Tonight's the Night!

Housing, the place to begin

Volunteer for 2017 Homeless Census

Housing First--even Starbucks understands

The data and the experience make an irrefutable case for the best, most logical approach to solving the riddles of chronic homelessness.

 Members of the Dallas Continuum of Care have been using this approach for several years, and it works!

  As more Dallasites turn their attention to homeless encampments, the concerns of property owners in the Downtown core of our city and the pressing needs of the homeless; the best way forward to sustainable solutions will involve a deeper and deepening commitment to Housing First.

 

People keep asking me. . .

Never before have more people asked me more times this one question:

"Larry, when will The Cottages open?"

A close second is:

"Are The Cottages open yet?"

So many people have asked so many times in so many places with such interest that I feel the need to give you the "inside scoop" on why this creative project has taken us so long to complete. 

And, I get it!  We intended to open the project in the fall last year, already! 

So, here are the reasons--not excuses, reasons:

1)  2015 turned out to be the wettest year on record in Texas.  Rain, heavy rains and storms slowed the earliest, muddiest times of the year, and then some. 

2) We endured a few "technical issues."  Early on, civil engineering challenges were a factor.  Our contractor made a big mistake when he ordered a big shipment of the wrong materials for the houses.  The order had to be resubmitted, delaying us several weeks. There were other fairly typical matters that you just expect, but taken with the other matters simply added to our "days behind" count. 

3)  Our General Contractor got sick and almost died.  Our project was a tough one, made tougher by the 6-week plus absence of the leader of the company in charge of the project due to serious health problems. 

4)  We finally landed a competent project superintendent who shortly thereafter suffered a serious heart attack on the job! Shortly after surgery, he was back on the job and will see it to completion.  Still, a very disruptive event for our project.

5)  Our award-winning design strategy turned out to be very difficult to construct, requiring artisans to address the challenging metal work, a slow, tedious process. 

6)  More recently , the General Contractor underestimated the amount of material needed to complete a crucial aspect of the build out--another time draining mistake. 

7)  In general, across our region, labor is in very short, highly competitive supply.  We have not been able to keep enough workers on our job, our comparatively smaller job.  Our staggering progress is the result of this labor reality. 

Thankfully, we negotiated a guaranteed cost contract, so cost overruns are not a big concern. 

It's all about time.

As I read back over my list, I can tell you again I don't intend these to be excuses. 

There is no excuse for this ridiculous delay. 

Every day we delay means that 50 people have no home to call their own. 

No one is more upset by the time delay than I am, unless it is CitySquare's  Neighbor Supportive Services team and/or John Greenan, our leader at the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation.

I'm sure I've overlooked something else that has slowed us down.  The Cottages will be wonderful.  They've been too hard to bring to life for the result to be anything but terrific. 

Public Meetings re Homelessness

Information provided by our friends at Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance:

Dallas Commission on Homelessness Community Public Meetings 

The Dallas Commission on Homelessness Community Engagement Committee will be hosting public meetings, over the next few weeks, to educate, engage and gather feedback from the community on how to address and overcome challenges related to homelessness.

Join us for these two public meetings next week (click on each meeting title for full details):

Monday, June 20, 2016, 6-8pm - Sheltering the Homeless
This meeting will feature:
Rev. Bob Sweeney, Executive Director, Dallas Life
Daniel Roby, Executive Director, Austin Street Center
Wayne Walker, Executive Director, OurCalling
Blake Fetterman, Executive Director, Salvation Army Carr P. Collins Social Service Center
Dallas City Hall - L1FN Auditorium
1500 Marilla St., Dallas, TX 75201
You can print off this flyer to share with your network: June 20th Meeting Flyer

Tuesday, June 21, 2016, 6-8pm - Homeless in East Dallas
This meeting will feature:
Mark Clayton, Councilmember, District 9
Larry James, Chief Executive Officer, CitySquare
Ikenna Mogbo, Housing Outpatient Operations Manager, Metrocare Services
Jesse Moreno, Community Leader
Harry Stone Recreation Center
2403 Millmar Drive, Dallas, TX 75228

You can print off this flyer to share with your network: June 21st Meeting Flyer

Please follow MDHA on social media for information on more upcoming dates. We'll see you there!

MDHA 2016 State of the Homeless Address

Homeless Census 2016: training session

"Tent City" and human dignity

One-on-One Outreach in "Tent City" organized at CitySquare's Opportunity Center!

Counting misery

Two weeks ago Thursday evening, over 100 concerned citizens fanned out across Dallas, like their peers and counterparts in cities all over the nation, to participate in what's called "the point in time census" of our neighbors who have no place to call home.  The annual "snap shot" count provides a baseline number that becomes useful in year-to-year planning and understanding of the scope and scale of the challenges of homelessness in the United States.  The census never provides an accurate. full count--we know there are more people dealing with homelessness than we ever manage to account for.  But, the count does allow us to understand more about trend lines and changes among the most miserable of our fellow human beings.

