Emergency Shelter – Defined by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as any facility, where the primary purpose is to provide temporary or transitional shelter for the homeless in general or for specific populations of the homeless.
Rehabilitation – Defined by HUD as the labor, materials, tools and other costs of improving buildings, other than minor or routine repairs. Includes where the use of a building is changed to an emergency shelter and the cost of this change and any rehabilitation costs does not exceed 75 percent of the value of the building before the change in use or an improvement or addition to an existing structure that does not increase the floor area by more than 100 percent.
Transitional Housing – Defined by the McKinney Act as housing, the purpose of which is to facilitate the movement of homeless individuals and families to permanent housing within 24 months or longer period, as necessary.
These terms and definitions, as well as others related to housing, appear in the Terms & Acronyms section of the RAC’s Housing and Homelessness Topic Guide.
Who Is Homeless?
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines someone as "homeless" by where they live.
A sheltered homeless person resides in:
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an emergency shelter
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transitional housing for homeless persons who originally came from the streets or emergency shelters
An unsheltered homeless person resides in:
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a place not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, sidewalks, abandoned buildings or on the streets
For more federal definitions of homelessness, as well as fact sheets and other resources on homelessness, see the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Topic Areas page on Homelessness
Although homelessness is generally considered an urban phenomenon, about 9 percent—or 70,000 people on any given night—of the homeless live in rural areas, according to 2007 research done by the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Research from the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) indicates that factors in rural homelessness include one or more of these characteristics: higher poverty rates in rural areas, lack of jobs, low wages, and limited housing opportunities. Lack of rural infrastructure, such as childcare and public transportation, also make gainful employment more difficult in rural areas, which contributes to homelessness, according to the 2007 National Symposium on Homelessness Research. More specific research related to rural areas and the differences between rural and urban approaches is necessary, according to advocacy groups such as NCH, in order to better understand and prevent rural homelessness.
Meanwhile, there are rural providers that are making significant strides in their respective locations, by focusing not only on meeting emergency needs for people who are homeless, but also on helping homeless individuals and families get into transitional and permanent supportive housing options that provide long-term solutions. In this issue we look at some of these providers and their programs.
Rural Homeless
Offering Help and Hope to Rural Homeless in Colorado
by Candi Helseth
In Colorado’s very rural, agricultural San Luis Valley where poverty rates are high and weather harsh, La Puente Home, in Alamosa, Colo., offers homeless individuals a respite from the problems that have led to their homelessness. Last year, La Puente Home provided emergency shelter for 1,050 homeless individuals, including 100 families. Lee Walters was among them—it was the third time over a 15-year period that Walters had lived in the shelter.
La Puente Home in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado provides emergency shelter to thousands each year.
“Every year here we see lives lost due to lack of shelter, not just homeless people but also people with insufficient housing,” said Georgia Parment, La Puente’s education coordinator. “In the winters when we can easily have subzero temperatures, people who have no electricity or insufficient heat will move in, too.”
Walters, whose bouts of homelessness have been offset by better times, was one of the dedicated volunteers who helped cook and serve 43,000 meals at the shelter last year. La Puente also provided emergency food assistance to an additional 35,000 individuals.
Through the years, Walters says he has met homeless people from all walks of life. Regardless of their skills and backgrounds, he said, they share common feelings of being devastated and overwhelmed. He understands that.
“You just don’t see a way out, regardless of the reason how you got there,” he said. “You can’t really see past your problems. Then there’s the stigma. Yes, there’s a lot of homeless people that are addicted or mentally ill, but then you don’t know what put them in that position either. Things happen. Like, I didn’t choose to not be able to work and take care of myself.”
Walters spent 17 years in the military. Then a heart attack forced his discharge. He said he didn’t receive full veteran’s benefits because the heart attack was ruled as being unrelated to his military service. He returned to Alamosa broke and sick in 1995, and moved into La Puente Home for a while. Although his health problems prevent him from working full-time or at stressful jobs, he has supported himself and lived independently most of the time since then. But a few years later, when the department store where he worked closed and his wife left him, he returned to La Puente’s shelter. On his own again, he returned again last fall after suffering a debilitating stroke.
“La Puente is great at helping you get back to self-sufficiency,” Walters said. “They help find apartments, get medication you need, get you ready for job interviews, a lot of tremendous things that are way more than food and shelter. And they help you think through things and figure out what to do when you just can’t see it.”
La Puente Home provides three meals a day for homeless people staying at the emergency shelter.
Looking beyond immediate needs
Although Walters is living independently again, he is permanently disabled and unable to work. La Puente staff is helping him apply for disability benefits. Illnesses closely associated with poverty—such as malnutrition, life-threatening dental problems and addiction issues—are overwhelming among the homeless because they don’t have health insurance or the money to pay for services, according to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.
La Puente serves a six-county region that includes the state’s two poorest counties. Twenty-four percent of the population in La Puente’s service area has no health insurance, compared to the state average of 15 percent. Twenty percent receive Medicaid, compared to 9 percent in the rest of Colorado.
