Academy of Lifelong Learning “Affordable Housing and Homelessness” September 18, 2019 Donald W. Burnes, PhD
What is homelessness? Literally being without a home
According to Dr. Barbara Jackson, without a home from 6-12: “I lived in terror, because I didn’t know how I would survive camping out in a car, laundromats, and the alcove of the A&P market. No place to go after school, no home, no dinner on the table, no clean clothes, no place to bathe, and the shame.”
What is a home? Five minutes to jot down your concept of home
Definitions of Home ➢ “ Home is a safe, secure, stable place to be, a sanctuary, a place to keep my stuff.” ➢ Having some autonomy ➢ Having some control over one’s environment ➢ “My Home is my Castle” ➢ Sense of community ➢ Networks of support
Brief History of Homelessness Long history, not just in the last 40 years o Native Americans o Colonies- people who didn’t fit in o Poorhouses and alms houses o Waves of immigrants o Cowboys and train workers o Wounded soldiers from Civil War o Frontier people, searchers for Gold o Hoboes, Tramps, and Bums-Hobohemias and Skid Rows o Great Depression o Building the Safety Net – Welfare and Housing
More Recent History o Baby Boom – lots more people o Vietnam War and war wounded o Well-intentioned policies with unintended consequences o Urban Renewal o Deinstitutionalization o Decriminalization of Alcoholism o Mitch Snyder and the CCNV
Over the past 40 years, little change in overall numbers of people experiencing homelessness
Who Are The People Experiencing Homelessness? Negative Stereotypes: Street People Panhandlers, Drunks, Drug Addicts, Mentally Ill “The Undeserving Poor” These are the visible ones, but 15-20%
Most of those without homes are invisible: ➢ Mothers with children ➢ Youth exiled by parents ➢ Some veterans ➢ Some who are suffering from mental illness ➢ Working adults who don’t earn enough to pay rent ➢ Transitioning foster youth ➢ Victims of domestic violence ➢ Seniors on fixed income/health issues ➢ Justice system discharges ➢ Hospital and treatment center discharges
How many people are there who are experiencing homelessness? How many people do you think are experiencing homelessness? Who should be counted? In the Denver metro area? Across the US? Pair and Share
Major Challenge - Definition of Homelessness HUD Definition 1. Unsheltered 2. People in Shelters 3. People in Transitional Housing 4. People in Motels – Agency pays Dept. of Education 1 . Includes people doubled up, couch-surfing and those living in short-term motels US ED includes doubled up because they feel couch surfing students have the same educational deficits as those included in HUD definition. 250,000 vs 1.3 million
School Children ➢ In US: 1.3 million ➢ In CO: 23,100 ➢ In Denver: 1,762 ➢ In Adams County: 2,800 ➢ In Jefferson County: 3,135 Living doubled up, in shelters, in cars, in motels ¾ are doubled up
For every family without a home and a school child, a child under 6 and a parent. Some such families have more than one school child. Therefore, multiply number by 2.5. Doesn’t include single adults or older youth. Could mean as many as 58,000 to 65,000 people experiencing homelessness in CO
Lifetime Prevalence TDF Poll 13% of respondents had themselves experienced homelessness; Consistent with national polls No. 18 and over No. Lifetime Prevalence Denver 577,000 75,000 Colorado 4,431,000 576,000 US 244,945,724 31,842,944
Numbers of People Experiencing Homelessness Based on HUD Point-in-Time Surveys ❖ Denver- 2019 3,943 ❖ Adams- 2019 483 ❖ JeffCo- 2019 434 ❖ Arapahoe- 2019 228 ❖ Douglas- 2019 14 ❖ Metro Denver- 2019 5,755 ❖ Colorado- 2018 10,857 ❖ United States- 2018 553,000
– Homeless Incidence: 5,755 homeless individuals counted in se Key Findings – Metro Denver 2019 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count Homeless Incidence: 5,755 homeless individuals counted in seven county Denver Metro area Who are they? • 946 people reported staying in locations considered to be unsheltered, such outside in tents, parks, vehicles or underpasses. This is a 28% decrease from last year. • 4,809 people reported staying in sheltered locations, such as emergency shelters and transitional housing, a 17% increase from 2018 • Families with children under 18 accounted for 24% of the overall population that night for a total of 1,402 persons, or 429 households • 627 people surveyed identified as being veterans Source: https://www.mdhi.org/pit_reports
What causes homelessness? Why do people end up without homes?