CitySquare sent a team to work on the project.  About 20 of us took our assignment to survey/interview anyone we found on Louise Street or its environs.  We know this part of town, the Opportunity Center sits right in the middle of the neighborhood. 

The night was bitter cold and wet.  This will likely be good for the final tally, as most folks found places inside to spend the night.  Local shelters open their doors wider, and some find places to spend the night with friends.  Since the census documents the presence of all in shelters, it drives the count up, though we have no way to count folks who find places inside with friends or family. 

Edd's reflection on 2013 homeless census. . .

[I'm privileged to work with some of the finest people in the world every day.  None finer than Edd Eason.  

Edd and I go back a long, long way.  We were in college together 44 years ago!  Edd and I served the same church in Richardson for 14 years.  We've been blessed to have Edd here at CitySquare over many years.  Whatever Edd puts his hand to turns out to benefit everyone around him.  

He sent me the following reflection on the annual "point in time census" of our homeless neighbors that took place in late January here in Dallas.  LJ]

There were about 8 -10 of us last night at the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA) homeless census. All of the CitySquare Homeless Outreach Team, plus Steven Arias and I from Project Access Dallas.

Very interesting activity.

I spent about 4 hours at The Bridge interviewing homeless people. 

I’d recommend everyone at CitySquare do this at some point in their career. 

It’s best thing I've ever done to “put a face on homelessness.” It’s one thing to face homelessness individually out in our neighborhoods.  It’s quite another to face up with homeless folks one after another for 4 straight hours.

At the end of each interview volunteers ask, “What are the five most important things you need right now?” 

Overwhelmingly, the number one answer is “a home.”

I visited with a man who had been homeless off and on for 27 years. 

Recently, he had been moved to one of the transitional units at The Bridge. He told me he had been sober for 10 months and was beginning to lose the cravings for alcohol for the first time in his life. 

I showed him a list of 20 + things to choose from - things like money, transportation, substance abuse treatment, medical/dental care, etc. For his list of 5 things his number one response was “a place of my own.”

Most folks assume that a man who had lived in emergency shelters for 27 years would have adjusted to that reality and would have given up on having “a place of his own.” 

Just goes to show that changing the trajectory of people's lives sometimes is as simple, and as challenging, as continuing to provide opportunity and support until a person is ready to make changes.

Edd

Housing First

The following report appeared in the Sunday, July 1, 2012 edition of The Dallas Morning News. "Housing first" and the work of CitySquare's Homeless Outreach Team is the focus. Not mentioned in the report are the details of a very creative, innovative alliance that involves Downtown Dallas, Inc. and CitySquare's Social Work Services department and our AmeriCorps team. Lots to think about here. As always, I'm eager to read your reactions!

Housing first, treatment later: Dallas homeless agencies experiment with new approach

CHRISTINA ROSALES

Grant Wells often wakes up on the back porch of his social worker’s house in East Dallas, having slept off a half-liter of vodka.

He is among the hardest of the hard-core homeless, an alcoholic who has been on the streets 20 years. And soon, he’ll move into his own, publicly subsidized apartment, without any prior obligation to get counseling or quit drinking. “We want to get him a home that’s near the bar,” said the social worker, Jonathan Grace, who has been on the case eight months. “It sounds strange, but that’s his comfort zone and those people there are his support system.” Wells is being placed through a method called “housing first,” in which people are moved directly from the streets into homes.

Advocates argue that housing is a basic human right — not a reward for getting sober. Critics say it’s unfair to charge people with the responsibility of caring for their own homes before helping them overcome demons such as alcohol and drug abuse. Several studies done in Seattle, New York and Denver showed the method ultimately saved taxpayers money by cutting the amount of emergency and legal services needed to care for the homeless. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Seattle participants in a housing-first program cost taxpayers more than $4,000 a month. After six months in a housing-first program, the 95 participants cost an average of $1,500 monthly. After a year, they cost about $950 per month. The researchers showed costs eventually dropped off the longer participants stayed in permanent housing — and took advantage of support services.

The approach has been adopted by several local advocacy groups for the homeless, but others remain unconvinced, saying they don’t have enough caseworkers to constantly monitor a population placed in housing before treatment. “I can’t get too excited about the idea,” said Liam Mulvaney, president and chief executive of LifeNet, a nonprofit that provides supportive housing for those who suffer from mental illness. He acknowledged that the housing-first approach works in Seattle and Los Angeles, but he says that’s because those cities have more resources. “If we constantly have to deal with someone being drunk or smoking pot or hearing voices, it’s distracting,” Mulvaney said. “That doesn’t seem like the best use of our already scarce resources.”

