Destiny House Homeless - Case Study Example

Homelessness Introduction Destiny House was started by Mr. and Mrs. Willie Shields in February The mission of this facility isto provide shelter and referrals for food, case management, employment assistance, life skills training, substance abuse treatment services, support services and an avenue for self-sufficiency for those who are homeless in the community. This couple decided to offer the society a place where they can call home, as they believe that everyone deserves to access the necessities of life. They embody this in the shelter’s core values. One of the values is to treat people with dignity since they deserve a chance in life. Furthermore, they seek to support the homeless and give them a chance to achieve their dreams by offering support and opportunity to everyone seeking services in the institution. They do this by practicing stewardship responsibly. As such, they have to look for creative and competent ways to achieve good results. It is essential to note that most of its assistance comes from the military. It also aims at only accommodating individuals for short-term stays of up to thirty days unless an individual shows progress during the period of stay such as getting a job. With such short visits, they can assist more people in their Shelter. In addition, they receive donations from many establishments such as UCM, Walmart, etc. They do not have any restrictions on the donations they receive because they have a wide array of issues to sort in the organization. They have staff members whose responsibilities vary and include giving residents a tour of the facility, monitoring all calls made on house phone, providing clothing and personal hygiene products in case the need arises, and informing residents of their responsibilities amongst other duties which makes them to be an integral part of the shelter and its residents. Homelessness is a social problem defined in various aspects such as purposes, values, ideologies, and political agenda. Homelessness is a continuum, ranging from people at risk of becoming homeless to those who already have no shelter of their own and live and sleep on the streets (Frankish et al. (2003).Homelessness is caused by social, political or economic factors. Examples of these factors include disability, domestic violence, disasters such as fire, joblessness and poverty and political instability. Homeless people go through harsh experiences, such as harassment, mugging and exposure to rape and diseases (Albert, 1990). Homelessness causes long term consequences. It leads to deterioration of basic health, poor nutrition loss of self-confidence, dignity and self-respect, and drug and alcohol abuse. A study showed that 40% of homeless mothers reported to have poor health and sometimes went without food so that their children could get something to eat. (Monde, Tsiliso & Marguerite, 2010).Homelessness also exposes the vulnerable families to single-mother family, minority family, young maternal age and maternal history of abuse and foster placement. The homeless do odd jobs such as washing cars to try and earn a living. Others indulge in vices such as prostitution, drug trafficking, sexual assaulting and theft. Studies conducted from 1980 to 1990 provide different estimates of the prevalence of alcohol, drug and mental disorders in homeless populations. Reported rates for mental health problems range from 2% to 90%, the rates for alcohol problems from 4% to 86% and rates for drug abuse from 1% to 70% (Fischer, 1989). Another study in Hollywood, California, determined that, compared with a national of 17-year-old youth, homeless adolescents began consuming alcohol earlier, consumed greater sample quantities and reported more alcohol-related school and work problems (Monde, Tsiliso & Marguerite, 2010). The homeless are deprived of basic human necessities such as proper eating, health care, and clothing and attending school on a regular basis. Financial problems lead as a cause of homelessness. It is in line with a study that states that only 3% of shelter residents point to emotional problems as causing homelessness, whereas nearly one half blame financial problems (Pamela and William, 1991). Homelessness has effects on children based on five findings; hunger and poor nutrition, developmental delays, education under-achievement; psychological problems and health problems. Structural theory can be applied as a conceptual framework for understanding homelessness. The theory explains how the homeless interact with social institutions such as welfare systems and housing policies. The theory emphasizes that the social factors that cause homelessness should be addressed in line with other economic and political factors (Pamela and William, 1991). The residents’ keep company to socialize and look after each other but they never invest too much trust in one another because essentially they are all strangers who come from different places. Destiny house applies the principles of community development such as simplicity, adaptiveness, universality through equal treatment of the residents and service integration, where the staff members maintain professional conduct by not disclosing personal information to the residents and not having sexual affairs with them. The principle of empowering is evident in the mission and purpose of destiny house. It helps the residents to get employment, trains them in life skills, offers substance abuse treatment services, support services and provides an avenue to self-sufficiency. This is a clear indication of empowerment to the residents. Another principle is community building. An evidence of this is when residents come to stay together in the destiny shelter house, interdependence and interaction are enhanced. The residents are brought together in a caring environment where they share