The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020 1
Publisher
The Homeless Voice is owned by the COSAC Foundation, a multi-faceted non-profit agency that feeds, shelters, and arranges access to social and medical services to every homeless person that enters its shelters. We aim to enable them to return to a selfreliant lifestyle, but for the small percentage of people incapable, we provide a caring and supportive environment for long-term residency.
Originally made by a team tasked to raise money from the streets for the shelter, the Homeless Voice was born from the knowledge that freedom of press was a way to raise awareness. We started as a flyer, then a 4-page newsprint, then finally becoming the voice of the homeless with the Homeless Voice newspaper and website in 1999. In this newspaper we hope to present the problems that the homeless population faces day-to-day, the problems these people personally face, and the ways that laws can help and hinder them. Visit us at Homelessvoice.org to read past issues, see online-only content, and a full map of where you can find this paper.
Sean Cononie
Editor-in-Chief Andrew Fraieli
Executive Editor Mark Targett
Contributers
Katie Aulenbacher Miranda Schumes Rich Jackson
COSAC Foundation PO Box 292-577 Davie, FL 33329 954-924-3571
Vendor and client Michael White | Photo by Miranda Schumes
Cover photo illustration by Andrew Fraieli
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Many of our vendors are clients of our shelters, brought to different major cities to vend this paper in return for a donation. Based out of Lake City — where our Veterans Inn shelter and Motel 8 is located — or Davie, they are always brought out in groups of four to help each other stay motivated and keep each other company. They’re given plenty of food and water for the day and don bright shirts to distinguish them as our vendors. Depending on their specific job in vending this newspaper, all vendors take in about 75% of donations that day, with the remaining 25% put back into the paper. We distribute in all major cities throughout Florida, including Tallahassee, Lake City, Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, Daytona, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, and now Gainesville.
The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020
Black Rate of Homelessness “Vastly Disproportional to Population” for 12 years By Andrew Fraieli
Florida Summer Heat and COVID-19 Means No Break For the Homeless By Miranda Schumes
State Redefines Mental Health’s Relation to Homelessness; 20% Drop in Cases Follows By Katie Aulenbacher
Executive Editor Becomes Homeless Editor in Bloomington, Indiana By Rich Jackson
Even with $1.5 Billon and Over 30 Years, Federal Aid Law fails 1.5 Million Homeless Students By Katie Aulenbacher
Check out our previous issues and other stories at Homelessvoice.org
Looking for fun and friendly newspaper vendors interested in becoming their own boss. Contact Ginny 386-758-8080 The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020 3
AFRICAN AMERICANS HAVE HIGHEST RATE OF HOMELESSNESS IN MINORITIES FOR A DECADE RUNNING U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development data has revealed African Americans to have a highly disproportionate rate of homelessness compared to their population since records began
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n 2014, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that “the sheltered homeless population that is Black or African American in the U.S. was nearly double the size of the full student enrollment in all of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the U.S., combined.” That is 604,317 homeless people compared to 294,316 students. Since HUD’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) began, they have revealed the vast disproportion of homeless African Americans compared to their U.S population. Their third published report — and first to look at homelessness across an entire year — showed that African Americans, who are only 12.3 percent of the total U.S. population, make up 39.6 percent of all sheltered homeless people. The HUD reports get information from various homeless shelters across the country and breaks it down in two main ways: the amount of people who used a shelter at some point in the year, and the amount of people who are homeless on a single night, usually in January. The latter is the point-in-time count (PIT), when volunteers at shelters go out and visually count the homeless they can find in their town or city. No matter what way HUD measures the number of homeless though, the proportion and chances that any one homeless person is African American barely changes. It is constant throughout their records since they started in 2007 that minorities are far more likely to be homeless, and African Americans are far more likely within them. These proportions repeat, report after report. The 2008 report states, “Homelessness disproportionately affects minorities, especially African Americans”; in 2011, “Minorities, especially African Americans, were significantly overrepresented in the
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sheltered homeless population…”; in 2012, “African Americans are among the populations most vulnerable to fall into homelessness,” and that report even points out “there were 2.5 times as many African Americans that experienced homelessness than ever earned a Ph.D. (1 in 171).” In 2013 “African Americans comprised 41.8 percent of the population using shelter programs, representing the largest single racial group in shelter programs,” and in 2014 the exact statement is used again, but at 40.6%. All this data so far hasn’t even covered those in the PIT count as up until 2014, there was no demographic data for it. 2015 was the first year that it did, and it showed that 227,937 or 40.4% of the total unsheltered homeless count were African Americans, and about 610,161 African Americans used a shelter at some point in the year, a similar 41.1% of people. In 2019 — the latest information from HUD — the AHAR states, “African Americans accounted for 40 percent [or 225,735] of all people experiencing homelessness in 2019 and 52 percent of people experiencing homelessness as members of families with children, despite being 13 percent of the U.S. population. In contrast, 48 percent of all people experiencing homelessness were white compared with 77 percent of the U.S. population.” For 12 years, these reports have shown that African Americans are at the highest risk of becoming homeless, with a peak of 45% of all people in a shelter at some point in a year being African American, even though they consist of only 12.3% of the U.S population. Every report had some statement that, in some form, said they were “heavily” or “considerably” or “significantly overrepresented” in the homeless population. HUD’s reports are made for congress to help inform policy changes. These reports have their own possible issues and inaccuracies, but are the main source of
...the proportion and chances that any one homeless person is African American barely changes.
