Rapid Re-Housing Intervention Paper

Homelessness has been a prevalent and contentious topic since its public emergence in the 1980’s. In fact, according to the most recent estimates, on any given night in the United States, there are roughly 645,000 people residing in homeless shelters or unsheltered street locations (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2011). And based on a local study done by the Mental Health Unit at the Houston Police Department in 2011, Houston has the largest homeless population in Texas and the eighth largest in the United States. While many great efforts have been put forth to aid the homeless population in Houston, “the public health epidemiology task of quantifying and tracking child and family homelessness over time has been complicated…by increasing rates of…shortages [in] affordable housing” (Grant et al., 2013), and restrictions on temporary encampments (Loftus-Ferren, 2013). In order to successfully reduce, prevent and combat homelessness, more policies must be put in place to create sustainable, affordable housing for homeless families and to modify current laws that harm homeless individuals.

Homelessness has always been a problem for the United States. Since its birth as a nation, there have consistently been individuals who find themselves without a place to live, looking for shelter with family, friends, or simply anywhere they can find it. These individuals have been targeted as candidates for social aid, but this was primarily provided by churches and other care organizations. However, in the past thirty years the homeless population has increased almost exponentially in numbers. While the cause of this is undetermined, it is quite certain that while the

for families who need assistance in entrenched support services and housing access. Why exactly would one want to invest government regulated taxes on one of these programs? Poverty rates in Adams County, Pennsylvania continually inflate since the 2009 "Point in Time" study. In 2014, surveys found that the poverty rate, when counting female head of households, rose up to 28.4%; comparable to the state wide’s poverty rate of 11.4%. (ACCESS Housing, 2016). Due to legal actions, the Department of Veterans Affairs has finally begun steadfast actions to build 1,200 supportive housing units. To sustain the transitional housing program, or even launch a program, a substantial amount of funding needs maintaining for bed and program support provisions. Due to the inflation of the homeless in the Adams County region, a transitional housing program needs regulating to aid those who necessitate a home, are trying to hold on to their home, or are in dire need of assistance with housing payments.

Homelessness in the United States can be ended, not just maintained. Allot of cities now have plans to eradicate homelessness. Homelessness and housing instability are large issues that afflict a diverse demographic such as: Families, youth, veterans, and chronically homeless single male adults. Ending homelessness may require specialized solutions that are specific to individual needs. Factors like these make defeating homelessness a difficult task. Although solutions exist for some of the demographics, such as housing for chronically homeless adults, scaling up best practices remains a challenge. For other subpopulations, such as transitional aged youth, evidence-based interventions need to be developed. In this paper we argue that ending homelessness is a Grand Challenge that is big, important, and compelling—one that the profession of social work should be adopt. Meeting this challenge will require a focused, organized response from social work researchers, clinicians, and policymakers. Ending homelessness will require innovation and interdisciplinary or cross-sector collaboration. Key words: Housing First, Permanent Supportive Housing, rapid re-housing, prevention, poverty. The notion that homelessness in the United States can be ended, rather than managed (Mangano, 2002; National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2012), represents a fundamental shift in expectations from the 1980s and ’90s. Since the early 2000s, researchers, policymakers, advocates,

One way D.C. can enhance the performance of Rapid Re-Housing programs and lower the rate of individuals/families returning back to homelessness is to emulate the model that NYC has been following for the past few years. A few years ago NYC launched the Home to Stay program (Bornstein, 2014). Home to Stay is a partnership between New York’s Department of Homeless Services and four other organizations committed to fighting homelessness (Bornstein, 2014). Home to Stay uses an evidence-based protocol known as Family Critical Time Intervention which is intended to motivate individuals and heads of families over nine months to take an advantage of support services, such as addiction and mental health counseling, conflict mediation, and improvement of job prospects (Bornstein, 2014). The program follows an extensive and rigorous screening procedure in order identify and select the most vulnerable and needy homeless individuals and families who must have access to the supportive services the program provides (Bornstein, 2014). Though Home to Stay does not target the homelessness population as a whole, program expansion is a future possibility. While there is no concrete data that measures the performance of Home to Stay, testimonies from individuals and families that participated in the program indicate that there is a promising future (Bornstein, 2014). Individuals and families that were previously homeless believe that Home to Stay is a

was developed by the Skid Row Housing Trust with the intention of fighting homelessness with a holistic model to break the cycle of homeless. This particular organization inhabits the complexes with qualified individuals to connect residents with on-site case management, medical care, mental health services, substance use treatment, advocacy and community building (Skid Row Housing Trust, n.d.). The ground floor of the complex is occupied by the Department of Health Services’ Housing for Health division headquarters whose programs aims to house 10,000 of the county’s sickest, most vulnerable homeless in the following decade (Holland,

In recent years, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have identified rapid re-housing as a critical strategy to meeting the national goal of ending family homelessness by 2020 (USICH 2013). As noted in a recent update of Opening Doors, the federal plan to end homelessness, "[US Department of Health and Human Services], HUD, [the US Department of Veterans Affairs], and USICH have joined forces to promote expansion of rapid re-housing as a part of community coordinated systems" (USICH 2013). Rapid re-housing, an intervention that helps homeless families exit shelters and get back into permanent housing quickly, provides short-term help with housing expenses (e.g., rent arrears, ongoing rent assistance, moving costs) and case management focused on housing stability. Rapid re-housing is a relatively new but, as early evidence shows, promising strategy that communities across the country are

