Homeless Service Programs. A Study of its Effectiveness in Alleviating Homelessness in the City of Springfield, MA
©2016
Textbook
59 Pages
Summary
This research project studied the broad subject of homelessness from a distinctive perspective. Homeless individuals have different needs, and different human services organizations offer many homeless service programs to individuals, from temporary shelter to transitional housing, and training and health programs among others. Nonetheless, the most important service needed for homeless individuals should be the one that leads to permanent housing solutions. However, findings from this research study suggested that not all homeless service programs are as effective in alleviating homelessness in the community, as most have been led to believe in the past. Therefore, the required question had to be, how effective are homeless service programs in alleviating homelessness in the City of Springfield MA? Finding an answer to that question was the primary reason for this research. This research study sought to know more about the effectiveness of two distinctive service programs, which although similar in services offered, both operate with completely different funding and visions on how to solve the homelessness problem in the community. Perhaps, this study may someday contribute to further research efforts on the subject, help develop or create more effective programs, or even helps alleviate the growing homeless problem in the community. Nevertheless, as for any other research project, there are limitations to this study. This research is limited to the study of two different homeless service programs in the City of Springfield, Massachusetts. Moreover, program effectiveness was solely measured on the programs abilities to provide permanent housing options to its clients in direct relation to their resources for the purpose to alleviate the problem in the community. A brief roadmap for this master’s thesis research project starts with the introduction to the subject, followed by the review of the existing relevant literature. The community assessment begins with the community description and the research and gathering of data from stakeholders directly and indirectly affected by the problem. Lastly, the action plan, which details a plan of action based on the conclusion of the findings of all the information and data gathered.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
Table of Contents
Abstract 2
Table of Contents 4
Introduction 5
Literature Review by subject 7
Community Assessment 20
Proposal for Action 26
References 29
Appendices 34
Appendix A: Tables 34
Appendix B: Graphs 35
Appendix C: Stakeholders (Confidential Records) 42
Appendix D: Budget 49
Appendix E: Survey Questions 50
Appendix F: Interview Questions 56
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Introduction
Based on the frequency of homelessness news reports across the nation, one could easily
assume that most Americans find homelessness to be a serious problem in communities across
the nation. Actually, data gathered from a survey conducted during this study indicate that a
majority of Americans does in fact believe that homelessness is a serious problem in cities across
America. Taking that into consideration, the researcher also found that organizations currently
offering service programs for the homeless and needy, whether publicly or privately funded,
faced one of three adverse situations. Lack of funding resulting in budget restraints, funding cuts
due to the ever-increasing cost of providing those service programs, and or lack of facilities due
to the surge in the number of homeless clients, which overcrowded homeless shelters in the city
of Springfield, Massachusetts.
In addition to contributing to the knowledge available regarding the homelessness
problem, the original intention of this research project was to find what programs are the most
effective in dealing with the homelessness problem in direct relation to the funding they receive.
The two homeless service programs studied in this research project were a community-based
homeless service program and a faith-based homeless service program. The community-based
program main source of funding or city, state, and federal funds, meanwhile, the faith-based
program main source of funding is private donations. Therefore, the researcher hypothesized that
the faith-based homeless service program was more effective in alleviating homelessness in the
city of Springfield in Springfield, Massachusetts than the community-based homeless program,
basically, because of all the restrictions attached to the city, state, and federal funding.
Potentially, anyone in society could be subject at one point during his or her life to suffer
a temporary period of homelessness. Homelessness can be caused by many factors such as a
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temporary job loss, financial ruin, alcohol or drug addiction, divorce, a psychological condition
or mental illness among other reasons (Culhane, Park, and Metraux, 2011). Individuals, single
mothers, and complete families that may potentially become homeless are most likely the
customers that require homeless service programs such as open kitchens, shelters, addiction
programs, and mental health programs during and after their period of homelessness (Culhane et
al., 2011).
Homelessness has been defined in different ways depending on who defines the term.
