Helping People Off the Streets: Real Solutions to URBAN HOMELESSNESS

"Policies must be put in place to guarantee a living wage--the minimum income needed for an individual or family to meet basic needs: housing, food, health care, transportation, and clothing."

ON A "CAMPUS" in Florida, 500 homeless men, each given just a blanket and pillow, spend an average of three months sleeping on the cement floor of an open-air pavilion in 4' x 6' "human parking spaces." In another Florida campus, participants who are willing to sleep on the floor of a large, 500-person outdoor pavilion for up to three months may be moved to the comfort of an indoor, 20-bed dormitory, where they can access needed support services.

The idea behind these campuses and others across the country is to remove as many homeless people as possible from downtown streets. Usually, these homeless campuses serve as large warehouse facilities--funded by local government, businesses, and private donations--where homeless persons can receive emergency shelter and, sometimes, support services. Often, the campuses are purposely tucked away from downtown.

Residents, business owners, and tourists, uncomfortable at the presence of the homeless, support moving them away from downtown. These feelings often apply to homeless resource centers such as soup kitchens and housing facilities. For years, organizations dedicated to assisting the less fortunate have fought a growing sense of NIMBY (not in my backyard) and anti-homelessness ordinances.

Numerous American cities--including New Orleans, La.; Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, and Jacksonville, Fla.; San Antonio and Austin, Tex.; and Washington, D.C.--have developed campuses to address the problem of homelessness. The Center for Poverty Solutions, a nonprofit organization created in 1997 through a merger of the Maryland Food Committee and Action for the Homeless, undertook as one of its first projects a review of homeless campuses. The intent was to offer recommendations to Baltimore regarding the development of a campus for the city. What was found, however, by visiting homeless campuses in nine cities and looking at several award-winning and successful programs for the homeless, is that there are more effective ways to deal with this situation.

A "one-size-fits-all" campus model does not address the individual needs of the people most affected. Homeless campuses too often serve as revolving doors that warehouse poor people for a limited amount of time, then spin them back out onto the streets with no improvement in their ability to climb out of poverty. These facilities also report high incidences of vandalism and destruction of property that may be attributed in part to police depositing homeless persons at these sites against their will, as well as the dehumanizing conditions at some of these places.

Homeless campuses are just one of the latest attempts to solve or address homelessness. In some instances, agencies dedicated to assisting the homeless have created wonderful and humane ways of dealing with the people and the issues involved. Policymakers and community and business leaders, though, sometimes forget that "real" people lie at the heart of this seemingly insurmountable issue. Every person who is homeless has his or her own story and has arrived in this situation via various circumstances.

According to data from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, families constitute 38% of the nation's homeless population; 27% are children; and 14% are single women. Many have been driven to homelessness by factors such as lack of affordable housing and/or jobs that pay a living wage, domestic violence, substance abuse, mental illness, and disability.

It is not enough to simply take homeless people off the streets and hide them. The real solution is to address the reasons why they become homeless in the first place. Even if there were enough campuses to house the existing men, women, and children who are homeless, the facilities do nothing to prevent others from reaching the same plight. Housing 500, 1,000, or more homeless people in one facility not only strips them of their dignity, it disallows individualized care and tends to breed an air of intimidation and fear for personal safety, especially for families with children, seniors, and the disabled. That is not to say that emergency shelters are not needed, but, rather, that funding should be spent on planned social services to assist the homeless in receiving the help and support they need to move out of poverty.

What the homeless require are many of the same resources all people need to live. One basic misconception is that the average homeless person is lazy and does not want to work. The media reinforces the fact that unemployment levels are at an all-time low, so why are there people in this country without jobs? Survey data from the U.S. Conference of Mayors shows that this is untrue. Twenty percent of homeless Americans work full or part time, but do not earn enough to meet their most basic needs; 30% of the men and women who visit soup kitchens and food pantries are employed. Policies must be put into place to guarantee a living wage--the minimum income needed for an individual or family to meet basic needs: housing, food, health care, transportation, and clothing. For instance, economists have determined the living wage in Baltimore to be $7.70 per hour, far above the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour.

Another factor in unemployment has to do with the gap in salary and job availability for the high-tech, high-skilled workforce vs. low-skilled laborers. High demand and salaries are available for educated and experienced workers in the computer/technical industry. Employment opportunities for poorly educated or low-skilled laborers who lack technology training continue to be in the service industry, which pays significantly less and has less stability.

Furthermore, jobs that may be available may not be accessible. The urban flight so many cities have experienced in recent decades has included many businesses. Few poor or homeless families own cars, and most large cities are unable, if not unwilling, to provide transportation services to low-density suburban job centers.

Even if homeless individuals were able to find some way to get to work, who would care for their children? Safe and affordable child care is an issue for all Americans. The average family spends seven percent of its income on child care, in contrast to 25% for a low-income family. While child care expenses are part of the welfare reform initiative, just 10% of the families who qualify for Federal aid receive assistance. Every city has a waiting list of thousands of people seeking to take part in the child care assistance programs. Affordable child care must be made available so that all parents, including those who work late shifts, have access to it.

