I don’t have details yet, but the date for North Carolina’s 2008 conference on homelessness in Raleigh is November 17-18. Mark your calendars!

Update:

“Success in a Time of Change”
The North Carolina Interagency Council for Coordinating Homeless Programs presents North Carolina’s Conference on Homelessness: November 17 & 18, 2008
Jane S. McKimmon Center, Raleigh, NC

» View/download brochure (PDF)

» More info and registration

Presented at the North Carolina Conference On Homelessness, April, 2007, by Virginia Luchetti, EdD, Licensed Psychologist, specializing in homeless services in Contra Costa County, California.

[The award was] created in recognition that congregations and communities of faith always have been and continue to be instrumental in community efforts to improve the lives of poor and struggling people, particularly in serving homeless people. Westover Church has formed a network of more than 3,000 volunteers who participate on various projects, including efforts to strengthen homeless programs.

I asked Wes Ward, Westover’s Director of Local Ministries, for details about the church’s ministry to the poor and homeless in Greensboro, and he gave me the following information:

1.) Westover’s substandard housing team has partnered with Habitat for Humanity’s Home Repair Division here in Greensboro. They have committed to repair 36 homes over the next three years. The homeowners are in danger of losing their homes through city or county condemnation because the homes have fallen into disrepair. Many of the homeowners are either disabled or financially unable to pay for the repairs. Westover considers this ministry to be homeless prevention. They have work teams that serve almost every Saturday on this initiative. Their financial commitment is $2,000 for each home repair project.

2.) Westover works with case workers from Greensboro Urban Ministry, The Salvation Army of Greensboro, the Guilford County Department of Public Health’s Baby Love Program, the Guilford County Department of Social Services, and Triad Health Project. Westovers collects a monthly offering called “the People Helping People Fund,” which is used to support Westover’s substandard housing program in addition to helping case workers from the above agencies prevent their clients from being homeless. Also, Westover financially supports Hunter Elementary’s homeless fund for families and children who are experiencing homelessness.

3.) For more than seven years, Westover has provided and served monthly meals at Grace Community Church’s Wednesday Community Dinner. The majority of the guests at the dinner are homeless. [Westover has actually been providing the food and volunteers for the dinner twice a month for the past 3-4 years, at least.]

4.) Recently, Westover has served at NightWatch. They hope to provide more people to serve at NightWatch in the future. [We look forward to that! ]

5.) Westover is in the process of building a poverty team. A component of that team is to look at the issue of homelessness to see how Westover can do more to reach out on this issue.

6.) Wes is a member of the Guilford County Task Force to End Homelessness, and recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend a conference on ending chronic homelessness. Westover hopes to launch several new initiatives related to this issue once the Task Force’s Ten Year Plan is announced to the public.

7.) Westover hosted a town hall meeting (in its theater) related to the 10 year plan to end chronic homelessness in Guilford County

8.) Westover is a member of the Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County.

9.) Westover partners with the Barnabas Network to provide furniture to individuals who are currently in homes. Westover’s members regularly donate furniture that is picked up by Barnabas staff and taken to the Barnabas warehouse. Then it’s delivered to or picked up by individuals and families in need.

10.) For several years, Westover participated in the Guilford Interfaith Housing Network, which provides housing for homeless families.

11.) Westover was also involved with the former Amends Ministry, which operated a housing program for ex-offenders, and was founded by Westover member Dewey Massey, who recently passed away.

Westover has a history of ministry to the poor and homeless in Greensboro, and they continue that commitment today.

Westover is part of my own story about homeless ministry:

When my children were young, I was involved in ministry to children and families in a public housing community through our church (Lawndale Baptist at that time, where I grew up), and I tutored children from another public housing community through my children’s school. But then, about 7-8 years ago, I volunteered with a class from Westover at a Community Dinner to the homeless at Grace, and it was life-changing for me.

I started attending the dinners frequently and then started attending the church. I joined Grace and got involved in homeless and outreach ministries, eventually becoming an intern, then a deacon and case manager. So it was through a Westover ministry that God called me to serve the homeless in Greensboro. Westover has a very special place in my heart, because it’s a part of my own journey to the street with Jesus.

San Diego Police Department’s Serial Inebriate Program attempts to stop the “revolving door” (detox to jail to hospital to street and back) for chronically homeless alcoholics. The SIP strategy is to convict on criminal charges (drunk in public/disorderly conduct) and then provide treatment and housing in lieu of jail time.