PIT = POINT IN TIME COUNT
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The point in time count estimates the unsheltered homeless population in the United States on a single night, usually done on the first of January. The count began in 2005, and through 2014 had no demographic information of these people. 2015 onwards it included age, race, ethnicity and gender. The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020
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By Andrew Fraieli
homeless statistics for the government and many other organizations that help the homeless. It is not the only report that analyzes rates of homelessness though, and some try to give reason to this disproportion in the rate of African American homelessness. The 2019 Housing Not Handcuffs report by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, a nonprofit organization of attorneys located in D.C that focuses on ending homelessness, highlights more specific issues like general housing problems and incarceration patterns. Similar to HUD, seeing as they cite AHAR statistics, Housing Not Handcuffs states “among the homeless population, Black Americans consistently have the highest rate of homelessness in the country, highly disproportionate to their population.” It continues by citing “housing cost burdens and eviction” as a contributing factor to “grossly disproportionate rates of homelessness among people of color,” saying that “once housing is lost, racist housing practices prevent people from becoming rehoused. It is thus unsurprising that there is a heavy overrepresentation of people of color in the homeless population.” Continuing with examples of incarceration, the report quotes an academic report, Pervasive Poverty: How the Criminalization of Poverty Perpetuates Homelessness, “As annual funding for public housing plummeted from $27 billion in 1980 to $10 billion at the decade’s end, corrections funding surged from nearly $7 billion to $26.1 billion transforming the U.S. prison system into the primary provider of affordable housing and many of its jails into the largest homeless shelters in town.” Housing Not Handcuffs describes the situation where a “boom in jail and prison populations... disproportionately experienced by poor communities of color” combines with how “disproportionate arrests of homeless people contribute to the problem of mass incarceration, the criminalization of poverty, and racial inequality” adding to the academic report’s conclusions. The exact causes of this disparity aren’t necessarily known, and the perfect solution isn’t either, but different organizations are trying, like The National Alliance to End Homelessness and the The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. Whatever the cause, the trend has been going for 12 long years.
HMIS = HOMELESS MANAGMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM The HMIS data is a count from participating shelter programs — “a nationally representative sample of communities” — of the amount of people who “use an emergency shelter, transitional housing program, or PSH program at any time from October through September” of the previous year. The data began being reported in 2005 and no further HMIS report has been released since 2017.
In 2007... The Total Homeless on a night in January was 389,695
In 2017...
671,888
Sheltered
The Total Homeless on a night in January was
282,192
360,867
Unsheltered
Sheltered
Total people who used a shelter from October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007
553,742 192,875
Unsheltered
Total people who used a shelter from October 1, 2016 through September 30, 2017
1,588,595
1,416,908 5%
In 2007...
but, also in 2007...
White Americans
10%
African Americans were 12.3% of the U.S. population and 39.6% of the sheltered homeless population, or
were 66.2% of the U.S. population and 36% of the sheltered homeless population, or
513,289
15%
20%
557,937
25% 5% 10%
15%
20%
2005 2006 7 2 0 0 08 20 9 2 0 0 0 1 0 11 2 2 0 12 2 0 013 14 2 0 1 2 0 2 20 2
1 01 6 7
25%
30%
35%
40%
% of US population that is African American % of sheltered homeless HMIS that are African American
30%
5
35%
60%
40% 55%
2005 2006 7 200 8 9 2 0 0 2 0 0 010 2 11 20 12 20 3 2 01 014 2 15 20 6 2 01 7 201 45%
50%
45%
% of US population that is White % of sheltered homeless HMIS that are White
In 2017...
White Americans
were 61.1% of the U.S. population and 36.5% of the sheltered homeless population, or
517,172
but, also in 2017...
African Americans were 12.7% of the U.S. population and 43.0% of the sheltered homeless population, or
590,965
The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020 5
Summer Heat Brings Increase in Health Risks for Florida’s Homeless By Miranda Schumes
For unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness, the summer brings challenges due to extreme heat and adverse conditions. This summer may be the hardest yet as many solutions for these problems are no longer an option due to COVID-19.
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ummertime typically brings fun in the sun, time spent with loved ones, and late-night cookouts, but for the more than 11,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in Florida, it can bring a lack of water, infection and little sufficient shelter. According to Leeanne Sacino — the executive director of the Florida Coalition to End Homelessness — dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat strokes are some of the most common issues that people experiencing homelessness face in the summer. Randall Graham, the operations supervisor of the Palm Beach County Homeless Services Programs, said that some individuals try to avoid the heat by staying with friends in wooded areas. Others, he said, spend the day at a library to take advantage of the A/C, “Sometimes they go and read books, hang out all day — sometimes they even fall asleep there. A lot of them stay there all day because it’s so hot.” Some people, Graham says, will even ride buses during the day for hours, sleeping on them to escape the sun and harsh conditions. During COVID-19, many libraries have been closed or have been operating on limited hours though, forcing more people experiencing homelessness to stay outside and brave the heat. Prior to the virus, one man experiencing homelessness in Palm Beach County — who goes by the nickname Smooth — frequently visited libraries to stay cool and avoid the sun. Now, he’s even avoiding riding on buses due to the threat of COVID-19. Smooth also used to stay cool by sitting inside restaurants, but that too is no longer an option with many only offering takeout or outdoor seating. With libraries, buses, and restaurants no longer an option, he has resorted to shaded areas like under a tree. “I’m getting older now and I don’t want to get skin cancer,” Smooth said. “I’m getting these freckles and stuff. I don’t know if they’re cancer or what they are. I’ve just got to be careful.” The sun and heat leads to a variety of other problems as well, especially for people who take medication. According to Sancino, “Persons with medical conditions may be more affected in the heat. Like some medications make individuals hotter, while some medications don’t survive the heat.” For some, extreme heat can also lead to increased
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A tent city in John Prince Park, Palm Beach County | Photo by Miranda Schumes
feelings of agitation. For Smooth, being uncomfortable in the heat also brings about feelings of sadness, which can later turn into anger. “[The heat] is a big discomfort for me. I don’t have a home, my parents are gone. I don’t have anybody. My girlfriend and I split up. I don’t have a family life anymore,” Smooth said. “I’ll get angry and that’s not good because I don’t want to lash out.” In addition to emotional distress, the intense summer heat also leads to more sweating. According to Sacino, “There’s a higher risk of skin infections with sweating. So, especially foot ulcers, wet feet because of the socks getting wet — those things are worse in the summertime.” The summertime also brings out swarms of bugs.
