Families are the Fastest Growing Group in the US Homeless Population
About half of the families experiencing homelessness over the course of a year live in family units and about 38 percent of those homeless within that year are children like the gay youth who represent who represent 20 to 40 percent of homeless youth.
Homeless people report that their major needs are help finding a job, housing, and financial help for the rent such as the couple who lived in their car for about a month getting food from a local pantry and making sandwiches in the car and collecting non-perishables. Twenty percent of the homeless report that they get help finding housing.
In 2002 three days before Christmas Roger and Dave were on a two to three-week waiting list to get into the Samaritan House, a residential facility for those with HIV or AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). In cases in which a family is fleeing a domestic violence, alcohol, or drug abuse situation a period of transitional housing is often needed.
James, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, couldn’t get back into the apartment where he lived with his boyfriend and had to leave because of domestic violence. The boyfriend was missing and the landlord wouldn’t let James back in the apartment until he paid damages owed by the boyfriend which James did not have. James only got to stay with a friend for a few days. He left for his friend’s with the clothes on his back.
According to the National Alliance To End Homelessness, 81 percent of single homeless people enter and exit shelters quickly. The Salvation Army allows for a free, three-night stay. About half of the people experiencing homelessness are single adults like Sonya, a drug addict. The National Alliance To End Homeless, recommends, among other strategies, that every city have a safe haven for the homeless to go and that the town has in place facilities to put people leaving public institutions, while continually making sure everyone is receiving needed care.
Faster housing services placing homeless people in a more timely fashion is also needed rather than having people being forced to wait on long waiting lists. The Alliance also recommends that more services be mainstreamed and consolidated to better meet the needs of the homeless. Faster job placements are also needed with an ability to secure enough income to afford rent, according to The Ten Essentials of a Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness drawn up by the Alliance a long time ago.
Successful youth programs to help homeless juveniles include Larkin Street Youth Services, the Connecticut Department of Children and Families Housing Continuum, the Illinois Department of Children and Families Youth Housing Assistance Program, The Lighthouse Youth Services Housing Commission, New Mexico Adolescent Transition Groups, and Project SAFE. The Housing First Network under the auspices of the National Alliance to End Homelessness negotiates with landlords and intervenes when a housing placement threatens the client’s tenancy.
The National Coalition for the Homeless, founded in 1984, is a national network of people who are currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, activists, and advocates, community-based providers, and others committed to a single mission. At the Annette G. Strauss Family Gateway Center in Dallas, TX, because of some misfortune the parents in these families have lost their jobs and homes, unemployed and lacking food, shelter, friends, or any other resources and they have nowhere to turn.
The Center houses as many as 30 families in a dorm-style facility for up to ten weeks. When a family is admitted they receive housing, clothing, and meals, day care or schooling for the children, job counseling for the parent(s), employment assistance, self-improvement training, and medical and legal aid. When a family completes the program they will take with them a new lease on life, according to staff.
Gateway Apartments provides transitional housing for families after completion of the short-term program. Gateway To Jobs is a special placement program that is offered to help residents and others at risk of homelessness, develop the skills necessary to get a job and avoid future unemployment. Since the Center opened in 1986 they have had many success stories but unfortunately there are still many homeless families with children in Dallas who need assistance.
The Center is primarily a privately-funded project and in order to continue to provide this assistance to homeless families they need financial support and volunteer services.
