providers that receive government funding cannot require drug tests or participating in programs in exchange for housing under state law.

While other service providers that receive government funding have agreed to follow the requirement, Megison has been among the most vocal critics of housingfirst, which he calls a misguided, one-size-fits-all approach that goes against such Solutions for Change values as accountability and self-reliance.

He sees the approach as a bad fit for his clients, which include some who had once lived in housing-first programs but he said left because they were uncomfortable with neighbors who used drugs while they were trying to overcome their own addictions.

“Many of them describe themselves as ‘Housing-first refugees,’ ” Megison said of his clients. “They could not live in those places.”

Solutions for Change had walked away from about $600,000 in annual federal

grants four years ago because of the housing-first issue, but Megison said he felt they were safe to continue its Solutions University at its properties, including the 47unit Vista Terrace.

In January 2019, however, he was notified by county officials that 35 of the units funded with HUD housing vouchers would lose their funding because tenants were required to do drug testing and enroll in Solutions University.

Arguing that their clients had a right to live in a drugfree environment while in their program, Megison kept the program going at Vista Terrace, but was not making headway in his fight. Vouchers that funded individual units were not cut off immediately, but one by one they were not renewed as people graduated and moved out. Solutions for Change is paying a mortgage on the building, and it dipped into its own funds to cover the gap, investing $50,000 for 18 units over the past year.

“We’ve been working with them since, trying to resolve it,” he said about talks with the county. “We had our last hope dashed a couple of weeks ago. We engaged a

HUD specialist in D.C. and she had tried a couple of different things, and it didn’t work out.”

An attorney for Solutions for Change wrote a letter to county counsel David Stotland on Oct. 9 to say drug testing and program participation would no longer be required at Vista Terrace, making the residence in compliance with the housing voucher guidelines.

Megison said a professional management company will take over operations of Vista Terrace, and he expects housing vouchers will be reinstated next month.

“It’ll just become housing units, which is exactly the opposite of what Solutions for Change is,” said Megison, who saw the apartments as equivalent to college dorms rather than just rental units.

Solutions for Change still will offer residents a voluntary supportive services package, which Megison said could be two-hour evening classes rather than the moreintense 1,000-day Solutions University that helped participants overcome addiction, trauma, multigenerational poverty, mental health problems and other

issues.

Megison also said he doesn’t blame the county for following the rules, but would like legislators in the state and national level to advocate for funding outside of what he calls a “one-size-fitsall” approach.

While the change only affects the Vista Terrace property, Megison said he sees the writing on the wall for other Solution for Change properties that use housing vouchers, and he is discontinuing the program and drug-testing at them as well. Those include 33 units in Oceanside, 33 units in Escondido, 22 units in an unincorporated area of Vista and some duplexes in various areas, affecting 140 households in all.

While Megison is a bit of a lone wolf among secular service providers, he is not the only professional in the field who opposes housingfirst.

The faith-based San Diego Rescue Mission’s residential program Mission Academy provides yearlong housing for people who agree to attend classes and be tested for drugs.

“I think housing-first is a resource, not a solution,” said Donnie Dee, president

and CEO of the Rescue Mission.

Dee also sees the approach as a one-size-fits-all attempt to helping people overcome homeless, and he questions if it has been successful.

Since being hired to the top post of the Rescue Mission in 2017, Dee said he has rarely heard people blame their homelessness on a lack of housing. More likely, he said, an individual may be dealing with trauma, addiction, mental health problems or other issues. Once they are willing to address those issues, they may be on a path to overcome homelessness, he said.

“If the goal is to get people off the street permanently, then housing-first is not the solution,” Dee said. “The fundamental principal in life is you can’t make somebody change. They have to want to change.”

But Dee also said he understands the importance of getting people off the street, and he sees shelters that have no drug-testing requirements as providing that role. Housing, he said, should be for people willing to commit to making longlasting changes in their lives,

and Dee sees Megison as right in wanting to protect his tenants from any drug activity.

“At the end of the day, he’s really trying to create a place where people want to be well,” Dee said.

The Rescue Mission, however, is able to require drugtesting and program participants because, unlike Solutions for Change, it receives no government funding.

Christa Medeiros is a graduate of Solutions University.

“For myself, it was addiction,” she said about the root of her own homelessness. Medeiros said she would not have been comfortable living next to someone who was still using drugs while she was in the program.

“There are more than enough residents who are disappointed that the units will no longer be a part of the program,” she said about Solutions University coming to an end.

Since graduating from the program, Medeiros has been hired at Solutions for Change and works with residents as an empowerment coach.