P
Street Roots • Feb. 12-18, 2016
News
Page 8
Street Roots • Feb. 12-18, 2016
Page 9
News
the TRAUMA of INSTABILITY
No-cause
evictions
and unstable
housing can
p u t people’s
psychological
and physical
health in
jeopardy,
an OHSU
psychologist
explains
BY AMANDA WALDROUPE
STAFF WRITER
hea Lott has been reading up oh the
psychological impacts of evictions,
homelessness and unstable housing.
Lott is not a social worker. He’s a clinical
psychologist at the Avel Gordly Center for
Healing, a multicultural treatment center at
Oregon Health & Science University. But many
of his patients - who aren’t necessarily low-
income - have faced evictions.
Lott testified about the traumatic effects of
evictions and unstable housing during a January
housing forum that included 17 state lawmakers
who represent the Portland metropolitan region.
Street Roots followed up with Lott to dive into
how people can become traumatized and
unhealthy when they face eviction, steep rent
increases and unstable housing.
a
A m an d a W aldroupe: You had said you first
became aware of this issue because of the clients you
see in private practice. 9
Shea Lott: I have had more and more
individuals talking about no-cause evictions and
evictions in general. I’ve realized that this is a
multi-systemic issue. It affects not only people
who are from lower socioeconomical strata, but
those in the middle class as well. A no-cause
eviction can happen to anybody. You might have
children. You might be elderly. It doesn’t spare a
particular demographic.
A.W.: During your testimony at the housing
forum, you said, “One thing we can’t deny is that
stable (secure) housing aids in the prevention of new
psychological and physical health conditions and the
worsening of existing ones. ”
S.L.: What we find is that if you don’t have
stable housing, it impacts the adult, it impacts
the child, and we can only hypothesize how it
impacts people in the long term. The literature
on this topic is pretty scant.
Housing is something that we need in order to
be healthy. Stable housing is one thing that most
people usually don’t even think about on a daily
basis. We all know that chronic stress leads to
physiological changes in the body, hypertension
and diseases like diabetes given the kind of food
that individuals have to eat when they can’t
prepare healthy foods. This is the person who is
single. We’re not even talking about what
unstable housing means for a family and children
who are moving from place to place - and
potentially not being able to be in the school
they’ve been attending.
A.W.: One thing you said during the forum is
that “we fall into chaos” when we’ve been evicted or
have to worry about how stable our housing is.
What does that mean? What does chaos look like in
these situations?
S.L.: N ot b eing able to provide sh e lte r for your
kid causes internal chaos. So you may end up
feeling guilty. You may have self-defeating
thoughts, which, if you’ve already suffered from
depression in the past, doesn’t put you in a good
place. If you’ve been evicted, you end up trying to
find a new place to live, so you may have to take
time off work. If you are able to do that, that’s
fine. But if you can’t, because you’re an hourly
worker, it means your income will decrease. You
may lose your job. That means when it is time to
put money on the table for a new rental
agreement, you may not have what you need
because you’ve been out searching for new
housing. Some of the'studies indicate that if
someone has been forcibly evicted, they are 11
percent to 15 percent more likely to be
unemployed. That’s the kind of chaos that can
result.
A.W.: Having your life destabilize like that is an
example o f how poverty is caused and can become
cyclical.
S.L.: Exactly. It’s a snowball effect.
A.W.: How do you define trauma j»w the context of
talking about housing instability?
S.L.: When the health and psychological well
being of a person is in jeopardy, it Lauses stress
and trauma. Some of the ways people adjust to
stress is that they avoid similar situations.
Sometimes they have difficulty sleeping. When
we don’t have stable housing, it means that you’re
probably not getting adequate restiYou
experience all of these other mood changes -
irritability, depression, difficulty with eating, and
those kinds of things. Your livelihood has been
threatened. When we look at the trauma aspect
of it, it has been shown that individuals who have
been evicted forcibly tend to have residual
impacts up to two years later.
A.W.: During the housing forum, you said, “The
reality is that the impact of no-ca**^,
■
j j
j e t t o n s on
families is multi-systemic ana devastating. ~
?
S.L.: We can only infer what the health
implications could be because eveiyone is
different and the literature is still dew. We have
the potential for individuals looking for housing
not going to doctor’s appointment^, not being
able to afford medications for sometimes severe
health conditions, and sometimes Severe
psychological conditions. The literature is saying
that individuals who have been forcibly evicted
tend to be punitive in their parental style toward
children. That struck me. That’s a trauma
response.
They have this hyper-vigilance. They have an
inability to be comfortable. They’re always on
guard. They’re afraid of getting evicted again. It
affects the health of the children. It decreases (a
person’s) support network. Then we rely on
ourselves, which oftentimes isn’t enough. It could
cause a person to lose their job. J
A.W.: The sheer number of people affected by
"I'v e realized that this Is a multi-systemic Issue« It affects not only
people who are from lower socioeconomical strata, hut those in the
middle class as well. A no-cause eviction can happen to anybody. Ton
might have children. Ton might be elderly. It doesn't spare a
particular demographic."
SHEA LOTT,
O H S U C L IN IC A L P S Y C H O L O G IS T
nocause evictions and the housing crisis in
Portland makes me think that this could negatively
affect being able to form neighborhoods and larger
communities.
S.L.: I agree. If you have been evicted, the
likelihood of walking on eggshells is high. You’re
not going to get comfortable in a neighborhood.
You’re not going to put roots down. You’re not
going to invest in the community.
A.W.: What
sort of
treatment do
you provide?
What do people
need to heal
from this sort of
trauma?
S.L.: The
treatment is the
sam e as w h at w e
would do for
depression or post-
traumatic stress
disorder. But what
is unique about
these cases is that
sometimes they come
in crisis. That means
you have to go into
containment mode. I ask; what can I do to
alleviate your immediate concerns? If (a client is)
having difficulties finding a place to live, we
might spend time in session trying to connect
them with resources in the community that can
get them housing for the night or a few days. It’s
case management versus a true therapeutic,
psychological therapy.
A.W.: In these situations, people often u)ant to
blame themselves, saying something like, “I don’t
make enough to pay the rent, ” rather than landlords
who might charge more than they should. Why, do
you think that is?
S.L.: It’s a classic human response. What we’re
just trying to do as humans, as something
happens to us out of the norm, is that we look for
answers. If we can’t find an answer externally, we
internalize whatever has happened to us. People
will say, “I should have taken the extra
precautions,” “I should have saved
money,” “I
shouldn’t have moved here in the first place.”
Those kinds of thoughts are the ones where we
can spiral out of control.
We hope for the future. We go into a situation
where we sign the lease hoping for future funds.
It’s hard not to say, “Well, I should not have tried
to get this property. I should not have
signed the lease. I should have gone
somewhere else where the rent was
lower.”
A.W.: What sort o f public policy can
help with this?
S.L.: There need to be some checks
and balances. The no-cause eviction
process is basically unchecked
evictions. If they can, just put a check
on how it’s being used, how the
person is evicted and what the
person is being evicted for. That
w a rra n ts a level of c o n sid e ra tio n ..