According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (2016), four programs exist under the Affordable Housing policy through which federal spending is secured to enhance housing assistance for the homeless and people with low income. These include Project-Based Rental Assistance, Tenant-Based Rental Assistance, Public Housing Capital Grants, and the Public Housing operating funds. In totality, all four programs enable the provision of affordable rental housing to more than 5 million people even though with significant underfunding issues.
However, despite the development of the Policy in 1980, just around the time the problem of homelessness first emerged, the Affordable Housing policy has not been able to provide reprieve to all homeless people. Johnsen and Watts (2014) highlights that while the policy was developed for the government to be able to define and allocate resources to shelter the people experiencing homelessness, the availability of the reprieve provided by the policy, alongside other efforts by social workers has contributed to continued homelessness. People who would otherwise work effectively to own and maintain homes opt out of the hard work for the easily available reprieve offered by this policy and other programs along its line.
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Areas for Change
According to De Leeuw et al., (2007), housing programs and policies such as the Affordable housing policy have contributed significantly to factors that impact homelessness such as segregation and disproportionate housing. For instance, the government in its provision of supporting finance for affordable housing has deliberately concentrated family public housing in areas of concentrated poverty, which are predominately inhabited by people of color. This segregation, which amounts to systemic racism, further impact limited access to resources such as mortgage insurance programs and bank loans that can enhance and enable house ownership among such individuals, ultimately leading to elevated homelessness among people of color. Lurier, Schuster, and Rankin (2015) confirm this with statistics by HUD highlighting that up to 42% of the homeless US population is made up of African Americans. To reduce and ultimately eliminate the problem of homelessness the aspect of residential should be effectively changed to afford African Americans equal opportunities for growth and homeownership.
The Affordable housing policies further allow non-governmental social workers and organizations to develop programs and policies such as outreach programs, discharge planning policies as well as housing programs aimed towards reducing chronic homelessness in the US. Caton, Wilkins &Anderson (2007) advance that such programs are critically developed to create a positive relationship with the homeless and contribute towards their housing, treatment services, and other social work resources. However, such programs have led to an increase in tolerance for the homeless which potentially multiplies the problem. Individuals who are capable of working and affording proper housing are lured to the streets to secure free assistance and housing from social workers leading to the development of a continuous cycle to the problem of homelessness (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2016). To reduce and ultimately eradicate the problem of homelessness, better community assistance techniques should be adopted to further encourage individuals to work hard and afford their own proper housing.
Recommendations
Two major problems impact the effectiveness of Affordable housing as a policy for averting homelessness as described above, including ineffective steps such as segregation and disproportionate housing as well as inadequate strategies and techniques adopted by social workers to help avert the problem. Effective changes in the policy can help to enhance the effectiveness of the policy and enable the eradication or significant reduction of the homeless within the US.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness (2016), advances that the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD), Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) is the major rental assistance program, but one that is significantly underfunded. As a result, only one of four eligible households receives federal rental assistance. Increasing funding to such programs can be significant in enhancing the reduction of homelessness. This should be done in tandem with the dismantling of the segregation and disproportionate home allocation policies to enable inclusivity and allow all citizens to be able to develop and grow themselves out of homelessness.
Cleaning up the segregation and disproportionate housing policies would also attract non-governmental assistance from corporate and social workers towards the efforts of reducing homelessness. In this way, the personal programs and initiatives of social workers which lure individuals to the streets and increase tolerance for homelessness can also be merged with the government efforts and enable the checking of homeless tolerance. Government programs and policies use much more stringent and information-based procedures to identify the truly homeless that need assistance. Awareness of this fact should as such be enough to prevent people from forfeiting hard work and personal growth and development for government support and rental assistance
Conclusion
The Affordable Housing Policy along with its programs and endeavors have no doubt been significant in helping the homeless across the years. However, they have not been entirely effective in dealing with the homelessness problem, partly due to destructive policies of segregation and disproportionate housing and partly due to limited financing. The policies also allow for individual private efforts by social workers which enhance tolerance for homelessness multiplying the complexity and extent of the problem. Changing the destructive policies of segregation and joining public and private efforts should be able therefore to enhance funding for rental assistance to the homeless and limit the tolerance for homelessness leading to reduction and ultimate eradication of homelessness in the US.
References
Caton, C. L., Wilkins, C., & Anderson, J. (2007, September). People who experience long-term homelessness: Characteristics and interventions. In Toward understanding homelessness: The 2007 national symposium on homelessness research . Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services and US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
De Leeuw, M. B., Whyte, M. K., Ho, D., Meza, C., & Karteron, A. (2007). Residential Segregation and Housing Discrimination in the United States. Poverty & Race Research Action Council. December .
Johnsen, S., & Watts, B. (2021). Homelessness and poverty: reviewing the links. Retrieved from www.pure.hw.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/7467281/Homelessness_Poverty_FullReport.pdf
Lurie, K., Schuster, B., & Rankin, S. (2015). Discrimination at the margins: The intersectionality of homelessness & other marginalized groups. Available at SSRN 2602532 .
National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2016). The state of homelessness in America.
