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Did you know…that homelessness is the 800 pound gorilla in the (news)room?

Although homelessness is not a frequent topic in the news, its shadow haunts many of our headlines.

On any given day, it is unusual to see even one brief mention of homelessness in the local news. In today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, for example, the most popular articles focused on Ted Stevens, pop tarts, sex abuse, and high-speed chases. A targeted search using “homeless” as the key phrase comes up empty.

On NBC 12, the top headlines feature Amtrak discounts, the opening of Richmond’s first charter school, and the investigation results of a deadly police standoff. Again, a key phrase search comes up empty.

Items about homelessness are slightly more frequent in the South Hampton Roads area. Yesterday, on Wavy.com (the news channel serving that area), there was one item about the approved installation of “donation meters” along the Virginia Beach board walk, a measure designed to address the issue of panhandling.

A Google search of top national news items results in the tirade of the JetBlue flight attendant, Ted Stevens, flooding in China & Pakistan, and the trade deficit. If you narrow the search, only two items come up for today’s date; one about homeless camps “sprouting like mushrooms” in Santa Cruz, and the other about the death of a proposal to build a large housing complex for the homeless in the Dallas area. This summarizes the number of items appearing across the national radar.

Even more comprehensive national news outlets such as NPR only infrequently mention the issue of homelessness, and it is often buried under other “more timely” issues. For example, on the day that the federal homeless plan was released (June 22), it was necessary to wade through fourteen other articles covering topics such as cleaning oiled birds, the guilty plea of the New York car bomb suspect, and the Rolling Stone article about General McChrystal before locating the announcement by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

It’s no wonder that people experiencing homelessness are frequently referred to as “invisible.” Their daily struggles are not newsworthy, and very often, when they do appear in the news, the reports have an unpleasant connotation that seems to support the overall perception that “the homeless” are dangerous drug-addicted mentally ill criminals who are too lazy to work and feed off services supported by tax payer dollars. 

On the other hand, multiple items appear in the local and national news every single day regarding subjects such as unemployment rates, unemployment benefits, job creation, underemployment, home foreclosures, affordable housing, health care accessibility, disability & mental health coverage, budget cuts for social services, quality of education, access to education, the cost of college tuition, etc.

Although homelessness is not the explicit focus in any of these headlines, its shadow lurks on the edges of all these issues in a conspicuous but unspoken way, because these factors, especially when combined all at one time, play a critical role in the housing crises of both individuals and families.

And ultimately, we care about unemployment, health care, and affordable housing because of the specter of widespread homelessness that hangs over all these issues, threatening the very foundations of our society.

So the next time you pick up the paper and read the latest news regarding foreclosures, unemployment rates, or health care legislation, remember that, whether we acknowledge it or not, housing as a fundamental human right is at the core of every headline.

Not all disabilities are created equal

On July 26th, there was a celebration at the White House to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the passing of the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA), which for the first time protected the rights of people with physical and mental disabilities, and prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, public services and public accommodations

For those of you who don’t know, I am legally blind.  While I don’t consider myself disabled in the full sense of the word, I can get accommodations under the ADA.  However, since my handicap is physical it does not have nearly the stigma as mental illness.

As a matter of fact, I would venture to guess that many people don’t know that people with mental illness are covered under the ADA.  Working at Virginia Supportive Housing has taught me that people with mental illness are discriminated against in housing and employment more often than physically disabled people and many times their disability is far more debilitating.  People with serious mental illness often become homeless because of their disability and have a very difficult time getting into and staying in permanent housing.  It is estimated that nationally 20 to 25% of individuals experiencing homelessness have a serous mental illness.