The definition of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is by far the most
specific, which states that a homeless person is one who does not have a place to go, has no
resources to secure housing, is being evicted or discharged within a week from a hospital, and/or
is escaping domestic violence (HUD, 2014). In a slight variation, the definition of homeless,
according to the U.S. Department of Education includes youths who are sharing the housing of
other persons due to economic hardship, or similar reason (DoE, 2015).
On another shift, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act definition states, that a
homeless individual is one who lacks a fixed, regular, adequate residence or a person who
resides in a shelter, welfare hotel, transitional program or place not used as their regular place for
sleep, such as streets, cars, movie theatres, abandoned buildings, etcetera (MV, 2015). Therefore,
for the purpose of this research project study, homelessness will be defined as the condition on
which an individual temporarily lacks or cannot secure adequate housing with sleeping quarters,
which otherwise the individual could call home.
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Literature Review by subject
Homelessness on the Rise
Kirchheimer, D. (2014, Spring). The Poor Among Us: A History of Family Poverty
and Homelessness in New York City. Political Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell). Vol.
129 Issue 1, p 145-147. 3p.
From the article by Kirchheimer (2014), "The Poor Among Us: A History of Family
Poverty and Homelessness in New York City," it can be implied that the homeless problem in
New York City is not much different from any other city in the nation (p. 1). The homelessness
problem in the city of New York can be traced back to the beginnings of the city. However, in
modern times homelessness had been more evident during the Great Depression, nonetheless,
since then the number of homeless people in the city of New York has increased. Additionally,
the city's cost to fight homelessness has been on the rise since then. The researcher in this study
concluded that homelessness among families, which has surpassed individual homelessness, is a
poverty-based problem. Apparently, poverty has always been a major cause of homelessness
(Kirchheimer, 2014).
However, the greatest problem homeless individuals face in the first place is lacking
resources such as money to secure life's most basic necessities (Howard, 2013). In 2014, a
homeless population rise in the City of New York, as well as in cities across the nation, put
pressure on the City Mayor to undo the public policy dealing with the homeless problem that
critics affirm were the cause for the rise. Former Mayor Bloomberg established the said public
policy, and as Stewart (2014) stated, "that prevented some homeless families from seeking
emergency shelter when temperatures sink below freezing" (pp. 10). The result of that public
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policy increased the number of homeless subjects on the street without access to shelter at any
given time (Stewart, 2014).
After a series of news articles published by a local paper, the City of New York was
forced to remove children and families that were living under sordid conditions in a city-owned
homeless shelter (Stewart, 2014). Since then, the Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit
advocacy group, is working in close cooperation with the City of New York. A spokesperson for
the coalition said that the coalition's report would highlight all the needs for additional shelter
and housing resources for the coalition, a positive step towards addressing the homeless
population needs in the city (Stewart, 2014).
The Cost of Homelessness
Saul, M. (2014, May 7). New York City Targets Spending $1.04 Billion on Homeless. Wall
Street Journal, pp. 1-1.
In the article "New York City Targets Spending $1.04 Billion on Homeless:
Would Be
Record as Numbers of People in Shelters at Unprecedented Level," Saul (2014) suggested that in
2014 the Department of Homeless Services in the City of New York is expected to spend over
one billion dollars in the city's homeless shelter system (p. 1). Actually, that amount exceeds the
city's budget for transportation services and affordable housing. During the first months of 2014,
over 50,000 people has used the city's shelter services every night, a number that had increased
from previous months (Saul, 2014).
As an alternative to the rise in the cost of the homeless situation for the city, public
officials contemplated creating an alternative program to also deal with the rise in the homeless
population crowding the city's homeless shelter system. They proposed a program that would
pay the rent for the private housing of each individual willing to leave the city's homeless shelter
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system permanently (Saul, 2014). A former mayor discontinued a similar program back in 2011,
which some believe that to be the problem behind the drastic rise in the city's homeless
population. In contrast, detractors blame other factors such as more people needing emergency
shelter, and other people staying longer in the system because the city has reduced street
homelessness. However, the city's homeless population has been increasing slowly over decades
because homelessness is not new to the City of New York, and the cost does not seem to
decrease anytime soon (Saul, 2014).
