CoC Strategic Work Plan Online Learning Clinic Rapidly House Youth

Have you had a chance to review our Continuum of Care Strategic Work Plan? If you want to be part of the solution, in making homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring in Dallas and Collin Counties, we encourage you to carefully review the plan. Whether you are a professional or lay leader, a case manager or a volunteer, a program director or an advocate, there is bound to be something you can help with.

Over the next few weeks, we will be posting a series of blog posts, which we are calling the CoC Strategic Work Plan Online Learning Clinic. Each post will drill down into another aspect of the plan, to encourage you to get involved, and help us make measurable progress in ending homelessness. To maximize your learning and your ability to make an impact, we recommend you carefully read the entire first page now. Then review the entire page or pages that the individual blog post pertains to, as you read each post.

 

We will start with Goal V on page 6: Rapidly House Youth. We have already made great progress on the first action item: Develop youth housing and services resource guide/web based/smart device application. Our Resource Development VISTA, Victoria Jackson, completed our Youth Services Directory, we posted it on our website, and she sent a hard copy to each middle and high school in Dallas and Collin Counties. She is currently working on the web based version.

Victoria Jackson

MDHA’s Resource Development VISTA

We are already planning for how we can make progress on the seventh action item: Develop more accurate methods to conduct census of homeless youth. Stay tuned over the next few months, especially during our See Me Now event, which focuses on youth homelessness, for more information on how you can help us with just that.

One of the most important things to remember about this specific item, the entire goal, and Goal IV on page 5, is that homelessness, specifically when it refers to youth and children, has more than one meaning. Therefore, counting youth and children experiencing homelessness will produce more than one number.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines homelessness more narrowly, while the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) defines homelessness more expansively. HUD’s more narrow definition is due to the legislators’ desire to more carefully target scarce funding for homeless housing programs. DOE’s more expansive definition is due to the legislators’ desire to err on the side of caution and provide services in the educational environment to a broader set of students.

The method of counting itself is also different, for much the same rationales, under each definition. We conduct an annual homeless count, and track numbers throughout the year through our Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), to arrive at the most accurate numbers we can, under the HUD definition. School districts ask families to self-report whether they are homeless, typically during school registration, and by aggregating these self-reports, school districts arrive at the numbers under the DOE definition. 

Mark Pierce

 Dallas ISD District Homeless Liaison (Courtesy of the Dallas Morning News)

Therefore, it is quite normal to see school district numbers, such as those discussed by Mark Pierce, Dallas ISD District Homeless Liaison and MDHA board member, in this excellent article from earlier this year, that dwarf the numbers we report. It’s not because we disagree; it’s because we are talking about different definitions. Indeed, that is why, once again, this action item, this entire goal and Goal IV are so important. Along with our counterparts in other American communities, our CoC is committed, to continuing to build and develop a homeless response system that serves the unique and different needs of homeless youth and children, whatever definition they fall under.

To that end, among other things, we, as a community, must do what is called for in the fourth, fifth and sixth action items under this goal, namely, gather and report ISD homeless youth data, expand youth drop-in centers, and link these to the rest of the homeless response system. This way, working hand in hand with our partners, area school districts, family and youth homeless services and shelters, as well as mainstream services, we can and will strike a blow against family and youth homelessness, in all its manifestations.

Faith, Hope and Home II

Rev. Jonathan Grace, CitySquare
leading an opening prayer

On March 30, 2017, we held our second Faith Hope and Home event, in Austin Street Center's beautiful chapel. The evening was led by our very own Rebecca Cox. It featured: Josh Cogan of Outlast Youth, Teresa Keenan of Incarnation House, Rev. Heather Mustain, of Wilshire Baptist Church, Leah Parker, of St. Paul United Methodist Church, and Mark Pierce, of the Dallas Independent School District.

Mark Pierce, DISD

Mark, Teresa, and Josh talked about the evolution of school and out of school time drop in centers, how helpful they have been to youth, and the need for more such centers. Rev. Heather and Leah shared how their congregations participate in the Room in the Inn program. This program allows congregations to host pre-screened persons experiencing homelessness in their house of worship for a night, break bread with them, practice fellowship, and help them become part of the community. They encouraged other congregations to follow in their footsteps. A vigorous and informative Q&A session followed. Charletra Sharp, of the City of Dallas, closed out the evening, inviting those who wanted to roll up their sleeves and continue this work on the systems level, to join the MDHA CoC General Assembly's new Faith Collaborations Committee.

 

Is your congregation ready to engage in work that not only helps the homeless, but will really move the needle on ending homelessness? Contact us or any of the above speakers, and we will hook you up! (If you don't know how to contact one of them, we can help with that too.)