...The Chronically Homeless Mentally Ill, and Their Plight to Recovery Janelle Morrow Social Work Practice Lab Professor Williams Final Individuals described as chronically homeless are those with a protracted homeless experience whose stays in the homeless system or on the street are both frequent and long. People that are homeless are reflective of every population demographic. There is no single path to homelessness, and despite stigmatizing images, no single stereotype fits. Individuals that are chronically homeless represent a range of individual vulnerabilities and face a many of systematic barriers that impede accessing adequate housing and services. Current economic climate presents the chance for homelessness to remain high (Coalition for the Homeless, 2002a). According to research, a substantial reduction in the occurrence of chronic homelessness could be achieved by linking affordable housing with treatment and support services. Alcohol and substance abuse is known as both a precipitating factor and consequence of homelessness can effect an individual’s ability to retain housing or limit housing options offered by programs requiring sobriety, and mask underlying or related mental health issues undetected or untreated...
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...decades, there has been an increase in the homeless population in America (“Opening Doors Plan,” 2015). Even when America’s economy is progressing, there is still a high number of citizens who are facing homelessness (“Opening Doors Plan,” 2015). A lack of federal financial assistance, fragmented services and the difficulties in accessing these services have played a major role in hampering the solution to this social problem (“Opening Doors Plan,” 2015). As a result, these factors have necessitated a shift in federal, state and local policies to end homelessness. America has learned that homelessness can no longer be viewed as a short-term crisis where an abundance of emergency shelters can solve the problem. The demand for emergency shelters has always exceeded the supply for them. In order for justice to occur, there is an urgent need for more preventive measures and long-term solutions to end this problem. Homeless individuals and families are a vulnerable population whose rights have to be protected. A just response to America’s homeless problem has to include prohibition of criminalization laws, permanent housing with supportive services and polices to ensure homeless children achieve success in school. One response to homelessness has been the practice of enacting laws, statutes and ordinances that criminalize behaviors that are common among homeless people (O’Connor, 2006). The purpose of these laws is to remove the homeless from the public’s view in order to minimize...
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...Homeless Persons Heather Gustafson Axia College of University of Phoenix Homeless Persons A problem that continues to grow in the United States is Homeless people. Millions of people are homeless due to a variety of circumstances and the number still grows daily. History In the United States, de-institutionalization of the mentally ill -- unaccompanied by promised outpatient psychiatric and social services -- led to a large increase in the homeless, mentally ill population in the late 1970s. The number of homeless grew in the 1980s, as housing and social service cuts increased. This was in part a consequence of the transfer of federal dollars to a huge military buildup (including the spectacularly wasteful and unsuccessful "Star Wars" strategic missile defense initiative) and consequent large budget deficits. Fortunately, public compassion soared, and in 1986, 5 million Americans joined hands across the country to raise money for homeless programs (May 25, 1986 Hands Across America). In 1987, the McKinney Act authorized millions of dollars for housing and hunger relief (Donahue, 2007). Nature and Issues of Social Problems Homeless and poverty go together. People are unable to pay for food, clothing, shelter, child care, health care, and education. Choices have to be made to have what they need for their daily life so they have to put other things behind to cover necessities. Domestic violence leads people to become homeless because they are...
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...through Housing Programs Services Mary R. Flores Southeastern University Introduction Homeless veterans have consistently existed in the United States. However, just after the Afghanistan and Iraq war, the issue has become more noticeable in the news. The National Health Care for Homeless Council defines homelessness as the absence of a normal and adequate night-time place of residence. According to the ‘National Alliance to End Homelessness’ program, 49,933 of veterans and their families are currently living without having their basic needs met (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2015). To know whether veterans participating in the Housing First program with the Housing and Urban Department-Veterans Affairs Supported Housing (HUD-VASH) receive housing services more rapidly and keep up long term housing stability, it must be compared to the Veterans in Treatment As Usual (TAU) approach to HUD-VASH. Connection to housing service programs is critical to veteran’s successful re-integration to society after deployment. This is exemplified by the success of Housing First (HF) and the different outcome of veterans who use similar program such as Treatment As Usual (TAU). The HUD-VASH program first started in 1992 as a teamwork effort between the Veterans Affair (VA) and the HUD. HUD provides housing to homeless veterans through a resident-based program named ‘Section 8 vouchers’, while the VA provides supportive services. ‘Section 8 vouchers’ are a housing subsidy...