The Psychology of Homeless Subjects
Rogers, E., Stanford, M., Dolan, S., Clark, J., Martindale, S., Lake, S., Baldridge, R., and Sejud,
L. (2012). Helping People Without Homes: Simple Steps for Psychologists Seeking to
Change Lives. Professional Psychology: Research & Practice, 43, 86-93. doi:
10.1037/a0026606.
The article by Rogers, Stanford, Dolan, Clark, Martindale, Lake, Baldridge, & Sejud
(2012), "Helping People Without Homes: Simple Steps for Psychologists Seeking to Change
Lives" was carefully reviewed since its title suggested to reveal not only the root causes, but also
the solution to the problem (p. 1). In 2010, the American Psychological Association announced
that they were encouraging fellow psychologists to get more involved in their efforts to eradicate
homelessness (Rogers et al., 2012). Since some barriers exist, most psychologists were not able
to reach homeless people for the assessments. Not all willing participant psychologists were able
to assess homeless subjects in shelters during regular business hours. The reason for that is that
most community-based homeless shelters only permit homeless subjects to remain on the
premises overnight. Therefore, homeless subjects need to abandon the premises during daylight
business hours. Given those circumstances, participant psychologists chose to reach out to a
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faith-based homeless service organization for the purpose of recruiting research participants
(Rogers et al., 2012).
This faith-based homeless service organization willingly provided homeless subjects
during business hours for the assessment by psychologists and graduate students (Rogers et al.,
2012). As psychologists began conducting assessments on the homeless subjects, they were able
to establish that the needs of the homeless subjects assessed were many and diverse, and that the
available services offered by the program to meet their needs were insufficient (Rogers et al.,
2012). Other lessons learned by the psychological assessments performed on the homeless
subjects suggested that other human service programs and professions, as well as community-
based homeless organizations, could effectively attend to some of the needed services not offered
to that homeless population in that program (Rogers et al., 2012).
Families without a Home
Culhane, D., Park, J., and Metraux, S. (2011). The Patterns and Costs of Services Use Among
Homeless Families. Journal of Community Psychology, 39, 815-825.
Culhane, Park, and Metraux (2011), in the article "The Patterns and Costs of Services
Use Among Homeless Families," suggested that individuals are not the only clients of homeless
shelters (p. 1). Complete families are also in need of other human services before, during, and
after the use of homeless shelter services (Culhane, et al., 2011). According to this research
study, homeless families appear to use more services provided by homeless service programs
than individual single adults do. Apparently, these homeless families supplant mainstream
medical services intended for the general public, with services directed towards the homeless
offered by homeless service programs (Culhane et al., 2011).
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The question that researchers could not answer in this study was, why homeless families
chose services provided by the homeless service program regardless of whether those services
were better or worse than mainstream services offered to the general public? One thing was
certain, somehow homeless families attained certain special advantages from the services they
received from the homeless service programs, during and after their homeless shelter stay
(Culhane et al., 2011).
Surviving Total Institution Shelter
Deward, S., and Moe, A. (2010). "Like a Prison!": Homeless Women's Narratives of Surviving
Shelter. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 37, 115-135.
Deward and Moe (2010), and the article "Like a Prison: Homeless Women's Narratives
of Surviving Shelter," was a research based on field observations and interviews with female
residents of a total institution homeless shelter (p. 1). The findings contribute to other studies
pointing out the institutionalization and the bureaucratic nature of total institution homeless
shelters, which contribute to the systematic deterioration of personhood and loss of autonomy of
its clients (Deward and Moe, 2010).
In contrast, during this review, no literature associating any faith-based organization,
church, or ministry offering services to the homeless, with institutionalization or a bureaucratic
nature, nor practicing the systematic deterioration of personhood and or the loss of autonomy of
its clients was found.
