Category Archives: Solutions to Homelessness

One man’s leftovers is another man’s feast

Solutions to Homelessness

After volunteering so far this semester, I have grown curious about food. At the Salvation Army, they receive food from Target, Albertsons, Panera, and other partnerships with Inland Harvest. However, establishments like Stater Brothers and Vons that are within a half of a mile do not contribute to these causes. With the amount of light research I did, there were no articles or prevalent research done on this topic. Where does all the waste go? Obviously not to the people who need but do they just simply throw it in the trash? Or maybe they compost the left overs? Or maybe they do donate it but to another organization?

My question is this: why are companies not transparent about this? This would only give them great press coverage and a good name. Are they trying to hide how much they actually waste, or do they not waste enough food to donate? The more and more I started to think about this, it made me angry. For instance, I wonder what schools do with their left over meals. I understand that some products can be packaged and reused, but they have to be taken care of eventually.

All I know is the amount of food they can use at shelters is amazing. The staff at the Salvation Army get creative and make meals based off of what was dropped off to them the day before. In addition, they pack their food boxes trying to meet the needs of all the food groups and to be able to stretch for a week.  They make it work with what they have and help as many people as they can. One can only wonder what the possibilities could be if every company donated what they had as left overs.

Understanding and Responsibilities

Causes of Homelessness, Reflections on our Reading, Solutions to Homelessness

Statistics prove that homelessness is a large systematic problem rather than an individual problem. Some methods in counting homeless people seek to minimize and deny the problem. After a foundation of what homeless life is like and examining statistics I am emotionally struck and determined to seek solutions. After beginning the book, Beside the Golden Door Policy, Politics, and the Homeless by James Wright, Beth Rubin, and Joel Devine, I am acquiring a better understanding of the issues, controversies, theories, social and demographic characteristics of the homeless, and methods of counting the homeless. I have uncovered several important points that contribute to a better understanding of homelessness. In addition, I am synthesizing similar ideas and data between this course, Hunger and Homelessness and Public Policy Analysis.

Beside the Golden Door is a combination of the authors own experience and social science and advocacy literature. In order to tackle homelessness a comprehensive understanding is required. This involves debunking myths. For instance uncovering facts show, “half or more of the homeless people do abuse alcohol and other drugs, but the other half do not” (7). Understanding the homeless population leads to developing effective solutions. Cost benefit analysis and a rationalism approach can be applied by policymakers. The “quality of urban life would improve if there were fewer homeless people” (9) because more individuals could contribute economically to markets and rely less on governmental assistance.

Understanding the homeless population can lead to coming up with effective solutions. The average age of homeless adults is in the mid-thirties due to the large non-means tested spending on Medicare and social security for the retired population. The welfare system is flawed because the people who need the assistance the most are the least likely to receive it. In the course Public Policy Analysis our most recent topic was welfare. The 1996 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) has many failures, with the primary failure of a sharp decline in TANF caseloads. The TANF to poverty ratio fell in all states, but the impact differed in regions. Other flaws in TANF include block grants, contingency funds, restrictive eligibility policies, and short time limits.

A leading obstacle is the loss of low income housing, “the solution to homelessness is less poverty and more low-income housing, everything else treats the symptoms of homelessness but not the root causes” (29). Eradicating homelessness and helping those who are homeless conflicts with the underlying principles of the U.S. economy. A comprehensive approach to understanding homelessness is necessary. My hope is as a society we can move beyond hiding the problem and toward solving the problem.

*To purchase Beside the Golden Door: http://www.amazon.com/Beside-Golden-Door-Politics-Institutions/dp/0202306143/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1392499074&sr=8-

* To read more about TANF

2&keywords=Beside+the+golden+door TANF Center on Budgetand Policy Priorities

 

126,000 Millionaires & 58,000 Homeless

About being poor, Anti-Poverty Programs, Solutions to Homelessness

In this Huffington Post blog post by Joel John Roberts, an interesting solution to homelessness in L.A. is presented. Roberts reports that there are 126,000 millionaires in the Los Angeles area, living it up in their mansions and driving their Lamborghinis past the 58,000 people living on the street. What if the millionaires of L.A. took care of the homeless? Roberts suggests a “Two-for-One” program, where two millionaires can “pay for a person’s mental health care. Pay for the cost of rehab. Provide the means to get a job. Cover the tab of an apartment security deposit. And pay $1,000 per month for a tiny apartment.” Though this suggestion is not a completely serious one, it proves a point. It shows how ridiculously huge the gap is between the rich and the poor and it shows how easy it could be to solve the issue of homelessness in L.A. and other stratified cities in the U.S., if the people at the top only cared enough to do so. As Roberts states, “We [Los Angeles] are the epitome of the first world clashing with the third.” I believe that this solution could work, if only there weren’t so many stigmas against the homeless. If we could open people’s eyes and show them the reality of the homeless issue, they would understand that it can happen to anyone and that the people who live on the streets are not “lazy” or “just looking for a handout,” and they would be eager to help.