I’m getting older now and I don’t want to get skin cancer,” Smooth said. “I’m getting these freckles and stuff. I don’t know if they’re cancer or what they are. I’ve just got to be careful.
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The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020
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“More bugs means more biting and risk of infections or allergic reactions,” Sacino said. Many people experiencing homelessness try to combat these issues by showering at beaches, churches, shelters, or local agencies. In addition to a shower, these places — besides the beach — usually provide bottles of drinking water and food too. Still, travelling to these locations can pose its own challenges. “During the summer, it is very difficult because a lot of individuals may not have bicycles. A lot of people may not have bus passes to get on public transportation to take them to pantry areas, or different churches, or different agencies who provide water,” Graham said. “A lot of those individuals have to walk, and some of the distances that they walk are a long way. And it’s hot, so a lot of them have a very difficult time.” Graham noted that there are also social service agencies and outreach workers that drive around Palm Beach County for those who cannot make it to a shelter. They provide assistance to homeless individuals in need, do wellness checks, conduct assessments, and provide bottled water. “We have outreach staff out in the community everyday, all day,” Graham said. “The outreach staff members know where the encampments are, where there’s wooded areas, where there’s individuals living under bridges, abandoned houses, alleys, [and] train stations. We have several teams, and they specialize in
designated areas of the county, and they know where the homeless people are located.” These agencies and outreach teams are often essential when it comes to ensuring the safety of people experiencing homelessness, like during hurricane season, when the teams help bring people to a shelter before a storm. “They know these homeless people sometimes by their first name, and also these homeless individuals know the outreach team by their first name. So when hurricane season is here, we reach out to all of those individuals and give them all of the available information,” Graham continued. On top of this, the social service agencies and outreach teams also provide transportation to emergency
shelters or sometimes give individuals bus passes to travel to them. Smooth has taken advantage of these shelters in the past. During Hurricane Irma, he stayed at Boynton Beach Community High School, “Everybody was okay, and [the shelter] fed me. They were nice people. I got along fine,” Smooth said. Fortunately, there are ways that the public can help too, like offering individuals food, water, and money. But, according to Graham, while it is great to offer necessities, people should also call social service agencies when they see a person experiencing homelessness and in mental or physical distress. “Let the social service agencies know so they can reach out and offer these individuals the substance abuse, mental health, medical, and housing services,” Graham
said. “[Social service agencies] know exactly what to do and how to do it. They can get these individuals the help they need.” Sacino encourages people to donate hats, socks, t-shirts, bottled water, bug spray, and bandages to day shelters and outreach locations, donating food to food banks as well. She also recommends directly donating to shelters and local homeless service agencies in general, as donations are typically down in the summer due to there being less snowbirds, and are even further down due to COVID-19. “During the summer you may see more persons experiencing homelessness — just show compassion. They are people. They’re just looking for a cool place to be,” Sacino said.
Want to contribute to the Homeless Voice? Have a journalistic or photography background, and looking for freelancing? Email us at andrew@homelessvoice.org
The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020 7
Florida now reports only extreme cases, causing a 20% drop in cases, while pushing for a systemic interpretation of homelessness
By Katie Aulenbacher
M
ental illness and substance abuse are likely more prevalent in Florida’s homeless community than official reports lead organizations and the public to believe. In 2017, the Florida Council on Homelessness — a state government council that “develop[s] policies and recommendations to reduce homelessness,” according to their website — increased the requirements necessary to be considered mentally ill in their reports, without public explanation. This led to a 20% drop in cases, a possibly misleading drop as it shifts focus to only chronic or severe cases rather than all cases, and could create a wide ripple effect impacting policy, funding, and outreach decisions. The Florida governor, the State Surgeon General, the Executive Director
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The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020
of Veterans’ Affairs, and the Commissioner of Education are only some of the organization heads that use this data to lobby the legislature and make decisions impacting families, veterans, criminal justice, healthcare, and education. In Florida, the shift from reporting total incidence of mental illness and substance abuse in 2016 to only chronic or severe cases in 2017 led to this 20% drop. The 2016 report found that 33.2% of homeless individuals were suffering from substance abuse and 34.2% from mental illness, while in 2017 those numbers were 13.3% and 14.8%, respectively. For comparison, a 2001 Urban Institute brief noted that “only one in four homeless adults did not report any mental health or substance abuse problems during the past year.” Rick Butler, Vice Mayor of Pinellas Park, Treasurer of the Florida State Homeless Leadership Board, and member of the Council on
