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Housing Archives - ChangingMedia

Aug 08
0

The Police are not Our Landlords

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | 2 Comments

If you were in Los Angeles last week, maybe you were a part of the great crisis of August 1, 2014. For a few hours that Friday, Facebook stopped working. Were you part of the panic that ensued? Network news reported on the issue, although many people were likely too busy refreshing their Facebook app to turn on CNN.

I am all about seeing my friends’ vacation pictures and status updates, but the news that followed the glitch seemed more disturbing. The Los Angeles police tweeted (thank goodness for alternative social media!) that they’d really appreciate it if citizens could stop calling 911 to report the Facebook issue.

While we all probably have a funny story about a ridiculous police report, it is worth questioning the jurisdiction of police. It does not extend to Facebook. This week, Los Angeles Police were relieved of another responsibility – clearing Skid Row of people experiencing homelessness.

Skid Row, a fifty block area in Los Angeles that is home to more than 17,000 people experiencing homelessness, is one of the most densely concentrated group of homeless people in the country. Studied and documented many times for the unique environment it creates, residents here have long been wary of police involvement in their lives and their belongings.

Amid a new Los Angeles plan called Operation Clean Streets, leaders are beginning to see that arrests are not the answer. “The seriousness of the situation makes this much more than a police issue,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar during a news conference. Instead, this is becoming everyone’s issue – which is what homelessness has been all along.

Now, police will partner with mental health providers, legal services, and housing providers. Finally, police are being used as partners in the race to end homelessness rather than the only tool. Asking them on their own to end homelessness is about as effective as asking them to reactivate Facebook. Many police forces across the country undergo sensitivity training and don’t necessarily want or plan to widely criminalize homelessness, but they use the resources available to them. A police officer is not a mental health therapist, or a doctor, or a housing agency.

Providing necessary support to both police and individuals who are homeless in Los Angeles is the only way to successfully strengthen the neighborhood. There is potential here to finally adequately support a large group of chronically homeless individuals. I am sure the Los Angels Police Department hopes that it works.

 

Jun 06
0

Realtors Want Housing For All

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | 2 Comments

How do you experience homelessness? I wrote several months ago about the preferred terminology for homelessness; that “people experiencing homelessness” is a better phrase than “homeless people,” because it reminds us that homelessness is a condition – hopefully a temporary one – and not a defining characteristic. After further consideration, I think the phrase applies to all of us – even those of us who are lucky enough to have our own beds and roofs and keys to the front door. I have never experienced homelessness, but my experience with homelessness – meeting people who have lost their homes and their families and their health due to lack of affordable housing – makes me want to end this issue. I know many social workers, case managers, and shelter employees that are passionate about ending homelessness because they (we) interact with individuals experiencing homelessness every day. Sometimes I think we exist in a nonprofit bubble, believing that our peers in other lines of work cannot understand the realities of homelessness, or the importance of ending it. This is inaccurate.

For Cindy Eich, experiencing homelessness didn’t involve seeing a family member lose housing or encountering someone panhandling. As an Illinois Realtor, she started seeing not only people without homes, but homes without people. In 2011, Eich remembers “we were showing properties that were foreclosures and it was obvious that families had lived in those homes.” Motivated by the empty dwellings she saw, especially those that used to have children in them, Eich created Realtors Against Homelessness in 2011 and has since held multiple fundraisers in her community, the last of which raised $25,000.

This week in Florida, the state’s largest professional association – realtors – gathered at a conference to discuss how they could help end homelessness. As Florida hosts the third largest number of individuals experiencing homelessness, this is a crucial issues facing the state. The group has advocated for Florida legislation that supports individuals experiencing homelessness and provides more funding for rentals and home ownership.

In an era when politicians, business owners and plenty of private citizens attack and berate individuals for being homeless, it is refreshing and promising that this professional organization supports ending homelessness and is working to make that happen. People experiencing homeless are not a likely group to utilize the services of a realtor, so there is an obvious disconnect between realtors making a financial profit and helping this population. Their commitment to doing so demonstrates how important a home really is – the professionals who dedicate their careers to knowing the details of housing see how important having your own place can be, and want every person to have this as an option.

Our professional lives connect to homelessness in ways that aren’t always obvious. For one realtor, selling a foreclosed house was her experience with homelessness. For others, it may be serving homeless clients or treating homeless patients. Our experiences with homelessness are wide ranging, but until we see the end off this social issue, it will impact us all.

