2013-2015: ACC’s Transitional Housing Program The people that ACC serves face extreme obstacles to stabilizing their lives. Due to low or nonexistent income, their criminal background and/or rental history, credit problems, and the lack of affordable housing, it is almost impossible for ACC’s participants to get off the streets and to rebuild their lives without effective advocacy and assistance. In 2013, working with Jerry Gates, a long-time housing developer and the president of Craig’s Doors board of directors, ACC began a pilot project, “Amherst Transitional Housing Program,” to provide housing and support service to people who are homeless in Amherst. The Transitional Housing Program operated an 8-bedroom duplex housing up to 8 residents at a time. When the program completed its 24th month in early 2015, it had housed over 30 residents with support service onsite and offsite. Of the 21 who graduated from the program, 19 secured housing or employment/social security benefits. 2015 - Present: ACC’s One-Stop Resource Center …show more content…
In November 2015, to better serve Amherst areas residents in need - the poor, disabled, elderly, formerly incarcerated, and the homeless - ACC began a pilot “One-Stop Resource Center” on the first floor of the downtown Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst.
The daily drop-in center provides a comprehensive array of services to help those in need to get ahead. The range of free service includes offering food nourishment, internet and computer use, phones, office equipment, workstations, emergency funds, and one-on-one problem-solving sessions with case workers. The goal of the program is to assist participants to become stabilized and eventually to become
self-sufficient. In October 2017, ACC moved to a new downtown location. It doubled its space working with its participants. With access to a kitchen, a research lab, a conference room, and an intake room, up-to-date computers/printer/phone/fax equipment, and readily available and knowledgeable advocates and staff, the Center has been a safe gathering-place that offers a welcoming refuge to the weary and homeless. The One-Stop Resource Center has now completed its second year of operation. In 2017, based on ACC’s attendance statistics, 660 unique households have made more than 3,700 contacts with workers at the Center. Compared to 2016, the number of households seeking help from the Center has increased by 25% and the number of contacts made with ACC workers has gone up by 18%. The sheer number of households served and number of contacts they make with ACC through its One-Stop Resource Center is a testament to the need in the community and to the strong and steady capacity of ACC to help. See Table 1: One-Stop Resource Center, 2016 and 2017 Statistics, and the Attachment for the graphic comparison. 2016–Present: ACC’s Phase I Housing Stabilization Program, and Phase II Program Phase I Housing Stabilization Program: 2016-2019 In 2016, building on its work and its experience operating the Amherst Transitional Housing Program, ACC received a 3-year grant from the Amherst Community Preservation Act Committee (CPAC) to begin the Housing Stabilization Program. This program is designed for people in Amherst who are chronically homeless. Providing intensive and focused support service weekly, the program aims to help chronically homeless individuals obtain self-sufficiency and permanent housing by the end of the three-year grant period - if not sooner. Thanks to the effective and efficient work of ACC’s Housing Stabilization Program, in a little over a year, six people have been housed and three of them have graduated from the Program. More broadly speaking, the program has resulted in the number of chronically homeless people in Amherst to drop from 18 people in 2015 to 12 people in 2017. 2018-2021: Phase II Housing Stabilization Program Currently, with six more people on its waitlist, ACC is applying to Amherst Community Preservation Act Committee (CPAC) for another three-year grant to double its housing vouchers from three to six vouchers to accommodate the increasing needs of the chronically homeless. ACC’s goal is to reduce the chronic homeless population number to a single-digits with the second grant funding. Recently, Amherst Affordable Municipal Housing Trust voted to recommend ACC’s Phase II Housing Stabilization Program to Amherst Community Preservation Act Committee (CPAC).
Most individuals would suggest creating a homeless shelter, but that solution is unrealistic due to budgets, and the lack of funds from the community and Calvary Chapel. The cost of these solutions is reasonable and within reach. The solution will provide jobs and offer a sense of self-esteem most homeless have lost. The homeless as well as the community will thrive from this program and lives will be changed. Individuals, who were stuck on the street cold and alone, will be given the opportunity to go out and make a change in their lives. Although, many might suggest that many homeless are ex drug addicts or alcoholics, there are many who do not have the financial stability to survive and live a life of normality but will do what it takes to change their situation. Hess suggests that, “What many people need is an opportunity to get back on their feet and develop their own income” (Feuer, 2012, para.15). My solution offers this opportunity and by implementing it, homeless will have the power to change their
The National Coalition for the Homeless (2006) is the most effective strategy as it seeks to address the problem of homelessness through various means, including volunteer work, advocacy efforts, and contributions. Firstly, the strategy requires people to volunteer their time to work directly with the victims of homelessness in the city to help them meet their immediate needs. People can volunteer their time to work with children in various programs, share hobbies, and help build houses and shelters among others (Miller, Hess, & Orthmann, 2011). This is extremely important and can help victims of homelessness to acquire some of the basic needs they lack.
Homelessness needs to be attacked at its source. Developing a transformational campus will provide hope for the homeless by attacking its causes. This “Transformational Campus” is a place where an individual or family experiencing homelessness can go to receive housing, education, counseling, and support in order to help transform his or her life by addressing its root causes . This will be the beginning to the end of homelessness.
Gulcur, Leyla, Padgett, Deborah K., and Tsemberis, Sam. (2006). “Housing First Services for People Who Are Homeless with Co-Occurring Serious Mental Illness and Substance Abuse.” Research on Social Work Practice, Vol 16 No. 1.
Obviously a question that will arise is where the funding will come from, well mainly from the lovely thing called taxpayers’ money. Its time they put a stop to seemingly wasteful projects and integrate it to ones beneficial to the society as a whole. Thereafter, once they are housed the assistance program will continue their support by linking them with employment, and attaining rapid access to other needed services such as Medicaid, and food stamps. Some people simply require a little push to get them back on their feet. Once affordable housing is made more available along with the assisting that helps maintain it, all excuses should be out the door.