Increasing Funding for Homeless Programs
Moulton, S. (2013). Does Increased Funding for Homeless Programs Reduce Chronic
Homelessness? Sothern Economic Journal, 79, 600-620. doi: 10.4284/0038-4038-
2010.309
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In the article by Moulton (2013), "Does Increase Funding for Homeless Programs
Reduce Chronic Homelessness?," the author assessed an overall research question similar to the
article's title (p. 1). The findings in this study seemed to suggest that it is possible to reduce
chronic homelessness with increased funding, and that the most effective way to do it is through
projects that provide both long-term housing and services for homeless people with disabilities
(Moulton, 2013). Other findings of this study suggest that by moving a chronic homeless person
from the shelter into a permanent housing can decrease the cost of the homeless shelter stay, and
perhaps continue to decrease in subsequent years (Moulton, 2013).
In contrast, faith-based service programs for the homeless and needy in the most part are
not funded with public funds, as most community-based homeless programs. The importance to
that fact is public funds are potentially subject to budget restraints and cuts. Most faith-based
programs are privately funded with financial donations or offerings from members of the
congregations or churches and from private donors. Therefore, these types of programs are not
subjected to budget restraints and or cuts (Culhane et al., 2011).
The Importance of Volunteerism
Lundahl, B., and Wicks, L. (2010). The Need to Giving and the Need to Receive: Volunteerism
in Homeless Shelters. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 20, 272-
288. doi: 10.1080/10911350903269914
In the article, "The Need to Giving and the Need to Receive: Volunteerism in Homeless
Shelters" by Lundahl and Wicks (2010), it is suggested that volunteerism is essential to the
effectiveness of homeless shelter programs (p. 1). This research study was based on a phone
survey conducted with over seventy homeless shelter administrators from across the nation
(Lundahl and Wicks, 2010). The study revealed that homeless shelters volunteer personnel meet
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the needs of the shelter's clients, however, sometimes do not have the necessary training to
attend to all the needs of the shelter residents, but in the most part, volunteers match the
homeless shelter needs and demands (Lundahl and Wicks, 2010). In contrast, some religious
congregations and or faith-based homeless programs offering services for the homeless and the
needy such as soup kitchens are extremely dependent upon volunteers from in or outside the
congregation to help serve the clients during meals.
In addition to serving meals, volunteers are even encouraging to interact with the
homeless and the needy, and in some instances encourage to relate religious messages of hope
and salvation to the clients they served (Sager, 2011). Making the assumption that both
community-based and faith-based homeless programs operate with restricted budgets and even
lack funds at times, volunteerism is an extremely important element of their service programs.
Faith-Based Social Services
Sager, R. (2011). Faith-Based Social Services: Saving the Body or the Soul? A Research note.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 50, 201-210. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-
5906.2010.01560. x.
The research article "Faith-based Social Services: Saving the Body or the Soul" by Sager
(2011), examined whether faith-based organizations fail or succeed to meet the expectations and
needs of their clients of different human services programs, and whether they meet their
organizational goals (p. 1). The study was based on data researched, field observations and
interviews of clients of faith-based homeless program organizations. Findings revealed that the
faith-based homeless program organizations studied met the immediate needs of their clients;
nonetheless, they failed to meet other needs of their clients (Sager, 2011).
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Other findings suggest that although most clients of faith-based homeless program
organizations confess satisfaction with the services, at the same time they feel frustrated with the
program's attempt to transform their spiritual beliefs (Sager, 2011). What should not be
overlooked, is the fact that any organization offering homeless service programs to the needy at
no cost to the client, faith-based or community-based, must have the liberty to interact with their
clients. A community-based homeless program, whether publicly or privately funded, offering
services such as a homeless shelter, may require some of their clients to attend certain
interviews, evaluations or even intervention in some cases. However, that fact alone does not
necessarily indicate that the program is not attending to the specific needs of the clients. In sum,
there is not enough literature or research studies conducted about homeless service programs
provided by faith-based organizations. Therefore, there is very little known about the
effectiveness of this type of homeless service programs.
