Strategic Focus:
Ending Homelessness
Housing, long a staple of Westminster’s outreach ministry, is set for an ambitious new dimension.
Until now, Westminster has focused on building affordable houses for poor families here and abroad. Beginning this fall, it will add a crucial new clientele – the homeless.
Westminster aims to address both the needs of homeless families as well as the small group of hard core homeless men and women. This effort is part of a federal initiative to end chronic homelessness in 10 years. Advocates for the homeless say getting them off the streets and into permanent housing offers not only a healthier lifestyle, but saves tremendously on such public resources as jails, hospitals and emergency shelters.
“Not only is it the humanitarian thing to do, but it’s a good business decision,” said Tom Jackson, who will lead Westminster’s effort to address the needs of the hard corps homeless.
The new initiative differs from past efforts to address homelessness, which put participants into shelters, where they received services to address their problems. When they moved into permanent housing, though, those services fell off. Without supporting services, the participants usually relapsed and were soon back on the streets.
The new approach puts the homeless in permanent housing quickly and maintains the services so that they have a better chance of being successful.
Westminster’s effort is two-pronged:
Housing First
Housing First, which Jackson will head, seeks to address the needs of the hard corps homeless. These will be the hardest to work with. They have lived on the streets or in shelters for several years, have mental health issues, are in and out of institutions and usually are abusing drugs or alcohol.
Beyond Pathways
Beyond Pathways, headed by Brian and Anne Lunsford, will seek to help homeless families. In most cases, these will be families left homeless by a health problem, job loss, disaster or other life circumstance. Beyond Pathways is a Greensboro Urban Ministry effort to quickly house the growing number of homeless families showing up at the organization’s Pathways Center shelter.
Both Jackson and the Lunsfords will seek to form ‘hope teams’ of four-to-six people. Those teams will work with the homeless families and individuals the church is assigned. Teams will form this fall during WOW (Westminster on Wednesday) classes. The church wants hope team members to commit for one year.
In January 2007, a survey found 1,200 homeless people in Guilford County. More than 200 of them had been homeless over a year – some as long as 20 years.
The Guilford County/High Point/Greensboro Task Force on Ending Homelessness, Partners Ending Homelessness, appointed by the local governments, found that the homeless are expensive to manage. They consumed enormous amounts of police time and hospital and shelter resources, the task force found. In a report, the task force selected eight chronically homeless people and tabulated their impact on public services between 2001 and 2006. They found that each of the eight cost the public more than $39,000 a year. Putting them in homes, meanwhile, costs a lot less, the study found – an average $28,224 a year.
 Westminster’s decision to participate in the effort grew out of Ray Bakke’s challenge to the congregation during its 2007 Renewal Weekend. Bakke, executive director of Chicago-based International Urban Associates and a theology professor, challenged us to embrace the poor in our cities because our future is tied directly to theirs.
“We do that at a risk,” said the Rev. Cindy Higgins. “You’re going to see a lot of pain. But we go out as beacons of hope. When we as a church go out and try to be a change agent, we as individuals are changed.”
The hope teams, which form this fall, will meet for five WOW sessions and receive an overview of the local and national effort to end homelessness, and learn about Beyond Pathways and Housing First. They will also spend four training sessions learning how to help the homeless.
“Our role is not to provide services, but to be that human touch,” said Diane Campbell, who heads Westminster’s local outreach effort. “Think of what it could be for a person who has been homeless for 15 years to pick up the phone and have someone wish him happy birthday.”
Each of the homeless people in the program will have a case worker who helps with the difficult issues like applying for assistance or working with the landlord.
“There is a full time staff member there at Urban Ministry to help the care team know what to do,” said Brian Lunsford, an Urban Ministry board member.
Urban Ministry hopes Beyond Pathways will take some of the burden off its Pathways shelter, where the average family stayed 101 days during 2007 after waiting seven weeks to get in. The initiative aims to find permanent housing for families within 30 days, significantly reducing the average stay at Pathways and, hopefully, the average wait. Urban Ministry hopes to help 20 families in Beyond Pathways’ first year.
Beyond Pathways gets some of its support from a $1 million bequest from Nancy Richmond Hudson’s estate. Hudson was an Urban Ministry volunteer. Each participating church participating – Westminster and three others have signed up so far – will contribute $5,000. That goes for utilities, the first three months rent, any back utilities and rent a family owns and other such expenses.
Some of the bequest will pay for Beyond Pathways staff and some will pay housing expenses for families not yet sponsored by churches.
The Housing First initiative doesn’t require a contribution from the church. It is funded by a $50,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro and a 26-month, $644,000 grant from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. The state money is for a pilot project to establish housing support teams.
|
