Buffalo Roamless in Austin: ideas to help the less fortunate

[Bat Guano 359]

So I was walking down the street about a block away from the ARCH this morning and, as tends to happen all the fucking time these days, was approached by a homeless person who wanted money. Sometimes I give them money, more often I don’t. When you don’t want to give, the best answer is ‘No.’ No explanation, no apology, just short and to the point let them know they’re not getting anything from you so they can move on to the next prospect. This guy didn’t give up, though; he asked if I don’t have any money, or if I just don’t give a shit about the problem. I replied, fairly honestly, that I’d given away quite a bit of money lately and I was just tired of it. He goes on about how money is not the answer anyway; I said, well, I don’t have a job for you either. He said yeah, but you have influence with the city and you can help get some things changed. I don’t have any particular influence in the city, but to shut him up I said, OK, what is your proposal? Oh, I got lots of them, he said; I figured he was full of shit and I’d be able to end the encounter, but after gathering his thoughts, it turned out he really did have lots of them. To wit:

Lockers for the homeless; give them a place to store some stuff so they don’t have to wear all the clothes they have and carry whatever they may have. Sounds like a good idea, I said; maybe they could do that at the ARCH. The ARCH is a fucking joke, he said; the first thing they need to do is put a policeman on that corner. Said he’d been in about 50 fights, had his backpack cut off him while he was asleep, had all his stuff stolen regularly. Seemed like a reasonable idea to me; it’s literally less than a block from APD headquarters, but the police presence there is usually zero.

A vehicle that goes around in a set area, at a set time, to provide services for the homeless. Apparently the existing efforts are haphazard, and people never know when or where they will show up.

Showers and laundry facilities. Only 3 of the 11 washers at ARCH are working, according to him.

Tables for food drop off. Now people who want to feed the homeless have to drop the food off on the sidewalk. It’s degrading to have to eat off the ground.

Clothing donations/thrift stores in the area where the homeless are. Lots of them are disabled and can’t walk even 8 or 10 blocks for these things. And Goodwill is too expensive; you need shirts and pants for 3 or 4 dollars.

For people on medications, change the schedule from monthly to every 2 weeks. He said he’s bipolar schizophrenic, and his medications get stolen regularly. At least he wouldn’t have to wait a full month for a new supply, and he’d be able to stay on his meds more easily.

Service point cards: I had to look this up. Apparently it’s a medical services ID card administered by … some agency or something … that folks use to pick up their medications. He noted that it’s bar coded, like a UT ID, and could be used to allow homeless to ride public transportation and bike shares for free, like the deal with UT (I don’t know what deal he was referring to; maybe there is some kind of discount for students? It’s been a long time since I was one). So they could get around and get some shit done, as he put it.

Homeless sponsors: people could sponsor homeless, help them get back on their feet. I was trying to end the conversation by this point, because I’d been talking to him for about 20 minutes and I had shit to do, but it sounded like he could have fleshed this out if I’d let him.

Honestly, none of these things sounded like outrageously expensive or difficult things to do; they are simple, common-sense things that would really help a lot of people in the little ways that count for much in a day-to-day struggle for survival. Life out there is not easy, and a few little things like this would help a lot. I don’t know what kind of budget the ARCH has, or if it can find room to do some of this stuff, or if a charity could pick it up. Anyway, since I have so much (nonexistent) pull with the city, I guess it’s incumbent on me to do something. So I’m posting here to have you assholes tell me why these are terrible ideas, and there’s no way any of them would work, and then I’ll have an excuse not to do anything. So let’s hear it.

TL/DR: Homeless guy has some good ideas on how to improve services for the homeless.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

36 minutes ago, Bat Guano said:

So I was walking down the street about a block away from the ARCH this morning and, as tends to happen all the fucking time these days, was approached by a homeless person who wanted money. Sometimes I give them money, more often I don’t. When you don’t want to give, the best answer is ‘No.’ No explanation, no apology, just short and to the point let them know they’re not getting anything from you so they can move on to the next prospect. This guy didn’t give up, though; he asked if I don’t have any money, or if I just don’t give a shit about the problem. I replied, fairly honestly, that I’d given away quite a bit of money lately and I was just tired of it. He goes on about how money is not the answer anyway; I said, well, I don’t have a job for you either. He said yeah, but you have influence with the city and you can help get some things changed. I don’t have any particular influence in the city, but to shut him up I said, OK, what is your proposal? Oh, I got lots of them, he said; I figured he was full of shit and I’d be able to end the encounter, but after gathering his thoughts, it turned out he really did have lots of them. To wit:

 

Lockers for the homeless; give them a place to store some stuff so they don’t have to wear all the clothes they have and carry whatever they may have. Sounds like a good idea, I said; maybe they could do that at the ARCH. The ARCH is a fucking joke, he said; the first thing they need to do is put a policeman on that corner. Said he’d been in about 50 fights, had his backpack cut off him while he was asleep, had all his stuff stolen regularly. Seemed like a reasonable idea to me; it’s literally less than a block from APD headquarters, but the police presence there is usually zero.

 

A vehicle that goes around in a set area, at a set time, to provide services for the homeless. Apparently the existing efforts are haphazard, and people never know when or where they will show up.

 

Showers and laundry facilities. Only 3 of the 11 washers at ARCH are working, according to him.

