When Ben Franklin said “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, he was talking about fires. It ought to apply to homelessness as well. Yet for all of the coverage of homelessness in the media, there is very little about prevention.
In the early 2000’s the US based National Alliance to End Homelessness promoted a 10 point plan to end homelessness. One of the 10 was preventing homelessness, or ‘closing the back door’.
The Canadian Observatory of Homelessness describes how the back door can be closed.1 Briefly:
All levels of government need to be involved
This is not something that can be resolved at the community level by agencies providing emergency services to people who are homeless. Policies, systems and structures contribute to the conditions leading to homelessness.
Systems within government need to be integrated
Thanks to research about homelessness, we know that there are gaps between the systems within government that contribute to homelessness. Where one service ends, planning and support are essential to ensuring the that clients graduate successfully and avoid becoming homeless. This applies particularly when people ‘age out’ of child protection services, are released from correctional facilities or discharged from inpatient mental health services.
Work at the community level needs more integration
Local services are identified with specific organizations. Agency X provides housing help services in this part of the city. Agency Y is known as the place to go for trusteeship programs. Case managers and people who need services are faced with the daunting challenge of building up a comprehensive picture of what’s available from a host of local service providers. It doesn’t help that local agencies are required to compete for funding, which in itself is an incentive to stand out from other agencies.
Data and information need to be shared
Helping clients to access services depends on individual knowledge and expertise. Service providers and people who need services may not be aware of a program that could help. Is a client eligible for programs that would make housing more affordable, such as income support or an energy subsidy? Information technology can be the bridge to answer those questions quickly, provided proper protections to ensure privacy and confidentiality are in place.
Housing first and prevention services need to be coordinated
Someone who has left homelessness must have access to services that, if needed, can support them to enjoy their housing in the long term.
Evaluation is needed and action needs to be taken on the findings
Here’s an example. Shelter is a housing service provider in England. It monitors the calls to their help line and the circumstances leading to the call. Homelessness grew during the 2008 international financial crisis. But when economy began to recover, homelessness continued to rise. Shelter decided to dig deeper to find out what was going on.2 Here’s what they found
- family homelessness was growing the fastest
- eviction from private rental housing was the biggest reason for family homelessness
- private landlords did not need a reason to evict tenants
The results of Shelter’s investigation changed how they worked to support people facing eviction and close this door to homelessness.
How does this relate to affordable housing?
Housing programs must include housing that is affordable for people with very low incomes to be effective in preventing homelessness.
Footnotes
- The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness has two reports on homelessness prevention: A New Direction: A Framework for Preventing Homelessness and The Roadmap for the Prevention of Youth Homelessness
- See Shelter’s full report: Green Book 50 Years On
