Homeless Prevention Programs
for At-Risk Families
by Matilda Raffa Cuomo and Tom Hameline, Ph.D.
New York City spends
millions of dollars every year to provide transitional housing
and supportive services to thousands of homeless families
and individual adults. Each month, the city shelters almost
9,000 families (including 15,000 children) and over 8,000
single adults. In response to this high demand for shelter
services, the City’s Department
of Homeless Services is implementing a pilot program that will
seek to prevent homelessness by providing supportive services and
short-term financial assistance to families and adults at-risk
of losing their housing and entering a homeless shelter.
HomeBase, the
City’s new homeless prevention program was announced
by Mayor Bloomberg at a news conference at HELP USA’s
Bronx-Crotona service facility. The Mayor described HomeBase as
an innovative program that will establish Homeless Prevention
Community Resource Centers in six Community Districts throughout
NYC.
Residents
of these six Community Districts will be eligible for HomeBase services if their household income does not exceed
200 percent of the Federal Poverty Income Standard ($36,800
for a family of four), and they are experiencing a significant
threat to their housing stability. Examples of potential
clients include a family facing eviction through legal action,
a young adult struggling to make it on his own after aging
out of foster care, an ex-offender trying to stabilize themselves
in the community, and a young mother living doubled-up with
her relatives in an overcrowded apartment.
Clients who come to a HomeBase will receive a housing stability assessment, case management services,
benefits counseling, family mediation, legal assistance,
and other services that will help them remain stably housed.
HELP’s program is co-located with the agency’s
Bronx Employment Center, and through this program HELP’s
clients will receive assistance with employment counseling,
vocational training, and job placement.
The Department of Homeless Services will also
utilize HomeBase as a research project on homelessness. Each of the
six programs will collect data on family composition, work
history, education level, housing history, and other factors
that are associated with housing loss. This information will
form a citywide database that will be utilized by researchers
to better understand the causes of homelessness and the interventions
that are effective in preventing its occurrence.
The
staff at my program, Mentoring USA, which is affiliated
with HELP USA, has worked with homeless children for many
years, and knows that preventing homelessness is important
for these young children and their families. In addition
to providing mentors to the general at-risk children and
foster care children in New York City’s public schools, currently, Mentoring
USA serves the homeless children with a mentor one to one
at HELP’s Genesis homes in Brooklyn and HELP’s
Genesis Apartments in Manhattan. Research shows that homelessness
can have a very negative impact on child development, educational
outcomes, and overall family functioning. Compared with
housed poor children, homeless children have more health
problems, developmental delays, and emotional behavioral
problems.
School-age homeless children also suffer from
significant educational impairments. Studies show that they
have poorer school attendance, repeat grades more often, and
score lower on achievement tests. They frequently have difficulty
maintaining continuity in their education, and may lose access
to specialized educational services as they move from school
to school.
Adults that lose their housing and have to enter
the homeless system may also lose confidence in their competence
as caregivers, and the increased stress they experience often
weakens their resilience and decreases their ability to help
their children cope with the challenges of homelessness. In
addition, research conducted by the Urban Institute shows that
having been homeless as a child predicts being homeless as
an adult, so programs that prevent homelessness in one generation
can improve the life outcomes for the next generation. Education
and after-school programs that serve at-risk children can help
keep them out of the homeless system by identifying those families
that are facing imminent housing loss. These families can be
referred to HomeBase centers
in their neighborhoods or other programs that serve poor families.
Information about these programs can be accessed by calling
DHS’ Advocacy Department at 212-361-8000 and Mentoring
USA at 212-400-8294.#
Matilda Raffa Cuomo is the Founder and Chair
of Mentoring USA. Tom Hameline, Ph.D. is the Vice-President
of Program Development at HELP USA.
