Moving forward on plans to end homelessness http://www.endhomelessness.org/ 2012-02-07T04:58:08+01:00 FeedCreator 1.7.2-ppt (info@mypapit.net) 2012-02-06T17:15:00+01:00 2012-02-06T17:15:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/links/detail/4396/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

ON the sixth day she was homeless, Tonya Lewis overslept. She woke in the dark, in Room 6E at the 93rd Avenue Family Residence, a privately run shelter in Jamaica, Queens. It was 4:45 a.m. She was already running late. Rousting her children — Unique, 15, and Jacaery, 2 — from their beds, Ms. Lewis got them dressed and started shoving DVDs and diapers into two bulging tote bags. When the boys were ready — sleepy, sullen, hoodied, backpacked, in hats and winter jackets — she pushed them out the door (“Come on, we gotta go!”) to begin their daily routine. It went like this: They took the Q54 bus five stops to the J train. They took the J train 14 stops to Broadway Junction station. Unique hopped off and transferred to the C train, then the S train, then walked a distance to his classes at the High School for Global Citizenship in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Ms. Lewis, with Jacaery (pronounced Juh-CARE-ee) still in tow, transferred from the J to the L train. She took the L to the B6 bus in Brooklyn, which she rode to East New York, where she worked for an hour, and then reversed course — the B6 to the L to the J — to get Jacaery to his day care center in Bedford-Stuyvesant by 9. All told, the odyssey required four hours, six trips on the subway and three trips on the bus, and suggests the changing nature of homelessness in New York. Unlike in the 1980s, when the crisis was defined by AIDS patients or men who slept on church steps, these days it has become more likely that a seemingly ordinary family, rushing about on public transportation with Elmo bags and video games, could be without a home. Of New York’s more than 40,000 homeless people in shelters — enough to fill the stands at Citi Field — about three-quarters now belong to families like the Lewises and are cloaked in a deceptive, superficial normalcy. They do not sleep outside or on cots on armory floors. By and large, their shoes are good; some have smartphones. Many get up each morning and leave the shelter to go to work or to school. Their hardships — poverty, unemployment, a marathon commute — exist out of sight. Underlying this transition is a cascade of events, both economic and political. For the past three years, city officials say, 30 percent of New Yorkers seeking shelter have done so because of evictions, many connected to the financial crisis. (Domestic violence and overcrowding were other chief reasons.) At the same time, a disagreement over money between city and state officials last spring led to the cessation of a rent-subsidy program designed to shift the homeless from shelters into apartments. For the first time in 30 years, there is no city policy in place to help move the homeless into permanent homes. MS. LEWIS, a health care aide, was evicted last month from her home in Far Rockaway, Queens. She was working full time for Able Health Care Services of New York, making about $500 a week tending to an autistic man. In August, because of cuts in Medicaid, her hours were reduced by half. Six weeks ago, she separated from her husband, Gregory Pitters, a maintenance man, who, before he lost his own job, earned $600 a week. On top of this, the $1,000 rent subsidy Ms. Lewis was receiving from the city, through the now-defunct program Advantage, ran out. Her apartment, a small two-bedroom, rented for $1,200 a month. She now makes $210 a week. She owes her landlord $4,280. The problem was mathematical, she said: “I can’t afford the rent.” She was in Brooklyn, on Halsey Street and Broadway, where Jacaery was in tears, when she said this. He often throws a tantrum when his mother leaves him at day care. At the center, a cheerful place with cubby holes and construction-paper cutouts, an attendant flung Jacaery over her shoulder. He wept and wailed and kicked his legs as his mother walked away. At 38, Ms. Lewis has three sons with three men. She rarely sees the father of her oldest child, Tarrick, who is 19 and lives in Brooklyn with her mother, Delores Lewis, and one of her younger brothers. Unique’s father died years ago and, as a rule, is not discussed. Ms. Lewis said she hoped to work things out with Mr. Pitters, Jacaery’s father, who is living with his mother in the Bronx. “We’re in this situation partly because of him,” she said. “He apologized. But like I said, ‘Apologies are not acceptable right now.’ ” She was back on Broadway, headed for her agency’s office, when her cellphone rang. It was a former boyfriend, Gary Wade, who was recently released from the Dutchess County jail. Mr. Wade wanted to meet Ms. Lewis at the Halsey Street J stop; at the station, he demanded her assistance in tracking down a lawyer who had represented him before he went to jail. The lawyer had his watch, he said, and his “very expensive Cartier glasses.” Ms. Lewis bought Mr. Wade a MetroCard, hoping he might go away. Instead, he tagged along as she ran errands: dropping off her timecard in Downtown Brooklyn and riding the A train to the end of Queens, where she visited a welfare office to pick up documents she needed for a new apartment. On the train, she briefly fell ill, sweating, breathless. Mr. Wade ignored her. He refused to leave until someone bought him lunch. It was 12:30 p.m. Ms. Lewis could not get rid of him. THERE was a time when the shelter system in New York was unquestionably Dickensian. Families slept overnight on benches at the Emergency Assistance Unit, a notorious intake office in the Bronx. Many were placed in rat-infested welfare hotels. A vicious legal battle between the city and advocates left even picayune details of shelter operation — the availability of milk-bottle warmers, for example — up to the courts. These days, families seeking shelter appear at the Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing Office, a gleaming modern building, also in the Bronx, with artwork on the walls and an airport-like “departure lounge.” Advocates say that policies put in place by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg have made it harder to gain entrance to the system, but for those who do get in, the intake process generally lasts 6 to 10 hours, and most families find a place the day they apply. One-third end up in city-run shelters, including some hotels, another third are placed in privately run facilities, like the one the Lewises entered in Queens, which has 54 units, each about 700 square feet, each with its own kitchen and bathroom. A family stays in a shelter an average of nine months, but there is no restriction on the length of stay. Rules encourage people to move on: families are not allowed to bring in their own furniture or decorate the walls. The city tries to place families near parents’ jobs and children’s schools, but it does not always succeed. On the ground floor of the shelter that housed the Lewises is an office where caseworkers help residents manage welfare benefits and improve their résumés in hopes of finding better work. The problem is: How do families get out of a shelter once they get there? In 2004, Mr. Bloomberg announced an ambitious plan to reduce homelessness by two-thirds over five years by building housing units, by putting more restrictions on those trying to enter the system and, most controversially, by no longer giving homeless families priority in receiving public housing or what is known as Section 8 assistance, which gives people federal vouchers under which they pay no more than 30 percent of their income for privately rented apartments. At the time, officials said that other New Yorkers at risk of being homeless — the disabled, for example, or former foster children — should have first claim on available public housing. (Each year, 5,000 to 6,000 public-housing units turn over and are sought by more than 100,000 people on a seven-year waiting list.) They also said that because Section 8 vouchers were in short supply, families were entering shelters as a shortcut to obtaining them. Once the practice ended, the argument went, the number of homeless people entering the system would decrease. That didn’t happen. At 40,000 people, New York’s shelter population is higher than it has ever been. (In 2001, when it hit 25,000, the city’s commissioner of homeless services was quoted in The New York Times as calling it “a temporary crisis.”) On any given night, 6,000 homeless men and 2,000 homeless women bed down in facilities for single people, and an additional 15,000 parents and 17,000 children sleep in family shelters. Then there are the individuals living on the streets whom the city counted last week in its annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate. (The numbers will be available in March.) In place of Section 8 priority, Mr. Bloomberg established the Housing Stability Plus program, which provided five years of rent subsidies that declined in value 20 percent each year. In 2007, he introduced Advantage, which Ms. Lewis was using. The $140 million-a-year program offered two-year subsidies of about $1,000 a month, but only