‘Washing Christ’s feet’

Wells, 59, and his caseworker make an unlikely pair: Grace, with long hair and a love for heavy metal; Wells, a homeless former Marine. Grace’s employer, the nonprofit group CitySquare, took on Wells’ case after watching him fish through trash bins in Deep Ellum for meals. Wells hasn’t read the research on housing first. He’s unaware of the method, other than it’ll help him settle into a home. Until then, he often finds a bed on Grace’s porch, usually barefoot after losing his shoes. Grace doesn’t seem to mind. He drags Wells inside to clean him up for his next appointment at the Veterans Affairs office, washing his bruised and battered feet.

“It’s the closest I’ll come to washing Christ’s feet,” Grace said. “It’s this disgusting, humbling thing. But I realize taking care of Grant is not a chore. It’s a blessing. “There shouldn’t be any degradation,” Grace said. “They are our neighbors and our friends.”

Wells could be just days away from moving into his new apartment through the Housing First Program with Veterans Affairs of North Texas. After that, according to the plan, he’ll get treatment to wean him from vodka. No matter how long that takes, he will have a home, said Teresa House-Hatfield, director of the Comprehensive Homeless Center at the Dallas VA Medical Center.

Nontraditional model

The housing-first approach was developed by New York researchers and social workers in the 1990s to target mentally ill and chronically homeless people. Since then, several nonprofits have adopted the method across the country, from New York to Los Angeles. In traditional models, the homeless are moved from the streets to shelters, shelters to transitional housing, and, finally, into permanent housing.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development allocated $1.5 billion in grants for a three-year program to end homelessness through prevention and “rapid re-housing.” They called housing-first methods among the best for communities to end homelessness.

“We have to find ways to have less transition time before permanence,” said Mike Faenza, president and chief executive of the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. “The value in this is people are best served when they are secure, when they are in permanent housing.” A few organizations have adopted variations of housing first, including Metrocare Services in 2006. The VA first received funding for its program late last year, but started providing vouchers about a month ago.

In the spring, a housing campaign called 100,000 Homes linked several local homeless advocacy groups to identify some of those “vulnerable” homeless men and women who would benefit from housing first. The groups went to homeless encampments to find those who refuse shelter and treatment.

Advocates and social workers such as Grace have worked to connect those hard-core homeless to the VA or other nonprofits, some of which use housing first as a method. House-Hatfield said about 50 out of the 740 housing vouchers issued by the Dallas VA are going toward housing-first approaches. Most of the men and women who are part of the effort were using no veterans’ services or benefits previously.

“If you think about it, it makes all kinds of sense,” said Larry James, president of CitySquare. “How do you get control of your life if you’re still on the street? You spend so much of your time and energy figuring out where you can sit and where you can eat.”

Wells agreed. Giving up drinking while sleeping on the streets “doesn’t seem to work,” he said. In exchange for his housing, he’ll sign a lease and prove that he is chronically homeless and agree to weekly visit from social workers or nurses. Wells also will pay a maximum 30 percent of his monthly income for the apartment, or at least $50 a month. The rest will be covered by the Dallas Housing Authority. The staff of counselors and nurses cannot discharge veterans if they relapse, though veterans involved in illegal activity can face consequences with police or landlords.

“We continue to work with them despite their use or relapse,” House-Hatfield said. “Even if they fail to be successful at one apartment location, it doesn’t mean we’d give up on them. As long as they’d be willing to try.”

Different approaches

At other agencies, the approach remains traditional. At The Bridge, the city’s downtown homeless assistance center, social workers continue to use a recovery-based approach. Someone who walks into The Bridge isn’t given a set of keys. “It could take two months or it can take two years,” said Jay Dunn, president of The Bridge.

The homeless are given support to deal with mental illness, addictions and legal issues before they are eligible for housing. And once they do get permanent housing, data show a 90 percent rate of success.

“There isn’t a competition between the two approaches,” Dunn said, referring to housing models for the homeless. “I think we need all of these approaches for different people.”

AT A GLANCE: A picture of the homeless in Dallas

The Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance conducts an annual census of the homeless population. The most recent count found:
• 407 individuals classified as “chronically homeless,” meaning they’ve been on the streets longer than one year and have a disability.
• 3,447 total individuals who were homeless.
• 496 adults who responded to surveys said they had children living with them on the night of the count.
• 8 families counted were identified as “chronically homeless” and include a parent with a disability. • 25 percent of those surveyed reported becoming homeless in the past year.

ANOTHER LOOK: Cheaper alternative

A recent study of the cost of caring for the homeless in Dallas found:
• It costs an average of about $39,000 annually to care for homeless individuals who require the most attention. That includes emergency treatment and trips to jail.
• A person can be housed and treated for $15,000 a year under housing-first methods.