Homelessness commented, “You see, we don’t gather the data. We just sit there and listen to what they’re reporting to us. All we can do is sit there and hope everything that they’re telling us is the right information...To me, number-wise, that percentage drop doesn’t make sense.” To the best of Florida Council on Homelessness Chairperson Shannon Nazworth’s recollection, the switch to reporting only extreme cases reflected an attempt to align with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reporting guidelines. HUD oversees federal housing initiatives including the annual point-in-time (PIT) count of homeless persons. “I do believe that was around the time that HUD kind of started changing different things that were required. And, so, the Council and Office on Homelessness, really it was the Office on Homelessness that shifted its reporting requirements and other things to align with the HUD requirements, trying to streamline the reporting requirements on the CoC’s [Continuums of Care, the local organizations that facilitate PIT counts],” Nazworth said. A similar attempt to align with federal guidelines in California led to a dramatic underreporting of the prevalence of mental illness and substance abuse in Los Angeles’ homeless community, according to the LA Times. Using the same raw data as the city, LA Times found that 67% of unsheltered individuals suffered from mental illness or a substance abuse disorder, while the city reported a figure of only 29%. In their own words, the Times’ reporting raised “questions about whether government officials are taking the right approach and doing enough for people on the street who have little hope of getting into housing anytime soon.” One expert interviewed by the Times, Executive Director of the California Policy Lab at UCLA Janey Rountree, said, “There really needs to be an examination of the inflow of the unsheltered population, and are there issues of access to medical care, mental health care and to substance abuse treatment that are just as important as thinking about how to house them immediately when they do become homeless.” Asked if the design of the PIT count, when volunteers go out and individually count the unsheltered homeless, could lead to undercounting important cases, Butler said, “Absolutely. Yeah. I think most of the time, the sad part about it is [if] they don’t answer truthfully, they don’t get any follow up help. So I think a lot of people are just too embarrassed to say, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a problem. I need to get some help.’ I could absolutely see it being undercounted.” This amounts to the statistic of mental illness and substance abuse being wholly self-reported by those possibly with these ailments. “Let’s be honest, we take one day a year to go out and count our homeless. Does that even sound right? But that’s all that we can go on,” continues Butler. “There are some people that we can’t get to... Given what HUD guidelines are, as in, ‘You will do this, and here are the questions that you will ask, no matter how stupid they are,’ and you’re dealing with sometimes sitting in the middle of the woods with five or six people in the middle of a rainstorm trying to ask questions and trying to get straight answers. And it’s a very hard thing if you track that...I’ve been out there a few times.” The HUD guidelines state that in order to be counted as substance misuse disorder or a serious
mental illness, a case must meet three conditions: 1. Seriously limit an individual’s ability to live independently 2. Be for a long-continuing or indefinite duration 3. Could be improved by the provision of more suitable housing conditions. This means if someone doesn’t report that their condition prevents them from “holding a job or living in stable housing,” their case goes uncounted. “It’s like, the question is, ‘Do you feel like you have a mental illness.’ The guy’s looking at me like, ‘Not if I have another beer, I don’t!’ That’s the reality of what you’re dealing with out there,” Butler said. “The ones that are [obviously struggling] are like, ‘Oh no, there’s
nothing wrong with me. I’m fine.’ But you have to mark down what was said...It’s an antiquated system to get that type of information, that’s required by HUD...Is the data correct? Maybe 60%, 65%, 70%. But there is going to be flaws in the system.” Asked if the Council’s policy recommendations would change if the data gathered were different, Nazworth commented that “policy recommendations are based on the data available, so if the data changes, and there was an uptick in one group or another, we would definitely look at what are things we could try to do to address that.” Crisis counselor and director of New York’s Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter Jeff Grunberg,
Organization Heads that use Florida Council on Homelessness Data Secretary of the Department of Corrections
Executive Director of Department of Economic Opportunity
“The Florida Department of Corrections is the third largest state prison system in the country with a budget of $2.7 billion, approximately 94,000 inmates incarcerated and more than 161,000 offenders on active community supervision.”
“...assist the Governor in working with the Legislature, state agencies, business leaders, and economic development professionals to formulate and implement coherent and consistent policies and strategies designed to promote economic opportunities for all Floridians.”
According to dc.state.fl.us
Commissioner of Education Handles day-to-day operations for the entire Florida Department of Education. According to fldoe.org
“Represent the diverse interests of Florida’s counties, emphasizing the importance of protecting home rule – the concept that communities and their local leaders should make the decisions that impact their community.”
“...focused on protecting, promoting and improving the health of everyone who calls Florida home...” and “serves as state health officer for the Florida Department of Health.” According to Floridahealth.gov
According to Flsenate.gov
Secretary of Health Care Administration “Leads a $29.4 billion health enterprise, representing close to of Florida’s total state budget, is responsible for health policy planning for the State of Florida.”
Department of Veterans’ Affairs care 31% and and
According to ahca.myflorida.com
Florida Association of Counties
State Surgeon General
Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families “Work in partnership with local communities to protect the vulnerable, promote strong and economically selfsufficient families, and advance personal and family recovery and resiliency.” According to Myflfamilies.com
According to fl-counties.com
Handles health care and benefits for veterans, maintains national cemeteries, and “improve the Nation’s preparedness for response to war, terrorism, national emergencies, and natural disasters” According to VA.gov
Florida League of Cities “...serves as administrator for the Florida Municipal Insurance Trust, offers a comprehensive package of innovative financial solutions to Florida’s local governments, and provides contractual support services to several statewide municipal and professional associations.” According to floridaleagueofcities
Florida Supportive Housing Coalition
Executive Director of the Florida Housing Finance Corporation
Florida Coalition for the Homeless
“...a statewide organization dedicated to fostering the development of housing for various special needs populations...”