 

Tables for food drop off. Now people who want to feed the homeless have to drop the food off on the sidewalk. It’s degrading to have to eat off the ground.

 

Clothing donations/thrift stores in the area where the homeless are. Lots of them are disabled and can’t walk even 8 or 10 blocks for these things. And Goodwill is too expensive; you need shirts and pants for 3 or 4 dollars.

 

For people on medications, change the schedule from monthly to every 2 weeks. He said he’s bipolar schizophrenic, and his medications get stolen regularly. At least he wouldn’t have to wait a full month for a new supply, and he’d be able to stay on his meds more easily.

 

Service point cards: I had to look this up. Apparently it’s a medical services ID card administered by … some agency or something … that folks use to pick up their medications. He noted that it’s bar coded, like a UT ID, and could be used to allow homeless to ride public transportation and bike shares for free, like the deal with UT (I don’t know what deal he was referring to; maybe there is some kind of discount for students? It’s been a long time since I was one). So they could get around and get some shit done, as he put it.

 

Homeless sponsors: people could sponsor homeless, help them get back on their feet. I was trying to end the conversation by this point, because I’d been talking to him for about 20 minutes and I had shit to do, but it sounded like he could have fleshed this out if I’d let him.

 

Honestly, none of these things sounded like outrageously expensive or difficult things to do; they are simple, common-sense things that would really help a lot of people in the little ways that count for much in a day-to-day struggle for survival. Life out there is not easy, and a few little things like this would help a lot. I don’t know what kind of budget the ARCH has, or if it can find room to do some of this stuff, or if a charity could pick it up. Anyway, since I have so much (nonexistent) pull with the city, I guess it’s incumbent on me to do something. So I’m posting here to have you assholes tell me why these are terrible ideas, and there’s no way any of them would work, and then I’ll have an excuse not to do anything. So let’s hear it.

 

 

 

TL/DR: Homeless guy has some good ideas on how to improve services for the homeless.

Sounds like he's got a non profit (but salary producing) business Model he needs to develop.

[miguelito 11,321]

pre-edit: totally wrong thread, but still kind of applicable...

 

Emil Kaiser, I think.

edit: I thought someone mentioned the Austin/Shag-famous homeless guy, inventor of beercoffee.

Edited April 9, 2019 by miguelito
fuck me, fuck you

[woohorn 1,131]

Terrific ideas, just one note:

DO NOT put the lockers, picnic tables, or service truck routes within 5 miles of my neighborhood, ok. Thx!

[ChickenSandwich 9,856]

not that I necessarily disagree with anything he has said, BUT.....all of these are simply treating the symptoms and not addressing the problem.  The only one that does attempt to do so it the last, the personal sponsorship. The goal should be to lift them up from being homeless, not to create a permanent class.

ARCH has been a terrible idea since before the ground breaking and that part of downtown is safe for no one.

And the Salvation Army is right freaking there on 9th and Neches...so I'm not sure what the hell he is rambling about there

[BearSchlong 8,123]

19 minutes ago, miguelito said:

pre-edit: totally wrong thread, but still kind of applicable...

 

Emil Kaiser, I think.

edit: I thought someone mentioned the Austin/Shag-famous homeless guy, inventor of beercoffee.

Hey, I did my part to help Emil Kiser - I paypalled FoggyNotion who gave him $20 to make my avatar.

[gsoda3 3,283]

those are interesting ideas.  does the arch not have lockers?  and isn't the salvation army literally next door to ARCH?  on a separate note does anyone have contacts at ARCH?  

[Rip76 4,968]

1 hour ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Sounds like he's got a non profit (but salary producing) business Model he needs to develop.

yup

[atomheartbevo 89,844]

33 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

The goal should be to lift them up from being homeless, not to create a permanent class.

Part of the problem is there is always going to be a permanent class of homeless folks, and we have to account for that.  There are people who just will not be able to lift themselves out of homelessness, because of one problem or another, whether that problem be physical, mental, age, or whatever.  How large a percentage of the overall homeless population these folks are, I don't know.   I don't know how we as a society should care for them, or what we should be willing to spend on them, but we can't write them off.   Some of these folks also present a danger to themselves or others (usually more to themselves), and they are usually the ones that a lot of NIMBYers point to when they bitch about homeless facilities.

We certainly don't want to go back in time 100 years ago, and dump them in the asylums of olden times, but we need something for them.  I had a relative who was one of these types of homeless (in another city) and when he was released or forced out of certain homeless shelters, many times it would be in the middle of a large city/busy area, which was the very last thing he needed, given his mental state.

Out of the rest of them, you have to somehow weed out the....I hate to use the word "scammers", but these are the folks who knowingly take advantage of the system - they could independently take care of themselves if they chose to.   

But the ones a lot of us are talking about are those who had that One Bad Day (I'm not talking about battered wives or mothers and their children forced out of a home - there are separate shelters for many of those).  Perhaps an illness and loss of a job spiraled them into the ground.  Whatever, these are folks that are/were productive, and their lives collapsed for whatever reason, and it's a helluva thing to claw your way back up when that happens, unless you have a family who can take care of you.

Given how few in this country have a decent emergency savings, there's a whole helluva lot of people who are not too far away from that scenario, and we need to figure out a system that can separate these folks out from the others and give them the resources they need to get out of being homeless, which some of the ideas the OP mentioned would help with that.

