Many of my conversations with individuals experiencing homelessness have the theme of being listened to. The individuals often wanted their stories to be heard and for their input to be taken seriously. That is why my servant leadership project will be an attempt to make their voice heard more in our community. Street Speech is a newspaper written by individuals in Columbus who are homeless. These papers are sold by other individuals who are homeless, and they earn money through their sales. The paper offers a yearly subscription of papers. The Ohio State University is part of this community. There are many newspapers on campus, but not Street Speech. Therefore, I am requesting that the University obtain a yearly subscription of roughly 50 copies of the paper per month. Many Ohio State students do not have exposure to the very real experiences of homeless individuals who live in their community. If Ohio State agrees, there is potential to create a larger connection between students and the community off campus. Most importantly, the voices of these individuals will reach a little bit father. I will update this paper depending on the answer I receive.
My advocacy plan is to further support an organization in my community, Columbus, Ohio, that is working to create more affordable and sustainable housing. The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio funds the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, the largest source of money for both building affordable housing and providing resources to individuals in housing crises. Their funding is rarely stable. This is a serious threat because so many Ohio individuals depend on this organization to obtain housing. Therefore, my project is to try to raise money for this organization, so they can do more good work.
To do so, I will be working with another philanthropic organization. The Project4Awesome is an internet based giving drive that has been happening each December since 2007. Internet celebrities participate, and prizes are given out for donating to the Foundation to Decrease World Suck Inc. which then divvies up the money to submitted charity causes. I will create a video explaining why a portion of the money raised this year should go to the Ohio Housing Trust Fund & upload it on December 5th. I will update this page with the video then. This charity event is far more wide reaching than I am, so I can going to use my voice to advocate on the behalf of an organization that provides so much value to so many Ohioans
Members of the homeless community need to be seen and to have a voice (Fopp & Parker, 2004). Everyone that I talked to for this assignment had unique ideas on how the help their community. But, these individuals are rarely given a platform to share. Those with power and voices need to offer up their space. This practice is in line with the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (Ratts, et. al., 2016). No one can better speak to the needs of the homeless than individuals who have gone through it. Their ideas are just as nuanced and varied as their experiences. They need to be honored and respected in the same manners as all humans. There are some examples of ways homeless individuals use their voice, such as the local Columbus Street Speech or photojournalism (Trock, 2001) (Wang, Cash & Powers, 200). Politicians, case workers, non-profits, and community members need to listen to the ideas of these individuals so what they know will make a lasting difference. These individuals must be trusted to speak on their own experiences and to create the plans and ideas to help their community. But without a platform, no one has been listening.
References
Fopp, R., & Parker, S. (2004). Attempting to hear the excluded: the voice of homeless people and policy implications. Parity, 17(9), 13-14.
Ratts, M. J., Singh, A. A., Nassar‐McMillan, S., Butler, S. K., & McCullough, J. R. (2016). Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies: Guidelines for the counseling profession. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 44(1), 28-48.
Torck, D. (2001). Voices of homeless people in street newspapers: A cross-cultural exploration. Discourse & Society, 12(3), 371-392.
Wang, C. C., Cash, J. L., & Powers, L. S. (2000). Who knows the streets as well as the homeless? Promoting personal and community action through photovoice. Health Promotion Practice, 1(1), 81-89.
On any given night, roughly half a million people do not have a place to call home (United States, 2017). Individuals who are homeless can face great challenges trying to access resources. They are in a sense locked out of those resources. Individuals not only struggle to obtain housing but a myriad of other resources. Individuals do not have access to other basic resources, such as clean clothes and food. Even when they are provided things like food it is often junk food, not fresh produce or nourishing food (Wiecha, Dwyer, & Dunn-Strohecker,1991). Individuals may not be able to receive adequate medical care or mental health treatment (Homelessness, health, and human needs, 1988). Individuals also face stigma, which robs them of dignity. Individuals who are homeless often cannot interact with society the way other can. They may not have proper voting information, such as a mailing address or identification (Mundell, 2004). This prevents them from having a voice in elections that have an impact on their lives. The systematic denial of basic resources robs individuals of dignity, a voice, and basic rights.
References
Homelessness, health, and human needs. (1988). Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://proxy.lib.ohiostate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=1988-98483-000&site=ehost-live
Mundell, M. (2004). Giving Voice to the Voiceless: Homelessness and Democracy. Parity, 17(1), 94.
United States. (2017). The annual homeless assessment report to Congress. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Community Planning and Development.
Wiecha, J. L., Dwyer, J. T., & Dunn-Strohecker, M. (1991). Nutrition and health services needs among the homeless. Public Health Reports, 106(4), 364–374.
