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Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Wanted: more empathy as federal cuts threaten safety nets for the poor
When is a lemonade stand more than a lemonade stand? For one thing, it becomes something special when it is run by your seven-year-old granddaughters…with assistance from two of their best buddies and, of course, a hefty lift from their mom and dad. It gets even more noteworthy when it's featured on the Yorkville Police Department's Facebook page, which gave the girls' enterprise a '10 out of 10' for decorations and attitude, also ranking the 'excellently refreshing lemonade and drive-in-drive-out access as superb.' Even more impressive: Their few hours peddling regular and pink lemonade in the hot sun brought in well over $300 …much of which came from generous 'tips' that far exceeded the dollar-a-glass-price. Among those giving patrons: the immigrant owner of a construction company working in their subdivision who recalled how at age seven in his native Mexico he began selling candy at school – then later his grandmother's home-baked goods – which fueled his eventual entrepreneurship here in this country. Who knows. Perhaps last weekend's successful concession business (homemade cookies and snack bags were also for sale) will spark an entrepreneurial passion in one of the little girls. What I loved most about this mid-summer project, however, was that all proceeds from the lemonade stand were delivered to Hesed House on Wednesday, an idea that came from the twins after learning more about the homeless shelter in Aurora. Which would make proud any parent or grandparent who knows it's never too early to help kids understand there are so many people out there far less fortunate than they are. It's hardly breaking news that social workers are concerned about the rising rates of homelessness locally and across the nation. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over the last eight years, there has been a 40% increase in the number of unhoused Americans; with 2024's rate the highest since since the US. Department of Housing and Urban Development began keeping statistics nearly 20 years ago. At Hesed House in Aurora there are currently 280 adults in the shelter, another 59 in the family shelter, with 120 more living in off-site locations. But those numbers are a 'drop in the bucket' compared to what we will see in the future with federal government changes that greatly impact the poor, said Joe Jackson, executive director of the homeless facility. He's especially concerned about how this administration's so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill' will impact 'permanent supportive housing,' which is intended for those with disabilities. Hesed House has 100 men, women and children who are benefiting from this help but there are, he said, 'tens of thousands across the state.' In a best-case scenario, Jackson said, 'if the funding for this program gets cut 50-60% and is left up to states' to figure out how to distribute it, 'Hesed House will fall under a grant for emergency solutions. And that means it can't be used for permanent supportive housing,' which he notes, 'has been scientifically proven as best practice for ending homelessness' because it is not only more dignified housing but is cheaper than shelters. Jackson's most immediate short-term concern is cuts to Medicaid; not just for people Hesed House serves but from partner agencies like the Association for Individual Development, which gets 80% of its funding from Medicaid. And Hesed House, he told me, 'does not exist without AID,' which is connected to so many of the homeless shelter's services, including on-site mental and behavioral health counseling and street outreach. 'I don't mean to be a doomsday predictor,' Jackson said. 'But if things go through as is currently set up, we will see record numbers of homelessness … it will not just overwhelm the homeless system. It will collapse.' Lore Baker, executive director of AID, is equally concerned. For one thing, the agency that serves those with developmental, intellectual, physical and/or mental health challenges and covers Kane, Kendall, DeKalb, McHenry, northern Cook, western DuPage and parts of Will counties, relies on SNAP benefits to feed residents in its group homes. And she worries that changes to this program, as well as Medicaid, will involve an insurmountable volume of red tape as these individuals try to traverse a complicated processing system that can be intimidating even to those without disabilities. Both executive directors bristle at the notion too many are taking advantage of welfare programs. If you look at Medicaid fraud, for example, 'the vast majority are from fraudulent billers,' not the patients, said Baker. And how often do you hear 'these people just need to get a job,' said Jackson, adding that 80% of Hesed House residents work but don't make enough money to afford a home, along with food, utilities and other expenses. He also pointed out that the number of calls to the shelter's Homeless Prevention Program, which is set up to keep people from losing the roofs over their heads, 'is beyond anything we've seen in the past.' From 2022 to the present, there have been 2,292 instances of people being able to stay in their homes.. And all these cases are 'people who live locally, our neighbors, with plenty working multiple jobs just to keep the lights on,' Jackson said. 'Without this type of program, they would already be on the streets or in shelters.' On that same topic, Baker points out that people on social security disability receive $997 a month, which would not begin to cover most rent these days. 