if recipients received job training or worked. The state and federal governments supplied two-thirds of the financing for Advantage, while the city administered it. “I don’t believe for a second that every family in shelter needs a permanent housing subsidy,” said Robert V. Hess, who served as the commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services from 2006 to 2010. “What many people need is an opportunity to get back on their feet and develop their own income. Over time, they can build savings and move into their own homes.” In June, however, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, citing budget problems, cut the state’s financing for Advantage, and because the city would not pick up its portion, the program was discontinued. Among those arguing for the end of Advantage was the Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group that has long supported homeless people. While it might seem counterintuitive, the coalition lobbied against Advantage in hopes of pushing the city into again offering the homeless priority for public housing and Section 8 vouchers, of which about 4,000 become available each year. The situation has led to litigation. The Legal Aid Society sued the city in 2011 to prevent it from ending benefits for the last 8,000 families still enrolled in Advantage. On Friday, a judge lifted an injunction that had forced the city to keep paying benefits. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for this week. Recriminations have come from both sides. The coalition has attacked Mr. Bloomberg for his “punitive mind-set.” The city has, in turn, accused the coalition of being blinded by a kind of advocate’s myopia — for missing the forest of New York’s budget woes and its numerous needy groups for the trees of homelessness. The way forward will inevitably pass through a narrow gap of politics. Seth Diamond, the city’s current homeless services commissioner, said the answer lay in raising wages and perhaps in loosening building codes in order to house more people in apartment buildings. He described his philosophy as one of “professional compassion” married to “a reciprocal obligation to participate in your own success.” “When you come into shelter,” he said, “there should be a period of time to get stabilized, but pretty quickly after that, you should be working aggressively on getting back to the community.” Ms. Lewis said something similar on her third day in the shelter: “It’s a nice little place, you know. Some people could get comfortable here. Not me. I’m not staying long. That’s not my plan.” IT was 4 p.m. Mr. Wade was finally gone. Ms. Lewis took the A train to the J train and fetched Jacaery from day care. She went to her mother’s house to find Unique. He wasn’t there, but Mr. Pitters was. Unique had gone to his godmother’s house after school and had told Ms. Lewis he would meet her at her mother’s. Ms. Lewis waited. One hour. Two. Nothing. She left. “He’ll find his way back eventually,” she said. Earlier, she had talked about the boys and the effect on them of a condition she does not describe with its common-noun name. (She employs vague phrases: “the situation” or “what’s going on right now.”) Jacaery, she said, was not aware of what was happening: “He just gets along. He’s mellow.” As for Unique, he brushed it off with manufactured toughness. He is a 15-year-old man: brooding looks, tired smiles, terse responses. How was school? “Fine.” How is taking care of your little brother? “Fine.” How are you handling “the situation”? A frown, a shrug. “What am I supposed to do?” 7:15 p.m.: the J train to the Q54 bus. Ms. Lewis and Jacaery walked down 170th Street in Queens in the dark. Mr. Pitters accompanied them from Delores Lewis’s house. He did not say much. (Later, he would say: “We’re trying to work it out.”) At 8 p.m., the family, as it were, split up on the shelter’s steps. Mr. Pitters was not allowed inside. The lighted lobby, the sign-in book, an elevator to the sixth floor. In Room 6E, the impression of transition: bare walls, three beds, empty space. A loaf of bread, a box of crackers, a jar of peanut butter in the kitchen. A suitcase in the closet. The tote bags were unloaded. Out came Apple Jacks and Frosted Flakes, bought for the morning. Out came Jacaery’s security blanket — his mother’s old silk dress. He watched a DVD, “Daddy Day Care.” Ms. Lewis read a letter from the city telling her she might be moved to a Brooklyn shelter. It was closer to everything, her job, the day care center, Unique’s school. She didn’t want to go. She liked it here. It was clean, familiar. “It’s not as bad as it seems,” she said. “It’s O.K.”

