The Perceptions That Homeless People And Those At Risk Of Homelessness Have Of Literacy Classes
Executive Summary
This study draws on 23 in-depth interviews that were conducted in outer and inner Sydney in the period between January 2017 and April 2017.
The report is divided into four sections:
1. Literature Review: Housing and Literacy: What do we know so far?
2. Methodology
3. Findings: An exploration of the motivations participants have for undertaking the classes;when and where the classes should be held; and the expectations participants have of each class. We discuss, at the end of this section, some possible recruitment strategies for enhancing participation.
4. Conclusion and Recommendations: The report details in Section Four the main conclusions from this study, and recommendations for enhancing future uptake of classes. The interviews suggested that for a literacy programme with this group to succeed, the following is required:
1. The classes should be held in locations that are both central and accessible to participants by public transport
City Of Los Angeles Comprehensive Homeless Strategy
Summary
The Mayor
The City Council
Miguel A. Santana, City Administrative ...Sharon Tso, Chief Legislative Analyst
COMPREHENSIVE HOMELESS STRATEGY
Pursuant to Mayor Eric Garcetti's request dated September 21, 2015, and Council direction (C. F. 15-1138-51 ), the City Administrative Officer and Chief Legislative Analyst, with the assistance of various City and County representatives, submits the attached Comprehensive Homeless Strategy report. The report represents a shared approach of system-wide change with mutual responsibility and aligned goals between the City and County of Los Angeles. The City of Los Angeles continues to face growing numbers of homeless individuals and families, even as national trends show homelessness decreasing across the United States. The City's elected leadership has taken important steps and actions to address homelessness. Mayor Garcetti included a Priority Outcome to prevent and reduce homelessness in the 2015- 2016 Budget and Policy Goals. Council President Wesson created the standing Homelessness and Poverty Committee. The Committee itself, led by Councilmembers HarrisDawson...
Incarceration & Homelessness A Revolving Door of Risk
Rates of Incarceration and Homelessness
Incarceration and homelessness are mutual risk factors for each other.(1, 2) Study currency and methodologies vary, but researchers generally estimate that 25-50% of the homeless population has a history of incarceration.(3-5) Compared to adults in the general population, a greater percentage of inmates have been previously homeless (5% of general population versus 15% of incarcerated population with history of homelessness), illustrating that homelessness often precipitates incarceration.(2, 6, 7) Greenberg and Rosenheck found that homelessness was 7.5 to 11.3 times more prevalent among jail inmates than the general population.(2) Exiting homelessness is daunting regardless of one’s criminal record. However, individuals with past incarceration face even greater barriers to exiting homelessness due to stigmatization, policies barring them from most federal housing assistance programs, and challenges finding employment due to their criminal records.(4) To meet basic necessities amidst these barriers, previously incarcerated individuals sometimes engage in criminal activities to get by, perpetuating the cycle of homelessness, re-arrest, and incarceration. Incarceration of Special Populations Individuals without...
Hypertension & Homelessness What Interferes with Treatment
Homeless adults are two-to-four times more likely to have hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases, at younger ages, than either the general population or low-income adults with stable housing (Szerlip 2002, Burt 1999, Hwang 1999, Kleinman 1997, White 1997, Kinchen and Wright 1991, Wright 1990, Plantieri et al. 1990, and Gelberg 1990, as cited in Zerger 2002). Among the factors that increase their risk are poor diet and excessive use of alcohol, nicotine and other drugs that exacerbate elevated blood pressure and damage the heart. Uncontrolled hypertension (blood pressure >140/90 mm Hg) can lead to heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure. Management of cardiovascular diseases is particularly challenging for individuals who are homeless. Dietary limitations, transience, and co-occurring behavioral disorders exacerbate hypertension and frequently interfere with treatment adherence and lifestyle modifications (McCary and O’Connell 2005, CN 2001). Approximately one in three homeless Americans has a substance use disorder, compared to one in five adults in the general population (Burt 1999). Even when sufficiently motivated to reduce blood pressure throug...
The Applicability of Housing First Models to Homeless Persons with Serious Mental Illness
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report presents the findings from an exploratory study of the Housing First approach of providing permanent supportive housing to single, homeless adults with mental illness and cooccurring substance-related disorders. In recent years, Congress and the leadership of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have encouraged the development of permanent housing for homeless people. Concurrently, there has been a shift toward committing a greater proportion of HUD McKinney-Vento Act funds toward housing as opposed to supportive services and an increase in attention toward the hardest-to-serve, chronically homeless population, a substantial number of whom are mentally ill. Because it addresses this population and its needs, the Housing First approach is currently experiencing increased attention as a method of serving this population consistent with the above-stated goals.
WHAT IS THE HOUSING FIRST APPROACH?
Housing First programs may be constructed in a number of ways, but share the following
features:
• The direct, or nearly direct, placement of targeted homeless people into permanent housing.
Expanding California’s Coerced Treatment For The Mentally Ill: Is The Promise Of Caring Treatment In The Community A Lost Hope?
