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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2014)
Street roots Aug. 1, 2014 The feds are redefining homelessness to make it disappear Paul Boden is the executive director o f the Western Regional Advocacy Project, or WRAP. Street Roots is a proud member o f the West Coast coalition o f organizations. BY PAUL BODEN HUD’s restrictive definition of homelessness has created a cruel and hat kind of a cold, mean, and even vicious cycle. Once families lose their sadistic homeless service provider homes, they scramble for any place to stay. would you need to be to tell a If they sleep in a vehicle or remain on the family of three, four or five people living streets in (which is a criteria for being a single room occupancy hotel or “illegally” considered homeless), they risk being sleeping on the floor of a friend’s apartment categorized as “unfit parents” and losing that is desperately asking for emergency their children to public agencies. Hoping to shelter “No, you ain’t homeless enough, avoid that, families will stay with other your just poorly housed. Go sleep in the people, often in unstable and unhealthy streets for a while, come back and mâybe situations which render them ineligible for we’ll put you on the waiting list And homeless assistance. As if that ain’t cold remember when you do come back you < enough (and it is) HUD also requires that better stay homeless and be able to prove it. these rules apply to unaccompanied youth Since 2009, this would be the only kind off as well. homeless service provider the federal Sen. Diane Feinstein and Rep. George department of Housing and Urban Miller, both Democrats from California, Development (HXJD) is willing to fund. In have introduced legislation in their fact they are so serious about this issue that respective chambers to overturn these in 2011 they put out a 105-page memo draconian critera. detailing to local communities the severe Why this Ebenezer Scrooge approach to penalties incurred for providing any services addressing homelessness? with money you may get from them (HUD Because families and unaccompanied is, by far, thé largest funder of homeless youth cost too damn much money, that’s ‘ services) or not thoroughly documenting why. thé new eligibility requirements before HUD and some of the national homeless families or youth can be served. And not groups, are trying to sell everyone on the •just served butidentified as a priority or ‘ 5 amazing success of their lO-year plans to counted in the ridiculous poirit-in-time head end homelessness. Yes, their head count counts HUD reqüires communities to numbers have gone down (through perform. redefinition, not reality) and yes, thousands C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T ■ of single adult homeless people have been housed in hotel rooms. When fewer visible heads in the streets and getting people into hotel rooms becomes your measuring stick for success, you really can’t be wasting money caring for or protecting people who aren’t in a safe position or vulnerable enough to be visible in the first place. It’s about selling a product and if the product is expensive to produce, the production goes down. Simple business. They can room 25 single adults in a hotel for the cost of housing three families or helping out seven unaccompanied youth, so ; the single adults become the business of HUD. The human math is pretty simple too. In 2006, we had 600,000 homeless students in public schools across the country. In 2009, we had 930,000, and in 2012 it was 1.168 million. Yet in 2012, only 247,178 homeless people in families were eligible to receive services through HUD homeless assistance programs. Call it poorly housed or call it the invisible homeless. No matter what you call it, this is incredibly heartless public policy. For updated information and to fin d your elected representatives contact info, visit www.helphomelessyouthnow.org. This column also was published fo r WRAP in the San Francisco Chronicle. Sisters Of The Road non-profit cafe in Old Town “Being at Sisters has kept me remembering love people and do good things. There never leave without a smile.” — Incarceration by Shannon Andrews All are welcome! Monday - Friday 1Oam~2:3Opm o y r PHC www.sistersoftlier0ad.org PAID TRAINING FOR PEOPLE WITH N orthwest usabilities ! 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