Article: Help Prevent Homelessness

[JimG]

Sometimes I wonder why people and foundations are more apt to support homeless shelters than homeless prevention services.

Is it because they can see the shelters and clients streaming in and out?

Homeless prevention is cheaper to provide than room and board and involves simple solutions:

• Paying the PG&E bill for a family teetering on homelessness.
• Underwriting a family’s rent for one month to help them stabilize their finances.
• Counseling families on a range of issues to help them become self-sufficient in the future.
• Helping a formerly homeless family pay its first rent deposit.

In Rohnert Park, Sonoma County Adult & Youth Development’s (SCAYD) homeless prevention program is now in a precarious situation.

Historically, we received $130,000 in Redevelopment Agency funding from the City of Rohnert Park. This fiscal year, we were awarded half, $65,000, however, I learned in a letter from City Manager on January 15th that our total allotment for the year is reduced to $46,000.

What do I tell the families who call?

While scrambling to find replacement funding, I also have my eye on the future. What will the consequences of this program ending be? All of the families we help are working adults who have had that one incident that put them at risk of losing the basic need of shelter. Of the 150 households/393 people we helped last year, 44% were children. What happens to them?

Our governor is dismantling the Redevelopment Agencies that traditionally provided funding for homeless prevention services. As such, this funding stream will be obsolete as of July 1, 2013.

There are other services that aren’t so popular: counseling. Maybe the reason foundations and individuals resist funding counseling services is due to an apparent lack of outcomes.

A shelter can record meals served, new intakes, and placements into affordable housing.

Outcomes for counseling are more subtle. An abused child may inch her way toward feeling safe enough to express her anger. However, it could be months to a year before she regains her ability to trust others.

But don’t you agree that the service, in the end, is valuable?

Incidents such as the tragedy that occurred in Newtown, Conn. point to the need for more counseling services, not fewer. Everyone agrees that “if only” a shooter had easier access to services perhaps the incident might not have occurred.

Yet, do you support counseling services? Do you send a yearly check to help homeless prevention services in your community?

Nonprofits increasingly need individuals, foundations, and businesses to support local nonprofits whose budgets are being eviscerated by government funders.

Without the support of our community, I can’t predict what will occur with SCAYD’s homeless prevention services. But with support, we can create miracles.

Bio: Jim Gattis, MA, ATR is the Executive Director of Sonoma County Adult & Youth Development (SCAYD) in Rohnert Park. https://www.scayd.org/

[David Warfield]

your point is valid sir. but what about those with no where to go tonight? what about those who hope is a cuss word too? those who numb the pain of life in addiction. those who are yesterdays victims of the shark pool we call america.

do they deserve to starve to death?
to freeze to death?
to be criminalized to the point reasonable men and women view them as vermin or less?
why can't we help all?
why is there no such thing as the family home? sacred, protected, unable to be transferred.
dave