Ultimately it comes down to money though.  Not enough money, and the people in charge are having to juggle the permanent homeless with those who just need something to stabilize their life for a few months until they are back up and running.

[Kyle 207]

I came across this documentary a few weeks ago. Have watched about half of it intermittently. I think homelessness is one of those areas perfectly suited for George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" approach.

 

[Bat Guano 359]

1 hour ago, ChickenSandwich said:

not that I necessarily disagree with anything he has said, BUT.....all of these are simply treating the symptoms and not addressing the problem.  The only one that does attempt to do so it the last, the personal sponsorship. The goal should be to lift them up from being homeless, not to create a permanent class.

ARCH has been a terrible idea since before the ground breaking and that part of downtown is safe for no one.

And the Salvation Army is right freaking there on 9th and Neches...so I'm not sure what the hell he is rambling about there

The guy I talked to said these little things would help get them back on their feet. Having a shower and clean clothes would help a lot in landing a job, for instance.

 

[Bat Guano 359]

1 hour ago, gsoda3 said:

those are interesting ideas.  does the arch not have lockers?  and isn't the salvation army literally next door to ARCH?  on a separate note does anyone have contacts at ARCH?  

I don't know if ARCH has lockers or not; the guy said he won't go there anymore because he got tired of getting in fights and getting ripped off.

[Bat Guano 359]

31 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Part of the problem is there is always going to be a permanent class of homeless folks, and we have to account for that.  There are people who just will not be able to lift themselves out of homelessness, because of one problem or another, whether that problem be physical, mental, age, or whatever.  How large a percentage of the overall homeless population these folks are, I don't know.   I don't know how we as a society should care for them, or what we should be willing to spend on them, but we can't write them off.   Some of these folks also present a danger to themselves or others (usually more to themselves), and they are usually the ones that a lot of NIMBYers point to when they bitch about homeless facilities.

We certainly don't want to go back in time 100 years ago, and dump them in the asylums of olden times, but we need something for them.  I had a relative who was one of these types of homeless (in another city) and when he was released or forced out of certain homeless shelters, many times it would be in the middle of a large city/busy area, which was the very last thing he needed, given his mental state.

Out of the rest of them, you have to somehow weed out the....I hate to use the word "scammers", but these are the folks who knowingly take advantage of the system - they could independently take care of themselves if they chose to.   

But the ones a lot of us are talking about are those who had that One Bad Day (I'm not talking about battered wives or mothers and their children forced out of a home - there are separate shelters for many of those).  Perhaps an illness and loss of a job spiraled them into the ground.  Whatever, these are folks that are/were productive, and their lives collapsed for whatever reason, and it's a helluva thing to claw your way back up when that happens, unless you have a family who can take care of you.

Given how few in this country have a decent emergency savings, there's a whole helluva lot of people who are not too far away from that scenario, and we need to figure out a system that can separate these folks out from the others and give them the resources they need to get out of being homeless, which some of the ideas the OP mentioned would help with that.

Ultimately it comes down to money though.  Not enough money, and the people in charge are having to juggle the permanent homeless with those who just need something to stabilize their life for a few months until they are back up and running.

This. Lots of us don't appreciate how close lots and lots of people are to being homeless; it wouldn't take much bad luck to put them there.

[atomheartbevo 89,844]

2 minutes ago, Bat Guano said:

This. Lots of us don't appreciate how close lots and lots of people are to being homeless; it wouldn't take much bad luck to put them there.

The generation that were old enough to truly experience (and appreciate) the Great Depression is pretty much all dead.  The recent government shutdown should have shaken things up  - there were a lot of people that were having to beg/borrow from family members to make rent or house payments, people were having to sell off a second car or other items they owned.    It's pretty clear our current systems for dealing with the homeless (and those close to it) aren't up to speed, and would have been completely overwhelmed if we had something similar happen again on a bigger or longer scale.     

Ideally, we'd have some kind of better mental health system that would separate out the permanent homeless folks from those who need some stability (place to sleep, shower, get decent clothes).

[Lhorn 4,970]

2 hours ago, woohorn said:

Terrific ideas, just one note:

DO NOT put the lockers, picnic tables, or service truck routes within 5 miles of my neighborhood, ok. Thx!

Seriously.  I drive through San Jose on my way to work. The homeless tents /encampments that pop up along the 680 freeway look like a thousand dumpsters exploded within days of homeless settling in.  I’m willing to pitch in for lockers and picnic tables as long as they are put no where near me.  

I dont think a locker can reasonable hold the 10 cubic yards of plastic bits, feces and drug waste that the homeless feel they need  

Edited April 9, 2019 by Lhorn

[Mitch Cumsteen 18,597]

They need something like Haven for Hope in San Antonio in Austin.

I've taken the tour there a couple of times and it's really impressive. Their entire philosophy is giving people a hand up, not a hand out. They coordinate services for healthcare, job training, housing, etc. It's a fairly remarkable place. 

https://www.havenforhope.org/

Quote

Haven for Hope is a place of hope and new beginnings for people in Bexar County experiencing homelessness. It is made up of two major programs: the Courtyard and the Transformational Campus. Both are on the Haven for Hope property and require a visit to the Intake Department to get started. The Courtyard is a low-barrier safe sleeping program that offers shelter and basic needs. The Transformational Campus is a center that offers services and shelter with an emphasis toward addressing the root causes of homelessness.

