Opinion

Yearlong bus passes for people experiencing homelessness difficult to manage

BY SUSAN ADCOCK, OUTREACH WORKER FOR OPEN TABLE NASHVILLE

I remember, as an outreach worker, being thrilled. Thrilled when I learned that soon I’d be able fill out a simple request for my clients to get a yearlong bus card.

All of them were experiencing literal homelessness at the time, meaning they were sleeping outside, and they too, basically jumped for joy when they heard. They told their friends. And their friends told their friends.

The thing I never saw coming, was that this arrangement, which I perceived at the time as a gift, would transform over time into something very different.

The request process involved me putting the person into Coordinated Entry on my laptop, I had to make myself their housing navigator, declare them disabled, give them a questionnaire to measure their level of vulnerability, make a photo of them for the card, and get them to sign and upload a form I like to call the “I promise not to be an asshole on the bus” form.

It reminds grown men and women that they should not make trouble on the bus, as if they haven’t (most of them) been riding the bus their entire lives. It felt a little insulting, but I let it go because hey, people need transportation, and it would give them something precious to hold onto. There seems to be few things more important to a person experiencing homelessness than a way to get around town (to have access to food, showers, laundry, work). Twenty people a week were calling to see how they could get one.

On the front end, navigators were told we’d have to make a note in HMIS every two weeks about how people were using the free bus card. HMIS is a database for tracking outcomes in housing and homelessness in Nashville. HMIS serves cities across the country that are tracking HUD funded activity including housing and various programs set up to alleviate homelessness.

Everyone reading this is smart enough to know that more bus cards meant more notes. The number of notes grew exponentially. At one point I had an alarm on my phone to remind me whose note I needed to update and sometimes there were seven in a day.

It took about a year for me to realize that the Connector Card wasn’t exactly a gift. It was more like a carrot, posing as a gift. People begged for the card. I became their Navigator and started hunting for housing that didn’t exist. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t, the one constant being that the card got turned off.

Here are the basics: If things go well and the person gets housed, the card turns off. If they lose the card more than once, the card turns off. If their housing navigator doesn’t look up from the daily dumpster fire, and spend 10 minutes online twice a month, bullshitting about what that person may or may not be using the card for, the card turns off.

And my phone rings:

“Miss Susan, my bus card stopped working.”

“I know, I’m sorry; it only lasts a certain period of time.”

“Can you get me a new one?”

“No, you can only get one. Then you have to buy your own.” “Oh, like even if I’m using it to: [fill in the blank]? Go see my probation officer? Go to the Suboxone clinic? get to the grocery? Go to work? visit my kids?”

“Yep.”

Meanwhile, a man in Antioch, who never had a card or a navigator, three days into his new job at Taco Bell, gives up because starting a job for him means he has to panhandle bus fare every day for the next two weeks. The Connector Card was (and is) a brilliant idea but nothing will change until we stop trying to incentivize people in ways that require us to monitor and evaluate their worthiness and our success. Let’s be clear. People with transportation thrive and those without it, don’t. It’s not our business what people are using the card for. It’s oxygen.

A good policy advisor might suggest that we afford all people experiencing homelessness a bus card; that we go to the table and map out our generosity as a city, without factoring in what’s in it for us.

Because what’s in it for us is a healthy, exuberant city of diverse, housed, well-fed neighbors that have the care they need if and when they need it. That’s the goal. Right?

Homeless Impact Division says bus cards part of bigger strategy

Director of the Metro Homeless Impact Division, which provides these passes, Judith Tackett, points out that the connector card system is part of a bigger strategy.

“Transportation is a big need for underserved populations including people experiencing homelessness. A few years ago, I approached WeGo with an idea to create a transportation opportunity for people experiencing long-term homelessness with disabling conditions. Together we established a partnership for annual bus passes available to agencies who work on housing with this highly vulnerable population. If we as a community want to serve people effectively, we need to 1. stay in touch with the people we serve on a regular basis, and 2. coordinate our efforts to be more efficient in our service delivery. Consistent service, communication and coordination are the principles that the Drive to End Chronic Homelessness partnership with WeGo is based on. This program includes regular data entry to ensure that our provider community coordinates their efforts with each other. The Homeless Impact Division continues to seek feedback from participating agencies with the goal to improve services while we create a system that ensures we measure the effectiveness of programs. In particular, the Homeless Impact Division held a community meeting with street outreach providers a few weeks ago to seek input from them about this program and balance that input with an outcomes-driven effort that leads to a more housing-focused and person-centered approach. I continue to stand behind this program with the limited resources that we have available right now because it is solutions-oriented.”