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...Not Enough Shelters for the Homeless Jacob Hogue Sean Smith English 111-61f April 13, 2016(2206) Abstract Department of Housing and Urban Development should allocate enough money to The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority to build enough shelters for homeless people in Indiana to get off the streets. There are all kinds of costs that come along with arresting a homeless person like court costs, booking costs and even paperwork. If enough shelters were built for the homeless people, they would be less likely to be committing crimes and therefor would be costing the state less money to book them. Working and keeping up homeless support administrations projects, for example, homeless safe houses, day focuses, homeless therapeutic administrations etcetera are exorbitant endeavors. The public does because these stores then have to raise the prices of the clothing and food to pay for the food and clothes that were stolen by the homeless people. Department of Housing and Urban Development the death rate of homeless people with be dramatically reduced. If the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority gets the funding from the U. If not things like homeless starvation, drug overdose, public urination, and stealing from stores will never stop happening. S. Guess who pays for that. There are many shelter homes for homeless people in Indianapolis. Although there are many shelters there are still many people that are homeless. One of the many reasons why...
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...Anjenette Whitted English 1120 Dr. Soto-Schwartz 15 October 2015 Veterans Affairs Helps Homeless Veterans Veterans Affairs is taking decisive action to end Veteran homelessness in five years. All Veterans at risk for homelessness or attempting to exit homelessness must have easy access to programs and services including prevention, housing support, treatment, employment and job training. Veterans Affairs programs and services aim to help homeless Veterans live as self-sufficiently and independently as possible. Veterans Affairs offer outreach, clinical assessment and referral to medical treatment, employment assistance, and supported permanent housing. One-third of adult homeless men and nearly one-quarter of all homeless adults have served in the armed forces. While there is no true measure of the number of homeless veterans, it has been estimated that fewer than 200,000 veterans may be homeless on any given night and that twice as many veterans experience homelessness during a year. Many other veterans are considered at risk because of poverty, lack of support from family and friends and precarious living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing. Ninety-seven percent of homeless veterans are male and the vast majority are single. About half of all homeless veterans suffer from mental illness and more than two-thirds suffer from alcohol or drug abuse problems. Nearly 40 percent have both psychiatric and substance abuse disorders. The Department of Veterans Affairs is...
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...Schell’s Zero Homeless Family Strategy PAD500 Modern Public Administration By – Ambika Jammula Introduction On June 2nd, 1998, Mayor Paul Schell spoke to the press about the needs of homeless families, women and children. He asked for the City Council’s support in providing “immediate emergency assistance to homeless families and single women, a critical step in providing lasting housing solutions for these families and individuals.” He noted that “the problem continues to grow and we absolutely must find better ways to help people find and keep housing.” He closed his remarks with a firm pledge that there will be no homeless families with children or homeless single women on the streets of Seattle by Christmas 1998. His pledge made headlines in both Seattle papers the next day. Alan Painter, Director of the Community Services Division of the Department of Housing and Human Services, listened attentively to the new Mayor’s remarks. Painter has dedicated his professional career to serving the needs of homeless people. He was proud and excited to hear Schell’s passion and commitment to addressing homelessness in Seattle. At the same time, he viewed the pledge with some trepidation. Counting the number of homeless people on the street at any given time is notoriously tricky, influenced by many factors. Further, he wondered how this pledge would dovetail with City priorities and plans for dealing with homelessness. These plans emphasize services to homeless people rather...