 

Mar 14
0

End Homelessness in the Kitchen

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | 7 Comments

My first job was providing crying kids sticky peppermint ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. I earned less than six dollars an hour and I left each day smelling like waffle cones, but I can still craft the perfect double scoop when someone breaks out the Ben & Jerry’s.

Besides being something that we all need to survive, food is an industry most of us will work in at some point in our lives. From fast food to family style to fine dining, there are a plethora of eating options for any palate. Since every food service option employs some people, and many employ a lot of people, there is a fairly consistent job market in food production, cooking and serving. Realizing this, one San Antonio food pantry started working to train homeless individuals to work cooking and restaurant jobs.

It’s hard to overlook that the adage, “Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, Teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime” has come to life at the San Antonio Community Kitchen. The six-week class includes tips on food safety and, because all the food is donated, getting creative with your meal options. This concept has gained traction in many cities, even leading one food pantry in Salinas, California to close its doors in 2010 after twenty-five years of proving meals to the hungry. The pantry hadn’t ended hunger, but instead had decided it could better serve its population by teaching, not serving. Today, the facility is known as the Red Artichoke Culinary School, a program to teach individuals in poverty to cook at a level that will make them competitive or chef and sous-chef positions.

Why is this type of job training any different from the other types of employment coaching available to low-income job seekers? Unlike teaching someone how to dress for an interview or fix up their resume – which are both important skills –  culinary training offers both an employment edge and a boost in the individual’s personal health and wellness. Even if a person experiencing homelessness does receive food stamps (which max out in Maryland at $189 per month), most shelters and day centers don’t allow outside food. People who have lived in homelessness for an extended period of time do not have access to an oven or even a refrigerator, so food items are limited.  This leaves options that require no preparation and leave no leftovers, such as  snack foods or instant meals.

When a previously homeless person does get housing, the kitchen can feel like an intimidating place, and old eating habits can be hard to break. Demystifying cooking and food options can help someone out financially if it leads to their employment, but also personally if it can improve their health and comfort level in their new home.

 

Feb 14
0

No Late Fees for Housing Referrals

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | 2 Comments

When I wrote about my hope that this month’s Superbowl would be an uncharacteristically peaceful and inclusive one for the homeless population in New Jersey, I had no idea that the game would actually lead to finding housing for one youth experiencing homelessness. A young man who was spotted at the Seahawks celebration dressed in San Francisco 49ers garb inspired die hard SF fans to get the boy a ticket to an upcoming game. Upon learning the youth was actually a homeless ward of the state, fans raised almost $25,000 to support him.

San Franciso, while having some of the most generous football fans in the league, is also home to a revolutionary approach to homeless services – from inside its main library.

In what seems to be an ever increasingly expensive culture, there are few free places to spend long periods of your day without being asked to purchase a coffee or get off the bus at the next stop. Combined with their climate control and their access to books and internet resources, this makes libraries a desirable destination for many experiencing homelessness. This is well known not only by those who are homelessness, but by other library patrons and staff as well. Branches, often those in urban settings, that see a consistent homeless population visiting them, have approached the situation in very different ways.

In Summer 2012, Newport Beach public libraries put an end to this trend by banning anyone who “lacks personal hygiene.” Sleeping bags and blankets – even if carried in, not used on site – are also banned. Many other districts have similar policies or bans in effect.

The San Francisco Main Library is not among them. In 2010, this branch employed Leah Esguerra, a licensed social worker in the library five days a week. Much like Michelle Walsh, who calls Penn Station in Newark her office, Esguerra meets with individuals who are struggling with homelessness in a place they already visit regularly. She strikes up conversations, makes referrals, and aims to make calling security an option only in extreme circumstances, instead of just because someone is sleeping. Her program also employs formerly homeless individuals part time to help connect with those using the library and encourage them to seek help.

Since her start in 2009, Esguerra has helped more than 60 individuals find housing, and she and her staff – individuals who were once homeless themselves – have connected hundreds of people to services.

Demand for positions like Walsh’s and Esguerra’s exist because they can meet individuals experiencing homelessness in locations that are already popular for other reasons. The Department of Social Services – in most city’s, anyway – doesn’t offer free internet access of comfortable chairs for a few hours.  The success of each of these positions suggests that homelessness is not a problem we need to ban from public spaces, but that we can use these places to meet people where they already are, and help them find a better place to stay.