“...created by the state Legislature 35 years ago to assist in providing a range of affordable housing opportunities for residents...”
“...the nation’s oldest advocacy and direct service organization helping homeless men, women and children.”
According to fshc.org
According to coalitionforthehomeless
According to floridahousing.org
These organizations use this information to lobby the legislature and make decisions impacting families, veterans, criminal justice, healthcare, and education.
The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020 9
when asked if this change in definition of mental illness could affect funding, said, “absolutely.” “If the government’s going to fund a substance abuse division, that division has to set up their parameters, who is worthy of their treatments…” Grunberg continued. “That division is going to fund local programs. The local programs are told, ‘We’re going to give you 150k, you have to serve 35 addicts, here’s the definition...’ The funding stream dictates who gets treated. Of course, what becomes the funding stream is dictated by lobbying and advocates.” He further explained that focusing on specific ailments “does help you lobby for particular funding to bolster your outreach efforts to hopefully succeed in getting someone indoors who otherwise might not come indoors without that focus,” concluding that statistical changes resulting from definitional changes “will affect lobbying.” “It is a public document,” said Nazworth, referring to the Florida Council on Homelessness’ annual report. “…and of course [stakeholder groups] can use it to advocate with the legislature or others on best practices and, of course, legislative recommendations as are outlined in the report.” Grunberg described a personal example of a negative byproduct of altering mental health definitions that took place three decades ago, while he was running a treatment program at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. According to Grunberg, the Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health redefined the segment of the population the department was responsible for helping saying, “he changed the definitions of who could be considered severely mentally ill. Now suddenly, his agency was only responsible for taking care of a smaller number of people.” As a result, “a lot of people didn’t meet the criteria necessary to be called functionally disabled, therefore they didn’t qualify to be in my program...There were a lot of people who were absolutely disabled, but weren’t ‘crazy’ enough.” Alongside the transition to tabulating only more extreme cases, Nazworth shared that the Council has mirrored HUD’s emphasis on a systemic understanding of homelessness. “The shift to focusing on systemic causes is because, in the end, this is a systems issue. It’s a systems failure issue. People are not homeless because of individual choices they made and decisions they made...And we’re just trying to help people understand, with systems issues we can change systems and align systems better so that we can better address homelessness. And I do think that’s what HUD was trying to do with its shifts as well, is look at the systemic level things that you can influence, and help incentivize best practices to help reduce the number of people who are homeless on our streets.” Butler expressed doubts that overly powerful
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systems could be the solutions to the problems they create saying, “It is frustrating. I know I’ve been on [the receiving end of HUD guidance] I don’t know how many years, and I kind of chuckle every time, like, ‘This is so ridiculous.’ But you ain’t going to change it. You ain’t changing it. The whole system is the system, and the system says this is what you need to do.” As a result of this shift to a systemic understanding of homelessness, the Council’s annual reports have gradually transitioned from a more neutral characterization of the causes of homelessness, as a combination of individual and societal factors, to accentuating the societal factors. For example, the 2015 report stated, “There are a host of issues that may lead to homelessness including job loss, family crisis, disabilities, and struggles with mental health and substance abuse,” while in 2019, the report reads, “The systemic causes of homelessness are, however, often overlooked while personal issues tend to be overemphasized…For elected officials, policymakers, and planners, it is especially critical to recognize the societal and systemic issues that contribute to homelessness.” There is no source cited for the claim that individual factors are overemphasized at the expense of systemic causes. The 2019 report includes the further uncited claim that “mental health issues and substance abuse do not directly cause [ h o m e l e s s n e s s ] ,” in apparent contradiction of the HUD surveys, which require individuals to state a causal connection between their mental health and substance issues and their homelessness in order for their condition to be counted. When asked about the basis for that claim, Nazworth responded, “Well there is no data to say that they directly cause homelessness. There are people with mental health and substance use issues who are not homeless. Again, I don’t know of any data that directly says that that is a cause. It may be an exacerbation to a challenge. It may make things more challenging for certain individuals, but it’s not the reason they’re homeless. If that were the case, then all people with serious substance use issues would be homeless, and that’s just not the situation.” This is in contrast to Grunberg’s experience,
It’s like, the question is, ‘Do you feel like you have a mental illness.’ The guy’s looking at me like, ‘Not if I have another beer, I don’t!’ That’s the reality of what you’re dealing with out there,
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where the vast majority of people explain their homelessness in terms of personal decisions: “They disagree with their own advocates. Imagine that. Advocates disagree with the homeless people they’re advocating for. We asked the homeless who they blame. We found that...70% blame themselves...The homeless are Americans too. They believe in bootstrapping--’lift yourself up by your bootstraps’--they want to work.” Nazworth continued by saying that “part of it is to help policymakers who are not directly involved with homelessness and don’t live in this space the way the rest of us do on this Council and others understand that while there may be exacerbating issues and it may cause more challenges, it isn’t the reason. It may contribute to the cause, but it’s not the reason that the person is homeless.” An earlier report endorsed legislation aimed at improving mental health and substance misuse treatment facilities in order to “address two major contributing factors for homelessness,” Grunberg commented. “It is very touchy, very important, how we label ‘why.’ We should not soft-sell this. Having mental illness and being homeless is a one-two punch.” The 2019 report also includes the claim that “the majority of people who become homeless do not have behavioral health issues.” Nazworth, when asked if this could be misleading, since only more extreme cases were tabulated, said, “I don’t think so. We were trying to highlight that most people when they think of homelessness think only of chronic homelessness, and homelessness is a much broader group of individuals in our community.” She clarified that while “there is obviously some correlation between mental health and substance use and homelessness, whether one is exacerbated by the other, chicken and egg scenarios, I don’t know that there’s real good research on that aspect of it, but most people don’t have a chronic behavioral health issue.” Nazworth also stressed that the goal of de-emphasizing mental illness and substance abuse in the reports was to educate policymakers that homelessness comes in all shapes and sizes saying, “Homelessness is about all homeless individuals. School kids right through to the persons with the greatest demons that we’re all striving to help.” Jeff Branch, Legislative Advocate for member organization Florida League of Cities, commented, “There’s a whole host of factors that may cause people to become homeless. I would just speak very broadly that no report should overlook all the different contributing factors of homelessness, whether it’s caused by individual actions or external factors that they have no control over. Our focus is how do you end it, and how do you prevent it.”
