Creating a Social Program

HSM/240

Amanda Nelson

Marilyn Gardner

July 1, 2013

The social issue that “Striving for the Future”, plans to help correct is homelessness in America specifically East Tennessee. The individuals who are homeless are more often than others unable to acquire and maintain regular, safe, secure, and adequate housing. The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country to country, or among different entities or institutions in the same country or region. The term homeless may also include people whose primary night-time residence is in a homeless shelter, a warming center, a domestic violence shelter, cardboard boxes or other ad hoc housing situations.
“An estimated 100 million people worldwide were homeless in 2005. In western countries, the large majority of homeless are men (75-80%), with single males particularly overrepresented. In the USA, LGBT people are over-represented among homeless youth, at 40%. Modern homelessness started as a result of economic stresses in society and reductions in the availability of affordable housing. In the United States, in the 1970s, the deinstitutionalization of patients from state psychiatric hospitals was a precipitating factor in urban areas. By the mid-1980s, there was also a dramatic increase in family homelessness. Tied into this were an increasing number of impoverished and runaway children, teenagers, and young adults, which created more street children or street youth.
Most countries provide a variety of services to assist homeless people. They often provide food, shelter and clothing and may be organized and run by community organizations (often with the help of volunteers) or by government departments. These programs may be supported by government, charities, churches and individual donors. Many non-profit organizations such as Goodwill Industries maintain a mission to "provide skill development and work opportunities to people with barriers to employment". Many cities also have street newspapers, which are publications designed to provide employment opportunity to homeless people. While some homeless have jobs, some must seek other methods to make a living. Begging or panhandling is one option, but is becoming increasingly illegal in many cities.”(Wikipedia Reference 1)

“The State of Homelessness in America 2013 examines trends in homelessness between 2011 and 2012 as well as the economic, housing, and demographic context in which homelessness changes over time. The report shows that, overall, the homeless population decreased by less than 1 percent, but this is not the full story. While the number of people experiencing homelessness as part of a family increased slightly, the number of individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and those identifying as veterans decreased significantly. The mixed findings may be related to policy changes as well as to the economic climate in which these changes are taking place. Increased federal investment in effective solutions, such as permanent supportive housing, has been aimed at veterans and chronically homeless individuals. Also, during this time period, flexible federal resources were available to communities through the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) to help prevent and end homelessness for families and individuals. Despite these resources, increased competition for housing resources and growing housing cost burden combined with increases in the size of the population living in doubled-up situations and poor single-adult-headed families make attaining and maintaining housing more difficult for families and single adults who are not chronically homeless.”(Executive Summary | State of Homelessness in America)
There is no question that the issue of homelessness is a primary concern for all Americans. The ways people express their concern and ideas to address the problem are varied. Some talk about feeling unsafe to interact with people experiencing homelessness that panhandle or that is in public spaces. Most people that speak of the issue, however, express compassion and understanding and would like to see the problem of homelessness confronted from this perspective.
People value the existing agencies that provide homelessness services, but some think there is a need for better-funded services that are comprehensive and innovative. Systems should be designed to offer people transitioning out of homelessness a sense of dignity and respect in where they live and how they are treated.
This is where “Striving for the Future” comes in to the picture, we strive to meet these challenges and our goal is to help as many families and individuals as possible to start over and live good fulfilling lives. Our demographics are in East Tennessee; if the goals are met and funding grows we plan to expand out further into East Tennessee for now the following counties are included in our demographics:
1) Greene County
2) Hawkins County
3) Washington County
4) Sullivan County
5) Unicoi County

