Tour of the Boston Rescue Mission

This weekend I had the opportunity to tour The Boston Rescue Mission (BRM) with Boston Cares. The shelter began in 1899 and is one of the oldest in Boston. Services available at BRM are extensive, including men's and women's recovery-focused programs, a halfway house, meal programs, and a women's re-entry program. We got to see the space that houses several of the services and the Saturday morning outreach in the Boston Common. The outreach was probably the most interesting part, BRM sets up a table in the Common and hands out hot food to anyone who wants it. By the time we got there a line had already formed and there was another group handing out clothing from tables nearby. I'm sure I've been in the Common on Saturday mornings before but this weekend I saw it in a new light.

My Travels and GLBTQ youth

It's been a while because it's been hectic. Last week I was in Walnut Creek CA delivering a training with my organization. We had roughly 130 homeless service providers play hokey from their daily routines to network and learn. They were the victims of my very first experience of a trainer ever!

On Monday, the 7th, I started the day co-training a session on outreach to persons experiencing homelessness. My co-trainer has been doing this for quite some time so he was cool and calm, though I think I may have come off as a bit nervous (thankfully only one evaluation confirmed this). I had some slides to present and I talked about some of the findings from a project that I worked on last year. I hadn't been able to put as much time into prepping as I would like because later that afternoon I was presenting a session on my own with content that I had developed... in less than a solid week.

My session, which I did twice, was on GLBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. While estimates in the general population range from 3-10% of the population identifying as GLBTQ, between 20-40% of homeless youth identify as GLBTQ. They experience more trauma, rejection, abuse, mental health issues, harassment, and stigma than their heterosexual peers. It's a topic that I've done some research on and I'm really interested in pursuing in my further work. The tough part is that the language is always changing and I'm not embedded in the GLBTQ "community" in my area (if there is one) so I don't know what I am and am not supposed to say some of the time.

Lucky for me I got some really talkative people in my sessions, five the first day (seven if you count my two cheerleader co-workers) and ten the second... out of 130 people total. There isn't a lot of interest around these issues, I even had someone tell me that they didn't have any of those kids. People forget that those who identify as GLBTQ aren't running around with a sign that announces their sexuality to the world. I'm hoping that I'll get to play a part in helping some people recognize this and start to think about how to make their programs more friendly.

The sessions went really well, the conversation was lively and I didn't even get to finish my slides! Now that I've done it once I am really excited to hopefully get to try it again sometime soon and maybe develop my training into some other products for my organization? But for now I need to shift gears and get back to data.

2008 Homeless Census

To Aid Homeless, First Count Them
Boston Globe, 1/27/2008

Despite a forecast of freezing rain, dozens of volunteers with the Plymouth County Housing Alliance plan to canvass the region Wednesday night to count the number of people who are homeless.

They will act on tips from police, churches, and social workers. Focusing largely on Brockton and Plymouth, the census takers will seek out the buildings, dumpsters, abandoned cars, and camp sites that have in the past provided shelter for people living on the streets.

Last year's count indicated 500 homeless people in Plymouth County - more than 100 living on the street, and the rest in homeless shelters. The most, 39, were in Brockton, followed by Plymouth with 23, Wareham with 21, and Hull with 19. Other area communities recorded six or fewer. Because some communities last year reported no homelessness or refused to participate, 500 is seen as a minimum number for the county.

Tomorrow night, across the country, advocates, shelter workers, and average joes will be going out into their communities to literally count the number of persons who are homeless. This includes persons staying in shelters and those sleeping on the street.

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Fred Berman, who does the homeless counts in Cambridge MA. In order to prepare for the census we hiked through some wooded areas looking for signs of activity and checked the streets for new ATM locations and other tucked away spots. On Wednesday, nine volunteer teams will use the "maps" that we updated to travel specific routes and systematically look for persons sleeping on the street. They will take down as much information as they can for the people that they find and will deliver services at their request. Shelters will also be providing lists of the people that they serve during the same time period.

There are a lot of methodological issues with the count; unduplicating clients who are found on the street and later go in for services, figuring out the best and most comprehensive ways to search for people, gathering sensitive information such as name and social security number, and figuring in the influences of weather and available services. The count does not necessarily give an accurate number of persons that are homeless in any given area, but it does give us a start.