Dec 06
0

Don’t Ask Me, I Don’t Know

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | 3 Comments

Maybe you believe in miracles. Maybe you believe in Santa Claus. I believe in Baltimore. At ChangeEngine, we’ve been wondering what will save Baltimore. When I moved here a year and a half ago, it was because I was given the opportunity to be in a place that needed changing — and wasn’t ashamed to admit it. When I interviewed with the AmeriCorps program that I eventually was accepted into and moved here to join, my program leader — a Baltimore transplant herself — described Baltimore as a city evolving. “People talk about the murals here because the art is cool,” she said to me, “but the theme I see over and over again in the art here is Believe, and I think that people here really, actually, believe in their city. And that’s not true everywhere.”

I didn’t move here because I thought the city was broken. Individuals far more talented than myself have been charged with saving a city and buckled under the pressure. I moved here because I liked that Baltimore wasn’t afraid to admit that there is room to improve. Eighteen months later, I’m proud to wake up in a city with a new festival every other weekend, great places to eat and endless neighborhoods to explore. But I’m not proud to go to sleep in a city that leaves more than 4,000 individuals without a stable place to stay — and I know we can do better. But how?

There are some proven, crucial steps that this city can take to provide increased affordable housing to all Baltimoreans. The city needs to provide enough living-wage jobs so that individuals can afford to pay rent. There need to be enough safe, affordable housing units so that individuals and families are healthy and strong enough to get up each morning and go to such jobs, and there needs to be reliable transportation to get them between the two.

Is that the answer? Barely. All I’ve given you is a pathetically simplified look at what basic necessities individuals need to survive. You knew that. I didn’t say anything revolutionary. And while I really believe that these three pieces will fit together to create a much healthier, thriving city, I’m not sure about any further ideas. Do we need new technology? Streamlined nonprofits? Should everyone give more to charity? At the risk of losing everyone who has ever read any post in The Race to End Homelessness, I’d like to admit that I’m no expert. I’ve never experienced homelessness. To me, the answer to homelessness — the way for a city to win the Race — is to provide basic human needs for everyone that calls Baltimore home. But this isn’t enough. So where can we get new plans?

To really find the new ideas, the creative ideas — the ones that might actually change and save the city we all share, we need to turn to those experiencing homelessness — and listen. In many ways, a mid-Atlantic city with 4,000 people homeless is a travesty. Some are keen to dismiss them from the population. New York City adopted a program to fly, ship, or bus its homeless anywhere they chose, just as long as they get out of the city. This is a mistake; not just a moral and social infraction, but a mistake that weakens the personal infrastructure of the city.  I’d like to point to the homeless population as the truest population of Baltimore.  This is not a warm city; this is not a city that is low on crime or particularly inexpensive. This is not a great place to be outside, yet this city is home.

Individuals without housing in this city have a rich history of organizing, advocating, and working toward social change. Imagine what such talented minds could come up with if they were warm, safe, and financially secure. If Baltimore hopes to save itself, the truest Baltimorians have ideas, plans, and hopes everyone needs to hear. The city just needs to believe in those that call this place home.

Oct 18
0

The Architecture of Our Psychological Health

By | Health, The Global Is Local | 4 Comments

“A beautiful old mansion would be easier to redevelop than a home where someone was murdered.”

This week’s post by Lindsey Davis spurred me to think again about how our environment influences the way we experience the world around us, and the impact it has on our lives. Lindsey points out the balance that is struck when planners and city leaders determine that a neighborhood or area of the city would be better demolished than repaired.

Perhaps, she argues, these parts of the city should start a new story, free from the architecture that haunts their past.

I think she is probably right. Their present is the part that I have been thinking about, though, and the impact that living with a history and an environment may have upon the residents in any neighborhood. Each of us experiences Baltimore in a different way, and so that architectural impact is different for all of us, depending on our habits and our pre-existing constitution. Many of us cut a fairly narrow slice of the Baltimore pie (or whichever city or pastry you live in), because of where we work, study, play, or live, and the locations and routes between these activities vary for all of us.

This past weekend, the Baltimore Marathon (which I watched, but did not run) wound it’s way through much of the city, hitting the Inner Harbor, Druid Hill, Waverly, and many miles in between. The Baltimore Bike Party often has a similarly winding route, and I appreciate that both attempt to expose both residents and guests to parts of the city that typically do not get seen by tourists, commuters, and — more often than not — white people like myself.