Initial research found that 15 of San Diego’s chronic inebriates made 417 emergency department trips over an 18-month period ending in December 1998, at a cost of nearly $1.5 million. SIP began in January 2000, and by 2004, a SIP impact study showed that hospital costs for the serial inebriate population were reduced by 80%.

>> View this SIP presentation for more, including goals, strategy, partnerships, funding, and before and after photos of people who’ve participated in the SIP program.

Notes from session with John Yazwinski, Executive Director, Father Bill’s Place in Quincy, Massachusetts:

Rules and regulations in homeless shelters don’t work for many people with significant mental illness or serious substance abuse issues. They’re asked to stand in line to get a meal, get a bed, take a shower. They’re asked to be on time for meals, be on time for curfew, be on time for appointments. They’re asked to sleep in a room with 50-100 other people. Meanwhile, they’re supposed to “pull themselves together.” This is a difficult task for anyone, and can be an impossible task for people with significant mental illness and substance abuse issues.

Housing first models target the folks who are toughest to serve. Throw out the traditional continuum of care (do this first, then this…) and substitute a harm-reduction model. It’s a very different model, and there will likely be staff resistance. Homeless providers and staff may not believe it will work. But research says that it does.

A lot of chronically homeless people can’t make it in a scattered site housing first program, but they can be successful in project-based housing (SROs with common areas.) Let housemates be part of the process. Housemates provide both peer pressure and peer support. The house will not heal you, but the house will give you a place to heal. You still have to be willing to do what you need to do.

Your non-profit can own your housing or partner with a non-profit developer who owns the property, while you manage and rent the buildings, and then sub-lease to your clients. Ask local leaders to suggest distressed properties that are available in your community that they’d like to see rehabbed and start there. Be better neighbors than what was there before.

For project-based houses, provide a room for residents to meet with case managers, family, etc. They’ll share a bathroom and kitchen. Consider putting a refrigerator in each resident’s room. Have group rules that come from the housemates — not the staff. Residents sign a standard lease and must abide by its terms.

He had a home, a family, two cars and job making $60K a year. Then he got divorced and lost his job. The loss of his family and his life led to depression and alcohol use that made him unemployable. He lived from place to place and went from job to job. Eventually he went from shelter to shelter.

He didn’t like homeless shelters. He was “better than that.” He “didn’t belong there.” So he slept outside, where he was free. But he still couldn’t accept that he was “one of those homeless bums.” Thus began “the legend of Crazy Mike that lived in the woods.”

He showered, ate and did laundry at shelters. He worked at day labor places. But then, he says, “God decided I still needed to learn.” He got a broken arm, and then went to jail for not paying child support.

After he got out out of jail, he started panhandling. People treated him badly. And he discovered something about himself. Before he became homeless, “I had no consideration for the less fortunate,” he says.

He couldn’t get a job, so he begged for money from “rich college kids.” He found that they had “a great outlook on life,” and would give him money. He also set up a camp near a gas station. He helped people with their cars and they helped him in return. He was the “jovial, homeless helping” guy, living in the camp in the woods.

He had no phone, no address, no transportation. So he couldn’t get food stamps, disability benefits or a job. He prayed daily about his pride and vanity. He prayed for a real job and a place to live.

He was still drinking. He explained that when you’re homeless and living outside, alcohol is like anti-freeze. It keeps you warm, but it causes internal damage. He was at Duke twice because of his drinking. Both times he almost died from internal bleeding. Everyone was urging him stop drinking.

And then one day, he met some outreach workers from a housing program for homeless people. The outreach workers helped him get housing — and then he quit drinking. The outreach team came to him where he was — they didn’t wait for him to come in. He believes that it’s important to go out and seek the truly needy where they are, and help them become productive members of society.

He asked us to think about when we were in elementary school and people asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And he said, “No one ever says ‘homeless.’ We all have the same dreams. Mental illness and substance abuse cause people’s dreams to come crashing down. We need programs to go where people are and to help them, one-on-one.”

She’s a high school senior, headed to college next year. Not so long ago, she was homeless. Her mom is on drugs and her father is incarcerated. She lived with an aunt, but when she was 16, her aunt moved and told her that she couldn’t come to the new place. So for eight months, she was homeless. She went from house to house, friend to friend, place to place, trying to finish school, trying to find a home. She says there’s a difference between a house and a home. She stayed at people’s houses. She didn’t have a home.

Eventually, she told a counselor at her school about her situation, and the counselor got her into a program for homeless students. A case manager located the grandmother she’d never met, and she went to live at her grandmom’s house. They don’t get along so well, but it’s a place to stay until she starts college next fall. She wants to work with homeless people when she finishes school.

