Fostering Homelessness, One Youth At A Time

The stereotypical images of homelessness are usually the single male floundering on the streets of Skid Row. But these impressions are not accurate.

Kids coming out of the County foster care system is a good example of a new reflection of what homelessness has become.

In Los Angeles County, 25,000 children are currently in the foster care system. Our county has the largest system in the country—not surprising. Nearly one-third of them become homeless within two years of departing the system. That means over 8,000 of these new adults become homeless.

They are a new generation of homelessness.

There are only 800 beds in Los Angeles County specifically available for these new adults who are leaving the foster care system.

Plans include funding new beds and housing for these youth. Frankly, funds should also go toward helping these youth become self-sufficient adults before they become adults.

The City Beat paper published an article on this.

Bunks For Drunks?

The NY Times published an article yesterday on new types of housing the homeless that many are calling “Housing First.”

The idea is simple… place a chronic homeless person (usually someone who is struggling with mental illness or substance abuse) in an apartment, and provide optional services.

The theory is this… it costs more money to keep this person on the streets—the cost of rotating in and out of emergency shelter, dealing with the law, going to emergency rooms, and even going to jail. It is cheaper to build an apartment.

There is a model program/building in Seattle for 40 homeless alcoholics. They spent $11.2 million to build an apartment building and spend almost one million dollars per year to operate. The justification is that this is cheaper than allowing these 40 people to flounder on the streets using public services.

The critics say this… "Bunks for drunks — it's a living monument to failed social policy," said John Carlson, a conservative radio talk show host here. This approach, he said, is "aiding and abetting someone's self-destruction."

Why? Because the people in the building who are getting free rent, but struggling with alcoholism, are still able to buy alcohol and drink on the premises.

The University of Washington is now studying this model to see if this new theory on homeless services will work.

Homeless Community Court Goes West

I was at a press conference on the steps of Santa Monica City Hall last Monday to hear about the new “Homeless Community Court” being established. Proposed by Supervisor Yaroslavsky, the County of Los Angeles approved $500,000 to fund this new court in Santa Monica.

PATH currently operates a “Homeless Court,” run by Judge Michael Tynan, that assists homeless people who have “quality of life” (non-violent) warrants, and who have been enrolled in a social service program for 90 days. The Homeless Court dismisses these warrants as a reward for a person’s enrollment in services.

Other cities, including New York, also operate “Community Courts.” Unlike the Homeless Court, these courts work with homeless people with “quality of life” offenses at the “front-end” of entering the justice system. Before their offenses turn into warrants, the court will give people the option to go to jail or to enter a service program.

The City of Santa Monica is combining both of these programs. This will be an effective component to the city’s continuum of services.

Grand Jury Claims Half A Billion Dollars Lost In CalWorks:Calls CalWorks: "ATM For Thieves"

The Associated Press is reporting that the L.A. County CalWorks (a program of the Department of Public Social Services) has lost $500 million of taxpayers support to help families with minor children with financial and employment assistance. This is better known as the “Welfare-to-Work” program. (CalWorks stands for “California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids”.)

This program is a key prevention component to solving homelessness, because many of the CalWorks families are homeless or at risk of being homeless. This also shows the importance of a public/private partnership to ending homelessness. I just don’t believe government can (or should) do this alone.

Here’s what the article says:

Welfare Fraud Costs L.A. County Millions

From the Associated Press

July 1, 2006

Welfare recipients and their friends and relatives could be defrauding taxpayers of $500 million a year through the county's child-care programs, a grand jury report concludes.

According to the report, released Thursday, some county employees estimate that half of the $1.1 billion in funding for the CalWORKs program is lost to fraud because the Department of Public Social Services doesn't verify that welfare-to-work recipients meet the requirements for child-care payments.

"Widespread abuse … has created a program culture that encourages fraud by parents, child-care providers and agency employees," the report says. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who was formerly head deputy of the county's Welfare Fraud Division, urged county and state officials to act immediately to plug the holes that the report identified.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich will introduce a motion Wednesday seeking a report on how the social services department will ensure that welfare recipients' children are actually being cared for while the guardians are at work, said his spokesman, Tony Bell.

"This is an affront to the taxpayer," Bell said. "It's unconscionable and criminal."

Phil Ansell, program and policy director at the department, said the grand jury study shouldn't be used to draw conclusions about child-care fraud because it was not specifically a fraud study.

Letter Published in LAT

The LA Times published my letter in response to Dan Costello's editorial, "Homeless in life, nameless in death."

Here it is:

Dignify the homeless

July 2, 2006

Re "Homeless in life, nameless in death," June 25

I thought a pauper's grave was a thing of the past until I read about the destinies of L.A.'s homeless people who die on our streets. What's most disturbing is that these people with names but no homes are buried anonymously, all in one plot.

This should remind us that the quest to solve homelessness is a communitywide effort, not just the government's responsibility.

Maybe if we start by honoring the homeless who have died on our streets with dignified memorial services, we might be more motivated to honor the living with dignified housing.

JOEL JOHN ROBERTS
Chief Executive
People Assisting the Homeless, Los Angeles
PATH is an L.A.-based homeless service and housing provider.