Fighting Homelessness at the County Level
By Albert B. Kelly
Anyone who follows this
space on a regular basis knows that I’ve been vocal in encouraging our County
Freeholders to establish a County Homeless Trust Fund in Cumberland County as a
mechanism to help provide resources to help our most vulnerable citizens.
That being the case, it’s
only fair that I take this opportunity to commend the Freeholder Board for
stepping up and getting it done at a recent meeting to the benefit of not only
of those fighting to end homelessness, but most importantly for those who need it
the most- our homeless.
It’s been a long way from
Code Blue to a comprehensive approach to homelessness and while Code Blue is a
separate initiative with a limited scope, the problems addressed by both Code
Blue and the Homeless Trust Fund are cut from the same cloth.
Homelessness is a vicious
thing to an individual or a family and it matters little whether the
homelessness is short term or “episodic” or long term and “chronic”. The other
thing that’s true about homelessness is that it’s not some stand-alone problem
separate and distinct from things like job loss, substance abuse, medical
issues, or even divorce.
Homelessness is often the
end of a thing- the result of a bunch of things that came before and like
quicksand, once you get there, it’s awfully hard to gain a foothold and pull
yourself out. Some come at the issue from a moral perspective, moved by
sympathy and compassion; they enter the fray for their own reasons.
Others are motivated by
the economics of it all. Those who live their lives among the ranks of the
homeless divide their time between the street, the county jail, and the
emergency room or some combination of these. Occasionally a program or a church
might be part of the cycle, but only occasionally and within limits.
Regardless, the cycle is a
costly one for taxpayers and all it does is rotate the problem from one place
to the other with no real hope of breaking the cycle and ultimately we have
nothing to show for it as a community.
That’s why the County
Homeless Trust Fund is no small thing- because it could potentially provide
tens of thousands of dollars specifically dedicated to addressing homelessness.
The faith-based community, local government, the nonprofit community, and
social service agencies are now moving in concert to tackle the problem.
Using the “Housing First”
approach, these groups and resources can now be focused on developing a
holistic approach to the problem of homelessness and while in the short term
this includes the stability of a place to live, long term it seeks to address
the issues that led to homelessness in the first place.
I think this is the right
way to do it because the problem is only going to grow. Whether we want to
acknowledge it or not, we live in an age of upheaval and inequality that’s not
easily remedied. Technology and automation is shrinking the job market and
turning everything upside down.
The price of a college
education- so necessary for a decent job- is so expensive that many are
excluded or prohibited from even trying. And for those who do manage to
complete college, they’re not assured of a job in their field, yet they can be
assured of a mountain of student loan debt.
These are just a few of
the many factors that have beaten and pummeled the middle class in the last
decade. Lose a job or part of your income, get sick and rack up medical bills,
go through a divorce, or have some other crisis and homelessness can be closer
than many imagine.
That’s why the homeless
trust fund is absolutely critical because while we can form a network of
nonprofits, faith-based entities, local government, and social service
agencies; without money there’s only so much that’s going to get done.
Within the Cumberland
County, local nonprofit M25 has been working with a host of partners to
implement the “Housing First” strategy to combat homelessness. That effort got
a big lift from our County Freeholders with the establishment of the County
Homeless trust Fund.
There’s a lot more to do,
but this is an important step on our way to ending homelessness in our county. For
more information on M25, please visit www.m25initiative.org For more information on Code Blue, visit www.codeblueccnj.org and for more on “Housing First” in Cumberland County,
visit www.endhomelessness2020.com