The shift to focusing on systemic causes is because, in the end, this is a systems issue. It’s a systems failure issue. People are not homeless because of individual choices they made and decisions they made...
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Column
The Homeless Editor Rich Jackson worked as Senior Executive Editor of the Herald-Times in Bloomington, Indiana until his job was eliminated, and he became homeless By Rich Jackson
I
finished cleaning out my desk at work and packed up the last box from the apartment at the newspaper, drove 10 minutes and checked into the Motel 6. Officially, I was homeless. The word sadly does a poor job of describing a condition. For instance, I have a little savings but I need to stretch that as much as possible. Friends and complete strangers have helped me add to that savings. I can apply for unemployment to stretch money a little longer. But I am homeless, fitting one of four categories, mine being transitional homeless. The newspaper company had encouraged me to apply for the executive editor position in Bloomington,
Indiana. I had done two previous stints in the state and a tumultuous situation in the newsroom needed a calm, steady editor who knew how to do good work under duress. I struggled financially at my last newspaper, so the folks who ran this one offered me a chance to stay in an apartment in the building where the owner once lived, and where visiting family members could stay. The place was decked out in the finest of the “Man Men” era, deep shag carpet and fake gold everywhere. I was grateful. Then I went to work. I’ve never had a problem working hard, particularly because I love being a newspaper editor. The three loves of my life are my daughter, my mother and being a newspaper editor. When I’m hard at work in the newsroom, I feel as warm as in a cocoon. Without looking up, I started working everyday and two to three days of the week, I worked from getting up until going to bed. But I was having fun and we were doing good work. People would say, “I love the changes you’re making at the newspaper,” and “My husband and I love your thoughtful columns,” and “You’re a fat idiot.” OK, not all praise. Living in the apartment helped aspects of the business. I was always there to keep an eye on the place, someone working remotely could ask me to restart her computer and if there was breaking news, I had a 50-feet commute. Initially, I had planned to stay in the apartment no more than three or four months, but the move had cost me far more than I received so it wasn’t until the turn of 2020 that I was able to save money. Cool, I could begin thinking about finding a place in Bloomington, generally considered one of the best small towns in the United States.
“
Then the virus. I have worked through local tragedy and helped lead a 90-person newsroom through 9/11, where we worked 20 hours a day for I don’t remember how long. My longest shift was 26 hours. I once worked two 16-hour days in a row at age 50. I still worked 12-13 hour days two to three days a week. But I’ve never seen the news needs of COVID-19. There was simply no way of keeping up and it was all-consuming. I gathered my news staff and told them the goal was to help the community through this historic time; how do we cope, what can we do, how do we support each other while at the same time telling the hard news of how many were dying, where were failures to prepare, and just what the hell is next. During a furlough week in April, I began in earnest to find an apartment and had some leads. It was my second week off in two years, the other being some days to go see my kid in Pennsylvania. I figured during another furlough in May, I’d make the move. Then the call came. A regional editor was going to come visit me the next day at noon. I sent out frantic texts to colleagues, but no one could give me an answer. That’s when I knew I was going to be laid off. The regional editor has been a friend for years and remains so. He said my last day would be May 1 and I had to be out of the apartment by noon that day. What’s with the noon thing? Just to add to the drama? I know we like to think that our economy at its best is as strong as a bull. But sometimes the bull tramples smaller things. I’ve written about the brittle nature of the economy. And so, on May 1, sitting with a cheap pizza and a plastic cup of wine in Motel 6, I started www.thehomelesseditor.com.
I know we like to think that our economy at its best is as strong as a bull. But sometimes the bull tramples smaller things.
”
The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020 11
McKinney-Vento and Its 1.5 Million Homeless Students
Even after $1.5 billion and over 30 years, there were 1.5 million students homeless during the 2017-2018 school year, all seeing a dramatic drop in academic standing
By Katie Aulenbacher
12 The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020
T
he recorded number of unhoused public school students in the United States has almost doubled over the past decade, and Florida is among the hardest hit states, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Schools are straining to meet the needs of unhoused students and to manage this crisis they are neither designed nor equipped to handle. The McKinney-Vento Act — a federal law passed in 1987, continuously renewed and meant to help protect students experiencing homelessness — is struggling to deliver on its guarantees, with its educational initiatives having cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion since it began. Reliable evaluations of its impact are scarce though, and unhoused students’ academic proficiency continues to fall.
Student homelessness increased
90% 1.5 million
since 2007-2008
bringing 2017-2018 total to over
McKinney-Vento
categorizes students
“who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” as homeless. This includes children living in public spaces, abandoned buildings, bus stations, cars, campgrounds, parks, shelters, substandard housing, motels, hotels, and doubled up with other families.