Cobb, Jodi, and Philip Brookman. The Way Home: Ending Homelessness in America. Washington, D.C: Abrams in Association with the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1999. Print.
Yet, according to the National Resource Center (NRC) on Homelessness and Mental Illness, 80% of the homeless population is off of the streets within 2 to 3 weeks. The NRC is the only national center specifically focused on the effective organization and delivery of services to the homeless and the mentally ill. It is important to note that the NRC reports 10% of people are homeless for 2 months and only 10% are chronically homeless. This fact shows that many people want to get back to ordinary lives and will work hard to do so, in spite of Awalt’s
Although most people know what homelessness is and it occurs in most societies, it is important to define because the forces of displacement vary greatly, along with the arrangement and meaning of the resulting transient state. The Stewart B McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 defined a homeless person as “an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence or a person who resides in a shelter, welfare hotel, transitional program or place not ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation, such as streets, cars, movie theaters, abandoned buildings, etc.” Resent surveys conducted in the U.S. have confirmed that the homeless population in America is extremely diverse and includes representatives from all segments of society, including: the old and young, men and women, single people and families, city dwellers and rural residents, whites and people of color, employed and unemployed, able workers and people with serious health problems. The diversity among people that are homeless reflects how difficult it is to generalize the causes of homelessness and the needs of homeless people. Robert Rosenheck M.D., the author of Special Populations of Homeless Americans, explains the importance of studying homelessness based on subgroups, “each subgroup [of homeless people] has unique service needs and identifying these needs is critical for program planning and design.” Despite these diversities, homelessness is a devastating situation for all that experience it. Not only have homeless people lost their dwelling, but they have also lost their safety, privacy, control, and domestic comfort.
In the United States, it is practically impossible to walk down most streets without coming across a homeless person. The issue of homelessness has worsened because of the number of veterans back from our most recent wars. They have resorted to homelessness as their only refuge after being unable to maintain a stable home and/or not receiving the treatments they need. But as veteran homelessness demands more attention, especially in California, various solutions are being brought to action. The “housing-first strategy” being offered to homeless veterans and those endangered of becoming homeless, has played a major part in moving California closer to having an end to veteran homelessness in 2015.
...is to understand the factors that lead people into homelessness, that keep them homeless, and how they can recover from homelessness. Advocates for the homeless have proposed policies range from taking preventative measures, such as making housing and health care affordable, to policies that deal with individuals that are already homeless, such as rapid rehousing and redefining what it means to be homeless. Although many of the experts disagree on how the homeless epidemic should be handled, many acknowledge that the federal government plays an inexpendable role in helping the homeless. Homelessness is, obviously, a complex issue, but like all difficult issues it must be undertaken. It has become clear that homelessness is not something that will eradicate itself given time, homelessness will continue to grow and evolve unless an outside force stops it in its tracks.
My Housing Health Plan will benefit the students, staff and future of the school in the long run. Establishing my plan will give a better living environment for the resident and staff who spend so many hours in the building. These practices would make students feel like the school genuinely cares about their health and well being in the residential dorms Kansas State University has to offer. Letting leaking water and mold grow in a living environment is very dangerous and reckless. According to HGTV, “The most common black mold symptoms and health effects are associated with a respiratory response. Chronic coughing and sneezing, irritation to the eyes, mucus membranes of the nose and throat, rashes, chronic fatigue and persistent headaches
Fitzpatrick, Joanne. “ONI Opening Doors Project—Improving Health for Homeless People and Families.” Community Practitioner 85.2 (2012): 19+. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.
Back in the fall of 2013, I was living in an apartment with four other people and things were not going so well, I had been miserable with my living arrangements. I had gotten to such a low that I had been looking for a place to move into. Just as I was packing up my things to go home for the winter break I desperately needed, my phone rang. A friend of mine said that she knew of an opening in a house full of motivated and goal oriented people. After taking a tour of the newly renovated home in the heart of State College, I knew that I would be happy here, in this new home developed for change makers to gather and accomplish one goal: make the world a better place. The name of the house: Co.Space.
In our effort to address the barriers to healthcare access, our mission is to improve our clients well-being and health outcomes by providing medical, mental, and preventive services for individuals with a history of chronic homelessness. With a collaborative effort aided by the case management and outreach currently offered by the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC), the mobile clinic will provide additional supporting services that will focus on bringing mental health services, healthcare and social services directly to our clients. As we strive to integrate our services by collocating a mobile clinic, we will focus on disease prevention and healthcare promotion through primary care, while employing a biopsychosocial approached with the goal of optimizing wellness within the population we serve. The objectives outline for the medical outreach program will focus on improved quality of care by using every advantage that is presented with a collocated model and the cross discipline solving techniques that will be available with coordinated care. This holistic approach will include a care team that will bring additional resources and will also focus on being the link to additional comprehensive services while monitoring treatment and outcomes. The integration of services can also prove to be cost effective by the flexibility it offers and by consolidating the resources currently available at WLCAC. The program will also be sustainable by using the working relationships it will have with other community health providers and by using the educational services provided by the University of Southern California. Providing medical services that touch upon primary care practice guidelines,...
This great nation of awesome power and abundant resources is losing the battle against homelessness. The casualties can be seen on the street corners of every city in American holding an ?I will work for food? sign. Homeless shelters and rescue missions are at full capacity. There is no room at the inn for the nation?s indigent. Anyone who has studied this issue understands that homelessness is a complex problem. Communities continue to struggle with this socio-economic problem while attempting to understand its causes and implement solutions. The public and private sectors of this country are making a difference in the lives of the homeless by addressing the issues of housing, poverty and education.