This policy analyst was inspired by Jeff Seemann and ePluribus Media members.
The issue of ending homelessness is once again going under national microscope. In July 2000, the National Alliance to End Homelessness took on an ambitious goal to end homelessness by creating ten-year plan to end homelessness. After the 2000 election, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Mel Martinez told the Alliance it would adopt this goal. Then President Bush made “ending chronic homelessness in the next decade a top objective” in his FY 2003 Budget. Soon after everybody got on this bandwagon – the New York Times wrote two lead editorials arguing forcefully for this goal, and several cities and some states have committed themselves to developing a plan by 2004.
At the time the 10-year plan was create, the National Alliance to End Homelessness was based on the Clinton/Gore administration commitment to end homelessness. During their administration, homeless program funds were steadily increasing. Now with the Bush Administration, our nation faces a host of conflicting social, economic and security priorities. Jeff’s experiences is evidence that front line agencies are struggling to meet increases in demand for shelter, housing and services. Jeff also provided evidence it is a very unfriendly world for the homeless, poor, and low-income people.
Just as the existence of homelessness demonstrates the failure of many community and economic supports, their are successful examples that demonstrate that rehousing and prevention can end the cycle of homelessness. The challenge is to bring together an effective systems, policies, and communities that touch the lives of the homeless in a partnership to end homelessness.
The current system that is in place can do little to prevent people from becoming homeless or change the overall availability of housing, income and services that will truly end homelessness. Although there are programs with the potential to prevent homelessness through such programs as welfare, health care, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and veteran’s assistance, current resources and policies of these programs do not match the need.
Homelessness and Housing
Homelessness is often linked to the lack of affordable housing in the nation, oftentimes, programs forget the fact that a person’s earnings are insufficient to pay for the housing that does exist. People who become homeless are at the very bottom of the income spectrum; they are the people who struggle with paying their rent and with remaining adequately housed.
Those who are homeless and do have a job, many of them work in jobs that require less than 20 hours per week. Or if they do have a job that pays enough, their pay only covers the house payment, rent or mortgage.
As bad as it is for those who do have jobs and can’t escape homelessness, climbing out of homelessness is virtually impossible for those without a job. For those with limited skills or experience, opportunities for jobs that pay a living wage are very limited. In such a competitive environment, the difficulties of job-seeking as a homeless person can be almost insurmountable barriers to employment. During the time I was in county, successful programs were those who integrated job training and employment assistance into their housing programs.
One of the hallmarks Republican did soon after they controlled Congress in 1994, they cut – approved by Clinton – the Job Training for the Homeless Demonstration Program (JTHDP) that was administered by the Department of Labor. The JTHDP program provided funds for basic skills and literacy instruction, job training, referral, and job search activities. Although funding for the JTHDP program was cut, Congress required the Department of Labor to enhance the capacity of national employment programs such as the JTPA to serve homeless individuals. The problem, no one is monitoring this request.
Just because a homeless persons obtain work by successfully completing an employment program, does not necessarily end his or her homelessness. He or she still needs a decent job and a place to live.
Ending homelessness will require closing the gap between income and housing costs, but not just any type of jobs, employers need to play their part by paying a living wage. The reforms of our workforce development system have not served the homeless well. Congressional and Presidential action is needed to provide incentives for state workforce systems to include homeless people in the Workforce Investment Act and in other legislative opportunities. Besides having the Federal Government setting policies, labor and the private sector must work together to ensure that has an opportunity to obtain a job which pays a living wage, and the necessary supports, such as child care and transportation, to keep it. Housing instability will continue until the supply of affordable housing is increased; incomes are adequate to pay for necessities such as food, shelter and health care; and disadvantaged people can receive the services they need. Attempts to change the homeless assistance system must take place in the context of larger efforts to help very poor people.
Other Considerations
Agencies must receive strong support from funding sources, both private and public, that control capital resources, not just those that do services. Local capital to develop affordable housing is essential for any plan to succeed.
Federal agencies should continue to prioritize community-wide planning and integrated approaches for reducing chronic homelessness in general, and street homelessness for people with severe mental illness, chronic substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, or any combination in particular.
Federal agencies should facilitate opportunities for practitioners and planners to observe new approaches in action, speak with consumers, see results, and consider how these practices could be applied in their own community.
The inactive Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) must step up in its charge with cross-agency authority. The ICH must make sure there is interagency cooperation in the plan to end homelessness.
The current system of prevention needs to be consistent in its actions to prevent homelessness. Currently, many agencies are duplicating services which create gaps in services with not central location within the cities to monitor these services. One consideration would be a neighborhood support center, however, it only works if they are adequately funded and if their strategies emphasize personal responsibility and if sufficient housing resources exist and if shelter becomes a relatively unattractive option and not a way to jump the queue to a housing subsidy or other benefits.
State and local agencies should establish procedures and resources to assure that people leaving psychiatric care, substance abuse treatment, correctional facilities, or foster care do not become homeless.
State and local agencies should facilitate capacity to serve chronically homeless clients by improving liaison and integrated service arrangements among mental health, substance abuse, medical care, and housing authorities.
Mainstream health, mental health, substance abuse, and welfare agencies should make their clients’ housing stability a high priority and create positions of housing developers and coordinators.
Housing providers need to understand the benefits of supportive services to their whole tenant base and not just to those who were once homeless.
Strong, skilled leaders committed to an integrated community-wide approach need to come forward and have the backing and resources of local mainstream agencies and elected officials.
Finally, every component of the system should be monitored based on outcome-based results. Providers should be held accountable for their results (e.g., moved 4 families of difficulty-level 3 to housing per month), not for their efforts (e.g., held four counseling sessions with families) which seems to be the current monitoring system. Which is included as one of the steps to end homelessness mentioned by the Alliance’s 10 year plan.
By collecting much better data, and creating a planning process focused on outcomes, some localities are able to provide a much more effective mix of assistance. These steps require bringing together homeless assistance providers and mainstream state and local agencies and organizations whose clients become homeless.
This based on several years working as a policy analyst and as coordinator for my area’s continuum of care program.
x-posted at ePluribus Media