The Mission of “Striving for the Future” is to provide the proper training to families and individuals who suffer from homelessness. In order to do this we plan to provide job education training, money management training, and counseling. Also, we plan to relocate the individuals and families accepted into our program into adequate housing and help them get on their feet with different options through the program.
The program will have partners who provide services including therapists, counselors, trained employment specialists, GED funds, money management specialists and low income housing partners. We will have several different options available with the housing issues including Section 8, HUD homes, and low income apartments.
Eligibility to the program will require the following:
1) Homelessness
2) Agreement from all parties to follow every step of the program until completion
3) Drug screening and medical care
4) No Drug convictions
As the family or individual enters the program after meeting the requirements then they start down the road to their future. The first step would be an initial evaluation to determine the clients work history, education and living skills. The program will be a step program, at first the families or individuals based on size will receive monthly stipends until employment and living is assessed. This will only happen for three months and will be based on where they are living and their needs
The next step would be either in to training or preparing for employment. In order to aid with these things our team of specialists will help to develop resumes and help with prepping for interviews once the client is ready then they will begin to go job searching. Once employment is established then we will begin with the best option and which they qualify for on housing. Section 8 and HUD housing has its own set of rules to go through. With income based housing it will go off their estimated pay check and living expenses. While in the program they are required to maintain employment, children in school and to attend weekly classes on money management and budgeting to ensure they are able to live alone and maintain their households to not become homeless again.
Some Housing Partners would include:
“Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. § 1437f), often simply known as Section 8, as repeatedly amended, authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of approximately 3.1 million low-income households. It operates through several programs, the largest of which, the Housing Choice Voucher program, pays a large portion of the rents and utilities of about 2.1 million households. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development manages the Section 8 programs.
The Housing Choice Voucher Program provides "tenant-based" rental assistance, so a tenant can move from one unit of at least minimum housing quality to another. It also allows individuals to apply their monthly voucher towards the purchase of a home, with over $17 billion going towards such purchases each year (from ncsha.org analysis). The maximum allowed voucher is $2200 a month.
Section 8 also authorizes a variety of "project-based" rental assistance programs, under which the owner reserves some or all of the units in a building for low-income tenants, in return for a Federal government guarantee to make up the difference between the tenant's contribution and the rent for 1 cent in the owner's contract with the government. A tenant who leaves a subsidized project will lose access to the project-based subsidy.
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and United States Department of Veterans Affairs have a special Section 8 program called VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing), or HUD-VASH, which gives out a certain number of Section 8 vouchers to eligible homeless and otherwise vulnerable U.S. armed forces veterans.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_8_(housing) )

“The Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) allows proven financing tools to be applied to at-risk public and assisted housing and has two components: * 1st Component - Allows Public Housing and Moderate Rehabilitation (Mod Rehab) properties to convert, under a competition limited to 60,000 units, to long-term Section 8 rental assistance contracts; and * 2nd Component - Allows Rent Supplement (Rent Supp), Rental Assistance Payment (RAP), and Mod Rehab properties to convert tenant-based vouchers issued upon contract expiration or termination to project-based assistance.
RAD is a central part of the Department's rental housing preservation strategy, which works to preserve the nation's stock of deeply affordable rental housing, promote efficiency within and among HUD programs, and build strong, stable communities.”(http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/RAD)
Employees would include Social workers, therapists, youth and adult counselors, employment specialist, and financial management specialists. There will be teams of four working on each case, a team will consist of a social worker, a counselor, employment specialist and financial management specialist this way the work is divided so no one gets overwhelmed and all needs can be met. Qualifications would consist of proper training and experience, willingness to do any other training needed and the drive to help others. Each team will work on no more than 3 cases at one time in order to ensure that all the needs are being met in each case and also not to overwhelm them.

We plan to apply for local and state funding to help the program reach success, clearly laid out are our plans and the steps we plan to take to make them happen. Here is an estimated budget plan, including employment expenses and all other costs of running the organization.

Type | Number | Salary | Total | Management | 2 | 60,000 | 120,000 | Social Workers | 15 | 35,000 | 525,000 | Therapists | 3 | 15,000 | 45,000 | Adult Counselors | 15 | 10,000 | 150,000 | Child Counselors | 15 | 10,000 | 150,000 | Employment Specialists | 15 | 10,000 | 150,000 | Financial Experts | 15 | 10,000 | 150,000 | Janitors | 3 | 5,000 | 15,000 | Totals | 83 | | 1,290,000 | | | | |

Expenses | Cost Monthly | Total | Rent | 6,000 | 72,000 | Utilities | 1,000 | 12,000 | Supplies | 4,000 | 48,000 | Transportation | 3,000 | 36,000 | Monthly Fees per client | 500.00/1000.00 | 6,000/12,000 | estimated 100 clients | | 600,000/1,200,000 | Total | | 768,000/1,368,000 |

Totals running costs per year estimating at $2,658,000 or $2,058,000. Proposed Grants | Amounts | Housing Grants | 1,000,000 | Government Grants | 1,000,000 | Education Grants | 500,000 | Employment Grants | 250,000 | Local Donations | 150,000 | Total | 2,900,000 |

Our estimated goal for year one is 100 successful cases of families and individuals being financial stable, maintain employment and successful households. As always we will strive for higher numbers but the main goal of this agency is to help our clients Strive for better and brighter futures and here at “Striving for the Future” we are determined to see our goals and missions become reality for as many homeless individuals as possible.

References Page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness http://b.3cdn.net/naeh/bb34a7e4cd84ee985c_3vm6r7cjh.pdf http://www.visionpdx.com/reading/inputsummary/social_issues/homelessness.html
http://www.papermasters.com/creating-social-program.html