'I've worked in this business for 30-plus years and have never seen anything like the way HUD has raised its fair market rent,' she said, referring to the 40% increase a couple years ago, following by the more recent 20% uptick. 'It is a basic misunderstanding of the way the world works from those who do not have to worry about living paycheck to paycheck,' insisted Baker. 'There is a vindictiveness and unkindness that is not warranted. Even able-bodied people are working their buns off to be able to survive.' Lazarus House Executive Director Kristi Athas, noting there are 'few entry level jobs out there right now for our guests' has 'yet to meet someone working the system.' And she invites anyone who believes differently to take a tour of the St. Charles shelter she leads. 'I promise you will see people who look like you and me; working at your bike store or bagging your groceries … ,' she said. 'It doesn't matter who you are. When you see a mother and child being homeless, how can that not impact you and push us all to do better?' There's no question it's also been a challenging time for social workers in the trenches. Baker admits she's shed plenty of tears in recent months, 'and I'm not a crier.' What's referred to as 'compassion fatigue' is a real thing, with nonprofits under tremendous pressure to deal with the surge in need. Unfortunately, 'based on what we're seeing' at Hesed House, said Jackson, 'faith organizations are also stretched to capacity … there is only so much water you can wring out of a towel.' Athas sees the breaking point as well. 'All the points in the system are being pinched,' she said. 'We are all pulling every lever we have; but there is only a finite amount of levers we can pull.' All of which brings us back to the need for more empathy. It's a characteristic that can't be instilled too early, agrees Athas, who sees youngsters once or twice a week show up at Lazarus House with sandwiches for residents; and Jackson, who is encouraged when children raise money for the Aurora shelter. Whether it's a neighborhood lemonade stand or a Scouting project or individual kids donating their birthday money, the payout far exceeds the dollar amount, he said. It's not only 'teaching empathy toward others,' it is showing those who are homeless 'there are people who really do care.' It 'means the world to them,' Jackson concluded; then added a sentence I've heard him say frequently and with conviction. 'It gives them hope for a better tomorrow.'
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Funding anxiety has taken hold of advocates for people experiencing homelessness
Ann Oliva addresses conferees during the National Alliance to End Homelessness annual convention in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Greg Childress) WASHINGTON, D.C. — Anna Oliva, the executive director of the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), has never seen advocates for people experiencing homelessness as concerned about the future as they've been the last six months. The 30-year veteran in the fight to end homelessness told NC Newsline that advocates and others are worried about the current political landscape that has left federal funding for programs for the unhoused fraught with uncertainty. 'Primarily, I would say folks are scared,' Oliva said Monday. 'They're scared — when I say folks, I mean service providers, our leadership, our homeless services leadership, people who are in the system — they don't know what's going to happen.' Oliva made her comments during an interview with NC Newsline shortly after the NAEH kicked off its annual convention in Washington. More than 2,000 advocates, service providers, nonprofit leaders and people with lived experienced have gathered in the nation's capital to discuss policies and strategies to end homelessness. 'All of this uncertainty is making what are really hard jobs even harder,' Oliva said. 'And it's making the lives of people who are tenants in these programs uncertain in a way that I think is pretty damaging.' The uncertainty couldn't have come at a worse time. Homelessness in America increased by 18% in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR). The report found 770,000 Americans — an 18% increase over the previous year — experiencing homelessness on a January night in 2024. It was the largest number recorded since HUD began conducting the counts in 2005. According to HUD, the number of people experiencing homelessness increased in every category — except for veterans — measured during the department's annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Count. The count is a snapshot of the number of individuals in shelters, temporary housing and unsheltered on a single night. 'I would say that right now folks are, they're nervous about the direction that the country is going and how they might try and figure out how to make up a [funding] gap, right?' Oliva said. 