Castellow, J., Kloos, B., & Townley, G. (2015). Previous homelessness as a risk factor for recovery from serious mental illnesses. Community Mental Health Journal, 51(6), 674-684. doi:10.1007/s10597-014-9805-9
Much research has focused on mental illness as a risk factor for homelessness. There is little work on the experience homelessness as a risk factor for negative mental health outcomes, such as higher psychological distress, substance use, and poorer recovery. This paper tested 424 residents in a supportive housing site. They compared the afore mentioned outcome measures in residents, who all had a mental health diagnosis. The difference was that some had experienced homelessness and other had not. The study controlled for other variables. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that experiencing homelessness, and the type of homelessness, i.e., number of nights spent homeless, predicted a large amount of variance in mental health outcomes. Those who had experienced homelessness reported higher degrees of psychological distress around their disorders and the type of homelessness was a significant factor. Being homeless at all was a predictor for substance use, but the number of days spent homeless was not predictive. This was opposite when it came to recovery, where number of days did matter. Some limitations to the study include self-report, as well as missing variables that were estimated. This work is an important step in how professionals understand the relationship between homelessness and mental illness.
Chung, T. E., Gozdzik, A., Palma Lazgare, L. I., To, M. J., Aubry, T., Frankish, J., & Stergiopoulos, V. (2018). Housing First for older homeless adults with mental illness: A subgroup analysis of the At Home/Chez Soi randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 33(1), 85-95. doi:10.1002/gps.4682
Housing first (HF) policies are becoming more popular and there is evidence that they are more effective on a broad scale. Now, it is important to determine how they work with specific populations and conditions. The authors of this paper ran a randomized study to determine the effects of housing first policies on older and younger homeless individuals with mental illnesses. They looked at its effect on overall quality of life, housing stability, mental health severity and other secondary outcomes. Over 2000 participants were randomly assigned to a housing first program or treatment as usual. Outcome measures were assessed at baseline, and every six months for 24 months. For housing stability, or percentage of days spent homeless, there was no significant difference between older and younger adults. However, the condition mattered. Those in the housing first condition spent more days with housing. Furthermore, older adults’ overall quality of life and mental health symptom severity improved more in the HF condition than they did for younger individuals. Previous research has shown that older adults prefer independent living but also may need support. Housing first programs can bridge this gap. More research should be done but this is a step towards housing interventions that will specifically target the needs of older homeless adults, which is especially important given their growing numbers.
Dykeman, B. F. (2011). Intervention strategies with the homeless population. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 38(1), 32-39.
This article is an overview of the general intervention strategies to use with individuals and families experiencing homelessness. This paper is a good starting point for any professional who will be working with the homeless population. The commonly understood pathways to homelessness are economic and mental status. There are several theoretical perspectives on homelessness. The main orientations are psychological, sociological and psychosocial. Depending on a clinician’s orientation, their interventions will look different. The paper goes on to describe specific interventions from both a family and biopsychosocial framework. When working from a family perspective, step one involves understanding the families immediate and post important concerns. Second, relationship building is key. The third step works to modify family dynamics to be more useful. Finally, maintenance of these changes needs to be addressed. From a biopsychosocial framework, step one is the same: addressing immediate needs. Step two requires collaboration with community resources. Step three provides counseling services to make interpersonal change. The last step is advocacy on behalf of the population. This article is well-written, succinct and a solid introduction for professionals on caring for individuals experiencing homelessness.
Kirst, M., Zerger, S., Misir, V., Hwang, S., & Stergiopoulos, V. (2015). The impact of a Housing First randomized controlled trial on substance use problems among homeless individuals with mental illness. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 14(6), 24-29. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2014.10.019
The housing first approach to homeless is to provide homes to individuals first rather than more traditional models which require sobriety and treatment before providing housing. Due to the high correlation between homelessness and drug use, researching whether housing first programs lessen drug use is important. The researchers randomly assigned 575 homeless individuals to a traditional housing program or a housing first program. They then tracked substance use over 24 months. Results indicated that housing first participants spent less money on alcohol and fewer days experiencing issues related to drug use. However, there was no difference between conditions on illegal drug use. The authors argue that users of illicit substance may need more support than this model provided. Overall, this research is additional evidence that housing first models are more effective at harm reduction. A serious limitation to the study was self-report but as one of the few studies looking at this issue specifically, it should prompt further research.
Luhrmann, T. M. (2008). ‘The street will drive you crazy’: Why homeless psychotic women in the institutional circuit in the United States often say no to offers of help. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(1), 15-20. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07071166
Many housing services for individuals experiencing homeless provide care contingent upon psychiatric diagnoses. Many people do not accept this assistance offered to them. The researchers of this paper sought to understand this phenomenon. They used ethnographic interviews with 61 women who spent time at drop in centers within a Chicago neighborhood. Researchers conducted multiple interviews with each woman, amounting to 1,000 hours of interviews. Women voluntarily stated that they did not use housing options available because they were not “crazy”. This theme was present in most interviews. The women’s definition of “crazy” was related to being weak. The women saw craziness as being defeated by the street and a permanent condition, unable to be helped. The women saw themselves as strong. Therefore, needing a formal diagnosis to acquire housing was to admit weakness and defeat, two attributes that create vulnerability in their environment. This qualitative research was approached in a thorough and person-centered manner. Understanding the sociocultural barriers to housing creates the opportunity to better meet people where they are. Understanding that “crazy” means something different to these women than to professionals is crucial to adapt services that can truly meet the needs of these individuals.