What do you think about this solution to homelessness? Would it ever happen? If it did happen, would it really work?

What are some other creative solutions to homelessness that you think would solve the problem?

ASR Findings

About being poor, Causes of Homelessness, Solutions to Homelessness

Applied Survey Research (ASR) is a federal requirement under Department of Housing and Urban Development. Counties must count their homeless population every two years in order to receive federal funding. ASR uses several methods to count the homeless population including: street count, shelter and institution count, telephone survey, and homeless survey. I reviewed the data from the LA Continuum of Care in 2007. The count for LA Continuum of Care consisted of 68,608 total people, with the median age of 45 years. The survey counted 22,376 chronic homeless people. Chronic homelessness in this survey is defined as, “an unaccompanied individual with a disabling condition who has been continually homeless for one year or more, or has experienced four or more episodes of homelessness within the past 3 years.” Gender and race are significant in regards to chronic homelessness with approximately 70% male and 29% females, African Americans making up approximately 48%. The survey also indicated the services and assistance used by the chronically homeless. 42% use free meals, 32% are not using any services, 24% use emergency shelter, 22% use health services, and 15% use mental health services. The survey found the top two reasons for being homeless to be economic issues including lost job or eviction. A statistic that stood out to me was failure to access housing services due to the lack of available beds. The survey found that 35% tried to access LA county shelter or a transitional housing program or both within 30 days prior to taking the survey; of those 45% had been turned away, the main reason due to lack of beds.  Data is available, yet the availability of data does not guarantee that the problem gets solved or that it draws public attention. Perhaps a problem is due to the media, which does not provide systematic evidence. I also looked at the homeless count from where I am from, Orange County. In 2009 the count was 8,333 homeless people. The number of sheltered people consisted of 31%, unsheltered 69%. This data is startling. In the book The Homeless by Christopher Jencks there is a statement, “the spread of homelessness disturbed affluent Americans for both personal and political reasons.” I see this statement to be true. For example, it can be understood that lack of shelters is a problem, a solution, create more shelters. Yet, nobody wants the homeless shelter in their neighborhood. Jencks poses the question, what is our moral obligation to strangers? What is wrong with the economic and social institutions? http://www.appliedsurveyresearch.org/projects_database/homelessness/

“Housing first. Community next.”

Anti-Poverty Programs, Government programs, Homelessness, News link, Organizations, Solutions to Homelessness

This blog post from the Huffington Post provides an interesting insight on a possible solution to homelessness. What Joel John Roberts argues is that the key aspect of solving homelessness is a sense of community. Only three weeks into this course, we have already seen several examples of the importance of a simple human connection. A perfect quote regarding this comes from the film “Taylor’s Campaign” (1997): “we are not just looking for a handout, but are looking for just a hand.”  Though charity and “handouts” help, people do not want to be seen as a project; something to be fixed and then forgotten about. The homeless want to be a part of the community, just like everyone else. The only way to really help these people is to extend our kindness and humanness to them. The program described in the article has made a lot of progress in housing homeless people, yet the author/agency director even acknowledges that it needs to be taken a step further in order to maintain this progress. As Roberts states, “A weekly visit from a case worker, or an open case management office in the building, does not create an intimate, supportive community for a person who has been isolated on the streets for years.” He stresses the importance of a supportive and warm community that can ease homeless back into housed living. People too often forget how easy it is to make a person feel like a human being. Solutions to homelessness need to take a step further and include humanity and caring.

Giving Homelessness a Voice

Books and Films, Local organizations, Solutions to Homelessness

In the film, “Tayor’s Campaign” Taylor, a homeless advocate tries to run for city council in Santa Monica. I appreciate the effort that Taylor took during the campaigning process. Improved communication with the homeless community is one way in which solutions can be created. In my hometown Fullerton, there is a group that meets monthly called the Fullerton Homeless Collaborative. Their mission is to open communication and strengthen understanding with the homeless. This group was created after the death of Kelly Thomas, a homeless schizophrenic man who died after being beaten by the police in 2011.  I wish that it did not take a horrible event to create the group. Yet, I am satisfied because so far the Homeless Collaborative has met their mission.

In Voices from the Street there is a quote that suggests, “let’s not just transform those in need, we can also find ways to help transform those in power” (51). The people in power have access to resources; they have the ability to enact change.  If we educate those in power we can create change. The Fullerton Homeless Collaborative is one group that seeks to maybe not transform those in power, but to establish understandings and better relationships. There are a number of nonprofits that work with the homeless as well as police officers who seek to improve relationships and understanding during the Homeless Collaborative meetings. When the groups listen to each other they can gain understandings of problems and offer solutions.