 

[Deej 76,971]

City of Austin will embed artists in residence among the homeless population. Problems solved.

[SimonBolivar 10,961]

I was thinking about Kaiser the other day. Whatever happened to him?

[utee94 15,869]

7 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

I was thinking about Kaiser the other day. Whatever happened to him?

beercoffee

[Beau Vine 54,471]

4 hours ago, Bat Guano said:

Tables for food drop off. Now people who want to feed the homeless have to drop the food off on the sidewalk. It’s degrading to have to eat off the ground.

That's an odd comment.  I gotta think it's much more degrading to be, you know, homeless than to eat sitting on the ground.  I've eaten off the ground before.  It's called a picnic.  

[KaiserSoze 998]

Turns out homeless people are actually professional picnickers. 

[Deej 76,971]

Amateur. Pros get paid.

[TwiceHorn 31,584]

49 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

That's an odd comment.  I gotta think it's much more degrading to be, you know, homeless than to eat sitting on the ground.  I've eaten off the ground before.  It's called a picnic.  

Overall interesting OP and thread.  In Dallas, among those who give meals to the homeless, they don't leave them somewhere, whether ground or table, and nobody gets more than one, personally handed to them.  These aren't rules, but conventional wisdom.  We don't want them hoarded or bartered for things and we try to keep resulting litter somewhat to a minimum.  All of these objectives are aided by handing them out one-man, one-meal.

 

[RCRanger03 1,049]

Still at work, but imma come back around to this one with an annoying long and detailed post because it's been what I've put the past five years of my life both professionally and personally into addressing through my work with Mobile Loaves & Fishes in our Truck Program, and Community First! Village. In the meantime check out a video or the most recent CNN article on us. https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/us/iyw-town-for-the-homeless-trnd/index.html

 

Also I have all the contacts you could ever want at every homeless resource in Travis County (and a few other cities like San Antonio Haven for Hope), send me a PM and I'll get you the info you need

[RCRanger03 1,049]

And now I'm back around and it's late after a long day at work, so a pre-warning this will possibly be incoherent and rambling but hopefully it will some sense.

I definitely don't have much in the way of hard answers (lots of anecdotal evidence to support my ideas though), but happy to have the conversation either here in the thread or by PM if you want some specific questions discussed... Some background I've been working for the past 5 years at Mobile Loaves & Fishes both with the Food Trucks and as one of the property managers at Community First Village

To start there's a few different types of homelessness you might see:

1) Transitory: Something happened and shit fell apart but it's probably not going to stick and within 3 months things usually are on the up and up. This is usually the easiest to assist, and the system does a decent job at serving and helping these folks transition out of homelessness. Occasionally if during this time more issues happen (addiction, physical or mental health degradation, criminal activity) then it can transition into one of the next two.

2) Episodic: Usually tied to mental health or addiction issues. You'll see this population cycling in and out of rehabs and similar programs. A good number of these folks end up in supportive housing communities like Community First! Village. If they lose the social connections because of this cycle it's usually what leads thing to the third type.

3) Chronic Homelessness: a year or more on the street consecutively, or multiple episodes adding up to a year in the past 3 years or less. These are often people who have degraded social connections completely (family, friends, church communities etc) either by the own actions or by outside circumstances. We believe that this catastrophic loss of family and community is the root cause of this type of homelessness. Maybe the instigating circumstance would have been bad enough to create transitory or episodic homelessness, but without people to turn to and to rely on when things are going to shit, it becomes a increasing feedback loop of ostracization and departure from the normal social structures which further ingrain the issues that got them there in the first place.

Chronic homelessness is most of what you see encamped around the ARCH and it's the hardest to break out of, because most programs/individuals are maybe willing to throw money out there to feed/clothe. That's very good and important (it's been MLF's bread and butter for 20 years). Maybe a step up from that is getting people into housing or work. Thats even better than the first option and it works for some people (mostly those in Transitory or Episodic homelessness) however often it's much more expensive than an individual or private community (like a church) can sustain outside of single cases, and it's not very effective for Chronic homelessness (about 25% - 30% effectiveness is the absolute best that I've seen), because it's often predicated in taking an ostracized and outcast person (for whatever myriad of reasons) and putting a roof over their head and assuming that the rest will follow, but their still an ostracized person with all of the same myriad of reasons and most of the time still without any community or social structures. Work if it is available at all often requires consistent transportation, figuring out the healthcare system on your own is a nightmare and try it without insurance, Without that support and exchange of humanity (that we take for granted) it more often than not ends up being expensive temporary shelter rather that further fucks their record (with evictions and collections). It's not impossible I've seen some ASTOUNDING success stories through that model, but it's not resolving the issue that you encountered. It's a better bandage but it's still working on the wounds at the surface, we have to go deeper. People who are fantastically and traumatically abused and hurting don't just need a roof and four walls, they need someone to care about them and someone they can care back about. If there isn't purpose and relationship in people's lives then struggles  

What we do at Community First! Village is try to go upstream and address that root cause of lost community by making it the forefront of what we offer. We get people into housing, we provide good dignified well paying work onsite in everything from woodworking to catering to blacksmithing to farming and on and on, mental and physical health as well addiction recovery resources are on site and free. More importantly we flood the community with relationships. The houses are built in a orientation to encourage and foster relationship, volunteers come out to the village by the droves and are lead in their work by the residents which not only builds up that person but breaks down the stereotypes people who volunteer bring with them about what being "a homeless person" mean. We setup a community council system the neighbors to elect representation that comes to the table with staff to make changes to better the community. We're 3.5 years into having residency out here and we have 85% retention or positive transition without relapse. We're already even building 300 more homes to be finished and ready for move in next year, and are pursuing options to expand to over 1000 residences if possible. I'll be the first to admit t's not perfect, but it's definitely a new approach thats working. Don't just take my word for it though, if you spend a day volunteering or even just coming to an event out at the village you'll see the difference community makes. Most of the people you see thriving at the village were not long ago the same people you saw languishing outside the ARCH or flying a sign panhandling on the street corner.  

