Strategies for Housing Providers Serving Homeless People - Essay Example

Topic: Evaluating Homeless programs: Strategies and Tool for Housing Providers Serving Homeless People Social housing as well as all the aspects that are incorporated around it is very important in this current time. There have been numerous researches that have been conducted regarding the importance of social housing providers and the work experience gained by the individuals who get a chance to work in their institutions. Reviews have been made in most countries focussing on the effects that will be brought by the welfare reforms especially to the people with financial constraints. A key sector that is affected by such reforms is homelessness (Cowan, & McDermont, 2007, p 34). Based on my own work experience, I feel very strongly for the homeless people with regards to this matter. At this time where countries are experiencing economic uncertainty, it is quite important that the social housing provider services are effectively and timely particularly for the homeless people (NIHE Homeless Strategy 2012-2017, p 6). My work experience was with an organization, which was regarded as a social homeless service provider. Homeless service providers can simply be defined as caring and passionate individuals or organizations that collaborate with each other in order to respond to various needs of homeless people who are living at the margins of the society (Burt, 2001, p 21). The mission of the organization clearly justified all the assumptions and definitions given to homeless service providers. The program administrators in the organization as well as the rest of the staff were well motivated towards providing the needed services and hence this made my work experience worthwhile. Most social housing providers serving homeless families and individuals are working more with the people who have experienced traumatic stress, extreme poverty as well as residential instability. My own experience working with the organization led me to interact more with individuals as well as families who had such experiences. Statistics conducted in different countries have shown that the number of homeless people has risen over the years but the allocations have failed in most of the countries. Thus this indicates that the services and standards have not been met with regards to the global homeless strategy (NIHE Homeless Strategy 2012-2017, p 22). Having worked at Social housing provider for the homeless people on a three month internship program I have gained a lot of experience as well as interest in the homeless sector. Based on my duty while working at the social housing provider, the focus of my paper will be to evaluate my work experience especially with regards to the homeless. Evaluation is referred to as a valuable as well as a necessary addition to all the provision services of the organization. It is only through proper evaluation that an organization can be able to gauge the impact of their services to their clients. Homeless people fall under various categories based on their status. They may be elderly, single or even disabled but my strong belief is that the area that is most affected is the family. During my work experience I realised that it was easier for a single person to get accommodation in comparison to a family situation. This was a major concern for the organization as it indicated that there services had flaws concerning the manner in which family homeless situation were handled. To conduct thorough evaluation process for the work experience gained while working with the homeless people it is necessary to understand the concept of homelessness as well as all the aspects that it entails. A framework for program evaluation will best aid in analysing the situation. Program evaluation simply offers a way in which individuals can be able to understand as well as improve the social housing provider services using methods which are useful, proper, feasible and most of all accurate. The program evaluation framework to be used is a practical non prescriptive tool which summarizes all the elements that are concerned in this context. Homelessness is defined by law as the state in which a person does not have the legal rights to occupy any form of accommodation or rather if the person has an unsuitable accommodation to live in (Fisher, 1993, p77). While working for the homeless people the organization I worked with covered some range of circumstances with regards to the services that were offered. In the organization homelessness was simply defined based on the following situations: Having no accommodation Having an unreasonable accommodation to live in Having legal right to an accommodation which you cannot access. For instance, if you were illegally evicted Living in an accommodation that is legally not yours Social housing providers in collaboration with the homelessness services are responsible for developing of community housing and homelessness related services (Balloch & Taylor, 2001, p 50). The mission of SHPH (Social Housing Providers for Homeless) is to reduce the effect of homelessness in the community. In the three months internship that I took my duty entailed a lot of engagement with the homeless people. There are a lot of aspects that can be depicted from the work experience in a homeless based institution. An analysis of the internship program will thus give an insight of my area of concern which is homelessness. Program Evaluation Program evaluation will aid in understanding the concept of the homelessness program and support that was offered by the organization where I took up my internship. The program evaluation tool involves some stages that assist in accessing the operations of the organization. These stages are engaging the stakeholders, describing the program, focussing on the evaluation methodology, gathering credible information, justifying conclusions and finally sharing the lessons learnt (Metz, 2007, p 25). My experience with the social housing provider has given me first-hand information of how homelessness services are provided and the impact of the services to the community. The process that is usually carried out before homeless people are housed is usually a critical process. Working as a housing officer for the organization where I took up my internship, I had to carry out most of the homeless assessments before any accommodation was