To purchase Voices from the Street:

http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Street-Truths-Homelessness-Sisters/dp/0976926164/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391384632&sr=8-1&keywords=voices+from+the+street

Smart Solutions from the Homeless

Solutions to Homelessness, Solutions to Poverty

Jessica P. Morrell’s Voices from the Street (2007) is a collection of over five hundred interviews with actual homeless people who were willing and eager to share their stories. All of the interviews provide insight into how life really is for the homeless and several of the folks shared their ideas of improvements to be made to the very broken system that is available for people living on the streets. There are many stereotypes against homeless people – that they are uneducated and therefore not smart, but many of the ideas brought forward by the “narrators” of this book were very simple and plausible. For example, in the chapter entitled “Barriers to finding work,” one man expressed the need for a sort of day center where homeless could have access to “More phone usage, more laundry services, more clothing – appropriate clothing – more showers perhaps” (p. 108). Though several of the people interviewed acknowledge that there are places that offer these types of services, many of these places are not open at convenient times for the job hunting process. Another man, in the same chapter, assesses the problem of not having anywhere safe to place one’s belongings while applying to jobs. He mentions that there is a place where people can store their belongings temporarily in exchange for volunteer hours, “but those hours you got to volunteer over there are the hours you want to go somewhere else” (p. 107). So although there are many existing services that provide solutions for the homeless, there needs to be an improvement of operations for the convenience of the people for which these services are providing for. The most important and helpful way to find these improvements would be to go directly to the homeless to observe their needs.

Rehab, Housing, Prison, and Dignity

Reflections on our Reading, Solutions to Homelessness, Solutions to Poverty

Stability derives primarily from having one’s basic needs being met: food, water, safety, and shelter. The most problematic and costly of these four is shelter.

The New York Times article “Program to End Homelessness Among Veterans Reaches a Milestone in Arizona” by Fernanda Santos deals with the question of whether drug or alcohol rehabilitation should come first, or if housing should come first in the path of creating “stability” for a person who was recently homeless or in poverty. Veterans, who served in the military whether as draftees or in more recent years as soldiers who volunteered, often have a difficult time finding work and a place to live. Many are disabled, whether physically or mentally, and as the Santos’ article argues, deserve better treatment than a life of instability from a lack of housing. This article also deals with the broader question: should there be a set of criteria for homeless and impoverished individuals that they must fulfill before receiving aid?

Some organizations, particularly religious ones, prefer offering rehab but fail to provide a sense of long term stability, as Kenan Heise argues in the chapter entitled “Drugs, Alcohol, and the Homeless” in his book The Book of the Poor. Religious organizations in particular place a moral obstacle in the path of the homeless, and most often, the idea that rehab to stability crumbles upon itself as organizations only provide rehab but fail at providing housing. As David Kemp states in this chapter during an interview with T.M., “…people will open up a lot better if you are not there directly trying to get them to stop using and that it is not a factor in what you are trying to do” (Heise, 37). Rather than behaving as a probational officer, organizations should focus on finding and/or creating affordable housing. Otherwise, rehab fails and/or individuals will turn to prison as a temporary shelter or place of stability.

In addition, the old path of rehab to stability is also the mindset of penal institutions, which house a large quantity of homeless individuals charged with the possession of drugs, not violent criminal behavior. Most  homeless individuals purposefully  land themselves into prison. Santos writes, “A 2009 analysis commissioned by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which handles the largest population of homeless veterans in the country, found that the monthly cost of housing and supportive services for one person was $605, while the public costs of a person living on the streets were roughly $2,900 a month.” The cost of housing a prisoner is significantly more than providing civilian housing in most states, tax dollars that could provide housing and improvement for communities.

Yet individuals land themselves in prison for shelter, regular meals, and will follow through the motions of rehab with the likelihood of falling back into old habits when out on the streets again. Both Heise and Santos argue that individuals, if separated from the source of their stress and other pressures, such as living on the streets, uncertainty about where one will sleep at night or find another meal, and the accessibility of drugs and alcohol, would thus be less likely to do drugs or drink alcohol or associate with those who do. By distancing themselves through having a place to live, studies show the use of drugs and alcohol decreases, thus decreasing likelihood of imprisonment.

This is further exemplified expertly through the Netflix original series Orange is the New Black in which Taystee, a black prisoner housed at a New York federal penitentiary where the show takes place, prefers living in the prison and is willing to forfeit her “freedoms” in order to return to prison because the outside world is too unstable. Inside the prison Taystee has a job at the prison’s library, regular meals, a bed, and friends. In the outside world she has no family, no friends, a probation officer that did not provide housing and a sense of compassion, and the real possibility of falling into poverty.

Rather than a confrontational approach, organizations should work toward providing the one thing homeless and impoverished individuals need and want: a home, security, and their own personal dignity in the process.