I. INTRODUCTION
A controversy in California’s legislature rages over the problem of the mentally ill. Helen Thomson has proposed a bill that promises to streamline the commitment system and bring treatment to those in dire need. The problem of the mentally ill has achieved public attention as the mentally ill’s presence on the streets and in prisons has become an increasing concern. Laurie Flynn, executive director of the National Association of The Mentally Ill (“NAMI”) notes, “[p]risons and jails have become the mental hospitals of the 1990s.”2 NAMI reports that at least sixteen percent of all jail and prison inmates suffer from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. On any given day, there are roughly 265,000 persons with severe mental illnesses incarcerated in federal and state jails and prisons. Furthermore, about forty percent of the half-million homeless are mentally ill. The prevalence of untreated mentally ill on the streets and in prisons has caused clinicians and family members to reevaluate today’s mental health policy, which was formulated just over...
Interior Design in the Realm of Social Services: Housing the Homeless
Abstract
The present study plans to investigate the social issues of homelessness and the strategies for creating positive living environments that aim to enable inhabitants to re-enter society. Supported by statistical evidence, homelessness has been recognized as a growing issue in the United States that deserves serious attention and proper solutions. There are a wide range of reasons why people succumb to the undesirable status of homelessness. By exploring the circumstances, we will be able to gain a better understanding of the issues, which in turn can help formulate supportive programs and inform environmental design solutions to accommodate their needs. Currently homeless shelters are, in most cases, located in either poorer neighborhoods or older rundown buildings that lack the capacity to accommodate the growing number of people who need to be housed in the space, let alone the programmatic facilities, such as computers, job preparation, basic medical care, and so on, to help the homeless regain their footing in society. The study will examine the relevant issues of programmatic...
Ending Homelessness for People Living in Encampments: Lessons from San Francisco, CA Across the country, communities are
Across the country, communities are striving to create solutions for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness including people sleeping and living in encampments within their efforts to implement effective and efficient coordinated entry systems. As with all efforts to end homelessness, those solutions focus on creating meaningful pathways to permanent housing opportunities. We recognize, however, that given constrained resources, such opportunities may not be immediately available. While permanent housing opportunities are being scaled and secured, communities can implement strategies to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people sleeping and living in encampments.
In August 2015, we released Ending Homelessness for People Living in Encampments: Advancing the Dialogue to support community-level discussions to refine and strengthen strategies for addressing the housing and services needs of people living in encampments. We recently checked in with several communities to learn about their ongoing efforts. In San Francisco, California, we spoke with Emily Cohen, Manager for Policy & Special Projects at the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH). That conversation......
Few Safeguards Against Abuse By Homeless Shelter Guards
Just after 10 a.m. on August 24, 2014, Curt Conliffe-Berkeley came into the yard in front of the Charles Gay men’s shelter on Wards Island where he lives. Two other residents of the shelter sat on a bench nearby. Slowly, one toppled backward. Conliffe-Berkeley, 58, is an army veteran with a mobility impairment who uses an electric scooter to get around. As soon as he saw the man collapse, he says, he moved across the yard to leave a wide berth for medical responders. The other resident on the bench ran to the office at the back of the building to alert the New York City Department of Homeless Services security officers on duty, and Curt called 911. According to Conliffe-Berkeley, a group of security officers entered the yard to secure the area around the collapsed resident. One of the guards approached Conliffe-Berkeley and told him to move back as he spoke with the 911 dispatcher. Then the guard tried to shove Curt’s scooter. Then
Outing The Madman: Fair Housing For The Mentally Handicapped And Their Right To Privacy Versus The Landlord’s Duty To Warn And Protect
Abstract
This article examines the serious potential for a clash between two sets of values: (1) the stated values of the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, that persons handicapped within its terms should not be denied access to decent housing on that account, and that mentally handicapped tenants, especially those who may have, but do not necessarily possess, a propensity for violence, have privacy rights; and (2) the landlord’s responsibilities with respect to the safety needs of other tenants. The author addresses a number of policies, including those embodied in federal and state statutes relating to the rights of mentally handicapped persons. The article concludes that a landlord’s disclosure of a mentally handicapped tenant’s disability including a propensity toward violence under certain circumstances, to other tenants is unlawful because such disclosure violates the disabled person’s right to evenhanded treatment under general property law principles, infringes upon the disabled person’s privacy rights, and is an implicit violation embodied in the Fair Housing Amendment....
An Assessment Of Los Angeles County’s Emergency Shelter System
A. Emergency Shelter and the Continuum of Care
Established by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Continuum of Care (CoC) model recognizes that homelessness is not caused simply by a lack of shelter, but involves a variety of underlying, unmet physical, economic, and social needs. As a result, the CoC system is designed to address the critical problem of homelessness through a coordinated community-based process of identifying needs and building a system to address those needs. Recognized components of the CoC include: prevention, outreach, assessment, emergency shelter, safe havens, transitional shelter, permanent supportive housing, permanent housing, and supportive services. Due to its expansiveness and the disparities of its communities, Los Angeles County is home to four separate CoCs: Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, and Pasadena. The Los Angeles CoC (LACoC) is the largest of them all, including 34 entitlement cities and all areas of Los Angeles County, except for the cities of Long Beach, Glendale and Pasadena. The CoC is coordinated by the...