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Groups like SEARCH have been helping the homeless for years.

But nobody’s come up with a coordinated plan to attack homelessness in Houston, until now.

Anthony Love, Coalition for the Homeless

Doug: “Can this really be done?”

Anthony Love, Coalition for the Homeless “Absolutely, absolutely, with the political and community will it can be done. I always look at the example of Katrina. We took in over 200,000 people from a city and housed them.”

But feeding and clothing does not solve the problem.

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Now the mayor has shared with city council a blue ribbon commission’s report on homelessness here.

Among its findings are about 65 percent of Houston’s homeless are African American.

Almost half are women and 28 percent are veterans.

“But you can take a shower there, you can get your clothes washed there,” said one homeless man.

And the report concludes Houston needs more than 7,000 new housing units for the homeless.

“All the different agencies, both public and non-profit, need to coordinate their efforts so that we create more housing units than are available,” said Mayor Bill White.

But of course, implementing this plan would cost money.

The blue ribbon commission estimates year one expenses at a little more than $5 million.

Some of that money would come from the federal government, but this panel believes local sources would have to come up with about $3.5 million.

But the mayor’s commission concludes taking the homeless off the street would ultimately save money for local governments.