I had the pleasure of attending the Jubilee Women's Center (a transitional housing program for women) annual benefit breakfast this morning and heard two very moving stories from one current resident and one former resident.
One line that especially stuck with me was delivered by the former resident who is now on her feet, completing a degree in architecture and interning at an architectural firm. She said that "homelessness is not a state of being but a state of mind. It's the fear that you won't lose only your home or your job or your possessions but your very soul." Pretty deep stuff but I think very true. Most of the people we see on the streets have been beat down to the point that they've given up hope. Some of them, even more unfortunately, have given up their morals turning to a life of crime.
Jubilee Women's Center is such a great organization because, firstly, they only allow 60 women at a time as residents, which means they are able to focus on each one individually. Both women that spoke today as well as many of the women in a video they showed mentioned the word caring a lot.
Secondly, and going along with that spirit of caring, Jubilee doesn't allow just anyone to utilize their service. Residents must be clean and sober and they must be actively working on a goal, whether it be education or finding a job. One of the speakers quoted the oft mentioned verse of teaching a man (woman) to fish instead of giving him (her) a fish and how that shows real caring.
Programs like these are not only caring though. They are also successful. Last year 60% of the residents transitioned into permanent housing. I couldn't find exact numbers but through piecing together a few different resources I can say that city programs to help the homeless are a long way from reaching 60% and I dare say spent a lot more money per capita. (Last year the city of Seattle spent $40 million on a variety of programs and1400 people transitioned out of homelessness. I suspect that included in that 1400 would be the 36 women who transitioned out of Jubilee Women's Center since they were a beneficiary of the Housing Levy money last year.)
The key then isn't more government programs and more money thrown at putting bandaids on the problem of homelessness but focusing on good programs like Jubilee that include accountability and caring in their mission statement. Futhermore, programs like these are still best done by the private sector, not government and the less government is involved the more these programs will be allowed to thrive, not only because of less bureaucracy but increased funding from private sources who aren't having to give that money to the organizations by way of government, which always manages to take its cut.
Posted by MarkGriswold at October 06, 2009 09:18 AM | Email ThisIt is sponsoring a luncheon on October 13th.
http://www.vision-house.org/vh_events.htm
Alas, you let ideology triump over objectivity when dissing government. Many valuable, effective, efficient social service organizations receive significant public funding. You cite 2 objections to a government role: bureaucracy and overhead. A public role does involve bureaucracy; some of this is helpful, and why not try to reduce the unnecessary parts? Anyway, private funding sources also entail significant bureaucracy (foundation grant applications, etc.) and overhead (fundraising staff and events, etc.).
I encourage you to ask Jubilee's management what role they think the city, county, state, and federal governments could best play to reduce homelessness. That would be more enlightening than using their good work to push your ideology.
Also, view "success" metrics carefully. I assume Jubilee is as fabulous as you say. But in general, metrics are highly dependent on who is accepted into the program, whose outcomes are tracked, and what outcomes are measured and over what time period. Comparing results from different organizations, or even the same organization over time, is possible but difficult to do meaningfully.
Posted by: Bruce on October 6, 2009 10:40 AM