Posted on May 25, 2010
The collaborative efforts of Virginia Supportive Housing and the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness provide a perfect illustration of how agencies that are focused on the same issue can align strategies and complement each other’s strengths to bring about real change.
The mission of the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness is to prevent and end homelessness in the Commonwealth of Virginia through community collaboration, capacity building, education and advocacy. Although it is not a direct service provider, its work in the areas of statewide research, data collection, policy development, and resource mobilization is critical to the work of Virginia Supportive Housing.
Virginia Supportive Housing’s mission is to provide permanent solutions to homelessness using an integrated approach that combines permanent housing and support services. As a direct service provider, VSH has a “ground-level” perspective of the problem of homelessness which might seem at odds with VCEH’s more abstract perspective. However, neither agency could achieve its mission in the community without the other, and together the two agencies have helped to transform the state’s response to homelessness in many ways.
One of VCEH’s top priorities for 2010 is to increase investment in permanent supportive housing for homeless people with disabilities, ex-offenders, and veterans by conducting a needs assessment and developing an action plan. This priority reflects not just a regional trend (as articulated in Richmond’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness), but also a nationwide shift in focus toward the integrated model utilized with such success by VSH.
By quantifying VSH’s successes in the form of measurable data, VCEH can make pragmatic recommendations borne out by practice. And by implementing evidence-based practices supported by research, VSH can strengthen the case for permanent supportive housing. In this way, the priorities of both agencies can be met in a way that is both mutually beneficial and deeply validating.
For more than two decades, VSH and VCEH have been joining forces in the regional fight to permanently end homelessness. It is collaborations like these that will ultimately put an end to a problem that has plagued our communities for far too long. VSH and VCEH agree – the time to end homelessness is now.
VCEH can’t achieve its mission without you. To support the effort to end homelessness in the Commonwealth of Virginia, become a VCEH member today!
Posted on May 18, 2010
I have asked Heather Williams, VSH’s spring semester PR intern, to write this week’s blog. Thanks, Alice
A few months ago I became the PR intern here at VSH. When I started my position, I quickly realized I knew less than I thought I knew about the crisis of homelessness. I knew that I had compassion for people I had seen on the streets since I started my college career at VCU. I knew from my friends working on their social work degrees that many people experiencing homelessness had mental health and/or addiction problems. I knew that there had to be a solution and that I wanted to help. VSH has allowed me to do just that.
My job at VSH has included writing the “Did You Know” blogs, gathering and writing Stories of Hope and putting together the newsletter. In the past three months, I have learned more about homelessness than I ever thought I could.
I must admit that my very favorite part of my job was interviewing VSH clients who were previously homeless for the Stories of Hope. Hearing their life experiences and world views was a rare opportunity and one which I will never, ever forget. It was an unbelievable feeling to know that, through my interpretation and writing, the public would hear a story that otherwise may have never been told.
The first VSH client I interviewed was a woman a year older than me who had five children. As I asked her about her life, three of her children played in the living room. She had been homeless for years, walking and living on the streets of Richmond with her children. I will never forget the point in the interview when tears streamed down her face and then mine as well. I could barely tell my Public Relations class about the interview without choking up. No one else had an internship like mine.
In order to collect Stories of Hope, I organized and conducted two interview sessions at New Clay House. I interviewed between five and seven clients during a two hour time period. At the end of one of the sessions, it began to storm severely outside. As I am extremely frightened by thunderstorms, and this was a bad one, I could not push myself to walk to my car in the rain and lightening.
One of the clients, Terry, stood outside of New Clay House with me for more than thirty minutes while I waited for the storm to pass. We talked the entire time. He talked about his son and grandchildren living in Colorado. He asked me about my upcoming graduation and wedding. He then walked me to my car claiming that because of his height, lightening would strike him before me. We laughed the whole twenty feet we walked to my car.
Terry is one of many VSH clients I will never forget. I can’t quite express how moved I have been by the number of lives VSH has touched and changed forever. I consider myself to be one of them.