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...Summary of System Management Function…………………………………Tab 2 3. Enumeration and Needs Assessment………………………………………...Tab 3 a. Enumeration b. Community Profile c. Profiles of Specific Sub-Populations d. Conclusions e. Recommendations 4. Gaps Analysis……………………...………………………………………...…..Tab 4 5. Rapid Re-housing Demonstration Report………………………………….....Tab 5 a. Pierce Intervention Evaluation 6. Open Doors Report………………………………………………………………Tab 6 a. Rapid Assessment of Needs of Hurricane Evacuees Blue Ribbon Commission to End Chronic Homelessness Anna Babin United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast David Benson Harris County Commissioners Court David S Buck, MD, MPH Department of Family & Community Medicine Baylor College of Medicine James Calaway Center for Houston’s Future Robert Eury Central Houston, Inc. The Most Reverend Bishop Fiorenza The Diocese of Galveston – Houston Skip Kasdorf Greater Houston Partnership Richard Lapin City of Houston Anna Leal Houston Endowment, Inc. The Honorable Pat Lykos Harris County Anthony Love Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County Barry Mandel Houston Downtown Alliance Jackie Martin J.S. Martin Associates, LP Vickie L. McBride City of Houston Department of Housing & Community Development The Honorable Gordon Quan Former City Council Member At Large, Position 2 Sally Shipman The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Region VI Coordinator – Southwestern States Richard Wilson...
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...global conflict, disappearing jobs, higher education cost, and increasing poverty in America, the homeless need our help more than ever. Just last year, the national poverty rate rose to include 13.2 % of the population. Also, 3.5 million people were forced to sleep in parks, shelters, under bridges or in cars. Hunger and homelessness are increasing epidemics plaguing the United States. Because of the high cost of living, high unemployment rates, and low-wage jobs, countless Americans are forced to choose between food, housing, and other expenses. According to recent studies, money is being devoted to rent and utilities rather than food. 35% of the homeless population is families with children, 23% are U.S. military veterans, 25% are children under the age of 18, 20-25% suffers from mental illness and 30% have experienced domestic violence. 19.3 % of homeless people live in New York City and Los Angeles. New York City has been shown to have the highest number of homeless people in the country. The next biggest is Loss Angeles and then Seattle/King County Washington. As a result of doing nothing for the homeless, more people will become homeless. That means, more people sleeping on the streets, dying from hunger, and possibly an even higher crime rate. Economic factors play a huge role in the issue of homelessness. The number one cause of homelessness is the shortage of affordable housing. With such low incomes and low minimum wage workers, food and shelter can’t be afforded. Over...
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...eliminate homeless in Seattle. This report will cover Mayor Schell’s policies choices and their practical outcome. It will cover restructuring Mayor Schell’s program to fit new objectives. Lastly, the report will analyze the importance of conducting assessments prior to new program implementation. Introduction On June 2, 1998, Mayor Schell made a daunting pledge to the community regarding Seattle’s homeless population. He pledged that by Christmas of that year, there would be no more homeless on the streets of Seattle. During the following months Mayor Schell and his Director of the Community Services Division of the Department of Housing and Human Services, Alan Painter, diligently strategized on how to successfully meet this pledge while weighing all the applicable factors. Four Policy Choices of Mayor Schell At the time of Mayor Schell’s pledge, there was an estimated 5,500 homeless on the streets of Seattle nightly (Draft, 2010 pg.1). Of those, 1,300 were homeless while 4,200 had temporary housing (Draft, 2010, pg.1). At that point in time, Seattle had several local programs, such Operation Nightwatch, that assisted such ones with transitional living. One of the first policy choices Schell had make was to insure such programs continue to function. In addition, these programs would need to be supported to help provide long-term housing for the population they served. Instead of providing housing for that night, the new goal would be lasting housing so as to...
