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Homeless
Prevention Program (Click here for Eligibility Guidelines) For an update click here As a result of the
elimination of government funding for homeless prevention programs due to
policy changes, MWOC has made the decision to develop a community-based
Homeless Prevention Program to help fill this void. MWOC will concentrate
on the MetroWest area with Framingham as the primary focal point. The
program will assist our low and very low-income families, including the
homeless. In order to place the
Homeless Prevention Program in relation to other services and agency
functions, we will use the Continuum
of Care process as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing &
Urban Development. This process contains
seven components: prevention, outreach and assessment, emergency shelter,
transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, permanent affordable
housing, and supportive services. MWOC is concentrating on homeless
prevention and reacquisition of housing for those who are homeless. We
will work with other agencies and organizations that provide the other six
components. These other organizations include South Middlesex Opportunity
Council (SMOC), Catholic Charities, MetroWest Affordable Housing
Coalition, MetroWest Housing for All, local Housing Authorities and many
others. Our
objectives will be to provide funds to families for
rent arrears and to assist families attempting to secure permanent
housing. With the stability of a permanent residence, the children are
less likely to move from school to school. They will have a better
opportunity to gain the education necessary to escape the cycle of poverty
and homelessness. We intend to serve the
maximum number of families possible with the available funds obtained from
grants, donations, and fundraising. MetroWest Outreach Connection and
referring agencies will work together to select recipients that best meet
the criteria for housing reacquisition and stabilization financial
assistance. The referring agencies we
will work with collaboratively include: South Middlesex Opportunity
Council (SMOC), South Middlesex Legal Services (SMLS), the Massachusetts
Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), and Catholic Charities. In
addition, we will accept referrals for assistance from rabbis, priests,
and ministers for members of their congregations. We will not always
provide 100% of the funds required to assist a family. We will seek to
leverage our funds through collaboration with other funding sources such
as SMOC, Catholic Charities, and houses of worship. Thus by combining
funds with other groups, we will extend our funding and be able to assist
more families. We intend to work closely with the referring agencies to
make sure that the recipients of this funding have documented and
verifiable needs – rental arrears, or a need for security deposits –
and have the financial resources to pay their rent once they have received
financial assistance. This prevention program
provides an economic safety net for families who, for legitimate reasons,
are unable to make rental or mortgage payments. Unfortunately, there are
insufficient financial resources available for these families when they
have a financial crisis. Organizations growing out of faith-communities,
SMOC and Catholic Charities have continued
to assist these families but their levels of funding are not
adequate. What we have now is an absence of a safety net that would keep
many needy poor families in permanent housing. State programs that support
family placement in shelters and motels rather than payment of rental
arrears are not the solutions to the housing crisis. At triple the cost or
more, how can this approach be a better one than funding rental arrears? Currently, there are
nearly 200 families statewide who do not have permanent housing and
temporarily reside in motels. This is virtually the same number of
families who were in motels in December 2001. We have not made any
apparent progress to resolving the homeless crisis in this state.
There are approximately 30 families recently lost their housing in
Framingham. Each month,
additional MetroWest area families face the loss of housing due to rental
or mortgage arrears, or imminent eviction. The Department of Transitional
Assistance and South Middlesex Opportunity Council have documented the
many families who need support and financial assistance to maintain their
housing or to secure housing. In addition, there are approximately 1100
families housed in shelters in Massachusetts. The Department of
Transitional Assistance has provided us with Framingham rent arrearage
figures for 2001. There were 68 cases that year with 201 months of
arrearage. The total amount paid to Framingham residents was $70,973 with
the average level of financial assistance being $1,044 and the average per
month $353. Recent figures provided by SMOC indicate that the average
financial assistance has increased to approximately $500 per family per
month. Program
Goals We anticipate that we
will be able to help 45 to 60 families stay in their current homes or
acquire new housing if they are homeless now. Based upon the February 2,
2004 South Middlesex Opportunity Council homelessness count, for the
Framingham/Marlboro area, there were 73 homeless families consisting of 81
adults with 133 children and 173 homeless individuals.
Evaluating
the Success of the Project
We
will develop and maintain a database of the clients served and the funds
allocated to these clients. All clients will be required to sign a release
form that will give MetroWest Outreach Connection permission to contact
them, their landlord and their children’s school system to check on the
family every six months to see if they are still in permanent housing. We
will use proven methodologies employed by SMOC and Catholic Charities to
assess the effectiveness of our financial interventions. At all times, we
will respect the confidentiality of our clients. An
article based upon recent studies, written by Dr. Rachel G. Blatt,
Department of Urban and Environment Policy and Planning at Tufts
University, indicates that homeless children’s nutrition suffers
significantly and affects their mental and physical health. Their ability
to sustain friendships is impaired and their self-esteem is adversely
affected. The
cost of housing a family in a motel or shelter can be three to six times
more expensive than providing that same family with rental arrearage
assistance. Our program saves money
and helps families in many other ways. Families
in permanent housing support our local merchants and have children who do
not require extraordinary transportation or special after school programs.
The McKinney-Vento Act requires that communities where children resided
prior to becoming homeless transport children back to that community for
their education if the parent requests. How does a child benefit from a
long ride to school then back to “home” where he or she must study in
a motel room or some crowded space in a shelter? Testimony of
administrators, teachers and parents support our premise. Homeless
children are victims of an inferior education. They are at-risk of
becoming the next generation of undereducated people unequipped to enter
the workforce. The
vast majority of children with stable housing and educational continuity
will make positive contributions to their communities. They will pay taxes
rather than consume state tax dollars. This program offers the children a
chance to obtain an education by keeping them in permanent housing. HomeStart is a Boston-based organization that began as a component of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance. This organization focuses on meeting the housing needs of people experiencing homelessness. Over the past nine years, more than 1900 people have been place in permanent housing. Eighty-six percent (86%) of the participants they placed into housing in fiscal year 2002 are still housed one year later. This Homeless Prevention Program helped 52 at-risk households stay in their housing and avoid homelessness from October 2002 through September 2003. This statistic shows the effectiveness of the financial intervention that MWOC is going to provide with the donated funds.
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