2012-02-06T17:15:00+01:00 2012-02-06T17:15:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/links/detail/4395/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

The number of homeless female veterans more than doubled from 2006 to 2010, and they will remain at risk of abuse and lack of shelter without better services from the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a recently released government report. The Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, estimated that the ranks of homeless female veterans had risen more than 140 percent since 2006, to 3,328 in fiscal 2010. The report cautions, however, that the Veterans Affairs data is limited and cannot be generalized. The veterans department does not track homeless female veterans and their needs, making it difficult for the agency to allocate grants to providers, the report said. The data becomes even more important in light of the growing numbers of women who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The accountability office urged Veterans Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which works with the V.A. to provide veteran housing, to collaborate on this data collection. About two thirds of homeless female veterans are 40 to 59 years old and many have minor children. Over one-third are disabled. Female veterans have a constellation of problems in finding housing, the report said. Many women did not know about veteran housing, while others experienced long wait times. When a homeless veteran applies for housing, they are supposed to get a referral to a shelter or other temporary housing while they wait. Nearly a quarter of Veterans Affairs Medical Center homeless coordinators did not have short-term housing plans for female veterans, the report found. Women veterans also waited an average of four months for affordable housing through the H.U.D.-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, run collaboratively by the two agencies, the report found. Many homeless women veterans have children and face limited housing choices for their family. More than 60 percent of the V.A.’s Grant and Per Diem programs, which finance community agencies that help homeless veterans, do not accept children. Many of those programs that do accept children restrict their ages and their number. Safety is also a concern for homeless female veterans. There have been some reports of sexual harassment or assault on women living in Grant and Per Diem program housing over the last five years. While the V.A. does not have safety and security standards for such housing, it is now evaluating them in response to a report by the department’s Inspector General. The economic downturn has also not been kind to veterans. Unemployment is higher for veterans than the general population, 13.1 percent in December compared with 8.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among veterans 20 to 24 years old, the unemployment rate has averaged 30 percent. The issue of female homeless veterans has become more pronounced as more women choose to serve in the military. The number of women in the military since 1990 has doubled to 1.8 million, or 8 percent of the total armed forces. The Department of Veterans Affairs has set a goal of getting all homeless veterans off the streets by 2015, and has had some initial success. The number of homeless veterans fell by about 12 percent over the last year. There were nearly 67,500 homeless veterans on a single night in January 2011, down from 76,000 in 2010, according to the department. Every January, the veterans department joins nonprofits and government agencies to count the number of homeless. The results of this year’s tally will be released later this year. The Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Housing and Urban Development said they generally agreed with the findings of the accountability office report.

2012-02-06T17:15:00+01:00 2012-02-06T17:15:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/links/detail/4394/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

Polls continue to show that many Americans regard Washington, D.C., as a hopelessly dysfunctional caldron of political acrimony and gridlock. But in Virginia, political leaders of both parties are proving that Republicans and Democrats of good will and political courage can come together to address some of the commonwealth's toughest problems. A marvelous example of such bipartisan cooperation came early in the new legislative session. On Dec. 19, Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, proposed a budget for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 that includes $1.5 million in new funds to combat and end homelessness in Virginia. The funds, to be allocated in 2013, include $1 million to support the policy approach known as "permanent supportive housing," (PSH) and $500,000 in support of "rapid re-housing" (RRH). Just weeks later, on Jan. 3, state Sen. Janet Howell, a Democrat from Reston, and Del. Scott Lingamfelter, a Republican from Woodbridge, offered an amendment to the budget that would allocate an additional $1.5 million for 2014. Joining Howell in supporting the Senate amendment as co-patrons are Sens. John Edwards (D), Frank Wagner (R) and John Watkins (R). Joining Lingamfelter in supporting the House amendment as co-patrons are Dels. Rich Anderson (R), Betsy Carr (D), Barbara Comstock (R), Chris Head (R), Charniele Herring (D), Manoli Loupassi (R), Jenn McClellan (D), Bob Tata (R) and Ron Villanueva (R). All are to be commended for their vision and their leadership. According to Virginia's Department of Housing and Community Development, as many as 50,000 Virginians experience homelessness each year — more than 9,000 on any given night. Worst of all, a third of Virginia's homeless are kids. Homeless children are twice as likely to struggle with learning disabilities, three times as likely to experience emotional and behavioral problems, and four times as likely to experience developmental difficulties. Following the recent economic downturn and foreclosure crisis, service providers across the commonwealth report a significant increase in the number of people seeking housing and food assistance, and as many as 20,000 Virginia families with children have doubled up with relatives and are at high risk of sudden homelessness. Permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing programs are helping to turn the tide against homelessness. PSH provides immediate access to affordable rental housing, followed by a range of services such as mental health and substance abuse counseling, health care, and job training. This "housing first" approach marks a dramatic shift in combating homelessness. In stark contrast to the conventional emergency shelter approach — which provides only temporary assistance and does nothing to solve the underlying causes of homelessness — PSH creates a context of safety, stability and affordability within which real progress on other key fronts can be achieved. Rapid re-housing focuses specifically on families experiencing homelessness. As the term suggests, RRH programs aim to re-house homeless families quickly in order to provide the shelter and stability that well-being and progress require. PSH works. According to the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness (VCEH), more than 2,000 people, including some 470 people in families with children, currently reside in PSH units. Eighty-five to 100 percent of the tenants in several of Virginia's PSH programs have not returned to homelessness. The National Alliance to End Homelessness recently identified the emergence of PSH programs as the single most important factor in reducing chronic homelessness in America in recent years. Multiple studies have demonstrated that PSH also delivers dramatic savings. The homeless population often cycles between life on the street, hospital emergency rooms, mental health facilities and jail — all of which costs communities money. A 2010 analysis of Virginia Supportive Housing's "A Place to Start" initiative showed that the program had dramatically reduced this hopeless and costly cycle, saving the local community $320,000. Much more work remains to be done. According to VCEH, another 7,000 PSH units are needed to end homelessness in Virginia. That's a daunting number, but it can be achieved. And, Virginia has already made impressive progress. Permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing represent a policy breakthrough in fighting homelessness. At long last, homelessness need not be regarded as an ever-present scourge within our communities — and the homeless need not be regarded as helpless. PSH and RRH programs work, and they save money. Most importantly, they save lives. The members of the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness thank McDonnell, Howell and Lingamfelter, and the bipartisan co-patrons of their amendment for their vision, their courage and their leadership.