Providing affordable housing

Why do some people choose or are forced to live on the streets? The lack of affordable housing is the major cause of homelessness. If you drive along the streets in any urban area, you will find a plethora of dilapidated buildings and unsafe housing projects. Between 1993 and 1995, the number of rental units available to very-low-income families dropped by nine percent. This translated into a loss of 900,000 units nationally. Since the Depression, most families in need of housing assistance could rely on the Federal government for help, but, in 1995, Congress ceased approving funding for additional housing vouchers. Most states now have a three-year or longer waiting period for Section 8 housing.

Over the past six years, the Federal housing budget shrank 30%, causing local housing authorities to begin targeting people with higher incomes as "preferred tenants." Making public housing more universal and less targeted toward very-low-income people makes it significantly more difficult for the homeless to move into public housing. New minimum rent requirements create yet another obstacle in finding a permanent, stable home.

Homelessness is not an insurmountable problem, but it is a challenge. The following strategies offered are meant to provide long-term support. They are based on the Center for Poverty Solutions' study of campuses and its experience with homelessness and poverty. The solution, according to the Center's report, "Helping People Off the Streets, Real Solutions to Urban Homelessness," lies in the willingness of government and community leaders to work together in promoting economic development.

Across the country, the number of emergency shelters without support services needs to be reduced while increasing the number of service-enriched transitional shelters. This entails converting the many existing emergency shelters into adequate short- and long-term transitional housing. These facilities would remain open 24 hours a day with comprehensive support services that assist people with moving into long-term or permanent housing. Support services would include job skills training, addiction recovery groups, mental health services, lavatory and shower access, telephones, and mail delivery. Long-term facilities should include job training and placement, child care, life skills training, transportation, and case management that requires clients to set clear goals and objectives. Above all, facilities must create and maintain an environment that respects the inherent worth and dignity of each individual. Cities must make the commitment to increase the number of affordable permanent housing units for families, single individuals, and people with disabilities. Successful examples can be found across the country, many of which have been funded by the Enterprise Foundation.

Some emergency shelters must be set aside to provide convalescent care beds for homeless people recently discharged from hospitals. The beds would provide a safe environment to recuperate and receive follow-up services. This would reduce the likelihood of a person experiencing complications or a relapse.

Some emergency shelters force people to leave during the day with no other place to go, only to have them return when the shelter reopens in the evening. This is especially difficult for persons who work nights and need a place to sleep in the daytime, as well as those in poor health who must face inclement weather. Baltimore has two day centers that cater exclusively to veterans or addicts. Baltimore's largest shelter for men charges residents a nightly fee and requires attendance at a religious service. It is no wonder that the homeless are forced to turn to parks, sidewalks, or libraries to seek shelter.

Cities must develop easily accessible, daytime facilities with no residential component. This would give people who are homeless a place to go during the day as well as access to programs to help restore their feelings of self-esteem, empowerment, and personal responsibility. These facilities should be relatively small (maximum capacity of about 200) and should provide housing assistance, case management, substance abuse counseling, and employment assistance. Other volunteer-based services offered by the business and social welfare community should include legal assistance, health care, dental and mental health services, and benefits enrollment. In addition, the creation of a universal system to provide every American with health care coverage would reduce the misuse of hospital emergency rooms and provide everyone with personalized health care services such as addiction counseling and treatment and disease prevention.

With Federal welfare reform legislation in place, there may be an increase in the number of homeless families as time limits are reached and families with special needs are unable to comply with work activity requirements. Emergency service providers in Baltimore are reporting a 38% increase in the number of families seeking assistance at food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and transitional housing facilities.

How many families will be affected in your city? Is the job market able to handle the sudden surge of low-skilled workers? In order to bridge the gap between the unskilled worker and an above-minimum wage-paying job, programs providing job training for the homeless, low-income workers, and welfare recipients must be created. These will give those most in need the training to fill living wage-paying positions. A consortium of businesses could assist in covering the costs for the programs and receive the benefit of filling vacancies with newly qualified candidates.

Lastly, a local task force should be created, bringing together community, business, religious, and government leaders to continue developing comprehensive strategies and finding creative solutions to end poverty and homelessness. Dade County, Fla., provides an excellent example of such a task force. The economic development of every city is important to creating a healthy community and improving the quality of life for all citizens. Every human being should be entitled to adequate income, affordable housing, and quality health care. If society understands this basic principle and effectively invests its resources, that inevitably will make a lasting difference.

The recommendations contained in this article have been gleaned from effective programs in communities across the country. The solutions are not particularly complicated. The problem has been and continues to be the lack of political will to help the nation's most vulnerable men, women, and children at their time of greatest need.

Robert V. Hess is president and CEO, Center for Poverty Solutions, Baltimore, Md.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Society for the Advancement of Education
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