Ending LongTerm Homelessness

1
Ending Long-Term Homelessness

• Promoting Homeless Employment The Mix of Housing
  and Jobs

John Rio, MA, CRC Corporation for Supportive
Housing
2
Is A Bed Enough?

• Homeless people and tenants of supportive housing
  want to work.
• Value on personal responsibility
• Idleness
• Therapeutic value of work
• Stable housing provides a platform for work

3
Does It Pay To Establish Employment Services
Supports in Your State Plans?

• Employment Intervention Demonstration Project
  (EDIP)
• Job Training Homeless Demonstration Program
  (JTHDP)
• Housing-Based Employment Services

4
EIDP Findings

• People received many more hours of clinical
  services than vocational services
• The more vocational services received the better
  their employment outcomes
• Overtime, more people worked, their jobs lasted
  longer while time in-between jobs grew shorter
• Integrated employment services result in positive
  work outcomes regardless of personal
  characteristics

5
JTHDP Findings

• ET programs can serve a wide spectrum of
  homeless individuals
• A wide variety of organizations can successfully
  operate ET for homeless individuals
• Programs need comprehensive assessment and
  on-going case management
• ET programs must offer an array of services,
  including housing services, and coordinate with
  other providers
• Work readiness training and job search assistance
  are important

6
JTHDP Findings

• Identify those homeless persons most likely to
  benefit from occupational skills training
• Housing assistance and long-term follow up
  assistance needed
• ET costs for homeless programs varry
• Most programs cut services when federal support
  ended

7
MODEL FOR EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING SERVICES TO
HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS                            
                                                  
                                                  
              
8
Housing-Based Employment

• Employment services can be integrated into
  supportive housing
• Tenants with substance use disorders are more
  likely to work more than tenants with mental
  illness or co-occurring disorders
• Providing employment services is cost effective

9
Role of Job Training Employment in Supportive
Housing
10
Implementing Employment What services need to be
available?

• Outreach and engagement
• Standing offer of work
• Vocational Assessment
• Job Development
• Employment Supports
• Occupational Skills Training

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Rent Based Work Incentives

• Covers tenants in public housing and housing
  assisted by
• Supportive Housing Program (SHP)
• Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS
• Home Program
• Housing Choice Vouchers (section 8) Program
• Mandatory Deductions
• Earned Income Disregard

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What can clients expect?

• More people will work
• Workers will follow their own individual pathways
  
• Earnings will increase but most will work jobs
  between 6/hr and 10/hr in integrated settings
• Reliance on entitlements will decrease over time
• People with MI or MI/SA will work part-time more
  so than those without MI

13
Benefits Accrue to Tenants, Government, Society

• The 2,223 cost per person in the first year was
  offset by tax contributions and transfer payments
• Reliance on public entitlements will decrease
• More people are likely to work if more employment
  services are available

14
Supported Employment Is

• An evidenced based vocational practice
  offering workers with disabilities and special
  needs a range of services and support as needed
  on and off an employers worksite aimed at helping
  the worker keep their job.

15
Supported Employment Is...

• Worker-centered
• Work First aimed at competitive employment
• An evidenced-based practice
• Replicable

16
Shared Values/Congruent Strategies

• Supportive Housing
• Integrated
• Choice-driven
• Skills for retention, growth
• Not contingent upon TX compliance
• No time limits
• Flexible, individualized supports
• Contingency planning
• Respect changing needs, preferences

• Supported Employment
• Integrated
• Choice-driven
• Skills for retention, growth
• Not contingent upon TX compliance
• No time limits
• Flexible, individualized supports
• Contingency planning
• Respect changing needs, preferences

17
Featured Activities in Supported Employment

• Assessment of worker-employer fit
• Direct job task teaching or adapting
• Coordination with other providers
• Inventiveness is key in rural supported
  employment services

18
Social Enterprises Meeting the Market with a
Mission

• Businesses which affirmatively employ Persons
  with Disabilities and/or other Disadvantages
• Achieve Social Change More Unemployed or
  Underemployed Persons Get Jobs
• Achieve Economic Change More local businesses
  create greater local economic growth

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Why arent more communities helping homeless
people tenants work?

• Getting the money is hard work
• Program leaders need technical assistance
• CBO staff need training supports
• Mainstream ET only includes those most likely to
  succeed in WIA outcome measures

20
Show Me the Money

• Contract with State/Local Workforce Investment
  Board
• SAMHSA State Mental Health or Substance Abuse
  Authority
• State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency

21
Be a Champion for Employment Services!

• Include employment services and supports in your
  plans to end chronic homelessness
• Include representatives from the Workforce
  Development System in your planning
• Include your Workforce Development partners in
  paying for employment services for homeless
  people
• Seek the assistance you need to address
  employment for homeless people

22
Resources

• www.psych.uic.edu/eidp EIDP Study site
• www.aspe.org Association of Persons in Supported
  Employment
• www.csh.org Corporation for Supportive Housing
• www.workforceusa.net Collaboration of US DOL,
  Ford Foundation and others

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If you have built castles in the air, your work
need not be lost that is where they should be.
Now put the foundations under them.
Henry David Thoreau