Anyways I'll give it a rest, and answer questions, but I wanted to briefly respond to the OP's original set of questions, because I appreciate his willingness to listen to the person that he met and actually take some energy to think about the issues brought up. In a world of people not giving a shit about each other, you did and that means a whole lot, so thank you.

9 hours ago, Bat Guano said:

1) Lockers for the homeless; give them a place to store some stuff so they don’t have to wear all the clothes they have and carry whatever they may have. Sounds like a good idea, I said; maybe they could do that at the ARCH. The ARCH is a fucking joke, he said; the first thing they need to do is put a policeman on that corner. Said he’d been in about 50 fights, had his backpack cut off him while he was asleep, had all his stuff stolen regularly. Seemed like a reasonable idea to me; it’s literally less than a block from APD headquarters, but the police presence there is usually zero.

- The ARCH is a fucking joke, but the locker thing is really difficult to manage they'd be full up with abandoned stuff and a hotbed for getting ripped off. Honestly IMO there will never be an adequate possession storage system for those living in places not meant to be habitated. Lockers sounds exactly like something the ARCH would think of and its a mickey mouse bandaid on a gunshot wound problem

2) A vehicle that goes around in a set area, at a set time, to provide services for the homeless. Apparently the existing efforts are haphazard, and people never know when or where they will show up.

- There's a lot of fixed location resources, but if he's wanting something that goes to where people need help... for the past 20 years Mobile Loaves and Fishes Trucks have gone out all across the city, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (there are now 13 trucks in Austin) and served OVER 5.5 million meals, and hundreds of tons of clothing, and toiletries. Also in NO WAY is it haphazard. We even have a compendium of over 500 locations of where people in need gather that the people who take a truck out can see what areas have been served recently. That information is available if they call any truck location or the main HQ at Community First! Village, or can be found online. I've met Hundreds if not thousands of people experiencing homeless in Austin over the years and not one of them had never heard of Mobile Loaves and Fishes (some hate our guts, and think we have our heads up our asses), but if they're looking for help that comes to you we're well known. I've personally fed people downtown no less than 50 times so we have multiple downtown stops in our system

3) Showers and laundry facilities. Only 3 of the 11 washers at ARCH are working, according to him.

-As discussed before the ARCH sucks, this wouldn't surprise me.

4) Tables for food drop off. Now people who want to feed the homeless have to drop the food off on the sidewalk. It’s degrading to have to eat off the ground.

- Agree that eating off the ground is degrading, but like the locker deal it's wholly unmanagable. The soup kitchen model is a proven (if antiquated and limited) system or our food truck model gets the food to where it needs to go and people are able to pick what they want from whats available

5) Clothing donations/thrift stores in the area where the homeless are. Lots of them are disabled and can’t walk even 8 or 10 blocks for these things. And Goodwill is too expensive; you need shirts and pants for 3 or 4 dollars.

- As mentioned before MLF trucks carry clothing for free on every truck, and they come to you.

4) For people on medications, change the schedule from monthly to every 2 weeks. He said he’s bipolar schizophrenic, and his medications get stolen regularly. At least he wouldn’t have to wait a full month for a new supply, and he’d be able to stay on his meds more easily.

- This is a big problem, and a fair idea in a transient lifestyle it's impossible to hold onto meds of any amount. Not sure where he's getting medication, but I believe the PES doles out smaller amount of medication for psychiatric circumstances https://integralcare.org/program/psychiatric-emergency-services-pes/

Service point cards: I had to look this up. Apparently it’s a medical services ID card administered by … some agency or something … that folks use to pick up their medications. He noted that it’s bar coded, like a UT ID, and could be used to allow homeless to ride public transportation and bike shares for free, like the deal with UT (I don’t know what deal he was referring to; maybe there is some kind of discount for students? It’s been a long time since I was one). So they could get around and get some shit done, as he put it.

- When I went to and worked for UT, yes students/staff get free CapMetro services. Having worked a lot with CapMetro to get better service to people who have NO other transportation options, there's no way in hell they're going in incentivize MORE utilization of public transit. They actively are planning against it. 

Homeless sponsors: people could sponsor homeless, help them get back on their feet. I was trying to end the conversation by this point, because I’d been talking to him for about 20 minutes and I had shit to do, but it sounded like he could have fleshed this out if I’d let him.

- There's 10 different (that I know of) agencies (Integral Care, DACC, Caritas, FamilyEldercare, Salvation Army just to name a few) that offer dedicated rapid rehousing funds and case management to help people transition off the streets. These are not loans, or anything of that sort and they come with very little strings attached if any. Often theres a basic amount of case management goal setting and planning with some follow through to access those funds. There's also HUD support which is a whole other animal.

