How to Help the Homeless in Your Community

Section 1 

Unlike other social issues affecting the country, homelessness is among those issues that can be permanently dealt with if policymakers find a way to address the challenges that lead to homelessness in the first place. The rate of homelessness in the U.S has decreased within the last decade although the number of homeless people recorded an increase in the year 2017. The effects of high levels of homelessness can also be felt on other sectors of the economy such as security, education, health and many more (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2018). 

States with high levels of homelessness have been linked with high levels of insecurity although the two are not co-dependent. Homelessness also burdens the country’s healthcare as the numbers of homeless people seeking medical care in public hospitals is also high and the fact that they do not have any form of medical cover or means of payment for the services offered puts hospital administration in a dilemma. The administration does not want to allocate resources to these homeless people as they are not able to cover the costs of their own treatment but also cannot deny treating them as it goes against the rules of social justice (Grech & Raeburn, 2018). 

Medical personnel are also trained to put saving lives ahead of monetary gain thus homeless people, usually with no money and no health cover, pose a genuine challenge to health providers. Healthcare is further affected because it is difficult for health agencies to effectively run medical programs such as vaccinations and awareness campaigns. This is because homeless people have no permanent abode where they can be found and taken through these programs thus the health department risks alienating a crucial part of the population from these programs which ultimately affects the success rate of the program (Grech & Raeburn, 2018). 

Government data on homelessness is very informative and broken down across different sectors of the population affected by homelessness. 

In the U.S. in 2017, 1,416,908 million people were recorded to have experienced homelessness at least once within the year. 

2017 homelessness statistics can be distributed as follows: 

Individuals with disability – 44.5% 

Veterans – 9.1% or 40,020 veterans. This represented a drop of 45.5% between 2009 and 2017 although this also reflected an increase in the number of unsheltered homeless veterans from 2016. 

Families with children – 33.5% 

Individuals in families without children – 66.5% 

According to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, among the homeless people who were in a family during their homelessness, 91% of them could be found in a sheltered location leaving only 9% of them still in unsheltered locations (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2018). 

The government responds to the issue of homelessness through various programs spread across multiple agencies and with this multi-agency approach also comes the risk of overlap. There are however three government agencies that are accountable for 22 out of 26 program aimed at the homeless people in the country. These agencies are the departments of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and the department of Housing and Urban Development. These agencies control around 89% of total funds that are to be used for addressing the issue of homelessness (GAO, 2012). 

These different agencies by virtue of addressing the same issue will sometimes find themselves having programs that will partly overlap that either increase the efficiency of the program or compromises the quality or efficiency of the program. Fragmentation and overlap can easily lead to inefficient use of resources due to repetition while the money could have easily been put into much better use. A good example of this fragmentation and overlap is between the departments of Health and Human Services and Veteran Affairs. Both departments run similar services despite each program trying to curve a niche for itself and claiming its own set of customers. These services would have ideally been dealt with through one channel or department but fragmentation has ensured that both programs continue running separately with independent administrative units which is a waste of resources (GAO, 2012). 

The government has allocated so many resources to homelessness underlining the fact that it is important to tackle the issue and fast and in the best way possible. Reducing fragmentation of programs dealing with homelessness is reported to have a positive effect on how homeless people interact with homelessness agencies. This is because most homeless people find it difficult to navigate services that are spread across (GAO, 2012). 

Section 2: Community Engagement Programs 

State Medicaid-Housing Agency Partnerships CMS’ Medicaid Innovation Accelerator Program (IAP) is a partnership between the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) and Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). The duration of the partnership is usually six-months and has been described as a very intensive and practical program intended to enhance collaborations between various partners dealing with housing. CMCS has partnered with several government agencies on the management of the program such as the USDHUD; SAMHSA; the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; and the US Interagency Council on Homelessness. Currently, the program has eight states participating including California, Hawaii, Illinois, Connecticut, Nevada, Kentucky, Oregon and New Jersey. These states will partner with experts to come up with a plan to use supportive housing to address the issue of homelessness (Coredata.nyc, 2018). 

HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program (HUD-VASH) 

The program has received huge investments from the departments of Housing and also the department of Veteran Affairs. The program caters specifically for veterans experiencing homelessness and has housed quite a huge number of veterans since its inception in 2008. The program has undergone tremendous growth and has to date housed approximately 129,000 veterans with more than 55,000 between 2015 and 2017. The net positive effect of these programs dealing with housing of homeless veterans can be seen in the decreasing numbers of veterans recorded on a single night and also on average for the whole of 2017. Between 2012 and 2017, one-year estimates of veterans and one-night estimates declined by 14 percent and 34 percent respectively ( U.S Dept of Veteran Affairs, 2018). 