First, government provides housing assistance to low-income families. Low-income families just need pay 30% of their total income for rent. Second, mainstream programs provide a safety net for homelessness. This net makes mainstream programs like housing assistance, welfare, and substance support could provide what homelessness need quickly. Third, Communities created a data system to record information about homelessness. These information could be analyzed to help people know the cause of people become homeless, how long people become homeless, what exactly homeless people need, and the effect of mainstream’s support. Government already saw some positive influence of these programs. The number of family homelessness decreased 43 percent in Hennepin Country. New York creased 11 percent of homeless families was placed by a permanent housing. (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2010)

“Supporters of strict laws barring behavior associated with the homeless argue that allowing large numbers of homeless people to commit quality-of-life offenses in urban neighborhoods is unfair to those who work, live, and play in those neighborhoods” (“Homelessness”).Allowing homeless people to linger in communities is unjust to the people who live there and work there. “Proponents of housing first note that the cost of providing homeless people with apartments is far less than the cost of letting them remain on the street” (“Homelessness”).It costs less to house the homeless rather than to let them stay on the street. “Housing first, they contend, has demonstrated that chronically homeless people are not beyond help but just require permanent housing before they can properly address mental or physical disabilities” (“Homelessness”).Housing first will help address a homeless person’s problems and will have permanent housing for the

One of the causes of homelessness in Baltimore City is lack of affordable housing, this includes subsidized housing from the state. Lack of affordable housing in Baltimore City is due to an increase luxury housing and Baltimore’s decrease desire for rental housing (Mayor’s Office of Human Services, 2013). Available housing is not proportional to the wages of people living in Baltimore City. Nearly half of renters in Baltimore spend 35% of their income or more on their rent. The waiting list for Baltimore City opened in 2014 and 74,000 households applied for 25,000 available slots for up to six years to own a voucher (“Homelessness in Baltimore,” 2017). For the extremely poor population there are only 42 available homes for over 100 people who identify with the population (Public Justice Center, 2015). Therefore, Baltimore needs to make affordable housing for their population or there should be an increase in jobs and wages. However, the private sector is not interested in developing houses for the low-income population because it is not profitable compared to selling a building to a company to make luxury housing (Richman, 2015).

Homeless families compose a fraction of the homeless population as they “represent roughly a third of the homeless population in the United States (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2010), and approximately 1.5 million children—1 in 50 youngsters—are homeless each year in the United States” (p. 389). These homeless families often struggle to find permanent residency as a collective unit. There are several types of housing situations available for homeless families such as temporary housing, transitional housing settings, and shelters, yet the housing situation for homeless families often causes stress for families as stability and a secure home is always in question. “The lack of stable, consistent housing is the central, defining characteristic of families experiencing homelessness, distinguishing them and their experience(s) from those with stable housing who experience other correlated conditions (e.g., poverty)” (Kilmer, Cook, Crusto, Strater, and Haber, 2012, p. 394). Homeless families often seek different types of housing usually by first reaching out to temporary shelters in emergency situations like domestic violence that often lead to homelessness, which provide services for children and families. There are many challenges families encounter in the process of seeking permanent housing.

According to Donovan, S and Shinseki, E.K. of the American Journal of Public Health, the suggestion to combat this issue is to reenforce intervention strategies of certain government organizations that work and to funnel federal resources to those strategies (Donovan, 2013). One of the main factors for why people are homeless is due to the mental and physical illness and substance abuse. Effective intervention strategies must be achieved in order to combat homelessness and to ensure veterans are receiving aid they deserve. An example of improving intervention would be to increase investment in effective, evidence-based programs utilizing such as the Housing First model created by the VA which helps assist veterans with access to health care, employment and other supportive services that promote long-term housing stability, reduce recidivism and improve quality of

For the past several years ending veteran homelessness has been a national priority. Ending homelessness among veterans requires many things such as, access to permanent housing, employment benefits, and health care. The first ever strategy to end veteran homelessness was announced in 2009. Since 2009, homelessness among veterans has decreased by 35%, down to around 47,725 veterans on a single night in 2015. There are a few different ways to end homelessness among our veterans. One way to address vulnerability factors before the soldiers are discharged. Helping the veterans with rental assistance and other services can also help the exit homelessness. Rapid re-housing is one thing that the VA and other programs are doing to try and help put an end to veteran homelessness. The VA is trying to expand housing, employment, and other essentials. Also, the VA has partnered with other private and public agencies to expand employment. President Obama has helped along the way with the homeless veteran crisis, “The good new is, we’ve helped get thousands of homeless Veterans off the street. [and] mad an unprecedented effort to end Veterans’ homelessness...But we’ve got...more work to do in cities and towns across America to get more Veterans into the homes they deserve”(About The Initiative - Homeless Veterans). The VA’s collaboration with other programs is ending veteran homelessness community by

DC’s Mayor Muriel Bowser is very committed to “ending long-term homelessness in the District of Columbia”. The mayor and her team believe that the administration’s plan for homelessness is ambitious but achievable. The plan aims at cultivating partnerships with non-profit providers, advocates, persons experiencing homelessness, business partners, and the philanthropic community to develop ways and methods to manage and resolve homelessness in the nation’s capital. Another key actor that is involved in resolving DC’s homelessness is the District of Columbia Interagency Council on Homelessness (DCICH). The DCICH is a group of cabinet level leaders, providers of homeless services, advocates, homeless and formerly homeless leaders that come together to inform and guide the District’s strategies and policies for meeting the needs of individuals and families who are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. The DCICH main mission is to “to end long-term homelessness in the District of Columbia by 2020”.

Rapid re-housing is program in HF, that assist individuals or families experiencing homeless or at the verge of becoming coming homeless to permanent housing through a tailored package assistance that may include;