What causes homelessness? • Medical / family crisis • Loss of income / employment • Inadequate income • Family breakup • Mental health / substance abuse issues • Cost of housing • System discharge without supports • Eviction / foreclosure
Typical Attitude about Causes People experiencing homelessness are: Lazy, crazy, drunks, addicts, bad choices If this is correct, why are there so many more people with housing who are alcoholics, addicts, mentally ill? Who among us has never made a bad decision ?
Personal Causes vs Systemic Causes Real difference between those in houses and those without houses is: Lack of resources AND relationships
Why do some people lack resources?
Deficit of about 8 million units of housing Every state would have to create 160,000 units overnight to eliminate deficit
Housing as a percentage of annual income for housing consumers Top 20%: 19% of $153,300 on housing; $125,000 for everything else Bottom 20%: 87% of $10,100 on housing; $1,300 for everything else; about $100 per month Food, clothing, health and childcare, transportation, etc.
Federal housing subsidies $250 billion a year 20% goes to low-income renters through housing programs 80% goes to high income homeowners through tax deductions like mortgage interest deduction
Those who need it the most get the least Those who need it the least get the most
Another indication of resources is what is called the “housing wage,” i.e. how much of an hourly wage it would take to afford an average 2-bedroom housing unit (different from “living wage”).
In Colorado, current minimum wage is $11.10/hr. To afford an average 2-bedroom unit in Denver metro, housing wage is $29 per hour; a person needs to work almost two and two-thirds full-time jobs at minimum wage In Boulder City, housing wage is over $50 an hour, almost five full-time jobs at minimum wage
Rising Rents Between 2005 and 2015, ➢ # of homes renting for more than $2,000/mo. up 97% ➢ # of homes renting for less than $800/mo. down 2% ➢ 6.7 million new rental units, but decline of 260,000 under $800/mo
According to a recent study about homelessness in Denver, 40% of adults experiencing homelessness are working full time Another 30% are working part time Given their wages, they can’t afford to rent housing units in the Denver metro area
Prevention – The Most Obvious Strategy Bodies in the River - Need to look upstream Hard to determine whether a very poor family will, in fact, become homeless Is it important to distinguish between someone becoming homeless next month and someone becoming homeless in six months?
One or two paychecks away from real destitution Unexpected $400 bill---half would have to borrow money People experiencing homelessness can’t borrow money Not even very bad credit – no credit at all
tracey.obrien@ucdenver.edu tracey.obrien@ucdenver.edu What kinds of resources do people need? ➢ Housing ➢ Money ➢ Jobs ➢ Child Care ➢ Health care ➢ Different kind of resource – human connections
Human Resources and Human Connections Single most universal characteristic is social isolation People who care, networks of support Sense of community Journeys Out Of Homelessness: The Voices of Lived Experience Most important factor in escaping homelessness
Current Approaches to Addressing Homelessness
Common response: Criminalizing homelessness Camping ban (Denver), sit and lie ordinances, panhandling rules “Sleeping under the influence of poverty” Do you live in Denver? Did you vote on Initiative 300? If so, how did you vote and why did you vote that way? Pair and Share
Extent of Efforts to Criminalize Homelessness Survey of 187 Cities - NLCHP ▪ Laws prohibiting camping in public ▪ Laws prohibiting sleeping in public ▪ Laws prohibiting begging in public ▪ Laws prohibiting loitering, loafing, and vagrancy ▪ Laws prohibiting sitting or lying down in public ▪ Laws prohibiting sleeping in vehicles ▪ Laws prohibiting sharing of food ▪ Substantial increase since 2011
Criminalizing people without homes does nothing to provide them with homes Greyhound therapy – one-way bus tickets out of town Whack-a-mole approach
Legal Findings on Criminalization Bell v. Boise – “If a person literally has nowhere else to go, the enforcement of an anti-camping ordinance against that person criminalizes [that person] for being homeless.” The local ordinance was ruled unconstitutional. In the recent several years, 100% of the legal challenges to panhandling bans have been successful.
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