There is no way to understand the city from the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus, or from the Inner Harbor, or from the Under Armor headquarters. The particular portions of the city that Lindsey makes reference to are not pretty, and in fact may be derelict or downright abandoned, but are integral to understanding what makes this place. Neighborhoods stricken by urban blight have an enormous impact on the financial, social, and psychological health of the city.

From a public health standpoint (which, I have argued before, is perhaps the best lens through which to analyse a human population), there are a number of concerns that urban blight brings up, including correlation with poverty, high disease burden, low literacy rates, crime and violence incidence, access to food and services.. the list goes on, of course. However, an issue that is harder to quantify is the psychological impact of a blighted neighborhood.

A 2002 article in the British Journal of Psychiatry linked found statistically significant associations between the built environment and rates of depression. Another study published in 2002, this one in the Journal of Social Science & Medicine,  found that “neighborhood disadvantage was associated with higher rates of major depression and substance abuse disorder” among other negative psycho-social conditions.

This is not surprising. Think about your own home, and your favorite room or space in it. What are a few of the things that you like about it? Pick two or three of them and then meet me at the next paragraph…

Hi, welcome back. Although I can’t be sure, I strongly suspect that the things you like about your favorite room in your house have to do with beauty, comfort, positive memories or associations, or attractiveness. Now reverse that scenario, imagine your least favorite part of your home, and I would again be willing to bet a bowl of freshly roasted pumpkin seeds that the space you just identified has negative connotations, gives you feelings of dread, disappointment, or even disgust (if you’re struggling to get your walls out of the 1970s, I hear wood paneling looks great with a coat of white paint). Now scale these impressions to a street or a neighborhood, and the correlation with psycho-sociological outcomes starts to make a lot of sense.

It all comes back to the poverty/wealth disparity, in my opinion. Will money make you happy? Certainly not in isolation, but if it buys/rents you a decent place on an attractive street in a part of the city with strong civic engagement, then you’ve probably got a head-start on happiness compared to someone who lives sandwiched between abandoned buildings, has to rely on an unpredictable bus system to get to their job, and lives in one of only a half dozen occupied homes in a three block radius. Besides, once you’re in that nice neighborhood, there’s a good chance that grocery stores will be easier to get to, crime rates will drop, and transportation options will be better (well, maybe that last one is a stretch…).

The question that lingers for me is one that Lindsey also raised — is there a point where the “institutional memory” of a place is so malign that the only recourse is to remove the architecture of those memories? According to Lindsey, that may be the case. The individuals who collectively hold and live these institutional memories may be the most compelling reasons of all, however. Preserving a neighborhood of decay and bad memories is no way to effectively raise morale and standard of living. Instead, city planners may hope to cause social change through infrastructure improvements, a tired, but tried and true strategy that has had positive results in the past.

Aug 01
0

The Race to Watch: New Orleans

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | No Comments

This past week, I morphed into one of those annoying people who can’t get off their cell phone. No, I wasn’t playing a game or even checking facebook, but I still spent at least an hour a day obsessively refreshing twitter. This week, the National Alliance to End Homelessness held its annual conference in Washington, D.C. I couldn’t quite hear the presentations from an hour away in Baltimore, so I relied on the almost 1600 attendees — the most the conference has ever seen — to keep me updated.

To many, this probably doesn’t sound like a great use of a sunny week in July. It is surprising then, that the overwhelming message I took from an event on poverty, mental health, addiction, hunger, HIV/AIDS, veterans, and youth homelessness, was one of hope.

If you didn’t spend your week as I did, let me be the first to break the news: we’re in the middle of an underdog story. In my opinion, the big winner this year in the Race to End Homelessness, was New Orleans, Louisiana. A city I’ve criticized in the past for its frightening statistics when it comes to general homelessness, chronic homelessness, and veteran homelessness, NOLA has done something remarkable — changed their trends.

In 2005, New Orleans suffered one of the worst storms in recent history when Hurricane Katrina descended. The storm destroyed, among other infrastructure, much of the city’s affordable housing and service programs, leaving many homeless. An already serious problem in the city worsened, propelling NOLA to earn the title of the city with the second highest rate of homelessness nationwide.