'If there is a gap, if there is a cut that's made from the federal government, if the federal government no longer funds the Continuum of Care (CoC) program, what does that mean for them?' The CoC to which Oliva referred is a community-based planning process and system aimed at ending homeless by coordinating efforts among various stakeholders to provide housing and services to families and individuals experiencing homelessness. The system is largely funded by HUD. The NAEH has lobbied against budget cut it believes would negatively impact programs to prevent and end homelessness. It has urged Congress to reject cuts to Homeless Assistance Grants and other safety net resources. The Alliance estimates that cuts to the program would eliminate funding for more than 166,000 units of Permanent Supportive Housing, which is a critical intervention for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. President Trump's FY 2026 budget proposal calls for $532 million in cuts to the federal government's Homeless Assistance Grants account, the NAEH said in a recent statement. The conference in Washington is taking place against the backdrop of a Senate debate over President Donald Trump's so-called 'one big, beautiful bill.' The bill stirred controversy in North Carolina over the weekend when U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) voted against it, arguing that it would cause more than 660,000 North Carolinians to lose health care. [The Senate approved the measure in a 51-50 vote late Tuesday morning.] Trump threatened to run a candidate against Tillis in next year's GOP primary and Tillis abruptly announced that he would not seek reelection. 'What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding's not there anymore, guys?' Tillis said in a floor speech. Nationally, estimates from the Congressional Budget Office show that the legislation being debated in the Senate would leave nearly 12 million people without health care coverage by 2034. The bill slashes $1.1 trillion from Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare over that period. More than $1 trillion of those cuts coming from Medicaid. Oliva said if the budget legislation passes, the advocates and service providers for people experiencing homelessness will have a new set of problems with which to contend. 'We're very concerned about how many people are one medical bill away from losing their housing, how many people need those services in order to maintain their housing over time, how many people will be priced out of the rental market if they have to pay medical bills above their rent,' Oliva said 'There's all sorts of questions that we have about what the impact of that would be in communities.' Oliva said the impact of Medicaid cuts would be widespread. 'All of these social services and policies are connected, and could have a pretty significant impact on the number of people experiencing homelessness in communities nationwide, red communities and blue communities alike, rural communities, suburban communities,' Oliva said. 'Rural and suburban communities rely much more heavily on federal dollars than urban communities do, and they're going to be deeply impacted by these potential changes should they pass.'
13-05-2025
- Politics
What to know about California Gov. Gavin Newsom's move to ban encampments
SAN FRANCISCO -- California's governor called upon the state's cities and counties to ban homeless encampments this week, even providing blueprint legislation for dismantling the tents lining streets, parks and waterways throughout much of the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, made homelessness a priority of his administration when he took office in 2019. It had previously been an issue primarily for mayors and other local officials, but Newsom pumped money into converting old motels into housing and launched other initiatives to tackle the issue. Still, he has repeatedly called out cities and counties to do their part, and on Monday, he unveiled draft language that can be adopted by local governments to remove encampments. Here is what to know: Newsom's model ordinance includes prohibitions on 'persistent camping' in one location and encampments blocking sidewalks and other public spaces. It asks cities and counties to provide notice and make every reasonable effort to identify and offer shelter before clearing an encampment. Organizations representing California's cities and counties balked at the suggestion that they are to blame for street conditions. They say they need dedicated, sustained funding over multiple years for permanent projects instead of sporadic, one-time funding. Carolyn Coleman, executive director and CEO of the League of California Cities, said that eight in 10 cities have policies to address encampments but they need money to address the root causes of homelessness, such as more housing. The California State Association of Counties said the state has not provided as much money to address homelessness as it says it has and that half of the money has gone to housing developers. Studies have shown that encampment bans and other punitive measures make it even harder for people to find stable housing and work, said Alex Visotzky with the National Alliance to End Homelessness. People may lose critical documents or lose contact with a trusted case manager, forcing them to start all over again. In Los Angeles, Jay Joshua watches over a small encampment in which he also lives. He says encampments can be a safe space for those living there. Major cities with Democratic mayors have already started cracking down on encampments, saying they present a public health and safety hazard. In San Francisco, new mayor Daniel Lurie vowed to clean up city sidewalks. In San Jose, Mayor Matt Mahan has proposed arrests if a person refuses shelter three times. Newsom can't make cities and counties adopt an encampment ban. But the proposed encampment legislation was paired with an announcement of $3.3 billion in grant money for facilities to treat mental health and substance abuse disorders, suggesting that he could condition state funding on compliance. In 2022, he paused $1 billion in state money for local government, saying that their plans to reduce homelessness fell short of the acceptable.
