Rising Numbers of Homeless Children & Young Adults

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1 Spring 2012 The Louisville, Kentucky Rising Numbers of Homeless Children & Young Adults Are Being Seen in Our Community Senlin Ward There has been a 30% increase in the number of students experiencing homelessness in the Jefferson County Public School System (JCPS) in the last three years. As a result various advocacy groups approached three major systems that touch the lives of these children JCPS, the Kentucky Cabinet for Family and Health Services Department of Community Based Services (DCBS) and the Jefferson County Family Court. This group developed into the Homeless, Not Helpless Policy Board which coordinated a one-day training and report with action steps on what is needed to address this important issue. Homeless, Not Helpless Committee will come at the end of 2012 through the final report of the study described above, one action is already taking place. JCPS is creating Learning Centers throughout the county in locations that students who miss school can access to continue their math and science studies through web-based learning. Additionally, the teacher can follow their progress online. The Homeless, Not Helpless Committee is now working with JCPS to develop these In August 2011 The Coalition for the Learning Centers in local shelters that serve Homeless began staffing this committee children. with assistance from a grant from PNC Bank Foundation. Since then the group has Another effort is being led to look at been meeting regularly, has added important the needs of young adults ages years members previously missing from the group old. The Homeless Not Helpless Committee and has acquired a Casey Foundation Grant was approached about the needs of this to study the needs of homeless children. The age group and an invitation was sent out grant will allow the Homeless Not Helpless to all community agencies who serve this Committee to suggest realignment options population. An initial half-day meeting was for stakeholders systems and processes aimed held in February 2012 and there are plans to at improving systems responses to children meet again in April. The Coalition used the who are homeless. Local consultants were Homeless Management Information System hired to conduct the study with the three key (HMIS) and found that 305 young adults systems that serve homeless children. A final were living in the shelter system over a nine report and list of recommendations will be month period. This information was shared created by the end of 2012, including a record in a WAVE 3 television program and that has of how the study was conducted, specific led to more concern about children aging strategies for collaboration and systems out of the foster care system and what can change, and evaluation of the efforts made be done to further help this population. The to decrease homelessness and the effects of Coalition will continue to work with both this condition on children in Jefferson County homeless children and young adults to see Public Schools. how we can best advocate for their needs South Fourth Street, 3 Floor rd While most of the changes to be recommended implemented from the FAX Louisville, KY 40203and PHONE Help us cut costs on postage & printing, send your address to bwinchel@louhomeless.org

2 DIRECTOR S LETTER From the desk of the Executive Director Dear Friends and Members: These are exciting times at The Coalition for the Homeless. Our board and staff held a day-long retreat in January to kick off several new initiatives that we think will strengthen our mission of preventing and ending homelessness in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky. One big change is our effort in collaboration with Metro Louisville to create a single point of entry for the Louisville homeless shelter system. We are working to insure the system makes service access easier for those in need eliminating the need to verify homelessness and answer the same questions each time you enter a new program. We also want it to decrease Homeless Management Information System, (HMIS) requirements for busy shelter staff and allow them to maintain hours and procedures that work for their programs. We ll be working to include all of those as we proceed through implementation over the coming year. The Coalition for the Homeless is also working to create a new city-wide educational campaign about poverty and homelessness to kick-off in November collaboration with the Festival of Faiths and the mayor s signing of the Compassionate Cities Charter. Did you know that 1.5 million American families now live on $2 per day? Did you know you need to make $14 per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Louisville, Kentucky? And, did you know that while local service providers moved over 600 households from homelessness to housing last year, over 6,000 people still fill our shelters? Our goal is to make more Louisvillians aware of these facts and ways that they can make a difference to these neighbors by donating or volunteering at a local shelter or housing program, mentoring a young person or speaking up about the need for affordable housing. Much more is going on. I hope you ll read the enclosed articles about new initiatives to prevent homelessness by working with children and young adults within our community as well as an update on the collaborative community project called Rx: Housing that is helping chronically homeless persons move from the streets to housing after years of homelessness. I hope you ll roll up your sleeves and join us. Learn more at our website Sincerely, Natalie Harris, Executive Director Natalie Harris joined The Coalition for the Homeless in April of She was responsible for developing new partnerships and housing solutions for homeless and special needs populations in Kentucky and for creating a pipeline to fund over 1,500 units of permanent, supportive housing for the homeless. She has served as a consultant to the U.S. Census Bureau, Corporation for Supportive Housing, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Urban Institute on issues related to rural homelessness and supportive housing. Before joining KHC, Natalie served as director of the statewide Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky and the Appalachia Service Project home repair program. Coalition for the homeless BOARD Members & Staff STAFF Natalie Harris Executive Director Mary Frances Shafer Director of Community Coordination Roman Vodacek HMIS Coordinator Becki Winchel Development & Community Relations Manager Pat Facktor HMIS & CoC Assistant Senlin Ward Agency Assessment & Resource Coordinator Marsha Bailey Office Manager Merritt Gill HPRP Project Support BOARD MEMBERS Wood McGraw, Past Chair Mark Snyder, Chairperson Term Expires December 2013 Stacy Deck, Vice Chair Kathy Beach, Treasurer Term expires: December 2013 Patricia Cummings, Secretary Greg Mayes Glenn Kosse Ed Wnorowski Joseph Hamilton Term Expires: at will of the Mayor The Honorable Judith Bartholomew Marilyn McLaughlin Gary Demling Bernard Minnis Judith Bloor Debra Delor Lisa Cates Term Expires: December 2014 Beth White Term Expires: December Help us cut costs on postage & printing, send your address to bwinchel@louhomeless.org