Nearly eight years later, many former New Orleans residents are still displaced or struggling to recover, but homelessness has decreased significantly. Chronic homelessness has decreased by 47 percent in the city since 2009, and in some parishes this number is as high as 79 percent. Martha Kegel, the Executive Director of UNITY of Greater New Orleans and Stacy Horn Koch, Director of Homeless Policy in New Orleans write that, “New Orleans is on track to become one of the first cities to eliminate the long-term homelessness of people with disabilities, in line with the federal plan to end chronic homelessness by 2015.”

How did New Orleans surge ahead in the race? Kegel and Koch credit extra emergency vouchers, the city’s 10 year plan to end homelessness, and support from Mayor Landrieu as the key factors that have led the city to find and help those affected by Katrina. Service providers target the most vulnerable people and attempt to house them first. Search teams comb vacant buildings to find people dwelling inside and connect them with housing and services. When the storm displaced the city’s population, outreach teams went looking for them.

Numbers for  New Orleans are not quite back to pre-Katrina levels, but with 2,337 people experiencing homelessness today, things are much better than in 2007, when over 11,000 people were without housing in the city.

We can — and should — celebrate the progress happening in Louisiana. More importantly, we can learn from this comeback story. Each city faces a unique set of challenges when it comes to ending homelessness, but if New Orleans can move from one of this county’s worst natural disasters to end homelessness by 2015, there is nothing stopping the rest of us from making strides in the Race to End Homelessness.

Jul 18
0

No Christmas In July

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | One Comment

I’m one of those people who is cold from October to May. I have sweatshirts reserved specifically for wearing around my apartment, and I once wore gloves to class. In the dead of winter, it is easy to understand why it is terrible to live outside. The snow, the ice, the deadly frost all make it nearly impossible to survive even in a temperate city like Baltimore. These conditions might seem like a long-lost memory from our vantage point in mid-July, but summer is just as dangerous a time to be experiencing homelessness — except fewer people are paying attention. When the temperature rises, most of us roll up our car windows and turn on the air conditioning, dividing us from our homeless neighbors.

Perhaps because of the holiday season, or because the cold is so inescapable in winter months, there is far more outreach to vulnerable populations at other times of the year. Organizations including the Food Bank, the Salvation Army, and the Red Cross report decreased donations and support in summer months, but need often increases during this time, especially because children are out of school and rely on their families for more services.

Some local efforts to support those experiencing homelessness are meeting the basic needs of those who don’t have their own AC, but only in very specific conditions. When it is 70° or 80° degrees, it is already uncomfortable to be outside for an entire day and night, but it isn’t until the thermometer hits 90° that cities will invite their homeless citizens indoors.  Cooling centers catering to people experiencing homelessness are set up in cities across the country, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and others. Often these sites are in public libraries, and offer some air conditioning and water.

I often promote housing as one of the most basic human needs, but the dangerously hot summer months serve as a reminder that this isn’t only a question of comfort or long term well-being and happiness — not having housing is an immediate health risk in July.

The option to cool off for a few hours — the centers are not open around the clock — is crucial to the survival of this vulnerable population. Also crucial are things like medical attention, access to healthy food, a place for personal hygiene, and the peace of mind that comes with having a safe place to live, but these are not made readily available. For now, it seems that all some cities can provide is a short reprieve from the blistering summer heat.

Jul 04
0

Who Do You Think You Are?

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | No Comments

My driver’s license expires in the middle of July. I’d been eyeing the date for some time now, dreading what was coming. Even though I’ve been in Maryland these past few months, I’m from Rhode Island, and my trip back to RI won’t be until after the card expires. I was putting off the phone call to the Department of Motor Vehicles to explain why there was no way I could make it to a Rhode Island DMV even though I still lived in state. I was pleasantly surprised to find that things have gotten easier since the last time I needed ID, and I was able to renew everything online.

I’ll still be stuck with the same dorky picture of me from when I was 18, but all I had to do was check a box that said yes, I still wear glasses, and send Rhode Island $40 and I’ll be legal to drive and drink and go to the bank uninterrupted. For others, it is not so easy. Individuals experiencing homelessness frequently find themselves unable to prove who they are, and this leaves them cut off from the services that are supposed to help.