At VSH, we are successful at helping people with mental illness obtain and maintain permanent housing because of the clinical nature of the services we provide.  We have seen many people whose lives have been transformed through patient and consistent services that are available to them, in some cases 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Last week, I was especially heartened to see that Nathanial Ayers performed in front of President Obama at the commemoration of the ADA.  I was glad to see that Mr. Ayers was still doing well.  Mr. Ayers is a musician who was homeless for many years due to his mental illness.  He was befriended by Steve Lopez, a journalist with the Los Angeles Times who wrote a book, The Soloist, that eventually became a movie.  Mr. Lopez and a nonprofit supportive housing provider took the time to work with Mr. Ayers and get him into permanent housing where he is living with his disability with respect and dignity.  Another success story!

But there are still a lot of people out there who are disabled due to mental illness who still need compassion, respect and a place to live.  I hope all of us continue to work hard to make sure that persons with mental illness are afforded the same opportunities and rights that Mr. Ayers received so that in 20 years when we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the ADA there are many more success stories.

Story of Hope…A Place To Start

Jane* is 47 years old.  She was physically abused during her childhood and dropped out of high school in the 9th grade.  Although she believes her mental illness started in her teens, her symptoms increased when she moved to Richmond in 1991. 

About three years ago, everything changed for Jane.  In her own words, she reports that within two weeks, her world “fell apart.”  She lost her car, her children, and her housing and entered the homeless services system.  Sometimes she stayed at a local shelter during the night, but had no where to go during the day.  Other times she just stayed “here and there.”  She talks openly about walking the streets during the day, trying to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  While she was on the streets, Jane’s hypertension worsened and she developed diabetes.  Jane says that “the worst part of being homeless was only being able to shower once a week”. This went on for more than two years. 

In April of 2008, Jane was referred to the A Place To Start (APTS) program.  She immediately began receiving psychiatric services for her untreated mental illness and the APTS staff helped her secure permanent rental housing.   In September of 2008, Jane signed her lease and moved into her new apartment.  She pays 30% of her monthly income towards rent; the remainder of which is subsidized through a voucher from the Virginia Housing and Development Authority. She receives intensive services from the APTS team to help her address her mental health symptoms and maintain her housing.  She is now receiving physical health care and is able to have visitation with her children.  She has come a long way since entering the APTS program and looks forward to the progress she will make in the future. 

*Names and certain identifying details have been changed to protect program participant’s privacy.

Anyone And Everyone Can Make It In Permanent Housing

I have asked Katie Van Arnam, VSH’s Director of Housing Access Programs, to write this week’s blog. Thanks, Alice

Is this household able to maintain permanent housing?  Are they “ready” to be in their own place?  Will they be able to “make it”?  In my role at Virginia Supportive Housing, I hear these questions on a regular basis.  My answer is always “yes”.  I typically provide this response before I know any information about the situation and leave the individual asking me the question with a confused look on their face.  In my mind, the issue is not “is this person sustainable in permanent housing” but instead, “does our community have a housing option that meets this person’s needs?”

Communities should have an array of options for those experiencing a housing crisis including outreach, prevention, emergency and transitional shelter, and affordable rental housing, and permanent, supportive housing.  These options should be available to anyone who needs them, including those with physical disabilities and language barriers.  Most importantly, the services and programs should match the needs of the household.  Instead of blaming the person experiencing the crisis and saying “they will never make it in permanent housing” or “what did they do to get themselves here”, we should be looking at the services available in our community and asking why we do not have the capacity to meet this person’s needs.

VSH’s A Place to Start (APTS) program is a perfect example of this theory.  This program serves single individuals with an extensive history of homelessness as well as a serious mental health disorder.  By most standards, participants would not be able to “make it on their own” in permanent housing.  However, the APTS program has proven otherwise.  By matching the appropriate level of support services (in this case, intense service) to the needs of program participants, people are able to remain stable and avoid returning to homelessness.  After operating for two and a half years, this program has shown a 98% success rate.  This is for a group that most felt would not be “suitable” in permanent housing.    