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...McKinney, for purposes of the 1987 McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, “a homeless person (homelessness) is one who lacks a fixed permanent nighttime residence, or whose nighttime residence is a temporary shelter, welfare hotel, or any public or private place not designed as sleeping accommodations for human beings.” (Baum, 8) A rather deceptive definition when one considers the fact that homelessness is not a natural state, but one created and maintained by political agendas.Our government is not doing all that it can to combat our nation’s homelessness.In 1987, the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act was put into law. (Burger, 68-83) However, our government has moved away from the need to address the causes of homelessness. Instead our government has focused on the individual responsibility of those who become homeless, blaming their misfortune as their own fault. (Baum, 5-9) It is this belief that has helped to increase the homelessness of our nation, and it is this belief that will continue to do so if our government does not take a closer and more realistic look at the causes behind homelessness in our nation. Unless our government commits to ending homelessness through public education, policy advocacy, and technical assistance, homelessness will become a national disaster for the United States. Right now our government is not doing all it can towards putting into place the necessary solutions to combat homelessness. Who are/where the homeless people are...
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...Metropolitan Area and the largest municipality in the county—Hackensack—has a population of 43,010 (“Population Summary – Census 2010”). Overall, Bergen County’s homeless population decreased 78% from 2007 to 2016. In 2016, the county ended veteran homelessness (Giovanny Pinto, 2016) and in March 2017, the county became the first community in the...
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...A large number of homeless people entered the street in the 1970s. A large contributing factor is because of deinstitutionalization of medically ill, as well as the changes in housing stock, which led to a dramatic decline of single-room housing that began in the 1950s (Coalition). These single-room housing units provided low-cost housing for low-income families due to several factors such as the shared kitchen and bathroom systems (Coalition). “In 1960, by one measure, there were approximately 129,000 single-room housing units citywide. By the 1970s, single-room housing had become the “housing of last resort” for poor single adults, many of whom were disabled, elderly, addicts, or ex-inmates,” (Coalition). Besides the simple cut of single-room housing, this deinstitutionalization led a discharge of tens of thousands of mentally ill individuals to the New York City communities. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, “between 1965 and 1979 alone, the number of resident patients in State psychiatric centers fell from 85,000 to 27,000, which was a 68 percent decline.” This policy of deinstitutionalization was due to new and different medications and new approaches in providing treatment in a community setting. Because of the deinstitutionalization, single-room housing units became a key place for those...
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...here, a homeless man like Chris Gardner could become a millionaire. Yet when one walks down the streets of a city, it seems that this amazing story is, rather, an extremely rare occurrence. This idea set with the backdrop of a picture perfect suburb can perhaps hold true. However, when it is juxtaposed with makeshift homes made of tents and a couple of personal belongings, this promise seems nothing but shallow. There are many homeless individuals, and now a growing number of families, living on our streets, and their future is bleak. This is a terrible reflection of a country that has so great to offer so something must be done to try to solve this issue. In Detroit, through services like transition homes and shelters, Detroit Rescue Missions Ministries, though not perfect, is doing an efficient job dealing with homelessness. To understand the impact Detroit Rescue Missions Ministries (DRMM) has had, it is important to understand homelessness and its causes. There are “643,067 people experiencing homelessness on any given night” in this country and 37% are families (End Homelessness). Homelessness is caused by poverty and the inability to afford housing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) “calculates that a family with one full-time, minimum-wage worker can't afford a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country” (Katel). Poverty is another issue, especially in Detroit. Due to the foreclosure crisis and high unemployment rate “first-time homeless citizens...
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...because no one would hire them. The reason that there are so many people homeless is because the economy. People can’t find jobs so they have to sell their home and downgrade to a smaller home or apartment. Often there are times when families are broken up because the husband can’t provide for his family and they end up on the streets. The root cause of being homeless can be explained by economics, it’s said that people who become homeless are going through a financial issue and are unable to obtain or maintain their homes. Research shows that 83% of the homeless population experience episodic, transitional, or temporary periods of homelessness. The challenges that people in poverty ridden areas in trying to keep their get a home is the level of the housing cost burden. When housing is 30% or less of monthly income then it is considered to be affordable. Data collected from the US Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey shows that 75% of the households at or below the poverty line are severely housing cost burdened. When your housing accounts for 50% or more of a household’s resources, any unexpected financial crisis could cause a major housing stability problem and lead to an increased risk of homelessness. Being able to afford a house is a major issue across America and research shows that severe housing cost burden can vary by state. There are many reasons as to why people become homeless one of the most frequently reported reasons for...
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