WASHINGTON COUNTY COC�Homelessness Research Project��with support from the �Montpelier Homelessness Task Force �and Good Samaritan Haven

CONTENTS

Research Plan

Rural Homelessness

Findings

Possible Next Steps

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INTRODUCTION

The Goals:

• Survey a range of people experiencing homelessness to help determine:
• The root causes of their situation
• Learn about their circumstances and experiences
• To provide analysis of the survey results and to generate strategies to address homelessness

With the help of $100 gift cards offered as an incentive to participate in the survey, which were funded by the Montpelier Homelessness Task Force. Good Samaritan Haven provided administration to the project and help with the interviews.

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RESEARCH PLAN

• Washington County Continuum of Care (CoC) Subcommittee meets to plan the interview script. Involves providers, state agency, researchers, graduate students.
• The interview script had 21 questions, including background information, some open-ended questions, as well as questions on jobs, health, benefits, housing needed, transportation, and needs. It was revised midway through.
• The surveys were conducted in February and March of 2022. Interviews ranged in length from 20 to 60 minutes.

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• 73 people were interviewed, via phone, from motels, shelter locations, two apartments, a group home, and people living in precarious housing situations.
• Ages ranged from 20s to 60 and included people new to being unhoused and those experiencing long-term homelessness.
• The responses were tallied and summarized, to be later matched to excerpts from the interviews and academic research that illustrated prominent issues and needs.

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TABLE 1. LENGTH OF TIME HOMELESS

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RURAL HOMELESSNESS

• “Invisible” and “hidden”
• Different from urban – structural challenges, living situations, relationship with community
• Precariously housed: Doubled up/couch surfing; living in older, unstable homes; living in uninhabitable outbuildings – barns, sheds, trailers; and in tents, campers sometimes in encampments; or cars/trucks
• Research has found growing number of families, younger people, female-headed single-parent families, mobility
• Causes more related to economics than mental health (MH) and substance use disorder (SUD).
• But MH/SUD is more common for people experiencing homelessness. Both exacerbate and can be a factor in cause.

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• Higher levels of poverty, lack of transportation, lower housing vacancy rates, fewer good job opportunities.
• Small towns – more conservative, emphasis on individual, self-sufficiency, personal responsibility. There may be better social networks – or greater victim-blaming.
• Policies based on these beliefs may be manifested in criminalization of homelessness (police charging the homeless with vagrancy or other misdemeanors), fewer supports, and greater stigma and negativity towards homeless people.

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THE FINDINGS

CAUSES

• Almost one-third of people interviewed said they lost housing due to economics -- lack of money (18%) or losing their job (14%).

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• Over one-fifth of interviewees became homeless as a result of divorce or a breakup, another form of economic hardship for many.

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Lost a job as a private duty nurse because of COVID, but then I got custody of my grandson; Had roommates but they didn’t want a kid around, so I lost housing. (#39)

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My wife took off after 11 and a half years; I was kicked out, went from there to a friend’s house, sleeping on couches, a mess down the line, progressively worse, shelters, bouncing around, camping most of the time. Slept under churches in several layers of clothes. (#30)

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TABLE 2. CAUSES

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Some responses included more than one answer; totals are larger than number and percent of participants. *Combined in narrative.

CAUSES

• 18% linked their loss of secure housing to substance use. A number of these men and women had cycled through rehab several times. Most were in recovery; some had not used for years.

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• 12.7% percent lost housing due to consequences of being injured or having a physical health condition.

During the pandemic, as a brand new nurse, I already started to overwork and burn out, exhausted. This led me to doing substances so I could make it through the day. So, eventually, in early 2021, I got caught – I had diverted drugs from patients’ medication, stored what I could, and got a charge of petty larceny and was fired and lost my LNA license. I admitted to all of this, learned a lot, moved in with my mother.. then my mother and her husband moved, I was pregnant, so I didn’t know what to do. (#21)

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Before I hurt my leg, I worked every day, paid my bills and rent, then going down the tubes – lost my apartment, been downhill ever since. (#29 )

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CAUSES

• Mental health was the cause of homelessness for another 12.7%. Mental health issues are often a consequence of being without stable housing and can also contribute to that condition.

