Community Need
What are the most pressing issues that homeless families and individuals face these days?
One of the most pressing issues is the lack of affordable housing. With housing affordability at an all-time low in the Bay Area, more and more low-income and at-risk families and individuals are falling into chronic poverty and homelessness. In Alameda County, alone, more than 4,500 people are homeless on any given night and approximately 48% are children in families. Housing that integrates social services represents an innovative and systemic change in confronting the long-term needs of at-risk families and individuals caught in the cycle of poverty. However, the demand for permanent supportive affordable housing in Alameda County far exceeds the supply. Lorenzo Creek Apartments is a good illustration of this: as the building reached completion in January 2006, Abode Services and its housing partner, Allied Housing, received 4,000 applications for the 28 new apartments! To begin to meet the housing demand, Abode Services has committed to providing 1,000 units of affordable supportive housing in Alameda County within a ten-year period.
The lack of affordable housing and services is especially urgent for chronically homeless people with severe mental illness. Right now there is a gap in housing and services for this population in the southern and eastern portions of Alameda County, where it is estimated that more than 25% of the homeless population have a serious mental illness. Abode Services has expanded its mobile health clinic program, the HOPE Project through funding allocated through the Mental Health Service Act, Proposition 63, to reach these individuals with permanent supportive housing and intensive wrap-around services and psychiatric care.
Another urgent issue is what happens to young people when they leave the foster care system. When foster youth turn age 18, they become "legally emancipated youth"; teens that are now considered adults and no longer eligible to receive housing and other support from the county. While some emancipated youth continue to receive some financial and emotional support from their foster family and friends, most find themselves suddenly alone with no adult mentor, no money, no job, no medical insurance, and no place to live. According to the 2003 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) "All the Way Home Conference", when youth emancipate from foster care, 65% have no place to live, 44% have not completed high school, 62% are unable to maintain employment for at least one year, 40% of young women report pregnancies and 38% have no healthcare. These conditions make it extremely difficult for emancipated foster youth to establish the permanent stability they need to meet the challenges of becoming independent adults. The HUD. conference reports that as many as 50% of foster youth become homeless within the first 18 months of emancipation.
Abode Services launched Project Independence in January 2001 to provide emancipated foster youth with safe, affordable supportive housing to transition safely into adulthood and become productive members of the community. "Affordable supportive housing" consists of subsidized apartments with a network of comprehensive supportive services, such as case management, education and vocational training, employment placement, financial literacy training, mental and physical healthcare, addiction recovery programs and connections to community resources. This strategy/model is effective because it provides young people with a stable foundation and adult support while they finish their education or job training, find new employment and/or overcome psychological problems that interfere with their ability to live independently.