3 RX: HOUSing 100k homes/louisville Rx: Housing/Louisville Saves Lives After more than two years living on the streets, Robin Chelf, a 55 year old man from Louisville, is once again moving into his own home. Robin has struggled with emphysema and asthma and has been hospitalized several times in the last year due to his severe health issues and lack of health insurance. He completed high school and some college and has a close family member who has stuck with him through his two year struggle, but things are really looking up now due to a collaborative community effort called Rx: Housing. At the end of 2011, case workers and peer support specialists from Family Health Centers Phoenix Healthcare and Wellspring came looking for Robin to tell him he had been selected for housing and now he is one of ten people who have moved into housing thanks to this effort. Another 65 chronically homeless persons will be housed through the program within the next three years. The Coalition for the Homeless is so excited to be a small part of this effort. Our thanks goes to Louisville Metro Housing Authority and Louisville Metro Department of Community Services and Revitalization who are providing the housing vouchers as well as service providers Family Health Centers, Bridgehaven, Seven Counties Services Jefferson Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center (JADAC), St. John Center and Wellspring. The services are funded in large part by a federal SAMHSA grant through the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Coalition for the Homeless will continue the role of working with local outreach providers, hospitals and jails to identify other chronically homeless people in need of permanent supportive housing and fundraising and education to insure that each vulnerable person surveyed receives housing, furniture and security deposits needed to get off the streets. You can help support a client s deposit or furniture needs by making a donation at www. louhomeless.org and clicking on the donate button and indicating that the donation is for Rx: Housing. Rx: Housing is Louisville s initiative as part of the national 100,000 Homeless campaign. The 100,000 Homes Campaign was created by Common Ground to try to focus on the most desperate homeless or those most likely to die on our streets in the coming year. The 100,000 Homes vision is that hundreds of communities across the nation will join the 100,000 Homes Campaign, supporting one another and learning together in order to rapidly accelerate the rate of housing placement for the most long-term and vulnerable homeless people in the nation. Ultimately, they hope to house the 100,000 most vulnerable street homeless people across the nation by July Help us cut costs on postage & printing, send your address to bwinchel@louhomeless.org 3

4 Save the Date The The 1st Annual Donor & Volunteer Appreciation Social Thursday, June 28, 2012 The Clifton Center 2117 Payne Street Time: 5:00 7:00 PM Join us as we celebrate 25 years of service Refreshments will be served 2012 Race to End Homelessness 5K Saturday, November 10, 2012 Cherokee Park Scenic Loop Registration Open 8:00 AM Event Starts 9:00 AM 2012 Point in Time 2012 Point in Time count took place on the night of January 25, people were counted as being on the street, up from 92 people from the 2011 Point in Time count. In 2012 we had a total of 1517 people on the night of January 25th, with 1365 of those people in shelter. In 2011, we had a total of 1632 people, 1540 of those people being in shelter. Our Point in Time count is broken down by households with children, and households without children. We also review households with children only (teen shelter). Sheltered Count only, on January 25th, 2012: 169 people in households with children were in emergency housing 320 people in households with children were in transitional housing 489 people in households without children were in emergency shelters 359 people in households without children were in transitional housing 20 people were in child only households in 2012 Unsheltered count, on January 25th, 2012: The number of unsheltered households with children saw two households in These two households consisted of 9 people in The number of unsheltered households without children was 141 people Two unsheltered child only households were living on the street Homeless subpopulation count (from sheltered clients in HMIS only for January 25th, 2012): In our subpopulation count, we examine the following categories: Chronically homeless, Veterans, Substance abuse, mentally ill, HIV/AIDS, DV victims. Chronically homeless people in shelter Veterans in shelter Substance abuse problems among clients in shelter Mentally ill population in shelter Domestic violence reports among clients in shelter Unaccompanied youth in shelter 20 HIV/AIDS population among clients in shelter 15

5 OUR MISSION To advocate for people who are homeless and for the prevention and elimination of homelessness South Fourth Street, Suite 250 Louisville, KY Office Fax NON PROFIT US POSTAGE PAID LOUISVIILE, KY PERMIT NO. 1434