[Kyle 207]

Far from an expert outside of spending some nights volunteering with a local shelter during overnight freezes and spend a few nights on the streets with homeless folks. I agree spot on with segmentation.

For the acute cases, as noted above I think we have a good system to help people get back on there feet. I also think we need to do a better job in education focuses less on grievances from centuries ago and more on how to maximize your life today. My guess is most people living paycheck to paycheck are doing so because of choices they made driven by our consumption culture. Almost everyone focuses on the top line not the bottom line. We should do more to encourage people to save money and make better financial decisions (see Vic's FB friends). But our culture is built around treating the symptoms not finding cures as well as removing all personal responsibility from life.

For the chronic cases, feels like if we really want to solve the problem you have to incarcerate and treat, whether mental health or drugs are the issue. I think that really the only way to get a person back to normal and then create that funnel of employment opportunities and support services. I do not love that idea, but sometimes you have to make decisions for the common good. Most crazy or addicted folks understandly face impossible headwinds to face that on their own. For the past 35 years, we've really just focused on making it easier and more comfortable to be homeless, which has clearly solved the problem.

[Bat Guano 359]

12 hours ago, RCRanger03 said:

And now I'm back around and it's late after a long day at work, so a pre-warning this will possibly be incoherent and rambling but hopefully it will some sense.

I definitely don't have much in the way of hard answers (lots of anecdotal evidence to support my ideas though), but happy to have the conversation either here in the thread or by PM if you want some specific questions discussed... Some background I've been working for the past 5 years at Mobile Loaves & Fishes both with the Food Trucks and as one of the property managers at Community First Village

To start there's a few different types of homelessness you might see:

1) Transitory: Something happened and shit fell apart but it's probably not going to stick and within 3 months things usually are on the up and up. This is usually the easiest to assist, and the system does a decent job at serving and helping these folks transition out of homelessness. Occasionally if during this time more issues happen (addiction, physical or mental health degradation, criminal activity) then it can transition into one of the next two.

2) Episodic: Usually tied to mental health or addiction issues. You'll see this population cycling in and out of rehabs and similar programs. A good number of these folks end up in supportive housing communities like Community First! Village. If they lose the social connections because of this cycle it's usually what leads thing to the third type.

3) Chronic Homelessness: a year or more on the street consecutively, or multiple episodes adding up to a year in the past 3 years or less. These are often people who have degraded social connections completely (family, friends, church communities etc) either by the own actions or by outside circumstances. We believe that this catastrophic loss of family and community is the root cause of this type of homelessness. Maybe the instigating circumstance would have been bad enough to create transitory or episodic homelessness, but without people to turn to and to rely on when things are going to shit, it becomes a increasing feedback loop of ostracization and departure from the normal social structures which further ingrain the issues that got them there in the first place.

Chronic homelessness is most of what you see encamped around the ARCH and it's the hardest to break out of, because most programs/individuals are maybe willing to throw money out there to feed/clothe. That's very good and important (it's been MLF's bread and butter for 20 years). Maybe a step up from that is getting people into housing or work. Thats even better than the first option and it works for some people (mostly those in Transitory or Episodic homelessness) however often it's much more expensive than an individual or private community (like a church) can sustain outside of single cases, and it's not very effective for Chronic homelessness (about 25% - 30% effectiveness is the absolute best that I've seen), because it's often predicated in taking an ostracized and outcast person (for whatever myriad of reasons) and putting a roof over their head and assuming that the rest will follow, but their still an ostracized person with all of the same myriad of reasons and most of the time still without any community or social structures. Work if it is available at all often requires consistent transportation, figuring out the healthcare system on your own is a nightmare and try it without insurance, Without that support and exchange of humanity (that we take for granted) it more often than not ends up being expensive temporary shelter rather that further fucks their record (with evictions and collections). It's not impossible I've seen some ASTOUNDING success stories through that model, but it's not resolving the issue that you encountered. It's a better bandage but it's still working on the wounds at the surface, we have to go deeper. People who are fantastically and traumatically abused and hurting don't just need a roof and four walls, they need someone to care about them and someone they can care back about. If there isn't purpose and relationship in people's lives then struggles  

What we do at Community First! Village is try to go upstream and address that root cause of lost community by making it the forefront of what we offer. We get people into housing, we provide good dignified well paying work onsite in everything from woodworking to catering to blacksmithing to farming and on and on, mental and physical health as well addiction recovery resources are on site and free. More importantly we flood the community with relationships. The houses are built in a orientation to encourage and foster relationship, volunteers come out to the village by the droves and are lead in their work by the residents which not only builds up that person but breaks down the stereotypes people who volunteer bring with them about what being "a homeless person" mean. We setup a community council system the neighbors to elect representation that comes to the table with staff to make changes to better the community. We're 3.5 years into having residency out here and we have 85% retention or positive transition without relapse. We're already even building 300 more homes to be finished and ready for move in next year, and are pursuing options to expand to over 1000 residences if possible. I'll be the first to admit t's not perfect, but it's definitely a new approach thats working. Don't just take my word for it though, if you spend a day volunteering or even just coming to an event out at the village you'll see the difference community makes. Most of the people you see thriving at the village were not long ago the same people you saw languishing outside the ARCH or flying a sign panhandling on the street corner.  

