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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024 8-9 Data and Needs Assessment, Housing Fund BoardHousing Needs Assessment Data and Needs Assessment Committee, Housing Fund Board August 9th, 2024 Discussion Meeting Agenda and Informational Notes Topic: Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Trafficking Victims/Survivors and Sex Workers Agenda:  Introductions Qualitative Data Round - Existing Conditions Lived Experience and Observed Dynamics Existing Housing Service Landscape Discussion Barriers and Gaps Actions to Address Barriers and Gaps Present: Cheryl Weinstein – Program Manager, Dove House – meeting facilitator Beulah Kingsolver – Executive Director, Dove House Samantha Boyd - Care Manager, REAL Team Jamillah DeCianne - Recovery Coach, REAL Team Julia Cochrane – HFB – meeting scribe Viki Sonntag – HFB Heather Dudley-Nolette - Bayside Summary Take-Aways A major cause of homelessness is the experience of repeated trauma – discrimination and exposure to violence. Once homeless, there is an increase in trauma exposure. In CA study, ¾ of homeless population experienced physical assault and a quarter experienced sexual assault. Sexual violence was more common among ciswomen (43%) and transgender or nonbinary individuals (74%). (See attached data summary from study.) While the lack of affordable housing is the primary structural barrier, survivors’ lack of resources – references, financial history, and savings to pay upfront costs of new housing – present formidable additional barriers to securing housing in private market, while the eligibility requirements for low income subsidized housing (less than $18-19/hour) is a barrier. From a system’s view, Domestic Violence (DV) survivors are hardest to get fully served and moved into permanent housing. There is no separate family shelter/transitional housing in Jefferson County. Existing Conditions Beulah - Dove House The biggest struggle is not enough housing compounded by lack of references and financial history (e.g. credit record) to apply for housing [on private market], no control of finances, and/or no resources to cover move-in costs. Assault and DV survivors have different socioeconomics. DV survivors may have more resources but the size of housing is for smaller families or elderly population. Number of children is a big barrier to providing services. Rules for housing services, eg. children of different sexes need to be in different bedrooms, limit providers’ ability to house. There is no separate family shelter. Bayside and Dove House are housing adults with children 90 to 180 days but have limited resources to house all those who need care. “We end up shuffling instead of building.” [Transitional housing] Haines St. cottages are 2 bedroom. However, cottages are not an option anymore because they are just for therapeutic court. If you are in therapeutic courts, it may be easier to get shelter/housing. There used to be more rentals and they were less expensive. When our housing authority was local it was more successful and accessible. Housing authority keeps local list of rentals. Unique challenges for survivors - safety, and the right of the victim to stay when the abuser is removed. We need landlord education. If you make $18/hr, you make too much for our subsidized apartments. Also, the gap between fair market rents vs reality of market rents [is substantial]. REAL Team Focus on keeping people safe and helping them to escape harmful situations. Because of stigmatization of victims, people are not speaking up or seeking services. Isolation is further barrier [to housing stability] as people need community. Child-friendly transportation is needed. Stigmatization leads to substance abuse behaviors. You get high because you don’t want to talk about it - feel it. [Research shows that cumulative trauma exposure is linked to poor self-rated mental health as well as substance use disorders.] Ensuring safety at hotels is a problem. Landlords not supportive: it's not safe to keep her here. Of the homeless women REAL team deals with, guess that 90% are DV survivors at the least. [American Law: 90% of women on the street are from Domestic Violence. 38% of DV end up homeless.] It is easier to fly under the radar in bigger places. In Jeffco people don’t speak up because of the stigmatism. In CA you often see DV leading to prostitution. Here it's invisible. Bayside DV is the hardest to get fully served and moved into permanent housing. High percentage of success through the courts (mostly males, all singles), next highest is veterans, and no category. Why is Bayside having the hardest time placing people who are experiencing DV in permanent housing? There is no active support for after they left Bayside. Barriers and Gaps and Actions to Address Barriers and Gaps There is a need to educate landlords [on economic and legal protections for DV and SA survivors]. Funding for [homelessness] prevention is needed and access to information and resources, like rental assistance, before you end up in homelessness. You aren’t entered into the HMIS coordinated entry system until you are homeless and case management must be in place. Eviction Prevention dollars (through OlyCAP) can cover 3 months of back rent. Before accessing, you need to have a pay or vacate notice and it takes many months for the landlord to get the money. Basic life services for women with children are lacking. Busses have a limit on stuff you can take on - like a toddler, stroller - and maybe a bag of laundry. Needed an interaction with the transit about the limit on bags. Childcare is desperately needed. YMCA opens at 8:30 am which is too late. Few subsidized rental houses have laundry. Very expensive to do in coin operated laundries. Need information on who is accepting laundry vouchers. Also, what do you do with the kids while you are doing laundry? Resourcing the staff who are serving DV, SA and trafficking is so important. If you are not involved with drug abuse or mental health, the resources