20 Things a Person Experiencing Homelessness Might Do With a Cellphone

There is a rather disturbing letter to the editor on the Dallas Morning News site. You can find it here: http://letterstotheeditorblog.dallasnews.com/2014/12/homeless-people-with-cellphones.html/, and here is the letter in whole:

Homeless people with cellphones?

Re: “Unlikely visitor slithers into The Stewpot,” Wednesday news story.

What a nice story in the Metro section Wednesday about the Stewpot Homeless Resource Center sponsoring a drive for coats or sleeping bags, and feeding the homeless in a selfless way.

However, I also looked carefully at the accompanying picture, and noticed that the homeless man was taking a close-up picture of the python with his cellphone. Hmm. Homeless people with cellphones. Am I missing something here?

Peter Archbold, Richardson

I was happy to see that online, the commenters almost universally took this individual to task. I am sure that if I asked any one of our grantees what the letter writer is missing, they could come up with things I can’t think of. Another tack might be, and I am just spit-balling here, to attend the Alliance Homeless Forum this Friday at 10.30am at the Dallas Public Library’s Central Branch, and ask one of the attendees, what they could do or do with a cell phone.

However, let’s just say that one would exercise simple empathy, which Webster defines as, “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also: the capacity for this”. Would that not be enough, to come up with an answer to the above rhetorical question?!

Perhaps the problem starts with defining these people as, “the homeless.” Perhaps, if one recognized that these are people, who among all of their characteristics and life experiences, are currently experiencing homelessness, one could empathize?! Seriously, have we not learned, in the American South of all places, that treating people as the “other” dehumanizes us too?!

So, just for the sake of this exercise, let’s see how many reasons, in no particular order, I can come up with, without consulting the experts, speaking to an actual person experiencing homelessness, or doing any research. (I will stop when I reach 20, OK?)

I might do any or all of these, with a cell phone, were I experiencing homelessness:

     1)     Talk to loved ones, who care about me, and about whom I care;

2)     Talk to potential employers about jobs;

3)     Talk to the Texas Workforce Commission, so I can get unemployment benefits;

4)     Document an accident or a crime;

5)     Call 911 to report an accident or a crime;

6)     Talk to CitySquare, who can help me find housing;

7)     Talk to The Bridge, so I can find if I can stay there tonight;

8)     Call the Salvation Army to find out where I can get a meal;

9)     Make an appointment to see a doctor at one of the Parkland HOMES mobile clinics;

10) Find out results of medical tests;

11) Talk to the VA about benefits I earned, while protecting the rights of people to write letters to newspapers about why I shouldn’t be able to have a cell phone;

12) Find out where I might get a used suit for a job interview;

13) Find out where I can store my belongings;

14) Call Texas Health and Human Services to arrange for medical insurance for my children;

15) Find out from AIDS Services, if they can help me get a refill for my anti-viral drugs;

16) Call the Resource Center to find out if there is an LGBT youth support group I can join, since, at just 16 years old, my parents threw me out of the house, after I came out last week;

17) Call Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, to find out how I can get a restraining order against my husband, who is continuing to stalk me;

18) Call the Vogel Alcove to tell them I am running five minutes late, since my boss at my minimum wage job changed the schedule on me at the last minute, and threatened to fire me, if I left at the time he had originally told me I could;

19) Call Pat at the Stewpot to thank her and tell her how much I enjoy selling the Streetzine;

20) Text a small donation to the Dallas Public Library, because I love the fact that they treat me with dignity, and host the Alliance Homeless Forum every month, where I can share concerns with people who value my point of view.

 
That, Mr. Archbold, is what you are missing.

Dallas Area Selected to Join National Campaign to End Veteran and Chronic Homelessness

Dallas, Texas – The Dallas area Continuum of Care (serving Dallas and Collin Counties) has been selected, along with 66 other U.S. communities, to participate in Zero: 2016, a national campaign to end veteran and chronic homelessness in the next two years. The Campaign is being spearheaded by Community Solutions, a national non-profit based in New York City. The organization said it would work intensively with the Dallas Continuum of Care to meet the federal goals set by President Obama to end veteran homelessness by Dec. 2015 and chronic homelessness by Dec. 2016. The initiative is a rigorous follow-on to the group’s successful 100,000 Homes Campaign, which announced in June that it had helped communities house 105,000 chronically homeless Americans in under four years.

The Dallas area Continuum of Care was selected for Zero: 2016 through a competitive, national application process. The decision to apply was made jointly by local public housing authority, Veterans Affairs, non-profit and Continuum of Care leaders. The initiative will formally launch in January of 2015 during the national 2015 Homeless Point-in-Time Count, during which local volunteers will hit area streets and shelters to enumerate the local homeless population. The Dallas area Continuum of Care is exploring the integration of an evidence-based survey into that count to identify all its homeless residents by name and determine the best available resources and housing options to end their homelessness.

“The Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance Continuum of Care is excited about this opportunity to utilize nationally recognized best practices to help end Veteran and Chronic Homelessness in Dallas and surrounding communities.  We can reach this goal. Locally Zero: 2016 will change lives and allow agencies to come together to coordinate and prioritize access for the most needy,” said Traswell C. Livingston III, Chair of the Dallas area Continuum of Care, MDHA board member, and Vice President and COO of AIDS Services of Dallas.