Anyways I'll give it a rest, and answer questions, but I wanted to briefly respond to the OP's original set of questions, because I appreciate his willingness to listen to the person that he met and actually take some energy to think about the issues brought up. In a world of people not giving a shit about each other, you did and that means a whole lot, so thank you.

Thanks, Ranger; great post. It's good to hear from someone who knows what he's talking about.

It sounds like there are things in place for a lot of this guy's concerns. That Community First village sounds like a great idea; I had heard of it before, but forgot about it. Maybe he's just a whiner. One thing he mentioned specifically was a 350 lb. guy who is going around wearing blankets because nobody could find clothes to fit him. So maybe crosspost in the Body Transformation thread: some of you guys that have lost a shit ton of weight and want to get rid of your fat clothes, here's your opportunity.

It also seems that I'm seeing more homeless people the last few years. I don't know if this reflects an actual increase or if the panhandlers have just gotten more aggressive. Are you seeing more homelessness? More of any of the three types?

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

Good discussion in this thread.

[mdmost 43,059]

Great thread. In Dallas, there are some great resources for homeless individuals and families that we've done a little volunteering with. One is The Stewpot which provides homeless "clients" with services like a location they can have mail sent to, medical exams, dental exams, job hunting resources, a food pantry, and a clothing store where they can get new/used clothes. We got hooked up through them when my kids did a lemonade stand that helped raise money to buy supplies for summer survival kits (sunscreen, toothpaste, deodorant, etc) that the kids then gave out to the homeless clients that would walk in. Another great place is The Family Gateway which is a 34 room facility that allows homeless families to have a temporary (90 day) place to stay while they get back on their feet. Each family has a caseworker that helps them with finding more permanent housing, job assistance, preschool placement, and other needs. My kids helped deliver donated Girl Scout cookies to them just last week. We've also taken all their old in good shape toys and stuffed animals up there as a lot of the kids that come through have nothing. They had over 150 kids at this place when we visited. A lot of the families arrive there coming from abusive situations so it's a safer place for them to lay their heads than a car. It's a very eye-opening experience to go there because you typically think of the homeless in terms of individuals, usually male. The cookies the kids brought weren't much but I think little things like that could brighten someone's day. We've committed to doing something every month to assist either or both of these places. The homelessness problem in Dallas is getting worse and The Family Gateway couldn't really tell us why they've seen such a big increase so far this year. 

Edited April 10, 2019 by mdmost

[crash_davis 23,115]

i was in shitty omaha nebraska yesterday.  walked 4 blocks from my hotel to the meeting place.  did not see one homeless person.  not one dumbass motherfucker harassing me for money.  not one asshole calling me an asshole when i didn't give him money.  not one drugged out motherfucker passed on in a doorway.  not one smell of piss.  streets were clean.

fuck nebraska.  apparently it's so shitty that even homeless avoid the place.  but i do envy not having to deal with all the bullshit that comes with homeless people--from tax dollars spent trying to feed, house, and clean, to petty crime, to trashing up the city.

we should do what other texas cities are doing to us, buy the homeless one way bus ticket to anywhere but austin.  

[Deej 76,971]

Sounds like those one-way bus tickets should be to Nebraska.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,966]

I enjoyed Omaha the last time I was there, but that was because I was watching the CWS.

[Lhorn 4,970]

56 minutes ago, Deej said:

Sounds like those one-way bus tickets should be to Nebraska.

Free or not would you want to go to Nebraska?

[Deej 76,971]

Beggars can't be choosers.

[ChickenSandwich 9,856]

Does anyone remember the two strippers who used to panhandle for rent in bikinis on Parmer in the early 2000s?  

Its out of the box thinking like that that will solve these problems.  

 

 

 

[Hook1997 5,404]

Great thread.  I’ve always thought about starting a charity for this type of thing if I won the lotto type thing.  If I won like 10 million I would start my own businesses of course but also a deal to help this situation out.  I’m talking the ones who can learn and want to, you screen them of course but only the ones who really want to change.  You pay for them to go thru trade school or real school if they show that.  They do not have to be homeless but living in a house with a wife and 3 kids and working hard but shows potential is good too.  So you pay for their school and help out with rent in the time they are in school.  This is a way to actually change lives as long as you choose the right people of course they aren’t always going to follow thru but the ones that do, you have made a huge difference for the whole family that you can see years later. 

[Hook1997 5,404]

Just now, Hook1997 said:

Great thread.  I’ve always thought about starting a charity for this type of thing if I won the lotto type thing. Cause some just need help and can be successful.  If I won like 10 million I would start my own businesses of course but also a deal to help this situation out.  I’m talking the ones who can learn and want to, you screen them of course but only the ones who really want to change.  You pay for them to go thru trade school or real school if they show that.  They do not have to be homeless but living in a house with a wife and 3 kids and working hard but shows potential is good too.  So you pay for their school and help out with rent in the time they are in school.  This is a way to actually change lives as long as you choose the right people of course they aren’t always going to follow thru but the ones that do, you have made a huge difference for the whole family that you can see years later. 

 

[justhookit 4,191]

On 4/9/2019 at 4:43 PM, Mitch Cumsteen said:

They need something like Haven for Hope in San Antonio in Austin.