The number of unhoused students with limited English proficiency increased by more than 300%, from 62,000 to 261,000, while students living without any shelter increased by over 100%, from 50,000 to 102,000. From the 2007-2008 to 2017-2018 school years, Florida faced one of the most dramatic increases in unhoused students with a surge from 34,000 to 95,000. Official counts for the 2018-2019 school year are pending, but the Florida Department of Education anticipates a 10% upsurge over the previous year in Broward County Public Schools. While some percentage of the increase could be from improved record keeping, the number could still be higher still as it only reflects students public officials were able to identify during the academic year. This means the number excludes students experiencing homelessness during the summer, those not enrolled in a record-keeping school, and those not identified by officials as homeless, all of which adds to McKinney-Vento’s struggles. Debra Albo-Steiger, the Director of Outreach for Project UP-START — the organization that oversees the implementation of McKinney-Vento in Miami-Dade — estimated that the county currently has 5,000 unidentified unhoused students. McKinney-Vento’s implementation, and therefore its ability to deliver on its purpose, is made significantly more difficult by this obstacle of identifying unhoused students. Contributing to this obstacle is the possible fear of being identified and where that information goes. Albo-Steiger categorizes Miami-Dade’s “hidden” or uncounted homeless into three main groups: undocumented families who do not seek services from a fear of deportation, families who don’t selfidenfity from fear of being reported to the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), and families who don’t seek help out of a sense of pride or honor. Each of these groups believe they have something to lose from being identified and so add into those hidden numbers and gain nothing from McKinney-Vento. Albo-Steiger explains that Project UP-START’s services do not handle social security numbers or coordinate with imigration authorities, and in general do not need to contact DCF. BESIDES HOMELESS FAMILIES, unaccompanied andHomeless unhoused youth also 2, particularly The Voice | Vol.are 21 Issue July 2020 13
vulnerable to not being counted. The majority of a group surveyed in a 2015 Youth and Society study of unaccompanied and unhoused youth did not disclose their housing status. The students “feared staff would not keep their living status confidential and valued protecting themselves from stigmatization by their peers over any advantage the McK-V Act potentially could provide them.” The study referenced additional research confirming that the McKinney-Vento Act “as it exists currently does not adequately meet the needs of unaccompanied youth.” Yousuf Marvi is one of countless teachers striving to meet those needs. Marvi teaches 7th grade math in Los Angeles, California and has had “many, many students suffer from inconsistent housing. Moving again and again, living with multiple family members, [and enduring a] lack of personal space.”
Unhoused students
score
significantly lower on language arts, science, and math exams. According to a 2017 Shimberg Center for Housing Studies and Miami Homes for All study.
He says that students with unstable housing experience tremendous stress, the consequences of which compound over time and stunt academic progress, having seen students exhibit anxiety, depression, anger, and an inability to focus. This is not solely his opinion either. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, homelessness is linked to substandard educational outcomes, and unhoused students transfer schools more frequently than those who are housed, where each move could amount to a loss of 3-6 months of education. A 1998 Consortium on Chicago School Research, 1999 Policy Analysis for California Education, 2001 National Bureau of Economic Research, and 2003 Journal of Negro Education study all found that mobility adversely impacts the academic performance of non-mobile students as well. Florida’s Council on Homelessness and The American Academy of Pediatrics both explain that this loss of housing impacts students and greatly, from routines, relationships, security, attention, and emotional energy, to being more prone to psychosocial development issues, malnutrition, and chronic disease. The National Health Care for the Homeless Council reports that homelessness typically exacerbates existing medical conditions and leads to new infections and injuries too. Unhoused students also face an increased risk of experiencing physical, sexual, and mental violence. The nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection reports that unhoused students are seven times more likely to attempt suicide than their housed peers, with 37% of unhoused high school students having disclosed suicide attempts.
14 The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020
NANCY PADDEN VENUTA is a kindergarten teacher in Madison, Wisconsin who has also taught a significant number of homeless and previously homeless students. Her school last year took on approximately fifty previously unhoused students at once due to construction of a new housing development nearby. “The whole school was in an uproar with aggressive, angry behavior, abusive language, physical fights, kids leaving class, running through the halls,” she said. “Other students seemed fearful, insecure, and exhibited selfdestructive behavior in their new environment. We had our work cut out for us.” She recalled one kindergartener who was struggling because all her belongings remained at the house her family was evicted from. Her new living quarters were sparse, they even lacked lighting, so Padden Venuta and a group of concerned parents gathered toys, sleeping bags, colorful bins, and a camping light for the girl. A week later, the girl moved on somewhere else. Another five year old boy at Padden Venuta’s school lived at the YWCA with his mother, who had to work nights. Padden Venuta said that the child “would draw pictures of himself lying in bed with big tears streaming down his face because he was scared at night. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone because they might get kicked out of the YWCA.” She explained that these students’ academic, cognitive, social, emotional, and physical health are all being negatively impacted, “Often children are extremely tired since families may be doubled up in a small apartment with no separate space for young children to sleep. Children are often hungry…behavior is an issue as many of these children have suffered some kind of trauma, have not had a chance to become part of a school or neighborhood community, and are not ready for any kind of academic learning.”
Unhoused students 20%
are less likely to graduate high school than their housed peers; Students who fail to obtain a diploma or GED are more likely to become homeless later in life, perpetuating the cycle. According to 2019 National Center for Homeless Education and Chapin Hall reports.