This housing first approach to ending homelessness is not unique to Richmond.  According to HUD, more than 70,000 units of permanent housing as described above have been funded since 2001.  Nationwide, the number of chronically homeless individuals has decreased by a third since 2005 (dropping to 112,000).  Nationally, it is recognized that people may not “look ready for permanent housing” but they can, and will, make it in permanent housing if given the appropriate opportunity. 

In addition to being the socially just thing to do, this matching of needs with services makes fiscal sense.  The cost of homeless prevention, emergency shelters, transitional shelters, permanent supportive housing, and support services varies greatly.  It is our responsibility to ensure that the most expensive programs are utilized for those who truly need them, and to then demand outcomes that justify the expense.  In a recent article printed in the Washington Post, Dennis Culhane discusses five myths about America’s homeless.  He discusses the role of emergency shelters since the 1980’s, and stresses that shelters have become “institutionalized way stations for lots of poor people with temporary housing crises.”  He goes on to state, “To be in a shelter is to be homelessness, and the more shelters we build the more resources we divert from the only real solution to homelessness: permanent housing.” 

I have urged my staff, and I am urging you to change your frame of thinking and begin to believe that anyone and everyone is able to “make it” in permanent housing.  It is not our job to make that call.  It is, however, our job to ensure that a wide variety of options are available.

Invisible Everywhere

I have asked Alison Jones-Nassar, VSH’s volunteer program coordinator, to write this week’s blog. Thanks, Alice

Did you know…that the problem of homelessness manifests itself differently in different countries, but that responses to it reflect universal themes?

According to Wikipedia, there are about 100 million homeless people worldwide. About 3,000,000 people are estimated to be homeless in the European Union, while in Canada that figure is about 150,000. In Australia the official figure is 105,000 and in Japan, between 20,000 – 100,000 people are identified as homeless. In so-called Third World countries, homelessness is rapidly rising due to a variety of factors including poverty, poor urban housing conditions, migration trends, overpopulation, food scarcity, and conflict. Based on available data, one thing seems to be true: homelessness looks very different from one country, region, and continent to the next.

Last week, I had the opportunity to explore this idea when I was asked to participate in a training session for a group of VCU students who are doing a summer social media project in partnership with several Richmond area non-profits. The group consists primarily of Iraqi exchange students (including Kurds), but there are also students from South America and Central Europe.

Among other things, these students are tasked with teaching basic computer and social media skills in a volunteer capacity to residents of Carver district, including some of our tenants from New Clay House. As volunteer program coordinator for Virginia Supportive Housing, it’s my job to prepare these students for interacting one-on-one with our clients, and my training was designed to help these volunteers understand how their knowledge, perceptions, awareness, and sensitivity toward the issue of homelessness could impact their experiences.

Despite the early hour (training began at 8:30 a.m.) the students quickly developed an intense interest in the subject and a lively discussion followed. Coincidentally, one student had already had an encounter with homelessness. In a blog describing her experiences in the US, she wrote about “something negative [that] happened to us that really scared us. We saw a drunk, homeless man, who asked us for money. When we ignored him, he got mad and tried to hurt us. It made us all wonder about the safety in the United States.”

Using this observation to stimulate conversation, I asked them: what is the situation like in your country? What has your exposure been to homeless people there? Why do you think people become homeless there? Why do you think they become homeless here? Do you feel toward the homeless in your country what you felt toward this man?

These questions go way beyond objective understanding to penetrate deeply ingrained value systems regarding personal fault and social obligation, political justice and divine retribution. I won’t pretend to think that I changed anyone’s perspective on the issue, though I do believe it was a very thought-provoking hour and a half for everyone in the room. One thing seems to be universal: people experiencing homelessness are invisible everywhere. People all over the world avert their gazes from the problem and try to pretend it simply doesn’t exist. They shake their heads and pass judgment and are confident it will never happen to them. We can develop our plans and strategies and goals and timelines, but there is still a lot of work to be done where it counts – in the human heart.