Homelessness

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

The Problem with HUD.
Many of you know Malach works for a very large non-profit, directing their disability services. This non-profit also does a ton of work with homeless families and individuals, providing not only shelters, but transitional and permanent low income housing opportunities. Most of these programs are funded throught the Deprartment of Housing and Urban Development or HUD.

Homelessness is not what the majority of people think. Mental ill persons, pushing shopping carts and sleeping in cardboard boxes. Statistically single women with children are the most likely to become homeless. The leading contributers to homelessness are Addiction followed close behind by domestic violence. Most people are not "chronically homeless" they are someone who has hit a finicial hardship and through bad luck and timing are homeless.

The definition of homeless. A person who does not have a permanent place to live. This includes people living with other people on a temporary basis, people living in hotels and shelters, and those who who live on the street. Technically someone who is evicted or foreclosed on at that moment is homeless and remains so until they find a permanent living condition. Everyone can become homeless, and it is becoming more common with the middle class.

Now here is the problem, HUD's definition of homelessness:

A person is considered homeless only when he/she resides in one of the places described below:
· In places not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, sidewalks, abandoned buildings (on the street).
· In an emergency shelter.
· In transitional or supportive housing for homeless persons who originally came from the streets or emergency shelters.
· In any of the above places but is spending a short time (up to 30 consecutive days) in a hospital or other institution.
· Is being evicted within a week from a private dwelling unit and no subsequent residence has been identified and lacks resources and support networks needed to obtain housing.
· Is being discharged within a week from an institution, such as a mental health or substance abuse treatment facility or a jail/prison, in which the person has been a resident for more than 30 consecutive days and no subsequent residence has been identified and the person lacks the resources and support networks needed to obtain housing.

This means that HUD does not consider to be homeless: Persons living in housing, even though they are paying an excessive amount for their housing, the housing is substandard and in need of repair, or the housing is crowded; Persons living with relatives or friends; Persons staying in a motel, including a pay-by-the-week motels; to name a few.

One of the problems we constantly run into is that we cannot provide any support for someone who is homeless if they meet the above criteria. That make no sense. It needs to change.

75% of the clients we deal with are of the latter persuasion. I have had contact with clients who were living at the above situations, and all we could provide them for an options is to move into a shelter, so then they could be considered homeless, or somehow convince them they "are living in their car". This costs the government more to move a entire family to a shelter for a week, then send them to a long term program, that just put them in the program.

I am Malach and I am the am a political activist.