Her voice breaks as she talks about how hard it is to be a homeless student. Getting teased at school. “I have overcome so much,” she says, and she’s weeping now, but there is strength in her voice, too. “In December, I rededicated my life to Christ.” There are “amens” from the audience, and for a moment, this auditorium feels more like a church.

She says that her mother and grandmother were both teenage moms, and she’s now about to graduate from high school and she’s never been pregnant and doesn’t plan to be. You can hear the determination in her voice. She explains that for many girls in her situation, their way out is to get pregnant and get in public housing, but, she says, that’s not the way out. She knows the way.

She thinks there should be a program just for girls. Homeless girls. She appreciates all the help that she’s had. It’s been hard and it’s been embarrassing. But she’s going to make it.

Michael was a healthcare worker, struggling with addiction. He cared for his grandmom after she was diagnosed with cancer, but lost hope when she died and his addiction worsened. With no other family support, he became homeless.

He eventually went to a treatment center, which he described as “the gates of hell,” only because he thought he was dying and “wanted somebody to take care of my corpse.” Instead, they gave him shelter and treatment for his medical problems.

At this point in the story, Michael told a variation of this joke (source):

A doctor, a lawyer, a little boy and a priest were out for a Sunday afternoon flight on a small private plane when the plane developed engine trouble. In spite of the best efforts of the pilot, the plane started to go down.

The pilot grabbed a parachute, yelled to the passengers that they had better jump, and bailed out. Unfortunately there were only three parachutes remaining.

The doctor grabbed one and said, “I’m a doctor! I save lives, so I must live,” and jumped out.

The lawyer then said, “I’m the smartest man in the world, I deserve to live!” He grabbed a parachute and jumped.

The priest looked at the little boy and said, “My son, I’ve lived a long and full life. You are young and have your whole life ahead of you. Take the last parachute and live in peace.”

The little boy handed the parachute back to the priest and said, “Don’t worry, Father. The smartest man in the world just took off with my backpack.”

After the laughter subsided, Michael looked at us intently and said, “No matter how smart you think you are, you can still make the wrong choice… I’m not where I want to be or need to be, but I’m not where I used to be either.” [P.S. That's my motto.]

Michael also shared about his long struggle to get approved for disability. (This is a huge issue for many people!) He talked about others who got so discouraged with the process that they gave up, and others who died before their disability applications could be approved.

After Michael spoke, another speaker mentioned the SOAR initiative, which works on the front end to help people get disability benefits in a timely manner.

From the SOAR web site:

SOAR Facts

• Only 11% of the homeless population is currently estimated to receive SSI/SSDI benefits
• Nationally, only 37% of SSA disability applications are approved upon initial submission.
• Although approvals increase to 53% after appeal, that process can take years.

What is Possible

• Through SSI/SSDI outreach and assistance, initial approval rates can soar to 60-95% of applicants without appeals

Rebecca Garland, Executive Director, N.C. State Board of Education, spoke about homeless students, who are out of their “comfort zone” while homeless. Their focus is on surviving, not learning. She referenced Maslow and reiterated that homeless children are focusing on the most basic needs.

In 2006, there were 11,000 homeless children in the state of North Carolina. Each of them faced a daily struggle and the need to be “home.” For those students, school is the one stable, secure place in their lives.

Garland spoke about the outpouring of support for the schoolchildren affected by Hurricane Katrina. “We stepped up,” she said. “We made an extra special effort to comfort students,” and to “relax red tape.” But, she continued, homelessness happens to children in North Carolina every day.

Garland acknowledged that we shouldn’t “legislate everything,” but added, “sometimes it takes legislation to get people to do what they should have been doing in the first place.”

Theodis Beck, North Carolina Secretary of Correction, explained that the Department of Corrections is part of the North Carolina Interagency Council for Coordinating Homeless Programs and is participating in the joint effort to end homelessness because of the relationship between incarceration and homelessness.

DOC research showed that:

• 7% of inmates entering North Carolina prisons meet the federal definition of homelessness
• 1/3 of inmates reported being homeless at some point prior to incarceration
• 25% of inmates met the federal definition of homelessness within six months after release from incarceration

The DOC is hosting, “The Statewide Conference on Offender Reentry: ‘Shaping the Future of Transition’” in Asheville, May 1-3, 2007. [Click here for link to flyer on DOC site.]

Sec. Beck ended with this word for those who work with and advocate for the homeless: “Be encouraged and don’t let anybody steal your joy!”