are less. There is a big gap in housing for women with children. SUD, DBH, are required for the Haines Street Cabins. (DBH and Believe in Recovery has cabins.) Mental health issues - someone receives two services from DBH. Woman’s cabin not full. Thomas Street (NW Passage) apts. Some are subsidized thru Olycap, and the rest are mental health $. Drug court has a lot of resources. Apartments and housing are funded with the opiate funds coming through the drug court. Most of the people in drug court are single. Big gap is sober housing. Community is a critical resource. We need spaces that are low barrier and support being able to be transparent and open up. Recovery café is fully booked. Faith groups and churches, tenant/guest self-organizing important pathways to community Need to find ways to better measure impacts of community at system level. Excerpts from The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness University of California San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative Toward a New Understanding June 2023 California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH), the largest representative study of homelessness since the mid-1990s and the first largescale representative study to use mixed methods (surveys and in-depth interviews).ograms and policies ... to address homelessness, we need to understand who is experiencing it, how they became homeless, what their experiences are, and what is preventing them from exiting. Pathways to Homelessness Participants reported how stress and trauma over the life course preceded their experience with homelessness. Participants reported experiences of discrimination, exposure to violence, incarceration, and other traumas prior to homelessness. These experiences interacted and compounded to increase vulnerability to homelessness. Physical and sexual victimization throughout the life course was common. Nearly three quarters (72%) experienced physical violence in their lifetime; 24% experienced sexual violence. Sexual violence was more common among ciswomen (43%) and transgender or nonbinary individuals (74%). Nearly half (49%) of all participants experienced physical or sexual violence before age 18; 45% reported experiencing physical violence and 15% sexual violence. Research shows that cumulative trauma exposure is linked to poor self-rated mental health as well as substance use disorders. It is not surprising that CASPEH participants had high levels of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and substance use. Participants who left due to violence spoke of leaving as a strategy to survive. Leaving due to interpersonal violence (IPV) affected those in both non-leaseholder and leaseholder housing, with a similar proportion reporting it as a reason for leaving. For some, IPV led to their leaving behind a housing subsidy. Experience during homelessness ... experiences of violence were common. ... Participants reported that homelessness left them more vulnerable to violence. More than one third of all participants (38%) experienced either physical (36%) or sexual (10%) violence during this episode of homelessness. Ciswomen (16%) and transgender or non-binary individuals (35%) were more likely to experience sexual violence. Use of Domestic Violence Shelters by Survivors of IPV: In in-depth interviews, some survivors of intimate partner violence discussed facing barriers to entering domestic violence shelters. They described being turned away because either all available beds were full or because there were beds available only for women with children. Others described difficulty accessing domestic violence shelters because they didn’t know how to. Participants who entered domestic violence shelters mentioned varied experiences receiving adequate support and access to services; some described positive and helpful interactions and others reported limited support. A participant described the challenge of trying to access services while dealing with her own trauma: “It seems like you have to stay on top of the people that are supposed to be helping you to get the help that you’re supposed to need, and like that’s really hard. When you’re going through trauma, it’s hard to even get up sometimes, like you feel really low. I feel like your advocates that are supposed to be helping you, [they] should be reaching out to you to make sure that you’re okay because you’re already in a bad place.” More than a third (38%) experienced either physical or sexual violence during this episode of homelessness. Those who spent most of their time unsheltered without a vehicle reported similar rates of violence (42%) to those who were in vehicles (39%) but higher than those who spent most of their time in sheltered locations (26%). Barriers and Facilitators of Returns to Housing Although participants were, for the most part, willing to accept housing with others (rather than by themselves or with members of their personal household), they were reluctant to accept housing with people they did not know and hadn’t chosen. ... Others explained that their reluctance to share housing with people unknown to them resulted from their past experiences of physical or sexual violence. Embed homelessness prevention in mainstream systems where low-income individuals receive services. Few participants had sought or received prevention services. Embedding screening and prevention services where at-risk individuals seek services (healthcare, social service, domestic violence services, educational settings) could increase awareness and use of prevention services. Policy Recommendations Provide robust supports to match the behavioral health needs of the population by (1) increasing access to low barrier mental health, substance use, and harm reduction services during episodes of homelessness (including unsheltered settings) and (2) appropriately staffing permanent supportive housing with evidence-based models (e.g., pathways to housing, assertive community treatment, and intensive case management) that meet the needs of the population.