"The average person might lump the homeless all together, but Boyer found in her study that street people are all types and getting the drug-addicted homeless off the streets is different from helping alcoholic, mentally ill or young homeless."Lumping folks into one category - "the homeless" does such a disservice to so many... the array of people who must deal with homelessness is so incredibly diverse that when we label them as simply "the homeless" we tend to ignore the rest of of a very large, very unique and personal picture....
Last updated March 19, 2008 11:47 p.m. PT
Report on curbing homelessness
At about 7:30 a.m. one day late last summer, while on patrol with Seattle police officers at Freeway Park by the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, Debra Boyer found William lying on the ground.
The cultural anthropologist at the University of Washington has spent more than 20 years studying street prostitutes and the homeless and was hired by the United Way of King County to help figure out solutions to homelessness in the county.
She spent four months last summer and fall with police officers and social-service workers, talking with drug addicts and other homeless people, mostly in downtown Seattle. William was one of those she encountered. A man in his mid-20s, "he is lying amid various drug paraphernalia,"
"The police find a yellow form by his blanket, which states that he received treatment for a heroin overdose in the Harborview emergency room the night before," Boyer wrote.
"His discharge instructions: 'Don't use heroin.'
"The police wake him up and decide to arrest him because of drug paraphernalia and a small vial they find on the ground. He tells them he is 'dope sick' and pleads for a chance to get heroin before they take him in; police put William in the cell compartment at the back of the van and later take him to the King County jail."
On Monday, a chilly and windy morning, Boyer passed the restaurants with locked bathrooms and the "No Trespassing" signs in a downtown grappling with the homeless, crimes and panhandling. She ducked into an alley near Pike Place Market, where people had been sleeping on the ground a few hours earlier.
The average person might lump the homeless all together, but Boyer found in her study that street people are all types and getting the drug-addicted homeless off the streets is different from helping alcoholic, mentally ill or young homeless.
"There is no single solution," said Vince Matulionis, director of United Way of King County's program to end homelessness.
Of the people sleeping on the streets, drug addicts might be the most difficult to get into housing, according to the study. Housing programs -- partly to keep the peace, and because of funding issues -- often exclude drug users and people with mental-health problems and run-ins with the law.
Because financial backers demand results for their money, programs have an incentive to keep out people who might fail.
"It's called creaming," Matulionis said.
That's part of the reason people such as William were in Freeway Park.
Some social-service workers worry "the most vulnerable are not being served," Boyer wrote in her report.
Boyer's study will be used to guide the United Way when it decides how it spends the $25 million it is raising to end homelessness.
Matulionis said the United Way might try to give non-profits more incentive to deal with the most difficult of homeless -- to stop "creaming."
Other systematic reasons explain why panhandlers are on the streets or lie in the parks, Boyer said.
Overnight shelters close during the day and push people onto the streets, where there's little to do until the shelters or meal programs open.
A well-known crack user and panhandler Boyer heard about on Capitol Hill was cited as an example of drug users' resistance to getting help. But he also offered a glimmer of hope.
"He was called Crutchley because he only had one leg and walked on crutches," Boyer wrote. A police officer helped find him a place to live but, Boyer wrote, Crutchley "continued to pursue his drug cycle, then he disappeared and was not seen for two years."
"Thinking Crutchley was dead, the officer was surprised to see him one night in a store. He looked quite different, was well-dressed and had stopped using," Boyer wrote.
"He reached a point where he thought he would die, sought treatment, and ended his cocaine habit in his mid-fifties."
Boyer's conclusion: Treatment should be available on demand so when addicts reach the point of wanting to quit, they do not have to wait.
Early another morning during the study, Boyer also worked with the Metropolitan Improvement District employees as they woke street alcoholics and moved them along.
"Hank is in the alley near (Second Avenue) and Stewart (Street) behind the Nordstrom Rack," she wrote in the report. "He is so inebriated, the MID workers cannot stir him; they call for medical backup.
"Before help arrives, a store manager comes out, screams, and pushes at Hank to get out of the alley ... Hank, who can barely stand, soils himself and holds on to the building for balance."
Most housing programs bar residents from drinking, which discourages alcoholics from seeking shelter, Boyer said.
She noted that the Downtown Emergency Services Center's 1811 project allows chronic alcoholics to drink in their rooms. By getting counseling and regular medical care, they end up in emergency rooms or jail less often. Boyer said studies show the project's approach saves tax dollars.
Matulionis said the United Way probably will fund more services for people in subsidized housing. But even with housing, there still will still be people on the streets panhandling, Boyer said.
People will be poor and in need of money, he noted.
There might be fewer homeless on the street, but on the corners, there will still be men and women asking for spare change.
ON THE WEB
For the full report, go to uwkc.org.
Posts
Stumble
0 YakBaks:
Post a Comment