made. The most difficult as well as frustrating cases that I had to handle were mainly those concerning families. Even after my departure from the organization am still informed that there are more cases concerning families and this is quite stressing. It is well noted that it very difficult to get accommodation for families who are homeless. The main reason being that most household cannot cater for more than one person at most times. It is important for the society to focus more on how the social housing providers are able to deal with the aspects of homelessness. An evaluation on this issue will help out social providers in formulating ways of how they will assist future families as well as other single individuals who are in need of accommodation (Burt, 2001, p 55). There is a lot of support that has been put up by international organizations who are involved with social work providers with regards to this matter. Engaging the stakeholders Evaluation cannot be done in isolation and thus there is need to inform the stakeholders regarding the procedure and what it entails. Stakeholders are referred to as either the people or organization who can either loss or gain something based on what will be learnt from the evaluation (Royse & Padgett, 2010, p 28). Everything that is done with regards to social housing provider services requires a lot of partnership with the relevant institution. For instance the organization that I worked for was in partnership with homelessness services so as to be able to execute their services much easier. During my work experience in the organization, I carried out a small interview among some of the stakeholders of the organization. Even though I managed to interview only three stakeholders that worked as managers in the organization, I was able to get substantial information regarding their duties as well as the initiatives concerning the organization. Stakeholders’ involvement in an organization’s evaluation is quite important as their views are well understood. Describing the programs The homeless housing program provided by the organization encompasses major areas involving families at risk of being homeless, disabled people, housing the aged as well as single individuals. The program offers various services and benefits which are used to assist the specific areas mentioned above (New York STATE, 2002). Carrying my duty as a housing officer during my time in the organization, the major housing crisis was mainly addressed by trying to find affordable permanent housing for the homeless people. Some of the benefits and services under the homeless housing program are (Reeves, 2005, p 43): Homeless Assistance program Emergency assistance to prevent any illegal eviction Moving assistance program Homeless families’ projects Emergency shelters and services. These homeless services are administered by the organization’s partnership with the social housing provider and the homelessness services. Evaluation Methodology The evaluation method I used was a qualitative methodology. A qualitative methodology helps in carrying out studies that allows individuals to explore behaviours’, experiences in depth, and complexity of a problem through a holistic framework (Maginn & Thompson, 2008, p 86). In the case of the organization I worked for the qualitative methodology assisted me in gathering descriptive information based on the various sites I visited on my duty as a housing officer. Information on the projects that were undertaken in the organization as well as the barriers, strategies and the lesson learnt are all used to analyse the services of the homeless service providers (Jencks, 2004, p.43). The standard tool used for data collection included interviews which I carried out among the stakeholders, staff and also individuals and families that were affected by homelessness. Findings from my evaluation indicated that a majority of the group that faced challenges in gaining accommodation were families. Families often found themselves in lots of frustrating challenges because households were not able to accommodate an entire family. Most of the staff of the organization also stated the challenges they encountered in dealing with families cases. Further findings from various researches regarding the concept of homelessness indicated that the rate of housing stability for families was much lower than that of individuals (Bickman & Rog, 1997, p 67). Lesson learnt from the evaluation for the homeless service providers The initiatives that were set up by the organization were able to respond to the various challenges that were brought up by the families’ projects. The gap that was in existence and still is up to now is that of the service delivery which targets homeless families’ especially young children and mothers (Kraus, Goldberg & Serge, 2006, p. 67). The organization’s initiative with regards to the family situations moved from assessing needs of children and young families to developing new programs that will focus on imposing desired change to the organization’s services. All the organization’s services were first assessed through identifying the problem and the situation of the homeless individuals. My position as a housing officer managed to get me involved in such initiatives that were geared at bringing out the effective performance for future homeless service providers. Once all the organization’s services were designed, individuals and families assessments were generally completed in order to identify their needs as well as the planning outcomes of their situations. An evaluation design was basically implemented in order to identify the processes and the measures used to assess each homeless client progress and the accomplishment made by the organization’s programs. Evidence regarding homeless situations Based on reviews on homelessness, the major causes of homelessness are classified under two categories: structural factors and personal factors. Structural factors mainly include poverty, unemployment, how the national housing system operates, housing market shortages as well as lack of affordable housing, social trends like relationship breakdown and the extent of people’s legal housing rights. On the other hand the personal factors are classified into three categories: individual factors, family background and institutional background (Kozol, 2008, p.43). Individual factors include difficulties at school, lack