| NEED FOR MORE PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING According to Newspaper Reports and Other Studies: (L.I. Campaign for Affordable Rental Housing, FY2001 Changes in the Homeless Assistance Grant Program, Education Committee Report April 2, 2002, Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee, Inc. May 7, 2002, Newsday) Children are exposed to an abnormal lifestyle for a long period and subject to crime and other abnormalities when living in shelters or motels (Newsday, June 20 2001) Little public transportation to and from shelters isolates individuals from family, educational services, and jobs (Newsday, June 20 2001) Shelter stays can last up to nine months to a year or more for many families in 2001 (Newsday, June 20 2001) · Large shelters impose many rules making children conform to a suppressive environment. A large shelter in Bellport where approximately 180 children were living in June 2001imposes strict rules to make sure the place runs smoothly. Children are not allowed toys outside their room and only allowed sport items in a designated area. They also have a curfew and cannot go to the playground without an adult. (Newsday, June 20 2001) · Children suffer long rides to school and are often lost in the system and don’t even get the proper education mandated by law they should receive (Newsday, June 19, 2001) · Shelters and motels cause temporarily homeless people and families to be mixed with the mentally ill and substance abuse people (Newsday, June 18 & 20 2001) · Motels are an expensive way to temporarily house the homeless. According to Newsday, as of June 2001, Suffolk’s DSS has spent more than $4 million since the beginning of 2000 on motels. · Large facilities tend to institutionalize homeless (Newsday, June 20 2001) · The county spent $25 million in emergency housing expenses in 2001, $23 million to house the homeless and about $2.3 million to transport children to school from shelters and motels across Suffolk County and nearly $1 million on taxi rides to shuttle the homeless to and from shelters (Newsday). That breaks down to $50,000 per homeless family a year. · There is a lack of affordable housing because of L.I.’s high cost of rent (Newsday). $1,400 for a three- bedroom house would be considered inexpensive. S O L U T I O N S 1. The philosophy of SCDSS (Suffolk County Department of Social Services) must be changed regarding how the client can be realistically helped to become economically self-sufficient in Suffolk County. Local Law #12-2001 of Suffolk County defines a living wage as $9.00 with health benefits and $10.25 without benefits. Any reform would need to aim at these hourly salaries at the start of employment. Consideration must be given on available education, vocational, child care, transportation, mental health services, food stamps, physical health services, rental assistance, can be given now that will produce in two or three years the changes needed for a person (or family) to be self- sufficient. 2. The need for ongoing, formalized, informational sharing, communication and cross-training between the shelter providers, DSS (Housing, CMP, SWEP) and DOL is critical if clients are to access services. On a continual basis, information must be shared both in a broad sense and where necessary in a case specific sense on regulations to follow as well as programs and supportive services, i.e., child care, transportation, laundry room, and food shopping access. Having access conducive to employment, education and training, parenting and household maintenance is vital to self-sufficiency. Example: With changes at DSS, DOL, and local laws, entitlements and criteria changes for “homeless” clients, it is difficult for shelter providers to be apprised of the available resources both new and current. A resource manual with contact persons and phone numbers will certainly assist the shelter providers in seeking resources for client referral services in a timely fashion. The resource manual should include the following information: · A current listing of services with updated information · Contact persons with schedule and phone number · Program prospectus · Criteria for client referrals · Transportation availability · Child Care 3. It became apparent that as the homelessness issue evolved from a short term problem to a long term problem, the programs offered and the requirements enforced would need to be adapted to the present environment. Example: Years ago because homelessness was resolved in the short term, employment programs were relaxed during the transition period. Now that homelessness is much more long term, we need to look at the Emergency Housing requirements we enforce, such as 30 housing contacts per week, to determine the benefits and fruitfulness of this effort. The Housing search must be left to the professionals, realtors, subcontractors, etc., so that when permanent housing is finally found, the individual also has gained some self-sufficiency skills. DSS and DOL do have an assessment and placement procedure that could be done better to pinpoint which families on welfare assistance do have mental illness that is hampering their progress. There seem to be many people with undiagnosed mental illness that need treatment. There is a need to determine who can be educated (GED or better) and those who will never get a GED because of a lack of mental ability. We then must recognize these problems and get those families with mental illness into permanent supportive housing and get those who will never be economically self-sufficient into permanent supportive housing. In conjunction with the DOL assessment program, educational experts must develop and upgrade the present assessment tool that determines the educational level of DOL and DSS clients. There must be tighter controls and time frames for clients to reach passing grades for their GED exams that will prepare them for employability skills. 4. Due to changing demographics, the population of those on Public Assistance and those who are homeless have changed. We recommend all those working for DSS and DOL enroll periodically in sensitivity training and stress reduction workshops to aid them in dealing with this population. Also, sensitivity training and stress reduction should be offered to the homeless Public Assistant clients as needed. 5. Case management, time management, and mentoring services should be made readily available to the homeless population so that ongoing support and guidance can be provided during this challenging time. These efforts will also ensure family stability, which will result in greater success in self-sufficiency efforts. Shelters that have case workers should be able to handle most DOL or DSS meetings through a conference-call of the shelter worker, the client, and whoever else from DSS or DOL. All documents could be faxed from the center. Some meetings could be done via the telephone, thus saving many hours of client time as well as financial costs to Suffolk County in meeting DSS and DOL requirements. This requires DOL and DSS to trust the case managers’ judgment at the local level in processing these documents, saving valuable time (typically spent on meetings and fair hearings) for both county personnel and DSS/DOL clients alike. There should be one case facilitator that oversees each case and to which DOL, DSS, shelter providers, educational/vocational providers can have direct access to work out any difficulties. This is presently in place and should be publicized more. All those involved with the person need access to this one case facilitator so that all agencies working with families can give correct input. This person should monitor attendance and progress at all educational/vocational programs, progress should be monitored with educational /vocational providers as well. If the clients begin to show signs of duress, caseworkers should be assigned to intervene and assist the client in overcoming difficulties by assessing the difficulty. 6. Individual children and youth who are age-eligible and legally entitled to district-based education services must/shall be given access to those services immediately upon application to the DSS for housing services. No substitutes for legally mandated, district-based education services are to be provided, lest any of the 7,000 children in the Public Assistance system fell further behind in their education. Establish a system of communication among the providers of services, i.e., education, DSS and CBO, to ensure the development and implementation of a model to facilitate immediate access to the legal entitlement mandates by the federal McKinney-Vento Act regarding equitable education services for those affected by homelessness. 7. Public transportation, including the van service in Suffolk County is inadequate for homeless families and people on public assistance trying to meet the requirements of DOL mandates and other responsibilities. In addition to bus passes, each shelter needs to have a van to transport people to educational/vocational training, for food shopping, and for laundry facilities (if the residences do not provide laundromats). Vans should also be run by the vocational and educational providers to pick up and drop off all public assistant clients who are enrolled in their programs who cannot transport themselves via a vehicle or public transportation. 8. The Long Island Association and other business groups should start interviewing shelter families who have jobs and have a high school education to see what more education is needed to move them out of the shelters by getting better jobs. After this group has been helped lets start to look at the high school graduates workers currently in the welfare system. RESEARCH LINKS Find full Homelessness Task Force report at www.co.suffolk.ny.us http://www.cbpp.org www.hungeractionnys.org www.gao.gov www.clasp.org |
| RESEARCH ON HOMELESSNESS |
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