“La Puente’s Health Access Initiative advocates and navigates homeless and near-homeless individuals into health services,” Parment said. “Generally, prevention and medical care is the farthest thing from their minds. They’re too busy thinking about what they’re going to eat or where they’re going to sleep. And they know they can’t afford health care so they ignore the problem until they can’t any longer.”
Ultimately, when homeless people do get treatment, it is usually in hospital emergency rooms, the most expensive form of health care. At that point, they require more care and more resources because the illness or injury has likely advanced.
La Puente staff also work with shelter residents to help them look for jobs and connect with other providers that can help them live independently. But rural areas generally have fewer opportunities for employment, with lower paying jobs and little or no public transportation, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH). Parment said people in the valley might live many miles from where potential jobs are located. Because they can’t afford a personal vehicle, they have no way to get to work.
La Puente also provides services such as supportive and permanent housing programs and home rehabilitation to stop residents from losing their homes or being evicted. Emergency assistance is essential, Parment said, but so is prevention and long-term housing.
Increasing awareness and public support
For effective change to take place nationwide, public awareness and attitudes about homelessness must change, said Neil Donovan, NCH executive director. Donovan said that public perception tends to view homeless people as the source of their own misfortune, and most Americans’ association with homelessness relates only to chronically homeless individuals on the streets who often are mentally ill or addicted to alcohol or drugs.
La Puente forbids alcohol and drug usage. Residents who break the rules must leave. La Puente also limits TV viewing and requires residents to do daily chores and show progress in changing their situation.
Despite rural homelessness being “virtually ignored for years,” Donovan said progress is being made. He pointed to rural Ohio’s RHISCO Project (see Helping the Rural Homeless Find Permanent Housing) as an example of a successful model that can be duplicated in other rural areas.
La Puente uses fundraising efforts like this thrift store to help fund its programs for the homeless.
“With RHISCO, we also realized we don’t know as much about rural homelessness as we need to as a national organization, and no one else does either,” Donovan said. “We are trying feverishly hard to understand the problem relative to rural areas.”
NCH and its member chapters, which represent every state, are working to increase awareness in their respective locations. The Faces of Homelessness Speakers Bureau has made presentations to more than 17,000 people in 40 states. NCH sought out homeless people, training and paying them to help educate the public and to present their stories to Congress when federal funding is being requested.
Rural homelessness was totally unfunded for many years, Donovan said. Even now, the way the federal government “counts” homeless people negatively impacts rural areas’ federal funding. (See How Many Rural Homeless Are There?) Parment said La Puente is able to offer its comprehensive programming only because of the strong support it receives from area churches, fundraising events and an abundance of volunteers. That includes an ongoing partnership with AmeriCorps; currently, 20 AmeriCorps volunteers are living in Alamosa for a year and working for La Puente. In addition, La Puente receives funding from the Colorado Division of Housing Emergency Shelter Grant Program, the Community Services Block Grant program, FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program, and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), a $1.5 billion stimulus-funded initiative, is helping communities prevent further increases in homelessness as a result of the recession. However, the recession is also increasing the need for services. Insufficient resources, both in terms of funding and available staff and volunteers, will continue to be particular challenges for rural providers seeking to address the problem of homelessness.
Peggy Palmer joined the ranks of homeless Americans in 2007 when a flood destroyed her home in Neodesha, Kan. Palmer couldn’t get flood insurance so there was no insurance to cover the loss, and she didn’t make enough money to repair her home. She moved to Hutchinson, a larger community of about 16,000, to live in temporary shelter housing provided by New Beginnings, a nonprofit agency that coordinates housing needs for near-homeless and homeless people. Now Palmer’s participation in Interfaith Housing Services’ (IHS) Individual Development Account (IDA) Program in Hutchinson has put her back on track to buy a home.
Peggy Palmer, who became homeless after a flood, is saving to buy a new home through an Interfaith Housing Services program in Hutchinson, Kan.
IDA, which IHS began offering in 2008 and is currently one of its five housing solution programs, helped Palmer learn life skills and financial management techniques to achieve long-term financial stability. IDA participants must follow a budget and establish savings accounts to buy or repair a house, or pursue education or job skills training. IHS matches every dollar saved by an IDA accountholder with two dollars from the IDA fund. Palmer got a job at $9 an hour in Hutchinson and lived in shelter housing for a year before moving into New Beginnings’ transitional housing program, where she pays rent based on her income level.
“I would recommend these services to anyone,” Palmer said. “I’ll use what I’ve learned forever and with what I have saved, I will be able to start looking for a house this summer.”
Rural homelessness, like urban homelessness, is the result of poverty and a lack of affordable housing, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH). The most recent (2005) research showed that one in five nonmetro counties is classified as high poverty (poverty rate of 20 percent or more), compared to only one in 20 metro counties, said NCH Executive Director Neil Donovan. Rural residential histories reveal that structural housing problems jeopardize health or safety, forcing families out of their homes. Limited availability of rural rental properties often forces them to take housing they ultimately can’t afford long-term. Then they become homeless again.