I've taken the tour there a couple of times and it's really impressive. Their entire philosophy is giving people a hand up, not a hand out. They coordinate services for healthcare, job training, housing, etc. It's a fairly remarkable place. 

https://www.havenforhope.org/

 

You probably have met my mom then. She is their “lead” tour guide.

[RCRanger03 1,049]

If anyone is interested in checking out Community First let me know and I can probably arrange a tour

[Kyle 207]

Please don't neg me to oblivion for mentioning Jerusalem-on-the-Brazos, but Jimmy Dorrell has done a lot of good work at Mission Waco, and although not familiar, I understand Mission Arlington has successfully executed a similar model with some success for those in Dallas.

[RCRanger03 1,049]

1 hour ago, Kyle said:

Please don't neg me to oblivion for mentioning Jerusalem-on-the-Brazos, but Jimmy Dorrell has done a lot of good work at Mission Waco, and although not familiar, I understand Mission Arlington has successfully executed a similar model with some success for those in Dallas.

Big supporter of Jimmy here, the person who runs Church under the Bridge/Mission Possible is one of my residents

[BearSchlong 8,123]

Back to offer a serious answer and a little of my personal passion.  This doesn't answer the larger systemic chronic homelessness issue but it's how I try to make a positive contribution to a specific homeless population.

I'm on the board at this non-profit  - https://thehowcenter.org/ and https://thehowcenter.org/how-becoming-a-resident-works/

We are really geared towards people who are homeless because of addiction/alcoholism, but I suppose any homeless person with the ability and willingness to work and be self supporting would be welcome, as long as they were willing to remain clean and sober (and not be a bad influence on others) while they are living there.  The majority of our guys come from rehab or parole but anyone who walks in off the street is eligible.

Room, board, and lots of support services for a very reasonable $130/week. Most guys come in, get situated, and begin working and then paying rent within a month or so.  They also do housekeeping/cooking/maintenance chores so they are making a positive contribution to the center.  Finding jobs for the guys isn't very difficult, as you can imagine there are lots of places willing to hire sober men who are really trying to improve their situation.  It's not uncommon for several guys to work for the same employer, and provide fellowship and moral support to each other throughout the workday.

We have a full-time director and an admin on-site who handle day to day management, community outreach, grant writing, fundraising, and countless other functions.  They've built strong relationships with dozens of other groups like the Food Bank, Salvation Army, Rehab centers, City Council, Police and Fire departments, United Way, Charitable foundations, and of course lots of employers.  Really dedicated, underpaid people doing an awesome job.

I've seen a lot in the 8 years I've been involved with this place.  Guys who were completely shattered who had their lives put back together and have "graduated" and moved on, gotten married/families/great careers, and who continue to visit and support the center even decades later.  The successful men stay about a year, on average, and then move out and get places of their own - about 2-4 per month follow this pattern.  Others need up to 2 years to feel comfortable doing so.  There have been men who aren't really capable of living "outside" but who are willing to work as house managers, assisting the residents with getting resources and helping keep them accountable (residency means you submit to on the spot drug tests on demand).  All in all, the whole place works out very well, and has so since it was established in the early '90s.

I've also seen guys come in, stay sober, leave, and end up returning in a few months, unable to manage life on their own.  I know several who ended up committing suicide. One guy "found religion" and confessed to a cold case capital murder down in Corpus Christi - and then gave our director the credit for his newfound honesty.  Since then, screening for a history of violent felonies was stepped up.

We would love to expand, or perhaps even develop a separate women's facility, which is challenging as many have children which would need to live with them.

One of my very best friends  has his own way of helping - https://kfdm.com/news/local/efforts-underway-to-help-protect-homeless-southeast-texans-from-bitter-cold-spell

The thing that really troubles me is the number of homeless vets.  Recently I started mentoring a guy who is 22 going on 12, just a big goofy kid.  Who incidentally has a CIB and some bad PTSD from a tour in Afghanistan followed by 2 years of being homeless.  We send these kids overseas to take lives, then they fall through the cracks when they get home.

tl;dr - my main contribution is time and friendship to those that need it.

 

Edited April 11, 2019 by BearSchlong

[Post Oak 20,295]

7 hours ago, RCRanger03 said:

Big supporter of Jimmy here, the person who runs Church under the Bridge/Mission Possible is one of my residents

Jimmy is the man.  He is slowly working to rejuvenate multiple blocks in a community that badly needs it.  I drive through there once a month or so on my way to the park just to see the progress.  

 

[RCRanger03 1,049]

That CNN piece is trending on their home page as the feature US story and it went from a few hundred thousand views to 1.5 Million in a day. If you have a minute to drive some traffic through their link or share it on social media to keep that media snowball going downhill I'd greatly appreciate it!

https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/275028123212271

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/us/iyw-town-for-the-homeless-trnd/index.html

Attention like this will be immeasurably helpful in getting OTHER communities looking at the model for their cities. We're doing quarterly training and showcases essentially at no cost for people who are considering replicating, including more in depth secondary and tertiary programs that go deeper and into the nitty gritty as they progress with plans (there's already 4 graduated programs that are developing communities in other cities). Mobile Loaves & Fishes has it's limits, and we need to keep empower other organizations (existing or even not yet existing) into similarly minded developments to continue improving conditions for those in this situation and as a byproduct the cities and communities that they live in.

Edited April 15, 2019 by RCRanger03