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• Moving without a place to stay was the reason for 12.7%. And, domestic violence caused nearly one in ten women to flee from their home.

Bouncing around since my dad hung himself – I found him, at age 17; Dropped out of high school during sophomore year… I have PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder. I was addicted to heroin, now on a suboxone program. Most recently homeless for 5 to 6 years (#35)

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I got out of an abusive relationship. I left where I was because if I didn’t I may have been killed. I am living out of my car but the car is in the shop so I’m bouncing around right now. I was staying in a camper but it got too cold. (#52)

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STRUGGLES

• Although substance use and mental health issues were not the predominant causes of lost housing, those problems rose to the top of struggles they had experienced.
• Over 33% faced mental health concerns, many of which were PTSD, anxiety, depression and trauma. 27% have substance use disorder or are recovering from it;
• About 25% talked about the everyday problems of dealing with being without housing – cold weather, being without a place to go during the day
• Spending hours looking for affordable apartments and trying to keep up hope when everything seems to be going the wrong way makes it hard to get out of homelessness.

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Back in 2010 was the first time I was homeless, had back rent due to my mother; my mother evicted me even though I have two kids, tight spot – I was addicted to pain medication. They were supplied by my family – got the drugs from my mom, after which she called DCF and told them I was an unfit mom. (#27)

I never realized how much food is nice to have, what it’s like to be hungry. It’s not something you think about when you have a house. (#8)

Cold weather is a major thing right now. There are a lot of people who really look down on the homeless. Being physically disabled and not having a home is very tiring. Being in pain daily and having to carry a backpack is hard. (#45)

Once you are in the community of being homeless, it’s very difficult to get out of it, all of the factors that make you homeless make it hard. You get stuck in the system. (#26)

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SUPPORTS

• Rural communities have many strengths, including strong family bonds, according to the US Interagency Council on Homelessness. But the close networks can sometimes react against unhoused people, other researchers have found. We learned that both can be true, depending on the family history.
• Who did people turn to for help? Over one-third turned to a family member; about one quarter asked a friend, 15.4% went to a case manager, 10.8% consulted Capstone currently or in the past, 9.2% asked a partner for help. Another 9.2% talked to homeless shelter staff, and 8% called their therapist.
• In small towns, everyone can know your business. It’s hard to get beyond that if you had problems in the past and are later looking for housing or jobs. We found that to concur with some experiences.

My family is up here, trying to be supportive; they’re mostly on section 8 housing, so I don’t want to be a third wheel. My family cares about me – it’s embarrassing – ‘yeah, mom, I’m still homeless.’ (#35)

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My family is not a very good support system. Except my siblings get all the support they need. When I was going through a period of time 20 years ago, I was abusing drugs, I got well, I’m still taking meds for it – but they’d rather run me into the ground than help . (#36)

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The first time I was homeless, I didn’t want to speak to another homeless person again, thought I was better than them. Someone told me, ‘you and your husband were talking about me and I felt so bad…’ I was mortified, ‘I’m so sorry’ – just mortified – just horrible that I did that. She and I are now good friends. (#27)

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SUPPORTS

• The assumptions and beliefs of small communities can color how service is provided. A research study on transitional housing for families found that beliefs about independence and personal responsibility that framed how residents and providers viewed residents’ status may have created inequitable treatment for those who were not participating as enthusiastically as other parents, perpetuating victim blaming for their circumstances.

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HOUSING – THE IDEAL

• When asked, “What would be your ideal housing?” – No surprise – most people were just happy to imagine any kind of housing of their own, so most just replied, “an apartment.” Still, there were some variations on the theme.

