The following editorial appeared in The Boston Globe (3/8/06). It gives a useful overview of housing policy and the impact of ongoing cuts on families like many of the patients we see. Staff may want to keep a copy at the ready to educate staff who wonder why we can’t easily find housing for homeless or at-risk patients, and to encourage advocacy for more forward-thinking policy.
By Robert M. Coard, 3/8/06.
IN 2003, the agency Action for Boston Community Development was able to keep the Driscoll family from falling into homelessness. If they came to us today, we probably couldn't help them.
In January 2003, James Driscoll lost his job. He, his wife, Brenda, and their two children, ages 5 and 8, could not survive on her income alone. On the verge of eviction from their Dorchester apartment, Brenda called family shelters to try to keep a roof over their heads.
They turned to ABCD for assistance, and a counselor in the ABCD Housing/Homelessness Prevention Program negotiated with the landlord and prevented the eviction. She drew upon the resources of the state's Housing Assistance Program, which at that time provided funds to assist families at risk for homelessness. She worked out a payment plan with the landlord, helped the family find an apartment that they could afford, paid the required deposit and first and last month's rent, and assisted the family with moving expenses. Now James is working again, and the family is thriving.
By preventing this family's eviction, ABCD not only halted a horrifying scenario for them, but also saved the state and taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in family shelter expenses. Since then, the state funding that helped the Driscolls get on their feet has been cut, along with several other programs that prevent homelessness and stabilize families. Without prevention programs, shelters are overflowing, raising the specter of once again placing homeless families in expensive motels and hotels. The cost of family shelters is also prohibitive; the state pays shelters $106 a day per family -- that translates into $3,215 per month or $38,500 per year, far more than the cost of a moderately priced apartment in Boston.
In 2005, the number of families living in Boston shelters increased by 24 percent. Families with children are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population and currently number more than 2,000 in Boston. The average age of a child living in Boston's shelters is 8. Experts note that the more than 1.3 million homeless children nationally suffer disproportionately from ''sickness, hunger, and fear." The witnessing of violence and abuse on the streets may haunt them for years. There are about 6,200 homeless adults in Boston and 22,000 homeless individuals in Massachusetts. One-half of homeless individuals work full time but are unable to find housing they can afford.
At ABCD, housing counselors now have few resources to help people stay off the streets and move out of shelters in what has been called the city with the most expensive rents in the nation. The counselors are taking homeless families out of Boston neighborhoods where they have lived all their lives and placing them in New Bedford and Springfield, in New Hampshire and Maine, where market rate rents are cheaper. As a result, distressed and vulnerable families are removed from familiar support systems and face tough challenges of employment, transportation, and sometimes racism in strange communities.
As the prevention dollars are cut, counselors' case loads are skyrocketing. Many families desperately need comprehensive case management services that they don't have the resources to provide and there are very limited options for single homeless people.
What is the answer? There has been a flurry of activity to combat homelessness on the local philanthropic fronts, and those initiatives are most welcome. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino has been a strong advocate for a variety of housing solutions to the escalating issue of homelessness.
However, this is a situation that calls for significant government interventions at all levels to remedy the decades of abandonment of affordable housing initiatives by the federal and state governments. First, under Ronald Reagan, came the creation of homelessness as affordable housing was zeroed out of the federal budget in the 1980s. Three years ago federal Section 8 housing subsidies were eliminated. In 1997, voters in many communities did away with rent control and previously cheap apartments suddenly became high-priced rentals or condos. Now state programs funding homelessness prevention and family stabilization services -- the last line of defense for families facing homelessness -- are being eliminated.
The solution requires major investment by federal, state, local, and private sources in affordable housing as well as comprehensive case management services that include prevention, stabilization, life skills, financial literacy, nutrition, parenting, referrals to job training, and placement and educational opportunities. The payback would be huge.
Robert M. Coard is president/CEO of Action for Boston Community Development Inc.
-From: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/03/08/keeping_a_roof_over_their_heads?mode=PF Retrieved 3/8/06.
03/06