TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2009

Pilot ptogram successful at reducing homelessness risk

BATON ROUGE, La. -- One of the major challenges facing state and local leaders across the United States is the growing rate of homelessness. In Louisiana, the homelessness issue has proven to be particularly problematic, especially in the wake of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike.

The most recent annual study from the United States Conference of Mayors showed a 12% increase in homelessness nationwide from the previous year. And in March 2009, the National Center for Family Homelessness ranked Louisiana worst among the 50 states for child homelessness. According to that same study, families with children are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population. Not since the Great Depression have so many women and children been homeless across the United States.

In an effort to help alleviate the homelessness problem, the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps initiated its High Risk of Homelessness pilot program in December 2008 designed to assist greater Baton Rouge-area families impacted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita who found themselves on the brink of homelessness. In addition to helping identify the true needs of disaster-impacted residents on the verge of homelessness, the pilot program provided the Recovery Corps with a first-hand prospective of how to engage a broader sector of non-profits in a coordinated way.

“We were happy with the overall results of this small-scale pilot program,” said Dr. Monteic A. Sizer, President and CEO of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps. “We were able to assist the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the Department of Social Services utilize resources allocated for homelessness prevention while also gleaning critical data that will allow us to continue the development of a program that could ultimately be implemented statewide.”

The Recovery Corps selected Catholic Charities of Baton Rouge as its non-profit provider agency for the pilot program. Specific assistance provided to participating families included employment assessments, access to social services and medical services, financial literacy training, and first-time homebuyer workshops.

“It is extremely important that the non-profit sector continue to play the lead role in tackling the homelessness issue in Louisiana,” said Sizer. “The non-profit sector has the ability to efficiently access the many different types of services and resources from the non-profit, private, and governmental sectors that at-risk families need. A program led by a coordinating body which includes the Recovery Corps and various state and regional homelessness prevention organizations and is executed on the ground by high-capacity non-profits can provide services in a much more effective manner than can government agencies which, at this time, are not yet properly aligned and structured to have the intra-agency reach that programs such as these critically need.

“Along with the expertise and experience offered by many state and regional homelessness prevention agencies that have been focused on the issue for years, the Recovery Corps can utilize its statewide and federal reach among the non-profit and governmental sectors and its access to state agencies and resources granted by Act 313 and various other working agreements to ensure a stronger, more unified program that works toward a strategic statewide approach in addressing the problem.”

Homelessness is a major hindrance to children’s health and development. According to studies, homeless children get sick at a much higher rate than do children from stable households. Additionally, homeless school-age children often exhibit emotional problems such as anxiety or depression.

Homelessness also is an extreme health risk for adults. Homeless adults suffer chronic illness, such as hypertension and diabetes, at rates three to six times that of persons who are not homeless, according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Homelessness occurs for many reasons, as the Recovery Corps’ High Risk of Homelessness pilot program demonstrated. Many homeless families today become homeless because of a catastrophic event, such as Louisiana’s recent hurricanes. Families living paycheck-to-paycheck often cannot overcome such situations, especially if their homes are damaged or destroyed, their jobs are no longer available, or their ability to get to work is compromised.

Other major reasons for homelessness include catastrophic illnesses, domestic abuse, and job loss, among others.

In Louisiana, one in five individuals lives in poverty, according to the United States Census Bureau. Many others are considered at-risk of homelessness because of their financial situation. Making the situation worse is the current economic recession, during which thousands of homes in Louisiana have been foreclosed on as job losses continue to mount.

In fact, the Louisiana Workforce Commission reported initial claims for unemployment insurance statewide rose again for the week ending June 6, 2009. The number of Louisianians receiving continued unemployment benefits increased from 52,411 to 54,859 during the last week in May 2009. For the comparable week of 2008, there were 21,872 such claims.

All of this comes at a time when the state faces a severe housing shortage. The lack of affordable housing in the state was a problem prior to the hurricanes that has only been exacerbated. For those families that lose their homes because of natural disasters, foreclosure, or because they can no longer afford to make rental payments due to a catastrophic situation, there are very few alternate affordable housing options. Couple that population of Louisianians with the various populations of storm survivors that continue to be stricken from FEMA and HUD rolls as various federal housing assistance programs come to an end, and Louisiana’s homeless population is likely to continue to climb.

“This is obviously a situation in which everyone must work together in order for true progress to be made,” said Sizer. “We believe that, through this pilot and other programs and research conducted by the Recovery Corps, we understand the issues and situations that cause families to be at extreme risk of becoming homeless. We also understand the critical needs of those families as they strive to make ends meet. Those understandings, combined with our own case management model that promotes client self-sufficiency and reciprocal accountabilities, will allow the Recovery Corps to develop an outcome-based solution which has the ability to help reverse the fortunes of at-risk families across the state and assist them in stabilizing their situations.

“As with all programs, however, there must be appropriate funding associated with any homeless prevention solution. Many federal funds have been allocated to the state of Louisiana and to local municipalities in an effort to alleviate the homelessness issue. It is important that those funds be allocated to outcome-based programs that demand reciprocal accountabilities from all involved and whose impacts on families can be measured.”

In a state in which one in five residents lives in poverty, it is essential that families are stabilized and prepared for a catastrophic event, whether it encompass another hurricane or the family’s wage-earner being laid off. With so many vulnerable families, it is essential that we not only mitigate our homes and our businesses, but we also mitigate our families so that the next major event does not send them spiraling toward homelessness.

ABOUT THE RECOVERY CORPS
The Louisiana Family Recovery Corps is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation based in Baton Rouge, La., and formed in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The Recovery Corps’ mission is to facilitate human recovery for the State of Louisiana in the aftermath of disaster, both natural and man-made. The Recovery Corps has partnered with human service and non-profit organizations throughout the state and the country to deliver assistance as effectively and efficiently as possible, allocating more than $80 million to recovery efforts and assisting more than 30,000 households since January 2006.