a one-time cash assistance, and we need more affordable housing."The old saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is dead on for helping keep folks from hitting the bricks. The key is getting people to understand how critically important it is to fund preventive efforts instead of trying to band-aid our way out of end-results. While we're dream....errr, discussing what's needed, let's not forget that a healthy increase in mental health/drug and alcohol rehab services, coupled with a few other additional resources are extremely important: 1. Real job training opportunities that will ultimately culminate in earning livable wages: programs designed to provide some incentive to employers for hiring people without experience in order to accumulate some are drastically needed. I mentioned in another post that I had once assisted with a program in Northeastern California called the 50/50 program. This effort paid employers half the wages of participating individual for one year, and the employer also received a substantial tax break as well. Not only was the employee able to receive a truly livable wage while learning a trade or skill, he/she was able to establish some work history and employment credibility while the employer reaped the benefits of tax breaks and wage subsidies. The long term goal of course is that the newly trained employee eventually moves into better paying jobs, which mean more taxes paid, which means that ultimately, the individual who received the initial assistance ends up paying it all back and then supports others who come after him. Establishing a national 50/50 program, creating more accessible mentoring and/or apprenticeship programs - and making these programs known and available - will help provide people with options related to job opportunities that currently don't exist. 2. Educational opportunities: GED prep, life skills and literacy classes are badly needed. Many of the peeps I work with on the street haven't graduated high school, let alone attended any trade schools or colleges. While college isn't for everybody, the fact is, in today's increasingly competitive job market, not having even a GED puts a person at a huge disadvantage. Unfortunately, opportunities for schooling, while still available, are rapidly shrinking and aren't much discussed or promoted within the homeless community. Many of the folks who've never attended college or a tech school don't because they either haven't graduated from high school and/or don't know the first thing about obtaining or accessing an advanced education. Furthermore, too often folks draw conclusions about what college must be like based on their own grammar school experience and immediately dismiss the idea of attending college as a result. Anyone who's attended college knows it ain't nuthin like that, but how would one know if one didn't attend? Here's the thing; we can change the system from the inside out via advocacy, legislation and political means, but one quickly realizes that to do this takes far longer than most of us are able to wait. While I fully support efforts to improve the opportunities for those of us on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder, the fact is each of us must make our own way in what we're given and what's available today. The most immediate, and undoubtedly cost effective way to accomplish this is to take advantage of what's out there right now and use that to further our own lot in life. But we can't do this if we don't know what's available. Discovering these opportunities is often more a matter of luck than anything else and unless we devote some resources to making some of these available opportunities known, we have only ourselves to blame. MORE IN STATE TURN TO SHELTERS; REPORT: COSTS DRIVE UP HOMELESSNESS ANN MARIE SOMMA. Hartford Courant. Hartford, Conn.: Aug 7, 2008. pg. B.1
The high cost of housing and rent increases contributed to close to a 21 percent rise in the number of families seeking refuge in homeless shelters in the state during the last year, according to a report issued Wednesday.
According to the second annual statewide "point-in-time"
"Shelters are telling us they are seeing more and more families who are working and living in shelters because they just can't afford the housing," said Kate Kelly, manager of the Partnership for Strong Communities' Reaching Home Campaign, one of three organizations that conducted the count.
The findings indicate that the economic downturn and the state's lack of affordable housing is driving many families to shelters. About one third of adults in homeless families reported to volunteers who conducted the count that they were currently working at the time of the count, and 27 percent said they were homeless due to rent problems.
Housing and homeless advocates on Wednesday called for the expansion of supportive housing and affordable housing in the state, as well as eviction prevention and practices to help families remain housed during a financial crisis.
"We haven't been creating rental housing in the state, and now we have a situation where people are getting evicted. Even though they remain employed, they are just are not able to make it work," said David Fink, policy and communications director with the Partnership for Strong Communities.
A household must earn $21.11 an hour, or about $44,000 a year, to afford the fair-market average price for a two-bedroom apartment in the Hartford area, which rents for $985 month, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach report.
On Jan. 30, hundreds of volunteers fanned out to cities and towns across the state to count the number of homeless in shelters, transitional housing units, abandoned buildings and under bridges. The count was organized by the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the Reaching Home Campaign.
The number of single adults in shelters rose to 2,257 from 2,138 in 2007, according to the count.
While the number of homeless families and singles seeking refuge in shelters increased, the study found fewer families and singles living in cars, parks or abandoned buildings.
The number of singles on the streets fell to 590 from 707 in 2007 and the number of families dropped to eight from 38.
Carol Walter, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, said the increase in homeless families is a cause for concern, but the issue can be solved.
"We need to create permanent supportive housing, and we need to implement and expand prevention of homelessness, a one-time cash assistance, and we need more affordable housing," Walter said.
There are more than 3,800 supportive housing units in the state. The Reaching Home Campaign's goal is establish 10,000 units.
Contact Ann Marie Somma at asomma@courant.