Fast Company
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Fast Company
California Gov. Newsom moves to ban homeless encampments. Here's what to know about his proposal
California's governor called upon the state's cities and counties to ban homeless encampments this week, even providing blueprint legislation for dismantling the tents lining streets, parks and waterways throughout much of the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, made homelessness a priority of his administration when he took office in 2019. It had previously been an issue primarily for mayors and other local officials, but Newsom pumped money into converting old motels into housing and launched other initiatives to tackle the issue. Still, he has repeatedly called out cities and counties to do their part, and on Monday, he unveiled draft language that can be adopted by local governments to remove encampments. Here is what to know: What does the model ordinance say? Newsom's model ordinance includes prohibitions on 'persistent camping' in one location and encampments blocking sidewalks and other public spaces. It asks cities and counties to provide notice and make every reasonable effort to identify and offer shelter before clearing an encampment. What do local governments say? Organizations representing California's cities and counties balked at the suggestion that they are to blame for street conditions. They say they need dedicated, sustained funding over multiple years for permanent projects instead of sporadic, one-time funding. Carolyn Coleman, executive director and CEO of the League of California Cities, said that eight in 10 cities have policies to address encampments but they need money to address the root causes of homelessness, such as more housing. The California State Association of Counties said the state has not provided as much money to address homelessness as it says it has and that half of the money has gone to housing developers. What do homeless advocates say? Studies have shown that encampment bans and other punitive measures make it even harder for people to find stable housing and work, said Alex Visotzky with the National Alliance to End Homelessness. People may lose critical documents or lose contact with a trusted case manager, forcing them to start all over again. In Los Angeles, Jay Joshua watches over a small encampment in which he also lives. He says encampments can be a safe space for those living there. What are California cities doing about encampments? Major cities with Democratic mayors have already started cracking down on encampments, saying they present a public health and safety hazard. In San Francisco, new mayor Daniel Lurie vowed to clean up city sidewalks. In San Jose, Mayor Matt Mahan has proposed arrests if a person refuses shelter three times. Do cities and counties have to adopt it? Newsom can't make cities and counties adopt an encampment ban. But the proposed encampment legislation was paired with an announcement of $3.3 billion in grant money for facilities to treat mental health and substance abuse disorders, suggesting that he could condition state funding on compliance. In 2022, he paused $1 billion in state money for local government, saying that their plans to reduce homelessness fell short of the acceptable.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Preventing homelessness: the tough job of predicting who is at real risk
When the unknown number popped up on her phone, Jocelyn Escanuela was in the checkout line at Walmart. She still can't explain why she picked up and then listened to a cold-caller's pitch that sounded a lot like a scam. She had been selected to receive a grant of $6,000, the caller told her. And she would have a personal assistant to help her get her through her "crisis." How did they even know she was in a crisis? It turned out the caller was legitimate. She was from the Homelessness Prevention Unit, an experimental Los Angeles County program that is testing whether it is feasible to stop homelessness before it starts — one person at a time — by picking them out of mountains of data. Escanuela's crisis was detected not by a person but a predictive statistical model that was developed to solve a conundrum that has made homelessness prevention a tantalizing but underused strategy. Despite sound evidence that services such as eviction defense and financial assistance can prevent people from becoming homeless, it's impossible to know after the fact whether any given person would have become homeless without the help. Research has shown that only a small percentage would. The elusive goal of prevention is to identify that small percentage. "With limited prevention resources to work with, there are real consequences to not getting them to the people who need them most," said Steve Berg, chief policy officer for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which has historically frowned on costly prevention programs. But Berg said "it would be good news if these emerging technologies turned out to be effective at predicting who's most likely to become homeless if they don't get help." Attaining that elusive precision will be increasingly important as both the city's ULA "mansion tax" and the countywide Measure A sales tax begin to direct millions of dollars into homelessness prevention. The model that picked Escanuela as high risk is being tested to see how effective it is. It was created by the California Policy Lab at UCLA, a research institute that has access to data from county agencies such as the departments of health and social services, which interact with people at their most vulnerable. The Policy Lab sifts through all that data, evaluating some 500 markers to generate a list of individuals and families that its model predicts to be at high risk of