“Chronic and Veteran homelessness are urgent, solvable problems,” said Zero: 2016 Director, Beth Sandor. “These communities represent a potential tipping point. If they can show that getting to zero is possible, we think it will become untenable for other communities not to follow suit. Zero: 2016 is about bringing shared accountability to this work. Participants are making a public commitment to get to zero on time, and they are going to use that commitment to drive measurable progress.”

Last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the results of the 2014 Homeless Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, which shows that homelessness continues to decline across virtually all major categories, including chronic homelessness. Veteran homelessness was singled out by the report for its particularly steep decline-- more than 30 percent in the last four years.

The Dallas area PIT Count report showed that on a single night in January 2014, Dallas had 42 veterans living on the streets, in automobiles or in abandoned buildings.  Veterans’ homelessness decreased from the previous year from 18% to 13% of the overall homeless population.   A total of 413 people were determined chronically homeless on the night of the PIT Count. Chronic homelessness continues to decrease, as permanent supportive housing increases, resulting in a 65% decrease since 2004.  Local officials said they are committed to reducing the veteran and chronic numbers to zero.

The report on the national results also showed that communities selected to join Zero: 2016 account for a combined 31,669 chronically homeless Americans and 16,218 homeless veterans. Community Solutions said it estimates an overlap of 10,000-12,000 between these two populations.

Opening Doors, the federal plan to end homelessness in America, calls for communities to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015 and to end chronic homelessness one year later.

The 67 communities selected for Zero: 2016 represent 30 different states and the District of Columbia. Among them are 51 communities who also participated in the 100,000 Homes Campaign and 16 new communities. Combined, the group represents the joint, public commitment of 234 housing authorities, local government entities, non-profit organizations, and community agencies.

Sandor said Community Solutions would work with communities to accelerate their housing efforts through four focus areas: closing the research-to-practice gap, real-time data and performance management, local systems redesign, and local team and leadership development. Community Solutions will provide hands-on coaching and data tools, and will curate a national peer-to-peer learning network to accelerate innovation across communities.

Sandor added that communities would focus narrowly on data and performance management for the first 90 days of the initiative with a goal of developing clear targets for the total number of housing placements needed locally to end chronic and veteran homelessness on the federal timetable. This number will consider projected inflow and other key factors. Each community will use this number to determine the monthly housing placement rate it will need to meet in order to succeed.

Communities will learn real-time performance improvement techniques drawn from healthcare, manufacturing and other sectors to reach these ambitious monthly goals.

“To make rapid progress, communities will need to measure the size and needs of their homeless populations in real time and use monthly data to improve their housing performance,” added Sandor. “You can’t solve a problem that you only measure once a year.”

Zero: 2016 will dovetail with other large-scale initiatives working to help communities end homelessness, including the 25 Cities Initiative, led by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Mayor’s Challenge to End Homelessness, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama. Many communities selected to join Zero: 2016 are also participating in one or both of these initiatives, and Community Solutions has coordinated extensively with VA and other federal agencies to ensure that all three initiatives complement each other as well as possible.

In addition to the Mayor’s Challenge to End Homelessness and Zero: 2016 initiatives, the Dallas area Continuum of Care has begun implementing a “Housing First” model for permanent supportive housing. It is also scheduled to deploy a community wide coordinated assessment system for the homeless in the next few months.  All of these initiatives are interrelated and when integrated will allow more efficient and effective use of resources within the community.  Investment in these initiatives will not only end homelessness but reduce the cost along the way, while producing self-sufficient citizens within the community.

MDHA is an association of organizations devoted to ending homelessness in Dallas and Collin Counties, by putting people into homes. It facilitates over $16,750,000 of annual federal funding, coordinates services, and drives improvement in more than 45 different transitional housing (TH), rapid rehousing (RRH), and permanent supportive housing (PSH) programs. Under U.S. Law, HUD does not fund service providers independently, rather mandates that they be funded through local Continuum of Care organizations, led by lead agencies, which coordinate all facets of the grant application process. MDHA is the lead agency for the Dallas area Continuum of Care, which serves Dallas and Collin Counties.

 
Community Solutions is a national non-profit dedicated to helping communities solve the complex social problems facing their most vulnerable residents. The organization’s work applies design thinking, quality improvement and a host of other cross-sector disciplines to issues like homelessness, unemployment, and public health. Zero: 2016 is a rigorous follow-on to the organization’s successful 100,000 Homes Campaign designed to help a select group of communities end chronic and veteran homelessness in the next two years. The initiative will formally launch in January 2015.

76 Fewer Homeless Veterans in Dallas!

Paula Maroney –
 
DHA and the VA issued VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) vouchers to 76 homeless veterans yesterday! Thanks to the Veterans Resource Center for staying open after normal business hours to accommodate the number who attended the event. Plans are to repeat the event on September 18 in order to reach the goal of issuing 100 vouchers this month. Also, a big thanks goes to CitySquare for providing lunch yesterday to the veterans waiting to meet with case workers. This is an example of the Continuum of Care working together to end veterans’ homelessness in 2015!

DHA and the VA Partner to House Vets Experiencing Homelessness

Paula Maroney, Director of Continuum of Care –

Today the Dallas Housing Authority (DHA) along with the Veterans Affairs (VA) North Texas Health Care System is hosting an event at the Veterans Resource Center with the goal of housing 100 veterans experiencing homelessness. Early today the waiting room was filled with veterans waiting to meet with VA social workers and have their applications quickly processed by DHA. It is encouraging to see two great organizations working together to help end veterans’ homelessness by the end of 2015.