Are Shelters the Newest Yelp Category?

Homeless need Information about Where to go for Help
Currant.com, 10/21/2007

Brenda sits on a street corner while her partner, Noel, is off convincing South Green shopkeepers to let him wash windows for money. If he's successful, they'll live large tonight, maybe get some beer (for him) or soda (for her).

Recently, some members of the American Bar Association in Washington listened to University of Connecticut law professor Robert Whitman talk about people like Brenda. Whitman has never met Brenda, but as an advocate for therapeutic homes for mental health and addiction recovery, Whitman wants to start a national database of services for people who are homeless. Someone like Brenda could go to her local library, type in her zip code, and get up-to-date information on services, including phone numbers and hours.

People who are experiencing homelessness know how to use the internts just like you and I. Some have laptops that they charge and use in public spaces while others use the library computers to check email and surf the web. This innovative idea of creating a national database could help some of these individuals find the services that they need but my question is how much of an impact will the website have on service delivery? I haven't read any research and don't have hard numbers but I imagine that many people know where the services are, and if they don't know their friendly local outreach worker would be happy to tell them. My guess is that many people who are not accessing services have had bad experiences and may be hesitant to trust them again. So, while I think that this is an awesome effort, I think that it will end up being more of a tool for outreach workers and shelter staff than for those actually living on the streets. I'm curious to see how things develop.

Nighttime Rounds with Health Care for the Homeless: The Outreach Van

After we met with several patients the Pine Street Inn outreach van arrived. Jim wrapped things up inside and grabbed our coats. It's currently a mild fall in Massachusetts and although it wasn't very cold the skies threatened to storm so I yanked my two sizes two big pullover on, just in case.

I've been out in an outreach van before but the van I'm used to is nothing like this. Inside there were several boxes, one full of blankets and one full of socks. When you opened the back doors there was a cooler filled with sandwiches, fruit, dry soup, hot chocolate, and two water dispensers, one hot and one cold. The van I'm used to plays more of a shuttle service role, is lucky to have socks to distribute, and giving out food is against program policy (because of health concerns, not because it's a cheap program).

We drove down Commonwealth Avenue, on the mall. I have walked the mall dozens of times, during the day and in the early evening hours, but I had never seen someone who presented as a homeless person there. That night I saw how many people really do call the Commonwealth Mall home. There was a variety of people, from an older men who needed to have an injured jaw taken care of to a young guy in a suit.

Outreach runs continue to be engaging, dare I use the word "fun", experiences for me. Everyone was appreciative of what we had to offer, even though it was only a light meal and some human contact. The staff that I talk with are interesting and passionate about their work and those who aren't are often burnt out and need a vacation that this field doesn't allow them to afford. The only thing that worries me is that the shock of seeing how people on the streets are forced to live is starting to wear off.

Outreach Van

I've been volunteering at a shelter for roughly a month and a half and tonight was the first time I was allowed out in the outreach van. It was an excellent experience!

It was just me and two burly guys who are passionate about their jobs, both recovering addicts (I emphasize this because they can relate to clients in a way that I can't), who have a LOT to say about outreach, life on the streets, and interactions with shelter staff. I got an exclusive picture of the friction between the outreach team and floor staff, a relationship that is most likely not unique to this program (I'd be interested to hear what the shelter staff say about the outreach staff... maybe this is my dissertation?). Working with the outreach team was a whole different world.

While I do feel more useful inside (inside I help in the kitchen, check people in, and clean up after dinner, whereas outside I just ride around and maybe hold open the door or talk to some people) riding in the van was an experience not to be missed. I got to go to where people live and meet them in their environment, people who won't, or aren't allowed to, come into the shelter. A few weeks ago I did outreach rounds on foot during the day with Health Care for the Homeless, which was also a great experience, but this was especially interesting because I had already met most of these clients inside the shelter, I had a relationship with the staff, and I had an understanding of the program; when I went for daytime outreach I had never met any of the clients, I officially met the outreach worker for the first time minutes before we began her rounds, and I had little understanding of the program.