Section 3: Community Engagement Proposal 

Introduction/ Abstract 

The program will involve providing an online platform where homeless veterans and people with disabilities are able to find work advertised by potential employers and specifically for them. The aim of the program is to pool together companies and people that are willing to help veterans and disabled people who are homeless through providing job opportunities that empower them financially and help them escape homelessness. The intended beneficiaries will be registered and the job opportunities posted on the website for them to apply. The first two years of the program will be funded through the grant received but as the program grows, more funding will be solicited from government sources and other sponsors. The main objective and also greatest measure of success of the program will be the reduction on the numbers of homeless people in Los Angeles due to financial empowerment of the homeless veterans and disabled people thus giving them access to affordable housing. 

Background Information 

The Work for A Living program is aimed at addressing the issue of homelessness at a much deeper level than just providing shelter or housing for the homeless people in the country. It is located in Los Angeles, state of California and aimed at addressing homelessness among veterans and people with disabilities. The program focuses mainly on these two groups due to their vulnerability in the community but does not discriminate on other homeless people who seek assistance from the program. 

There have been several programs addressing this demographic but most have been geared towards providing housing for homeless veterans. ‘Work for A Living’ is aimed at bringing together public and private sector players with short and even long-term employment opportunities that can be availed to homeless veterans and disabled people although some veterans can fall under both groups. 

Problem Statement 

Adults with disabilities account for 15.9 percent of the total U.S. adult population and 44.4 percent of all adults experiencing homelessness in shelter over the course of a year while veterans accounted for 9.1 percent of homeless adults in the United States. This means that veterans and the disabled make up 53.5 percent of homeless adults. It is therefore crucial that a program is designed to cater for this demographic that covers more than half of the homeless population. 

Program Goals 

The main aim of the program is to bring together employers in one platform where they can constantly advertise for employment opportunities targeted specifically at veterans and people living with disability. Among the objectives is the creation of a web platform where government agencies, private companies and even citizens can advertise for work to be done. The goal is to have the website ready and running within the first 6 months as the idea is marketed to companies at the same time. Once running, the program aims at having the number of jobs advertised hit 10,000 by the first year and keep on increasing every year. 

Implementation Plan 

The 1 st phase of the implementation will involve design and setting up of the website and marketing of the idea to various public and private sector players. These two activities will run concurrently. 

The 2 nd phase will involve the registration of homeless veterans and people with disabilities. It will require a lot of cooperation from various agencies that deal with this demographic. These include the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, and the Department of Veteran Affairs among others. The registration will involve loading their details on the database using their social security number which they can use as a login username to the website and a password which they can set for themselves. 

The 3 rd and final phase will involve training the users, both the beneficiaries and the potential employers, on how to use the website to advertise and also get work. Awareness campaigns and trainings will be held in different neighborhoods in the city that will be used to round up the targeted demographic and educate them on the benefits and know-how of the program. The program will then be launched officially. 

Evaluation Plan 

The success of the program will be measured by the number of jobs posted on the website. 10,000 jobs advertised within the first year of the website running will be considered as a success but a minimum of 7,000 jobs will still be acceptable. 

The ultimate measure of success for the program will be the reduction of the numbers of homeless people as the aim of the program is to empower homeless people and enable them to be in a position to get affordable housing for themselves and leave the shelters. 

Budget 

The $100,000 grant amount will be distributed as follows: 

Website design - $30,000 

Trainings and awareness campaigns - $20,000 

Marketing - $10,000 

Administration expenses - $20,000 

Working capital - $20,000 

Future running expenses will be met through further grants and financial support from the government and other willing sponsors. 

References 

Coredata.nyc (2018). Directory of NYC Housing Programs: Homeless Housing and Assistance Programs. Retrieved from http://furmancenter.org/coredata/directory/entry/homeless-housing-and-assistance-program 

Government Accountability Office, GAO (2012). Homelessness: Fragmentation and Overlap in Programs Highlight the Need to Identify, Assess, and Reduce Inefficiencies, GAO-12-491. Retrieved from https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-491 

Grech E. and Raeburn T. (2018). Experiences of hospitalised homeless adults and their health care providers in OECD nations: A literature review. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2018.04.004 

National Alliance to End Homelessness (2018). State of Homelessness. Retrieved from https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-report/ 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2018). The 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. Retrieved from https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2017-AHAR-Part-2.pdf 

U.S Dept of Veteran Affairs (2018). U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program. Retrieved from https://www.va.gov/homeless/hud-vash.asp