IHS helps rural families stay in their homes by providing resources to keep the homes livable—fixing roofs, building ramps to meet needs of a disabled family member, etc. IHS also rehabilitates dilapidated vacant properties to convert them to transitional housing.
“A lot of rural people we assist are homeless because of emergency situations,” said IHS Director of Development Emily Hurst. “They don’t have the means to change their situation. By helping them stay in their home or get into another home, we can help prevent them from becoming chronically homeless.”
IHS also works with IDA participants to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills to stay in the homes they purchase. Participants set goals and learn ways to live more economically, from preparing healthy low-cost meals to finding better jobs. Weekly educational classes, ongoing counseling and sticking to a planned budget are mandatory. Thirty-eight clients have completed the program, which is funded through private donations and state tax credits. Hurst said the program has been such a success that Kansas state executives are examining funding methods to expand it statewide.
“The IDA program not only changes the future for the households but for the local economy as well,” Hurst said. “Instead of depending on public resources for rent and food, they’re learning to become financially stable rather than draining the local economy.”
Rural Ohio, with 112 emergency shelters, 64 transitional housing programs and 70 permanent supportive housing programs, is also successfully meeting emergency and long-term needs for homeless residents. In 2005, 17 rural Ohio counties began working with the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations to end homelessness by providing transitional and permanent housing through the RHISCO (Rural Homeless Initiative of Southeast and Central Ohio) Project. NCH has lauded RHISCO as a model “leading to new insights and solutions to rural homelessness.”
Jonda Clemings, Rural Housing Program Coordinator with the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Columbus, Ohio, says that supportive housing is a long-term solution to homelessness.
“Of 88 counties in Ohio, 80 are primarily rural and 54 of those already have a higher than national average for poverty rate and with the current economy, foreclosures are increasing,” said Jonda Clemings, Rural Housing Program Coordinator with the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Columbus, OH. “We are trying to prevent these people from becoming homeless or if they are, to acclimate them back into the community as quickly as possible. Supportive housing is a long-term solution that gives homeless people a place to live while learning to take charge of their lives.”
Using Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding, the Coalition provided training and technical assistance for the prevention and rapid re-housing program, which places individuals and families in affordable housing. They also receive social service referrals, transportation to job interviews, access to medical care, education on budgeting and lifestyle issues, and other services.
“The primary emphasis is job training and getting residents back into the work force,” Clemings said. “If they’re working, they pay about 30 percent of their adjusted incomes to live in affordable housing. Many have major disabilities or are dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues. In those cases, we try to address those things first by getting them treatment.”
Each county sets eligibility standards. Types of supportive housing vary greatly, depending on community size and availability. Demand has been high and some areas have waiting lists, Clemings said.
“As with everything in rural areas, there’s not enough staff or sufficient financial resources to do it all,” Clemings said. “But we need to start somewhere and do what we can as efficiently as possible. Stable, permanent housing is a primary key in ending homelessness.”
Counting the number of homeless individuals is a formidable task. Counting the rural homeless is even more difficult and numbers are likely to be less accurate, say rural providers. In fact, rural homeless people are commonly referred to as “the hidden homeless” in media reports. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires states to do homelessness counts every two years, and rural providers are going to greater lengths to get accurate assessments because numbers impact federal funding levels.
“Our rural homeless people are often out in the middle of nowhere—state parks, abandoned buildings, heavily wooded isolated areas where they aren’t likely to be noticed,” said Jonda Clemings, rural housing coordinator at the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Columbus, Ohio. “When we first started trying to get a handle on the extent of the problem in Ohio, we had several communities that said they had no homeless people. They just weren’t seeing them.”
Precarious housing, such as chicken coops, doesn’t fall within HUD’s definition, nor do facilities such as domestic violence centers and jails, which may provide shelter for homeless in rural areas, Clemings said. (In some rural areas, local police departments may allow homeless people to stay in empty jail cells under certain circumstances.)
“We believe the number of rural homeless people is higher than surveys show,” said Tona Turner, United Way executive director in Reno County, Kan. “When we did our counts, which HUD required, in January when we have extreme weather, we had many eyewitnesses who told us they knew of homeless people who weren’t in those spots at that point. Without an emergency shelter in the county, we believe those people were couch surfing, moving between families and sleeping on their couches. Rural people are more likely to take someone in, but it’s temporary. Those people are still homeless and will be back out there when weather improves. Urban areas with emergency shelters are going to have higher counts on extreme weather days.”
As part of a statewide effort, United Way coordinated Reno County’s homelessness count. Of 64 individuals identified in January 2009, 55 were found in transitional housing programs, five in hotel voucher systems or domestic violence shelters, and one temporarily in a private home. Three were unsheltered.
Lack of consensus on the definition of “rurality” also impedes research into rural homelessness, the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition concluded in its October 2009 report.
Both Kansas and Ohio have done extensive training to educate their volunteers and improve data collection. Clemings, who has spoken at several homelessness conferences in recent months, said addressing rural homelessness requires a more flexible definition, substantiated research specifically related to rural areas, and recognition that rural areas have very different issues and needs than urban areas.
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