Tag Archives: solutions

Reflection on Martha Burt’s “Strategies for Reducing Street Homelessness”

Homelessness, Reflections on our Reading, Solutions to Homelessness

After reading Strategies for Reducing Chronic Street Homelessness by Martha Burt I have a better understanding of what we, as a community should do to lower the number of homeless.  This report goes through and thoroughly discusses steps to take in order to reduce homelessness. Some questions asked to make sure that communities are trying to reduce their number of homeless. For example, does the community have a long-term plan, is there an approach implemented, how is the approach funded, does implementation include efforts of community members? These questions enhance the information that the HUD is attempting to understand.

The HUD believes that if they can receive information to these questions they will better understand what needs to be done in each community to reduce chronic homelessness. The answer to each of these questions will determine what the community can do to lower their number of homeless people. If a community is serious about these steps and focuses on these questions they will most likely reduce their community’s chronic homelessness.

There were seven communities studied in this project where many community members were interviewed. During this study they found five key elements that were prevalent in each community, which explained their chronic street homelessness. One key element was that across the board there was a shift in the goals of homeless assistance programs. I believe this should be the main concern of the HUD. The old goals of the assistance programs were to provide transitional housing and emergency shelters, with no real intention of ending homelessness. The paradigm shift has happened in several of the communities studied, which is more of a focus on ending homelessness by getting others involved to help such as businesses and public agencies.

This report helps us to see what needs to be accomplished to get closer to ending chronic street homelessness. It displays communities who are working in the right direction and also communities that need to put in more effort.

Link to reading : http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1000775.pdf

Causes of Homelessness

Causes of Homelessness, Uncategorized,

In the 1960’s Christopher Jencks presented his causes of homelessness in The Homeless. The causes discussed in his book included the closing of mental wards, the crack epidemic, marriage and jobs, as well as the decline in a variety of safety nets. Some new things to consider for today’s populations are the economic crash, the decline of the middle class, and the foreclosure crisis.  If surveyed, the majority of society may not include such causes. Many people tend to think homelessness is an individual circumstance. Through readings and class discussions, we are learning this is not the case. Each of these possible causes are all structural based sources.

Understanding the causes of homelessness if an important step to realizing the proper solutions to the issue. Many of these causes are structural and most of the solutions to these problems don’t take that into consideration. There are  many ‘band aid’ solutions, meaning that they will help the problem but they are not permanent solutions. Examples of this can include public aid/services. These band aids are important but they also allow for homelessness to continue as it is currently. There is little to no affordable housing or other more permanent solutions to the issue and the funding for ‘band aid’ programs continues to be cut year after year. What will happen to the homeless populations as funding continues to be cut and as more laws pass criminalizing the homeless? The current options for solutions are limited and do not seem to attack the structural part of the issue.

I think it’s important that when a community discusses homelessness they consider the structural causes rather than the individual causes. Such a gap in recognizing the true causes of homelessness can often result in more band aid type solutions. The permanent solutions won’t even be considered because many times the community fails to recognize the true issues.

To read a summary of Jenck’s The Homeless click here: http://www.vanneman.umd.edu/socy498/jencks.html