THE MCKINNEY-VENTO ACT’S Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program, most recently reauthorized by Title IX, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act, is the primary policy protecting the rights of these unhoused students. It requires local education agencies to identify unhoused students and provide them with a “full and equal opportunity to succeed” in school. Doing so entails removing obstacles to, and providing necessary support for, enrollment, attendance, and academic performance. Funding for its education program has increased from $4.6 million in 1987 to $93.5 million in 2019, but, despite spending a total of over $1.5 billion taxpayer dollars, the program has undergone few evaluations or efficacy assessments. A 2001 Children & Schools article reported that studies of the law made “no attempts” to assess the impact of McKinney-funded activities. Barbara Duffield, Executive Director of SchoolHouse Connection, identified the most recent program evaluation as a 2014 Government Accountability Office study, which concluded that the program lacked sufficient oversight. Duffield warned in Education Week in 2016 that in order for the legislation to translate into meaningful
change, accurate measurements of student progress were needed. The Director of Education at Third Way, a public policy think-tank that has performed extensive research on the No Child Left Behind Act — which reauthorized McKinney-Vento in 2001 — shared that she is unaware of any current efforts to assess McKinney-Vento’s efficacy. What little data is available paints an unfavorable picture of the law’s educational impact. After again finding that “no evaluations of [McKinney-Vento’s] academic effectiveness have been reported,” a 2012 Children & Schools study also showed that McKinneyVento grants did not improve the educational outcomes of unhoused students. Similarly, a 2018 MiamiDade study reported that McKinney-Vento funded tutoring services had no impact on students’ academic performance either. There is evidence, however, that McKinney-Vento has improved unhoused students’ attendance rates by removing bureaucratic obstacles to enrollment. Prior to the law’s enactment, unhoused students could be denied entry due to missing residency, guardianship, or vaccination records for example.
Department of Education data shows that
45%
of unhoused students in grades 3-8 were proficient in reading in the 2007-2008 school year, while only
28%
were proficient in the 2017-2018 school year.
Reported math proficiency dropped from
45% 24% to
A CRITICISM OF the act, besides its lack of measurable academic success, is that it can hold educational organizations to an implausible standard. A Department of Education document outlining the act’s mandates explains, “The McKinney-Vento Act requires that all homeless children be given the opportunity to achieve to challenging State academic standards,” and unhoused students must have “full and equal opportunity to succeed” in school. For unhoused students to have this equal educational opportunity, it would in turn require they have the same psychological, medical, emotional, nutritional, and academic support as housed students — but Marvi and Padden Venuta’s experiences, and countless academic studies, show this is not an easy task. It is unclear how schools and McKinney-Vento liaisons, who are the required persons appointed to every local educational agency — typically local boards of education — who oversee coordination of McKinneyVento services, could facilitate these supports, typically furnished by a stable family structure. The liaisons responsible for enacting the law are often presented with complex implementation questions and limited resources, as explained by SchoolHouse Connection: “Oftentimes, local liaisons find that their days are filled with situations that require immediate attention, leaving new local liaisons feeling overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of issues to be addressed. Issues may include complicated eligibility determinations, school selection decisions, cross program coordination, and compliance issues.” SchoolHouse Connection lists on their website over 300 unique questions that they have received about serving unhoused students, one being, “I have a
17-year-old student who was adopted and lived in another district. The student decided that she no longer wanted to live with the adoptive family. She moved out without their consent and is now living with her biological mother in my district. The school is concerned about registering the student and who would be listed as the legal guardian. Is the student an unaccompanied homeless youth?” The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty emphasize that McKinney-Vento issues must be resolved on a case by case basis. The number of published guidelines on disputes over the law’s implementation shows that disputes about who is owed what services are common, another indication of the law’s complexity. In fact, lawsuits have been filed in Washington D.C., Maryland, Delaware, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, and Hawaii. REGARDING THE SCHOOL’S role in determining who is unhoused and who needs what services, Marvi mentions feeling privileged when students choose to disclose their struggles at home. Otherwise, he commented, “We just have to figure it out on our own…we’re just doing a poor guessing game; there’s no real partnerships with outside organizations.” A 2009 brief on Homelessness in NYC Elementary Schools echoed Marvi’s experience, observing that “Schools with high concentrations of needy students can easily become over-extended.” Padden Venuta went on to describe the impact of working with unhoused students on teachers, saying, “Low academic skills are often exhibited, so extra time and support are needed there…With all the extra attention needed because of behavior, social problems with peers, and academic challenges, it’s very difficult for one teacher to address everyone else’s needs as well. I always feel like I am failing my students. It is overwhelming and discouraging.” Albo-Steiger acknowledged the limitations of McKinney-Vento as well, commenting that Project UP-START has no control over root causes of homelessness. She credits Project UP-START’s successes to community-wide support, as the organization relies on partnerships with local groups and donations from private individuals in addition to federal funding. A desire of Padden Venuta’s was for more collaboration with assistants, interventionists, tutors, social workers, and psychologists in addition to those who can provide after school support, food, school supplies, and clothing. Currently, teachers at her school typically pay for special supplies like headphones, snacks, and field trip funds. Speaking similarly, Marvi concluded, “Schools cannot also be social service centers. They’re primarily a learning institution. I mean, you cannot— there’s a lot of useful ideas, cute ideas about making laundry machines, or washing machines. That’s great, and maybe that’s what’s needed, but that’s not the purpose and the mission of a school. So you are diluting the amount of energy, the resources that a school has in terms of both human and capital.” The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020 15
16 The Homeless Voice | Vol. 21 Issue 2, July 2020