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• Apartment: 25 (35.2%)
• Studio apt: 16 (22.5%)
• One-bedroom apt: 11 (15.5%)
• Two-bedroom apt.: 10 (14%)
• Anything: 10 (14%)
• House: 7 (9.9%)
• Log cabin: 7 (9.9%)
• Tiny house: 6 (8.5%)
• Room: 4 (5.6%)

Ideal housing? Where I could have my daughter with me. Where I’m living now, I can’t have her here. If I had a place with her it would be the happy center of my world. If I had an apartment, I would get custody. They took her from my ex, I can prove I’m the father and [follow other criteria] I’d like a one bedroom apartment with a living room; she would have the bedroom and I’d sleep on the couch in the living room. (#17)

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A loft with a workspace and a small sleep space, like a studio kind of thing, can envision it in my head – where? Doesn’t matter – (#33)

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Used to having chaos. Kind of odd, after I got the apartment, I didn’t sleep in the bedroom for a month – slept on couch. One bedroom, basement, small, so used to being in shelter, sharing space, not comfortable in a bedroom. (#18)

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NEXT STEPS?

CONCLUSION

While we can’t generalize our findings to everyone who is experiencing homelessness in the Washington County area since we do not know if our interviewees represent the diversity of unhoused people, we can get a picture of the causes, needs, and barriers for many in this situation. Structural and individual issues interact in creating and exacerbating homelessness, respectively, resulting in a need for targeted services and housing. What would work for a 24-year-old mother without transportation who needs to get her GED, subsidized child care, and be close to job training and work would not necessarily work for a 48-year-old man with a physical disability who is in recovery and has ongoing medical needs.

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When economics are the leading cause, followed by breakups and substance use, no one answer beyond housing satisfies the problem. As we look at this report, prices are being driven high by inflation, housing vacancies are lower, benefits are spread thin, just as many people will be leaving motels to return to homelessness. “Emergency housing” is an emergency. We must explore ways to enhance existing supports, increase harm reduction measures, and broaden housing options.

NEXT STEPS?

Researchers and policy makers have suggested a range of recommendations to address the problems associated with homelessness, including prevention, identification of unstably housed people to get services, provision of support services, and expansion of infrastructure.  What follows are some possible ideas from the research literature and a few suggestions from the surveys.

• CoCs can involve non-traditional partners for outreach to help identify people experiencing rural homelessness. These could include referrals from postal workers, hospital discharge providers, gas station convenience stores, law enforcement, employment agencies, and thrift stores.
• Expand shared housing.

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• Allow clients to add their name to 3 coordinated entry lists.

• Provide funding to “help the informal helpers” – families/friends that take in folks, to offset housing costs and other expenses.

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• I think they should have treatment options for people who are homeless. Might be impossible to get into rehab, but if they know there’s an option – there might be less deaths going on. (#18)

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• After two years of no solid housing options, why not let people spend motel money on housing they find. It’s a diverse population with diverse needs. (#6)

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Other options, some of which are of long-standing interest to the CoC:

• Increase funding for Permanent Supportive Housing.
• Develop Single Room Occupancy units.
• Develop medical housing for people experiencing homelessness so that those with medical needs are not discharged from the hospital to the streets.

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NEXT STEPS?

Future inquiries should include additional questions to pinpoint more clearly what works and what doesn’t:

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• Which services worked best for you?
• What program or service would you create if they could?
• What would make it easier for you to stay with a job?
• What services didn’t work (fill in the program – voc rehab, a housing program, job services, etc.)?

Plus, additional questions to better probe about past homeless experiences and earlier life situations that contributed to this path:

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• Were you ever homeless in the past? For how long?
• What happened to cause that?

• How did you live during that time?
• How did you get housing?

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Service providers should be included in a separate survey, to include questions such as:

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• What services and resources worked the best?
• What services were the easiest to access?
• How can programs be made more accessible?
• What would you change about services if you could?
• What workarounds and creative solutions have come you up with?
• What are your opinions about the cause of homelessness?
• What has worked for people who do not want to be in congregate settings?

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COVID is teaching us many lessons - lessons that stretch beyond the direct impacts of what effective and well-informed leadership looks like in times of crisis. �One of these lessons is that we do have the ability to house everyone in our community.” ... “What has been lacking is the will and commitment to bring sufficient resources to bear to move from a position of mitigating homelessness to functionally ending it.�

- Josh Davis, Executive Director of Groundworks Collaborative

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SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT

QUESTIONS?

Beth Burgess

Washington County CoC

Beth.burgess@tufts.edu

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