of social support, poor mental and physical health, getting into crime at early age and drug and alcohol misuse. Family background involves family disputes and breakdown, having parents with substance use, previous situation of being homeless and physical and sexual abuse in either childhood or adolescence. Institutional background includes having been in care of either prison or the armed forces (Shinn & Weitzman, 1996, p 37). Numerous researches concerning the routes of homelessness mostly indicated that the problem of family conflict was the major route of homelessness regardless of the ages (Bassuk & Dawson, 2001, p 300). From my experience working at the organization, most of the cases I handled as a housing officer were on families. Based on my housing assessments most of the clients indicated that the reason for the homeless situation was as a result of family conflict. For most people there was no single event that led to their homeless situation or rather it was a series of challenges that could not be controlled. It is well noted that a cumulative amount of effects may end up leading to homelessness. A study conducted by a social housing provider together with homelessness services indicated that it can take close to only nine years for the cumulative effects of individuals to result into homelessness (Ellen, 2010, p 87). Most families that are found to be homeless are given temporary accommodation until social rented houses are available for them. While working for the organization I was able to find temporary accommodation for the households that were rendered homeless. The temporary accommodation includes bed and breakfast hotels, local authority housing stock, short term houses leased from the private landlords as well as hostels registered under registered social landlords or the council (Mitchel, 2004, p 45). Based on a homeless survey conducted by the social housing provider organization that I worked with, results from the survey indicated that most of the individual and families that live in temporary accommodation mainly rely on benefits. The aspect of temporary accommodation mainly traps individuals into poverty due to the fact the service is usually provided at a higher rent. The council tax benefits as well as the housing benefit are reduced as soon as income rises. A research that I also came across during my stay at the organization focused more on the homeless situation of children and young families. Families that had children and were homeless were estimated to be 38 % of the homeless population that were sheltered. It is noted that the population of homeless young families and the children is the fastest growing segment with regards to the homeless services offered. Generally, one out of 45 children in the United States is prone to experiencing a homeless situation and the rate is increasing each year. In comparison, the young families require more housing stability than the older families as well as an array of educational, social and economic support in order to be able to move beyond the challenge of homelessness (American youngest outcasts:2010, 2011). Conclusion In conclusion, it is important for all the social homeless providers to deliver effective services to individuals and families especially those that have urgent needs. From my experience as a housing officer I noted that it is important for homeless providers to incorporate their best evidence based practices in their service delivery system. This is essential as it aids organizations that deal with homeless and housing services to be able to manage their operations effectively as well as achieve their mission. The findings from the evaluation of my work experience in the organization as well as the programs and the projects of the organization are intended to improve the services of the organization and other homeless housing providers. References American youngest outcasts: 2010. (2011). The National Center on family homelessness, Needham, MA. Bassuk, E., & Dawson, R. (2001). Multiply homeless families: The insidious impact of violence. Housing policy debate. P 299-320. Balloch, S., & Taylor, M. (2001).Partnership working: policy and practice. Bristol, Policy Press. Bickman, L., & Rog, D. (1997). Handbook for social research methods. Thousand Oaks, Calif, SAGE. Burt, M. (2001). Helping America’s homeless. Washington, D.C., Urban Institute Press. Burt, M. R. (2010). Life after transitional housing for homeless families. Washington, DC, U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research. http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo755. Cowan, D., & McDermont, M. (2007).Regulating social housing: governing decline. London, Routledge-Cavendish, Taylor & Francis. Ellen, I. (2010). How to house the homeless. New York, Russell Sage Foundation. Fisher, K. (1993). Homelessness, healthcare and welfare provision. London, Routledge. Jencks, C. (2004). The homeless. Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press. Kraus, D., Goldberg, M., & Serge, L. (2006). Homelessness, housing, and harm reduction: stable housing for homeless people with substance use issues. Ottawa, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Kozol, J. (2008). Rachel and her children: homeless families in America. New York, Crown Publishers. Maginn, P., & Thompson, S. (2008). Qualitative housing analysis: an international perspective. Bingley, UK, Emerald Jai. Metz, A. (2007). Why conduct a program evaluation? Publication #2007. Mitchell, F. (2004). Survey of homeless households living in temporary accommodation. London. NIHE Homeless Strategy 2012-2017. MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENTS TASK FORCE ON HOUSING FOR HOMELESS FAMILIES. (1987). A shelter is not a home: report of the Manhattan Borough Presidents Task Force on Housing for Homeless Families. [New York], The Task Force. NEW YORK (STATE). (2002). New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development follow-up on providing housing for the homeless. [New York, N.Y.], [Office of the State Deputy Comptroller] Reeves, P. (2005). An introduction to social housing. Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth- Heinemann. Royse, D., & Padgett, D. (2010). Program evaluation: an introduction. Australia, Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Shinn, M., & Weitzman, B. (1996). Homeless families are different. Phoenix, Arizona. Read More