In 1978, Congress passed the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act and with its passage, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) was created. This is the branch of the federal government charged with helping homeless people by providing states with federal assistance to help homeless people. The United States is divided into 10 State Interagency Councils on Homelessness that help establish State Interagency Councils on Homelessness to provide more services to the homeless and create state initiatives to reduce their numbers. As of 2006, 300 communities around the country have established a 10-year plan to reduce the problem of chronic homelessness.
Identification
According to a 2007 study done by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, there were 1. 6 million people who stayed at homeless shelters between October 1, 2006 and September 30, 2007. The study said about 70 percent of these homeless people were individuals and the rest were families with kids. The report said 13 percent of all homeless people in shelters were veterans. During the last eight years of the Bush administration, the policy known informally as "housing first," emphasized placing homeless people into shelters, half-way homes and rooms where they could be assessed rather than drift in and out of shelters indefinitely. Today, more cities are turning to a business-like model to fashion 10-year plans, such as Michigan has done in 2006, to reduce chronic homelessness.
Features
In 2006, the federal government designed a template for a 10-year plan to reduce chronic homelessness and it was made available to all states. The template is a handbook called "Innovations in 10-year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness in Your Community," published by USICH which details proven ways to reduce homelessness. Modeled after a management book, "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, this template provides steps as to how communities can identify who is homeless and what their needs are. The template plan includes suggestions on using surveys and focus groups to identify specific needs, recruiting volunteers, getting federal and other funding and designing programs that can measure progress and improvement during the 10-year plan. The template emphasizes tailoring a program to move homeless people, many of whom may have mental illness, disabilities or drug addiction, off the street and into transitional housing. Job training and the need for providing socialization skills and monitoring are also detailed in this 10-year plan.
Benefits
The Bush administration publicly reported that the number of homeless people dropped from 175,915 to 123,833 from 2005 to 2007. This number represents a drop of about 30 percent. The recent template for a 10-year plan released by the federal government in 2006 has not yet reached its completion. Additional benefits may be seen as a result of providing states with a detailed plan on identify and help homeless people get job training and into long-term housing. Other benefits include the huge cost savings to not calling on police and emergency medical professionals to attend to homeless people injured from living haphazardly on the streets. The social benefit is to find a home and sustainable way of life for those who can be medically treated and given job training.
Misconceptions
The greatest misconception is that many homeless people are mentally sound and able-bodied individuals who are "faking" their homelessness and looking for a handout. The report issued in 2007 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that this is not true. Many homeless people include families with children displaced when the parents lost low paying jobs. Many other homeless people are mentally ill and may have been discharged from a hospital to a shelter. The 2007 report found 13 percent of homeless people are veterans and many of these people may have lasting trauma and injuries from their war duties that lead them to become jobless and homeless. Each of these groups have different medical issues and require different solutions. The 10-year template is a broad outline based on measurable improvements to help these people.
Prevention/Solution
Especially in light of the 30 percent reduction in the number of homeless people recorded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2007, there appears to be a political and social movement to continue to provide the funding and human power to maintain the momentum of reducing homelessness in the U.S. The federal government's 10-year plan encourages communities to create "living documents" so that future generations will not have to "reinvent the wheel." Its template plan for reducing chronic homelessness also emphasizes core values that include giving priority to high-risk groups such as the elderly, veterans, people who are victims of abuse, young people, ex-offenders and those who are mentally ill or disabled. Last, there is a thrust for "zero tolerance" for discharging mentally ill patients to the streets to homelessness. By building on the successes of this 10-year template plan, future generations may also experience similar success and lower then number of homeless even further.
Tags: homeless people, 10-year plan, chronic homelessness, federal government, Department Housing, Department Housing Urban, Housing Urban