With a slumping economy worsening matters, local service agencies say handling the increasing homeless problem is becoming much more difficult.There's no doubt that the problems for people without homes is increasing, as are their numbers in general. In Grad school I remember one of my public admin courses discussing the delayed reaction between policy setting and public impact. It usually takes the general public between 18-24 months to begin really feeling the impact of failed policies; unfortunately, this is about the length of most folks' "current events" memory, too. So what happens is that folks forget why they are now in some sort of financial trouble and focus on the current situation for answers when the real causes are usually far enough behind them to have been forgotten about. This is also one of the ways in which politicians continue to get elected long after they've done dirty deeds directly to those who voted them into office the first time....
Sources to assist homeless dwindle
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 31, 2008
STUART — A survey of Martin County's homeless population suggests there are more than 500 people, including disabled people and children, living in cars, wooded camps and on the streets.
But the survey was taken on one day in January, and advocates for the homeless believe the numbers may be much higher
With a slumping economy worsening matters, local service agencies say handling the increasing homeless problem is becoming much more difficult."We are nowhere near what we need to fill in all the needs," said Schonna Green, executive director of a shelter for women and children in Golden Gate that is run by Mothers and Infants Striving for Success Inc. "If you look now you are daily seeing the homeless walking on U.S. 1."
But a renewed federal grant will help one segment of the county's homeless population, the disabled, get their lives in order for at least another year. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has renewed Martin County's grant to provide rental assistance helping the disabled.
The $76,000 grant will help about a dozen disabled homeless people rent apartments and get social services.
"I am excited to get anything from the federal government or the state government in this economy," said Louise Hubbard, executive director of the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council. "This is for the chronically homeless people, the people we are trying the most to keep out of the streets."
The county has had a similar grant for the past five years from the federal agency that has helped at least 61 people in Martin County rent homes, said Cheryl Bass, the county's community services director.
But the grant expired this year, and the county must now ask the federal government to renew it every year, she said.
Hubbard said the grant pays fair-market rent for apartments for homeless people who have federally recognized disabilities such as mental illnesses.
Local nonprofit social service agencies provide services such as therapy for the clients, using the grant to meet local matching requirements.
Hubbard said giving disabled residents a consistent address is one of the main keys to helping homeless people find work and get back on their feet.
"It's a huge advantage for finding work because they are in stable housing," she said. "It's hard for an employer if you're trying to chase somebody around that is living in a camp."
This year's survey, conducted Jan. 28, suggests that there are far more disabled homeless people in Martin County than even the federal grant could serve and several other large groups of homeless people as well.
Each year, to create a snapshot of how many people are homeless in the county on any given day, officials with the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council and other nonprofit agencies go into camps in the woods and other places where the homeless live.
They found 507 people in camps and on the streets, including 141 children. The total number was down 14 from last year, but the children under 18 increased by six.
Bass, the community services director, said the federal grant cannot help homeless families with children get rental assistance unless the parent is disabled. But the county has another $72,000 federal grant it is using to help families with children rent homes.
Hubbard, of the homeless services council, said that the only shelter for homeless children and families is Green's, which can hold eight families. She said that because of the depressed real estate market and bleak local economy, it has become even harder for people to find a job making enough to afford to even rent a place to live. She said that is forcing many women and children out onto the streets.
"I have a Jensen Beach woman who called me last week who is living out of a storage locker," Hubbard said.
Hubbard and Green said they have seen several recent cases where people were renting a home and ended up having to leave because the landlord lost it to foreclosure.
Green said she is turning families with children away every day because of lack of space. Her group, Mothers and Infants Striving for Success, is almost finished building a shelter called Butterfly Gardens in Port Salerno that will hold up to 40 women and 80 children. Construction will begin soon on another shelter, Sammy's Landing in Port St. Lucie, she said.
Green said the homeless population in Martin County was probably far higher than what the one-day count suggested because many people sleep in cars or move from one friend's couch to another.
Bass said Martin County will have to apply every year to keep the rental assistance money coming. With federal budget woes and so many cuts to other federal and state grants recently, Bass said, continued funding to help the disabled homeless get into apartments is far from a sure thing.
"I'm thinking next year could be much harder," Bass said. "Everything is getting progressively worse."