2012-02-06T17:15:00+01:00 2012-02-06T17:15:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/links/detail/4393/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans has the nation’s second-highest rate of homelessness -- nearly triple the national average and just barely below the rate in Tampa, Fla., according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. A new report from the group estimates that nearly 6,700 homeless people live in New Orleans. That’s a rate of 56 per 10,000; Tampa’s is 57 and the national average 21 per 10,000 residents. It’s based on an annual count made at the end of January by UNITY outreach workers in cities across the nation.

2012-02-06T17:15:00+01:00 2012-02-06T17:15:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/links/detail/4392/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

This Sunday, millions of Americans will sit down in front of their television or computer, crack open a few beers, and watch the Super Bowl. But if those viewers live in a housing project for the homeless, that booze could get them booted back out to the street. Many homeless housing projects have strict abstinence policies, and require residents to be completely sober. Permitting alcohol, many community organizers reason, would enable addictions and promote a downward spiral into continued drinking and declining health. Now, a study suggests that requiring alcohol abstinence from residents of homeless projects might be misguided. In at least one project where residents were allowed to drink, alcohol consumption decreased, as did alcohol-related health problems, researchers reported on January 19 in the American Journal of Public Health. A total of 95 residents were tracked in the 1811 House—a housing project in Seattle. After two years, the residents' median number of drinks per day decreased from 28 to 17, about a 40 percent drop. And the number of alcohol-related health problems, such as delirium tremens, decreased as well. "We found that these people are human beings, and can moderate their drinking," says Susan Collins, at researcher at the University of Washington, and lead author on the study, "and that starts with getting housing." The 1811 House is what experts call a "housing first"—it provides housing before asking residents to address their addictions, psychological disorders or other existing problems. The alternative, a "treatment first" model, tries to get homeless people clean and sober before offering them housing. Each day in the United States, there are about 640,000 homeless people, 17 percent of whom are considered “chronically homeless.” Sam Tsembaris, a psychologist and one of the founders of the housing first movement and CEO of Pathways to Housing, is unsurprised by the results in Seattle. "It's very consistent with what we're finding," in other places such as New York City, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, he says. And Daniel Malone, a public health researcher and director of housing at the 1811 House and co-author of the study, says that other housing first projects are starting to see the same thing in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska. Project residents might drink less under lax alcohol rules for many reasons, says Collins. Street people tend to drink their alcohol faster that the average person for a number of reasons. Practically, they have nowhere to store things they buy. So while you or I might drink one or two beers and keep the rest of the six-pack in the fridge, homeless people might drink them all for lack of storage. And since they are never sure when booze might be stolen or confiscated by friends, enemies or the police, the homeless often finish drinks as quickly as they can. Homeless people also often use alcohol to help them to fall asleep or to deal with the physical and psychological pain that can accompany homelessness. Housing can provide relief from many of these stresses, says Malone, which could lead to less drinking. Studies have shown that housing first models also help cities save money, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. In New York City, a unit of housing cost about $17,277 a year, and saved nearly all of that—$16,282 in public costs such as jail time and trips to the emergency room. A program in Denver saved $15,773 each year per unit that cost $13,400. Yet housing first projects can be unpopular among both charities and the public. The Seattle program from the study was dubbed "bunks for drunks" at some town hall meetings. "There is a lot of reluctance to give people who have behavioral problems publicly subsidized housing," says Nan Roman, president and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Some of that comes from the belief that housing those with substance abuse problems will encourage them to keep using drugs and alcohol—a hypothesis that the Seattle study obviously calls into question. Others object for moral or religious reasons, Collins says. And, as the Seattle study shows, residents don't stop drinking all together. Many are still addicted to alcohol, and while decreased consumption shows that providing housing won't send them into a tailspin of drinking, it might not get them sober either. And, as with any addict, relapse is always a risk. But, Tsembaris says, the process of overcoming alcoholism isn't easy. Just like non-homeless alcoholics, abstinence is a constant and difficult struggle. "It takes a while to improve mental health and addiction," Tsembaris says. And a requirement for sobriety among housing projects might translate into putting the cart before the horse. "One of the things we know about homelessness is that it's very difficult to become sober when you're homeless," says Timothy Hilton, a sociologist at Northern Michigan University. "We know that sobriety takes several attempts for most people," he says, and the longer people are in housing the more likely they are to make it through both treatment and relapses. In many ways, housing projects and homeless outreach is combination of art and science —and often the science lags behind social services [that constantly try out new ways to increase retention and recovery rates. “Why rely on intuition because we don’t have great data,” says Hilton. But science is still the best way to tell whether a new idea or approach is actually helping people or not, says Roman. "Just because someone tries something new, it may work, it may not work," she says, "I think the research is what ends up sorting that out."

