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Instructions Not Included

If only kids came with an instruction manual. Life dramatically changes when you become a parent, and no matter how much you prepare, there are many unknowns lying ahead. All parents seek to provide the basic necessities to their children – housing, food, clothes, health care and a good education. For parents who are homeless or at risk of homelessness meeting these needs has become difficult, but their desire to keep their children safe is undiminished. Just as the parents are struggling for stability, so too are their children. Children in homeless families can suffer from behavioral issues and developmental delays – adding to the overall stress of the family. Seeking to help families overcome this spiraling stress and its impact on children, ShelterCare has partnered with the University of Oregon’s Center for Family and Children. Doctoral students in psychology from the university are teaching a five-week series of parenting classes. The weekly 90-minute classes are held in the early evening at Family Housing Program to make it easy for parents to attend. Additional student volunteers are providing childcare services on site.

The classes are focused on improving parent relationships and reducing negative behavior in the children. Instructors guide parents in encouraging positive behavior and setting healthy limits for their children. “Hopefully parents will feel better equipped to handle their child’s problem behavior and feel more confident about building a supportive relationship with their child,” explains Kenya Makhiawala, one of the UO student instructors. Another important element in these workshops is developing a sense of community. By creating relationships between the parents, the classes are intended to encourage more cooperation and confidence that the parents can support one another.

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Rapid Responders

That’s how we describe our Homelessness Prevention team. “Our goal is to make a quick response to an urgent situation,” explains program manager, Susanne Fendler. “We attempt to do this without sacrificing quality and individualized services.” The Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP) team works with families and individuals through a streamlined intake process – sometimes learning of a family’s need and providing immediate 
assistance in the same day. In a typical case, for example, a couple with three children faced eviction in 72 hours as a result of a debt for back rent of $473. The father had a new job that necessitated purchasing specific 
tools. At the same time, the family car needed repairs. The tools and the car are the foundation of the family’s financial future. They had paid for those and couldn’t pay their rent.

Their call to ShelterCare’s HPP was answered by a screener who asked a few “routing” questions to determine the nature of their need. In this case, the need was simple – rental assistance. HPP staff conducted a series of questions to determine their eligibility for help based on the family’s rental history and status, and income information. With that basic data in hand, staff arranged to meet the parents in person to complete paperwork and 
offer funding for the owed rent so they could stay in their home. The speed of response is critical: Once a family loses their housing, the personal and financial costs climb, building a much steeper challenge for recovery. Even in those cases, a rapid response to finding new housing can avoid deeper trauma.

Molly Henderson, a resource counselor for these newly homeless families, devotes much of her energy to helping her clients find housing they can afford and providing them with skills to build their confidence. “I am constantly looking for resources covering a variety of topics, ranging from small business and home ownership classes, to parenting and money management classes,” she explains. The speed of service – and the speed of recovery for families – is limited only by the staff time and the funds available to help families overcome financial barriers. Private funding is flexible – and flexibility enables the program to be agile and responsive to a wide array of needs. “With flexible funds we can target households that benefit from a smaller amount of funds and increase the number of households we serve,” says Susanne. “Our model is to work with families who have a viable plan of action without 
future subsidies.”

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University Business Students Grapple with Homelessness

A fresh, young public image; stronger and more consistent partnerships with businesses; and a focus on services for children were among the recommendations explored by an undergraduate business class at the University of Oregon this spring. Professor John Chalmers challenged 40 students in his “Business Strategy and Planning” class to develop strategies to enhance ShelterCare’s capacity to serve families. After introductory sessions to orient the students to ShelterCare, the causes of homelessness, and the community resources currently available to support homeless families, the class identified an overarching objective for their work. Under the goal to “provide effective and sustainable services,” the class divided into eight teams. Some directed their attention to program structure and effectiveness, while others focused on financial sustainability. Highlights of the project included a survey distributed to 1,000 businesses. The 110 responses revealed that about 61 percent of respondents were familiar with ShelterCare and 27 percent were interested in partnering with the organization to provide job opportunities for ShelterCare’s consumers.

Another team developed a regression model in an attempt to determine the optimal duration of stay for a family in an emergency shelter. The ideal timeframe would ensure an improvement in income and a move to permanent housing upon departure. Although imperfect, the model suggested a stay of 77 days rather than the 60 day stays families are currently housed in short-term Family Housing units. Three of the groups explored the restoration and expansion of services for children. Ideas ranged from implementing a limited weekend and summer-only program, to an elaborate plan to house an afterschool program for several hundred students in one of the vacant and unused Eugene 4J elementary schools. “Although none of the proposals offers a definitive plan of action for ShelterCare, they each provided a nugget of information, a suggestion worthy of further study, or a new resource or tool that will be useful in our outreach and fundraising,” says Lucy Vinis, ShelterCare’s development director.

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