|
|
Working yourself out of business is not working Wednesday, January, 27, 2010
Great Non-Profits Deserve A Great Rating System Wednesday, December, 16, 2009
Missing the Mark: Why Business-Mindedness Cannot Solve the Problems of the Non-Profit Sector Tuesday, December, 8, 2009
Too Many Non-Profits? Tuesday, December, 1, 2009
The Poverty Business Tuesday, November, 17, 2009
Poor By Design Monday, November, 16, 2009
The Poverty Landscape Wednesday, November, 11, 2009
We Need Inforum Thursday, November, 5, 2009
Effective Social Investing Wednesday, November, 4, 2009
Social Services Cause Homelessness
Wednesday, November, 4, 2009
Social Services Cause Homelessness
Social services cause homelessness. It's a bold claim to be sure, probably one worth backing up with some evidence. Don't believe me? I'll prove it.
A department of Housing and Urban Development study found that between October 1st, 2007 and September 30th, 2008 the number of people in homeless families increased by 9% throughout the country. Over that same period of time, we invested in social service programs designed to help the homeless.
There. Social services cause homelessness. Fact.
If you read the above with skepticism, then good, you've caught me. The fact that we have social service organizations and homelessness increasing over the same period says nothing about causation. Now that we are on the same page that one cannot simply assert that the presence of social services causes an increase in homelessness, let's examine the opposite.
Last week, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) released a report stating that homelessness decreased over the two year period between January 2007 and January 2009 by 38%. I won't examine the validity of the report's claim regarding the decrease in homelessness as this week's Inforum featured article addresses this very issue. Instead, I am going to dispute LAHSA's claim that, assuming homelessness did decrease over a two-year period, the decrease in homelessness is the result of LAHSA's efforts. In a press release, LAHSA claims "the decrease reflects a combination of increased focus on homelessness by Los Angeles City and County leaders, investments in housing and innovative programs, and a strong network of agencies focused on ending homelessness."
Now, I'm not going to say LAHSA's efforts didn't decrease homelessness. I don't know what, if any, of the variation reported in the change in the Los Angeles homeless population is due to LAHSA's efforts. Based on the information provided in the 2009 homeless count report, there is nothing that supports the conclusion that actions taken by LAHSA contributed to the decline in homelessness.
Let's be very clear here. The report is an attempt to tally the number of homeless person's living in LAHSA's homeless providing coverage area. That's it. It is not a study of how people that were previously homeless secured housing. So how can LAHSA make the claim that "the decrease reflects a combination of increased focus on homelessness by Los Angeles City and County leaders..."? It can't.
My colleague Michael Gechter at Idealistics equates LAHSA's assertion that correlation equals causation to the idea that firefighters must cause fires, since anytime there is a fire, a firefighter is there. Obviously firefighters don't cause fires; it is equally ambiguous whether or not LAHSA's efforts led to a decline in the homeless population.
I understand the temptation to take credit for trends we may or may not have anything to do with. All of us in social services are faced with such temptation. We deal with macro issues like homelessness, poverty, crime, health, etc. Just because we work on these issues, does not mean we necessarily impact them. That is why it is important for us to be honest about evaluating the work we do. We cannot simply say we work on homelessness, and homelessness is decreasing, therefore what we are doing is working.
LAHSA was eager to take credit for a curiously inexplicable decline in homelessness. Are they prepared to take blame for an increase, should one occur? I doubt it.
(Photo by University of Denver)
Posted 2009-11-10 13:55:13
Taxing Our Way Out of Homelessness? Friday, November 21, 2008
A Third Wave Of Addressing Homelesness Monday, November 13, 2006
705 Missing Homeless People: Where Did They Go? Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Civil Overestimation Friday, January 30, 2009
Unemployment Numbers: I'm Worried...
Linda Rosenberg, MSW Juan was a delivery driver, but his health problems were putting him at risk of losing his job. His diabetes was poorly controlled and had caused foot ulcers that made it difficult for him to walk. He also had bipolar disorder, which was not being controlled. When he joined the Working Well program in Harris County, Texas, Juan worked with a case manager to get orthopedic shoes, to receive support in developing a diabetic diet and exercise plan, and to make an appointment with a psychiatrist to bring his mental health condition under control. As a result, Juan was able to continue working full time as a delivery driver and received a raise for exceptional performance (Bohman, Stoner, & Chimera, 2009). Working Well is part of the....
Homelessness Resource Center "I believe that people who are trained in Motivational Interviewing have a different perspective on building relationships. Many people are trained to view clients in a paternalistic manner, like they are children. This attitude says that providers always know what is best for a client. This attitude makes us think that we must convince clients that we know what is best for them. In this view, success is measured by the provider’s actions, not the client’s." In the spirit of Motivational Interviewing, Alan Pickett, a Mental Health Outreach Nurse at the Project Outreach Team (PORT) for Washtenaw County Community Mental Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan, does not define success this way. He believes his first task to is to make himse
David J. Jefferson “The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers.” When William James, ostensible father of American Psychology, penned this line over a century ago, he had embedded the idea in a discussion on religious experience, in which he also extolled the virtues of voluntary poverty. Today, in a totally distinct context, James’ words are imbued with new meaning. Due to economic recession and what many economists have deemed a jobless recovery in contemporary America, people who never before feared poverty—the educated, or middle class—must now confront harsh new realities. The current conditions are like nothing we’ve ever seen. Conspiring myriad circumstances....
Jamie Van Leeuwen When Denver’s Road Home began over four years ago, we never could have anticipated a year like we just had. Who could ever imagine that our economy would shift into a global recession unlike anything the country has experienced since the Great Depression? And yet, in the midst of unparalleled economic shifts, there comes great opportunity. We believe there has never been a more important time for Denver to have a plan to end homelessness. During the past year, our homeless plan has been tested and we expect the coming year will continue to pose new challenges for us. Housing foreclosures, unemployment and funding cutbacks will continue to place new demands on our ten-year plan to end homelessness. As a result, we updated our plan so....
Linda Valverde & General Dogon The authors have lived and worked in Central City East—commonly known as Skid Row—for a combined thirty years. During all of our decades of living in Los Angeles, neither of us had ever heard of gentrification until about five years ago, when we became members of the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN). Now it seems that gentrification has become a common household word in cities throughout the United States, and nowhere more than downtown Los Angeles. When redevelopment really took off in downtown L.A. in 2002, LA CAN and our allies created five principles for fair redevelopment. We wanted to see our neighborhood revitalized, not gentrified. The principles were....
Inforum RSS Feed