2012-02-03T15:15:00+01:00 2012-02-03T15:15:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/4391/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

From February 9 to February 10, 2012, the Alliance will host the National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness in Los Angeles, CA.

2012-02-01T17:30:00+01:00 2012-02-01T17:30:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/links/detail/4390/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

In an interview with CNN Wednesday morning that should have been a Florida victory lap, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney made a fumble that could give rivals an attack ad sound bite. Asked about his economic plan, Romney said repeatedly that he was not concerned with very poor Americans, but was focused instead on helping the middle class. [VIDEO] Romney explained that he was confident that food stamps, housing vouchers, Medicaid and other assistance would keep the poor afloat — he pledged to fix holes in that safety net “if it needs repair.” He repeated past statements that his main focus is the middle class because those people, in his opinion, have been hardest hit by the recession (President Obama also has focused many of his efforts on the middle class). But Romney’s awkward phrasing could give fuel to critics who argue that he does not empathize with the poorest Americans. “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there,” Romney told CNN. “If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.” Host Soledad O’Brien pointed out that the very poor are probably struggling too. “The challenge right now — we will hear from the Democrat party the plight of the poor,” Romney responded, after repeating that he would fix any holes in the safety net. “And there’s no question it’s not good being poor and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor . . . My focus is on middle income Americans ... we have a very ample safety net and we can talk about whether it needs to be strengthened or whether there are holes in it. but we have food stamps, we have Medicaid, we have housing vouchers, we have programs to help the poor.” Just two weeks ago, Romney appeared to have shifted on the social safety net, saying in South Carolina, “I’m concerned about the poor in this country.” But on Wednesday, he took a different tack. In any political campaign, he said, “you can choose where to focus. You can focus on the rich--that’s not my focus. You can focus on the very poor--that’s not my focus. My focus is on middle-income Americans.” Romney’s difficulty connecting to Americans’ economic troubles — combined with his own extraordinary wealth — will be a major focus of the Obama campaign, if Romney is the Republican nominee.

2012-02-01T17:30:00+01:00 2012-02-01T17:30:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/links/detail/4389/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