Social Connectedness of faith-based organizations and Community
Taylor, K., and Singer, J. (2014, August 2). City Asks Clergy to Calm Ire Over Homeless
Shelters. New York Times, pp. A18-A18.
In this periodical article by Taylor and Singer (2014), the researchers argue that the City
of New York with the recent rise in the homeless population and the opening of new homeless
shelters all across the city is creating controversy in some neighborhoods that do not want
shelters located in their neighborhoods. City officials asked religious leaders to intervene in the
controversy and intercede between city officials, neighborhood leaders and angry residents, in an
attempt to help overcome their resistance to the opening of homeless shelters in their areas
(Taylor and Singer, 2014).
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Problem Statement
The homelessness problem in the City of Springfield MA is a very complex one, and as
in other cities around the nation, its history can be traced back many years. Actually, during the
research, one homeless service programs found was established in the 19
th
century. The greatest
challenge that major homeless service providers in the community face on a daily basis is due to
the recent surge in homelessness statewide as well as in the city, which has been monumental. As
in the Kirchheimer (2014) study, the findings of this research suggest that the number of
homeless families in the community has also dramatically increased in the last few years.
Actually, his study concluded that homelessness among families, which has surpassed individual
homelessness, is a poverty-based problem. Therefore, apparently, homelessness has mostly
always been about poverty (Kirchheimer, 2014).
In order to gather reliable data, the researcher sought to interview and survey
stakeholders directly affected by the homelessness problem in the city. Personal interviews were
conducted with primary stakeholders (homeless individuals), and of secondary stakeholders
(service providers) in addition to surveys of other stakeholders such as former homeless
individuals, families of the homeless, and or community residents indirectly affected by the
problem. Significant findings from the interviews and survey suggest a clear tendency to agree
with most of the literature reviewed.
Nevertheless, other findings of this study do not support the argument of Moulton (2013),
which suggested that increasing the funding for homeless service programs could somehow end
chronic homelessness. On the contrary, even when funding is increased, if the resources are not
allocated properly and distributed for the right services it would be without a positive effect in
any program. Additionally, since the recent surge in homelessness in the city is due to poverty-
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based problems, as Kirchheimer (2014) had suggested, it would be nearly impossible to ever
dream of ending chronic homelessness in the city.
The proposal for action is a two-fold; to raise funds for programs that can immediately
have an impact on the needs of needy families in the community as well as of homeless
individuals. Writing a grant to fund the development of a basement open-kitchen in one of the
programs to address the needs of those needy families with children in the community, by
increasing the number of meals served to the needy in the city. Additionally, the proposal calls
for workshops to inform and educate the community about the homelessness problem in the city.
Research Plan and Methodology
Research Plan
Through this study, the researcher wanted to find new data and statistics about the
effectiveness of homeless service programs in the community, especially the level of
effectiveness between different types of programs, such as community-based programs and faith-
based programs. Moreover, in addition to contributing to the knowledge already available
regarding the homelessness problem, the researcher wanted to know which programs are the
most effective in dealing with the homelessness problem. In order to accomplish this, an answer
this question must be sought "how effective are homeless service programs in alleviating
homelessness in the City of Springfield?"
Methodology
The methodology used was based on the conducting of personal interviews of primary
and secondary stakeholders, and perform a survey of other stakeholders. Personal interviews,
whenever possible, were conducted in the facilities of the providers offering the homeless service
programs to homeless individuals. Survey of other stakeholders and the research conducted to
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Details
- Pages
- Type of Edition
- Erstausgabe
- Publication Year
- 2016
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9783960675914
- File size
- 2.6 MB
- Language
- English
- Institution / College
- Springfield College – Graduate School of Professional and Continuing Studies
- Publication date
- 2016 (October)
- Grade
- 3.85
- Keywords
- Massachusetts Homeless Shelter Housing Homeless service program Action plan Community assessment