information, knowledge, skills and life experiences and this way they can achieve their life goals. Destiny House provides networking that is the community development principle to the residents by assisting them to get employment and encouraging them to apply for work. This is evident when the unemployed residents are asked to go job hunting on a daily basis. I learned that Destiny House is a non-gender discriminative initiative that aims to provide sustainable development for both men and women. It involves strategies that confront prejudice on the residents. Destiny house exposed me to the task of a collective focus as opposed to individual crisis. I observed this in the workers and the management team of the Destiny House, as they could all work together in co-ordination. Destiny house enabled me to explore the aspect of economic development in community development. An evidence of this is the fact that the staffs of Destiny House encourage the residents to search for employment. And this way, the residents would improve their economic life. Economic empowerment involves the elements of community development such as action learning and participation to improve the economic position of a community (Robert, Catherine, Linda & Peggy 1997). It aims to improve the income, employment and the general economic well-being of the homeless. Destiny house helps reduce dependency syndrome by helping transform the homeless people into useful people in the society who can cater for their lives through helping them to get employment and training them on life skills. Also observed that there was socialization in the shelters and an institutional culture prevails. Destiny House provided me with a good service learning experience since I was able to do a hands-on approach of the topics learned in class on community development. The directors of destiny housing and the staff members are welcoming and willing to provide information about the project without hesitating. I observed a community that was willing to offer sustainable help to the homelessness. There are very many positives learning tips that I gained in the destiny house. It will help me in my course since I can employ the hands-on approaches to any community development initiative to attain a sustainable development. After numerous interviews with different residents of Destiny House, I learned that homelessness is not homogenous; it ranges from age, race, ethnicity and gender. What I can recommend to the Destiny House Homeless Shelters is to lobby with the government so that it can provide grants and low-income housing to those residents that take refuge in the shelters. They can also increase the number of days that they host the homeless to give them more time to look for employment so as to help improve their lives. Conclusion Destiny House is an agency that applies the principles of community development to offer services to the houseless in the society. Their aims are geared towards creating a more self-reliant and independent individuals who can support their livelihoods in a better way. The agency also helps produce individuals who can tackle life issues in a more integrated way as they impart life skills to them. Finally, the organization helps reduce social evils such as drug and substance abuse, war and crime and sexual immorality through the strict rules that it sets to its residents. As the number of homeless persons is continuing to grow, there is the need to intensify a comprehensive national response. However strong the commitment is, local governments and charities alone cannot meet the increasing need for more low-cost housing, more effective mental health care, complicated educational and job-training programs, and other needs for those about to become homeless. Federal action is needed to provide emergency relief, preventive measures, transitional housing, and long-term solutions to the plight of the homeless in each state. These measures include; increased low-income housing, treatment of mentally ill, alcohol and drug dependent individuals and new approaches to education and job training. States should also issue grants such as the disabled and the old age grants to help curb the growing levels of homelessness. An example of an act that addresses the issue of homelessness is the McKinney Act (100-77) which is a legislative effort to the homeless. The Act did this by establishing an Interagency Council on Homelessness to coordinate, monitor, and improve the federal response to the problems of homelessness. Another measure to mitigate the cause of homelessness is the creation of Federal Legal Services Program that provides a challenge to the undisputed authority of the state social welfare agencies to evaluate the best interests of their impoverished clients and administer social policy(Pamela and William, 1991).The poverty lawyers will use the reformed Legal Services to expand access to civil courts, develop new rights procedurals for the poor, shape decisions of government agencies and increase the opportunities for the poor to challenge political process. References Albert Gore, Jr (1990) Public Policy and the Homeless. American Psychological Association Vol. 45, No. 8, 960-962. Monde Makiwane, Tsiliso Tamasane & Marguerite Schneider (2010) Homeless individuals, families and communities: The societal origins of homelessness. Development Southern Africa Vol. 27, No. 1, March 2010 Pamela J. Fischer and William R. Breakey (1991)The Epidemiology of Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Disorders Among Homeless Persons, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University. Vol. 46, No. 11, 1115-1128 Robert Rosenheck, Catherine Leda, Linda Frisman, & Peggy Gallup, Ph.D. (1997) HOMELESS MENTALLY ILL VETERANS: Race, Service Use, and Treatment Outcomes, American Journal of Orthopsychiaoy, 67(4). October 1997 Read More