When I ask people who have needed to obtain identification while experiencing homelessness, I hear the same paradox repeatedly: “You need ID to get ID.” It’s true, because a license application usually requires a birth certificate, a social security application usually requires a license, etc. Unfortunately, you also need identification to get food stamps, apply for housing, and even to get into some shelters or drop in centers. These are often the ticket to homeless services, but are so expensive — in both time and money — that they can delay someone from receiving services indefinitely. Furthermore, because they are so difficult to obtain, identification is a commonly stolen item inside shelters and on the street.

There are some programs in place to help with this conundrum. Some shelters, transitional houses, and day centers encourage clients to have their mail delivered to the facility and use the shelter address as their own when applying for a new identification care. While this is perfectly legal, it can sometimes lead to confusion or a delay in getting mail, because individuals are at the mercy of the staff to sort and hand out mail deliveries. This also ties the individual to one particular shelter or program, and could mean starting the process over again once he or she is housed.

In Myrtle Beach, all individuals experiencing homelessness are being issued a basic information card to help track the food, housing, and clothing they receive. This will help with access to emergency services, but the card isn’t the same as a federally issued driver’s license or ID card. Florida residents can now obtain a license or general ID without having to pay the state’s $25 fee, but still need to pay $6.25 for a birth certificate before they can get said license or general ID. In most states, individual organizations can provide some assistance in paying for ID cards, but funds are limited and cannot always meet the need.

In a culture that is so driven by identification cards, many people are unable to prove who they are. Instead of being recognized as a person with a name and a birthday who is an organ donor, these individuals are labeled only as homeless. Until the process of obtaining identification can be made more accessible, these people are trapped in homelessness, challenged to receive services and housing.

I’m incredibly glad that I didn’t have to explain to the Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles why I needed a new license from five states away. Still, I wonder why something as important as identification is no problem for people who live in two places, and a trial for those don’t have anywhere to call home.

Jun 06
0

Couch Surfing: The Last Stop

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | 2 Comments

I have this facebook friend — one of those people I used to know and do not keep in touch with much — who last week updated his status to ask if he could crash at someone’s place. “Help” he wrote, “I’m about to be literally homeless in New Jersey.”

At first, I was infuriated. How dare he pretend to be undergoing the same plight as the people I know who are experiencing homeless? As a middle class, college-educated guy I went to high school with, he couldn’t possibly be “really” homeless.

Then I did my research. As it turns out, couch surfing is a lot closer to homelessness than I originally realized. The 2012 Annual Report to Congress named “doubling up,” or living with a friend or relative as the most common previous housing situation for people entering homelessness. While most people can offer a guest room or at least a pillow for a night or two, many cannot afford a permanent house guest. Furthermore, living in such close quarters puts stress on even the best of relationships. For these reasons, a couch might be the last stop for someone before becoming homeless.

Does this mean everyone who finds themselves caught between a lease for a few days is entering the homeless system? Certainly not. Still, it is dangerous to believe that we or the people we know are immune from this experience. In the 2013 State of Homelessness in America Report, The National Alliance to End Homelessness stated that economic need has driven people to double up at higher rates in 39 states. From 2010 to 2011, New York State saw an increase of 26 percent in the number of households that doubled up, while Massachusetts rates increased by 25 percent. The ten states that saw a decrease in doubling up were mostly southern states, but also included Alaska and Kansas, both with double digit declines. Generally, those areas with lower property values did not see the staggering increases that the rest of the country experienced. This suggests that even when working, many individuals are unable to pay for rooms or apartments at the average market rate.

mapMap: The National Alliance to End Homelessness

Because the 2013 State of Homelessness Report uses data from 2011, some newer studies suggest this trend has started to correct itself as the economy improves. While moving off the couch is certainly an improvement, this group represents a “hidden homeless” population, because they are more difficult to count in homeless censuses or Point-In-Time counts for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

As the economy improves — or as tensions run high with housemates, this population will begin to look for affordable housing. It is dangerous to assume that the current demand for housing is an accurate representation of the need for such homes. In 2009, the need for affordable housing outnumbered the amount of safe units by 5.5 million. Four years later, the situation has not improved. There are many people who have been waiting in the wings — friends’ spare rooms, basements, and living rooms — for a place of their own.

Affordable housing has never been prevalent enough or affordable enough for everyone, but it is more crucial now than ever. There is a large group of people that used to live independently, and likely have some income, who are ready and willing to become tenants and homeowners. They just need properties at the right price to let them do so.

My facebook friend found a place for the night and has since moved into a new apartment. Others, though, are still waiting for a place they can truly call home.