SOCIAL POLICY BEAT The results of a recent survey of homelessness may come as a bit of surprise. Despite high unemployment and foreclosure rates, Arizona, Nevada and Rhode Island all saw overall homelessness decrease by nearly a third between 2009 and 2011, says a new report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. But the findings have a caveat. These figures come from the federal government’s “point-in-time” report that aims to count the number of homeless in shelters and on the streets on a single night last January. The figure is based on data reported by more than 3,000 cities and counties. The alliance acknowledges that “point-in-time” counts from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are imperfect and do not represent a precise count of homeless people. But over time, these counts do provide a way to assess whether the homeless population has increased or decreased, HUD says. Advocates caution that the findings may be overly optimistic. “It’s basically a snapshot of the homeless in one day over 700 days,” says Jim Ryczek, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless in Pawtucket. “It’s not an accurate reflection,” he says. Homeless advocates in Arizona agree and say their state’s decline also could be attributed to a change in the way the one-day count is done there. Joan Serviss, executive director of the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness, says that besides surveying shelters, counters used to go into the streets and include those they thought were homeless. Now people have to be asked if they are homeless, and some won't admit it, she says. Nationwide, the alliance found that the number of individuals in homeless families decreased by 1 percent, but increased by 20 percent or more in 11 states. State changes range from a 33 percent decrease in Rhode Island to a 102 percent increase in Wyoming, according to the report. The latest HUD data released last month indicate that five states accounted for half of the nation’s total homeless population: California (21.4 percent), New York (10 percent), Florida (8.9 percent), Texas (5.8 percent) and Georgia (3.3 percent). Besides the point-in-time snapshot, HUD also provides an annual count of how many people use a shelter at least once over the course of a year. These two reports taken together make up HUD’s “annual homeless assessment” report, which last summer also showed a slight decrease. HUD estimated that from 2007 to 2010, the overall number of homeless declined 3.3 percent. New numbers will be released this summer. The National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Obama administration both credit stimulus funds for keeping homelessness essentially unchanged in the aftermath of the recession. The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program in the stimulus provided states and localities $1.5 billion over three years and helped prevent 1.2 million people from becoming homeless, says Brian Sullivan of HUD. That stimulus money runs out by this fall, but Sullivan says states and localities will get $286 million this year in Emergency Solution federal grants, which can be used to prevent homelessness. The alliance and other advocates worry that since homelessness is a lagging indicator, it could increase as additional federal funding ends. “We are seeing new faces at the front door of shelters,” says Serviss in Arizona. “Social Policy Beat” provides a quick analysis of recent social policy news in state government. Click here to find Stateline's daily roundup of social policy news.

2012-02-01T16:30:00+01:00 2012-02-01T16:30:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/4388/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

Best Practice for justice system outreach from Micah Project (IAEH Partners) in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

2012-01-31T18:00:00+01:00 2012-01-31T18:00:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/4387/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

Online Registration Ends Thursday

2012-01-30T21:00:00+01:00 2012-01-30T21:00:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/4386/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

Housing First Europe: Testing a Social Innovation in Tackling Homelessness in Different National and Local Contexts

2012-01-26T20:00:00+01:00 2012-01-26T20:00:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/4385/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

President's Budget Proposal Briefing Webinar

2012-01-26T16:45:00+01:00 2012-01-26T16:45:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/4384/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

Having an accurate count of homeless youth helps a community to understand the scope of the problem and to design solutions. The District of Columbia Alliance of Youth Advocates (DCAYA) is leading the effort to deepen understanding about the prevalence and needs of homeless youth in Washington, DC.

2012-01-25T16:45:00+01:00 2012-01-25T16:45:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/links/detail/4383/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

SIOUX CITY -- Alan Graves may be the new face of homelessness: He's 29, out of work and has been living in a shelter since losing his job in September. "One bad decision or one lay-off," he said. "When the money runs out, you have nothing." Young, unemployed people like Graves are making up a growing part of the homeless population in the region. It's a group that will likely come into more focus as volunteers tonight fan out across the country to tally the nation's homeless. The point-in-time count is part an annual effort to determine how many people don't have permanent housing, a key number for municipalities and agencies seeking funding and allotting resources. Shelter managers report the number of people in emergency shelters and volunteers check the Siouxland Community Soup Kitchen and public places to tabulate the numbers. The total also includes people living in transitional housing. Results are expected to be released in the next few weeks. During the last count, on Jan. 26, 2011, volunteers for the Siouxland Coalition to End Homeless tallied 373 homeless people in Sioux City, up from 308 people in 2010. The increase was counter to the U.S. rate of homelessness, which was down about 7,000 cases from 2009, to 636,017 people. The National Alliance to End Homelessness, which tracks the numbers, credited the national shift to an improving economy and a stabilizing workforce. Locally, however, it seems more and more young people -- especially young men -- are turning to shelters and need help, said Harold Youtzy Jr., executive director of the Sioux City Gospel Mission shelters. "I think a lot of it has to do with the economy right now," Youtzy said. "If you are younger, chances are you're willing to take more risk." The 85-bed shelter now houses about 17 men between 18 and 24 years old, up about a third since a year ago. Graves, who is staying at the center, said it doesn't take much for people without savings or a safety net to end up on the streets these days. He worries about the stigma. "A lot of people think because you're here, maybe you are not worth as much," he said. This time last year, Graves said, he was an assistant manager of a Sioux City car parts store, living with a friend and a co-worker. He was fired after money was stolen from the business and he was blamed, Graves said. (He denies he took any money.) Graves is now staying in the bottom bunk at the Sioux City Gospel Mission, where he volunteers. He said the wobbly economic climate has made unemployed people hesitant to relocating somewhere else, presenting more issues. "I think they're evaluating that before the move," he said. "Whereas before, employment wasn't so much of an issue." The danger, Graves said, is when people quit trying to gain independence and just give in to being homeless. He's not ready to throw in the towel. "I'm too young to give up," he said.  