becoming homeless. It turns that list over to the Homelessness Prevention Unit and its Housing Stabilization Team. "We meet people when they have just gotten out of the hospital, we meet people when they have just lost a job," said Dana Rae Vanderford, associate director of the Homelessness Prevention Unit. "We meet people when they have lost a family member who was the sole provider. We meet people as they are receiving verbal eviction warnings from their landlord." The Homelessness Prevention Unit analysts randomly work their way through the names on the high-risk list to come up with two groups of candidates. Half will be offered intervention — a cash stipend and a case manager for four months. The other half will receive nothing and never know they were chosen, but will be monitored through any contacts with county or homeless agencies they make. Escanuela landed in the target group — the fortunate half — of the random clinical trial. The holy grail of prevention would be a model that could pinpoint those who would become homeless, and avoid spending money on those who never would. In a 2023 report, Notre Dame University's Lab for Economic Opportunities found that people served by a Santa Clara County prevention program were nearly 80% less likely than a control group to become homeless after receiving services. That's not as impressive as it sounds because only 4.1% of those who got no help became homeless, suggesting that a lot of money was invested in people who wouldn't have become homeless without the help. "Prediction is possible, even if it's not great," said Vanderbilt University research professor Beth Shinn, who studied New York City's Homebase prevention program. Her research found that a model did moderately better than outreach workers at predicting. "Even with the way the city was doing it, it was cost-effective and moderately successful," Shinn said. Those studies involved people who sought prevention services. The Policy Lab and Homelessness Prevention Unit are taking the next step, using predictive analytics to find people who have not sought out services. Early findings are promising. In the data used to construct the model, about 47,000 people receiving county services, 24% of those predicted to be at high risk actually became homeless compared with only 7% of the whole sample. It's also proved effective at finding people who are likely to become chronically homeless. "Our clients are living with really high levels of risk," Vanderford said. "They have complex health and mental health conditions. They are meeting us at a real moment of crisis. The timing with which we reach out to our clients seems magical to me." Full results of the trial will not be final until 2027 after a sufficient number of people have been tracked for 18 months after completing the four-month program. The Homelessness Prevention Unit was created with funding from the American Rescue Plan Act supplemented by county funds. It has about 250 active clients and, with a turnover of four to six months, can handle 750 a year. About 90% retained housing or found new homes, Vanderford said. It's labor-intensive work. Four analysts go through the raw lists randomly screening out ineligible candidates. Because there is a delay before the Policy Lab obtains the county data, many on the final list are already homeless, proving the predictions accurate. "There is a real challenge in getting in touch with people," Vanderford said. "Phones go off. A client may be hospitalized or in jail. Clients might be mistrustful of getting this call out of the blue that sounds a little too good to be true. Voicemails go unresponded to." "I never answer calls like that," Escanuela said. "I don't know what compelled me to answer." Neither Escanuela nor Vanderford know what specific factors placed her on the high-risk list except that she was accessing county services. But the call was timely. She and her family were in a protracted eviction battle, and she feared becoming homeless again. As a child, she said, she had a long spell of spending days in a park and nights in a church and later lived at Union Rescue Mission downtown and in its Hope Gardens shelter in Sylmar. "I didn't want to fall back into that, especially as an adult," she said. Once enrolled, Escanuela got a call from Chris Schuchert, one of the program's 20 contract case managers. Over the four months of the program and a two-month extension, they communicated by phone and text. He helped in various ways, from getting her a debit card for groceries to addressing her emotional needs. "Chris was able to find me a therapist," Escanuela said. "I was going through so much at the time I just needed someone to talk to." The program's case managers handle clients' expenses, making direct payments to vendors and landlords. The case manager has to make a requisition, and that often follows a negotiation with the client. Status items such as $250 shoes are talked down to the $50 model, but an $800 bed for better sleep could be approved, Schuchert said. Case managers make referrals to health and mental health agencies. And when clients are thousands of dollars in arrears in rent, they can refer them to Stay Housed LA and other groups that help distressed tenants. In Escanuela's case, that wasn't necessary because the landlord had stopped accepting rent during the eviction process. Schuchert thought it would be best for her to leave the apartment she shared with her mother and brother to avoid an eviction on her record. Today, she lives with her mother in a pleasant apartment in Pomona. She had saved enough money to pay move-in costs and buy equipment for a home business offering eyelash services. Business is good enough, she said, that she's paying her own way. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