The one negative is that this shift made me continue to question the value of what I do, sitting in an office 9-5 M-F with three weeks of vacation (which will be spent in Europe), sick time, holidays, and weekends off. I'm thinking that, if I can handle it, I might want to seriously consider taking up a part-time job in a shelter or on an outreach team. I want to stay close to these people, they are what matters, not the white papers or the statistics that I compile. It is the human lives and faces behind those numbers that I care so much about.

Take it to the Streets

On Wednesday morning, I had the opportunity to shadow a Boston Health Care for the Homeless provider as she did her street rounds. Back in June, I attended a session of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council conference where my host had presented some of the nifty gadgets that she used on her rounds. The opportunity to see those gadgets in action was a memorable experience! At 9am I met Jill, and a student who was shadowing her for the week, across the street from a busy downtown Boston t-stop. She briefly told me what to expect and we were off!

Not even two blocks down the street we encountered three of her regular patients and by the end of the day we had seen over a half dozen people. Most were on the street but three had secured housing and we visited them in their apartments, two of the three had studio apartments on Beacon Hill (one of the richest parts of Boston) thanks to a housing first voucher program. I hate to admit that I was surprised by how clean the apartments, and their tenants, were but I was impressed. One's apartment was cleaner than my own!

The people on the streets were a different story. They were in rough shape. One had the opportunity to go to a shelter but was nervous that they wouldn't take him because he smelled bad and I'll admit, he did smell really bad. But who can blame him? I smell bad after a day in the park. I can't imagine not having the option to shower after spending an 85 degree day outside, never-mind weeks on end of those kinds of days.

Health Care For The Homeless is a particularly unique type of program, when these programs conduct outreach they often are actually practicing medicine on the streets. It is mainly basic medicine, but they use the relationship that they build to help the individual access specialized services when they are ready. I was impressed with the way that she asked what they wanted and gave them options. No one was forced to do anything that they didn't want to but we got two people off the streets that afternoon (though one was to the ER).

The experience also heightened my awareness of how severe many individuals' alcohol addictions are. As both men who agreed to be transported to services (BHCH has cab vouchers for this purpose) they discarded their bottles of mouthwash first, one handed his off to a friend, the other dropped to the ground with a hollow thud. Mouthwash is the easiest way for alcoholics to get their fix and is an indicator of exactly how bad the disease is.

It was a great experience, I hope to do something like it again!

Outreach: Only a First Step

Sleuthing Needed to Track Homeless People
Star Telegram 7/23/07

Like a detective, Selena Sumner follows clues through Tarrant County's homeless community.

Today's case: Find a mentally ill homeless woman whose family is worried about her.

Because of the mental illness, the woman hates authority, so forget about the shelters, Sumner reasoned Friday, driving a white van past abandoned buildings on East Lancaster Drive.

Outreach is a huge component of combating homelessness. People who live on the streets know that there are services available and chances are that they know where to find them. The problem is that their trust in society has been broken. The job of the outreach worker isn't to hand out socks, it is to use those socks to build a relationship. A smile and some socks isn't going to convince everyone that it is time to return to the shelter, get sober, and begin to look for housing. Outreach workers need to be careful in that they must meet the individual where they are figuratively as well as literally, and allow the individual to make their own decision about whether to enter treatment.

The individuals who conduct outreach are some of the most driven, innovative, and dedicated people you will ever meet. Many have stories of that creative hook that they used to engage a client, who later entered services and stories about searching for that hard to reach individual who they had been following for months. This is not easy, outreach workers witness alcoholism, drug use, mental illness, profanity, trauma, filth, and much more in their work and they must look past it all and see the person underneath as a unique individual who needs their help. After all of that work to engage the individual and enroll them in services the outreach worker often does not follow them and become a part of a treatment team. But they may cross paths again, whether the outreach worker runs into the formerly homeless individual at the individual's new job or running into the individual while the outreach worker does his job. People aren't perfect and we're addressing individuals, not society, so chronic homelessness is a huge issue that outreach workers must witness first hand.

For more:
Homeless Care, Delivered
Chicago Tribune 7/23/07