2012-01-25T16:45:00+01:00 2012-01-25T16:45:00+01:00 http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/links/detail/4382/ National Alliance to End Homelessness

As the annual count of the homeless population in Ventura County gets under way today, officials are trying to save a program they say has prevented many more people from landing on the streets. The Homeless Prevention & Rapid Re-Housing Program has aided a little over 1,700 Ventura County residents since its launch in late 2009, but the federal stimulus dollars that paid for it are about to run out. The program provided $1.2 million in assistance payments for rent, move-in deposits, utilities and moving costs. Applicants must be homeless or on the verge and able to pay for their housing after what's intended as a one-time bailout. Jody Freeman, 45, said the $2,100 in aid allowed her to stay in her two-bedroom apartment in Ventura and out of a shelter. The retail clerk was facing eviction after she was hurt on the job a couple years ago and her boyfriend had only a seasonal job. "We would have been homeless," said the single parent who has twice lived in a Salvation Army shelter with her son James, 6. "It was absolutely a critical time in my life," said Freeman, who now lives in subsidized housing in Somis. At least a few county nonprofit organizations have offered similar programs for years. But the federal program was unusual both for how much money it delivered and the fact that it offered one place where needy people could go for help, officials said. Income-eligible households received financial assistance to help them get or stay in housing along with budgeting advice to maintain it. More than 80 percent were still there at the end of a six-month tracking of their progress, said Karol Schulkin, program coordinator for homeless services. Social workers helped people living on the brink cut costs and set up small savings accounts. Some moved to cheaper apartments than they preferred, gave up cars, cable television and phones. Recipients had to be homeless or facing eviction within 30 days, make no more than half of the area median income, which is $40,200 for a family of three; and be a U.S. citizen or qualified legal resident. Cathy Brudnicki, executive director of the Ventura County Homeless & Housing Coalition, said housing officials are brainstorming how to keep the program going even if they can't commit as much money. One option: directing a significant chunk of federal funds the county receives for emergency housing and community services to the cause. "There are different funding sources," Brudnicki said. "We need to look at using them smarter, and that's the conversation we're having now." Mike Powers, county executive officer, said he hopes to present options for continuing the program to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors within a few weeks. "It's been more effective than anybody imagined," he said. Both locally and nationally, experts say the program has minimized homelessness amid slow economic times. Earlier this month, the National Alliance to End Homelessness issued a report showing that the number of homeless people had declined by 1 percent between 2009 and 2011. "What's remarkable here is that despite the recession and its aftermath, homelessness did not increase," said Nan Roman, president of the alliance. The number of homeless people fell by 15 percent in Ventura County over the same time period, reports show. The figure declined from 2,193 in 2009 to 1,815 in 2010, then ticked up to 1,872 last year, according to the annual street count. The figures reflect homeless people living outdoors as well as those served by shelters and other nonprofit agencies. Not counted were people sleeping on friends' couches or in crowded housing conditions. This year's count is scheduled to get under way as early as 5 a.m. today as hundreds of volunteers fan out across the county. Results are due in March or April. Jody Freeman, who is now a college student and aspiring social worker, is thankful she and her son won't be in the tally. But she can certainly remember how it felt to be facing that prospect. "I was scared, I was worried," she said. "I had a child I couldn't provide shelter for. ... Nobody feels good about themselves, especially if you have children with you."