By mid-May, my internship at VSH will come to an end. I will no longer be required to write “Did You Know” or Story of Hope blog entries. Instead I will use what I do now know and my experience with clients to continue to make the argument for supportive housing. Instead of just having compassion for the homeless, I feel like I am now armed with much more useful facts and experience. Every time I hear someone complain about their “tax payer dollars” going towards people who “just choose not to work”, I will know what to tell them … the truth and the solution.
Posted on May 12, 2010
An effective way of staying informed and up-to-date on the latest facts and data is to know and periodically check a few good sources of information. There are hundreds of sites sharing data and opinions about homelessness, making the quest to find compelling facts overwhelming.
Homeward is a Richmond, VA based agency which twice a year collects and presents a data summary of statistics on those experiencing homelessness in the region. Homeward’s “State of Homelessness Report” includes statistics of demographics, mental health, incarceration rates, etc. Homeward has up to date, accurate information and the best thing about it, is that it’s local.
For information pertaining to the national population experiencing homelessness, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issues a quarterly Annual Homeless Assessment Report to congress known as “Homeless Pulse Data”. The HUD site provides statistics for the state of homelessness throughout the entire U.S. as well as an option on their website to obtain information by state.
HUD and Homeward are just two sites providing accurate and up-to-date information on homelessness and supportive housing. Other reliable sources of information include the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the National Coalition for the Homelessness, the Institute for Children and Poverty, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs
and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Homelessness Resource Center.
Staying informed is the most effective way to make a case for permanent supportive housing. By presenting facts in a discussion, others can be educated…and the issue of homelessness can be solved.
Posted on May 4, 2010
Two weeks ago during Affordable Housing Awareness Week, Homeward held a Homeless Simulation where people could experience what it was like to be homeless and get the services that are needed. Participants in the simulation were given real life situations and were asked to assume the role of a homeless person or family. One situation also included someone who was on the brink of homelessness and needed prevention services.
Homeward did a great job planning and carrying out the event. I attended the de-briefing at St. Paul’s Church and the responses of the participants indicated that the simulation was an enlightening experience. The participants really got a sense of what people who are homeless go through just getting basic services like food and health care. Participants also got a taste of what it’s like trying to get from downtown to southside without a car. (Read one person’s account of his experience during the Homeless Simulation, including the trials and tribulations of trying to find the right bus.) Participants were overwhelmed with the paperwork that was required in order to receive services at a government agency. Why is that not surprising?
The participants gave all of the service providers a gold star for their responsiveness to people in need and the respect that everyone received as they waited for services or got help. When asked during the de-briefing if there were other services that were needed, no one could think of any.
I have to say that at that point, my heart sank. No one mentioned the critical need for permanent housing. After considering the characteristics of the simulation and its participants, I decided to give everyone at the de-briefing the benefit of the doubt. I believe participants were simply overwhelmed with obtaining the very basic needs for survival. People experiencing homelessness have to do so much just to get the basics: food, clothes, a bed for the night and if they’re sick, health care.
A permanent place to stay may not have been in the forefront of the simulation participants’ minds while they were standing in line to get food, bus passes etc. They were most likely thinking about the moment; bemused by the challenges they faced just to eat or travel a few miles.
As evidenced by the simulation, we as a community do a great job with the basics. Now, what more can we do? More importantly, how can we surpass expensive emergency services and solve the root of the problem?
When I finally had a turn to speak I talked about the other solution, besides prevention, to homelessness … permanent housing. Participants around the table nodded their heads and understood that this was the end game. Emergency housing and services are needed, but perhaps the most basic need of people experiencing homelessness is a home — a permanent place to live.
One participant asked me what they could do to help, which was a wonderful question. Here are some things that we (VSH) said:
- Learn more about the need for permanent housing — VSH gives tours.
- Educate others about how permanent housing is a solution to homelessness.
- Advocate for permanent housing at the federal, State and local level. Rental subsidies are very much needed in order to obtain and maintain permanent housing, especially for people who are disabled and have been homeless for a long time.
- Talk to landlords about renting apartments to people who may not have good credit and may have criminal histories.
These are just a few things that we can do so that we can begin to focus our efforts on the solutions to homelessness and transform our system. While VSH fully supports the Homeless Simulation, maybe we need a segment of the day to focus more on the permanent solutions to the problem. It could be titled “Walk in Their Shoes and Then See Those Shoes Under Their Beds”.
