How we can prevent homelessness
[Applause]
this
is michelle she’s a single mom of two
kids
ages seven and two she recently split up
from her partner who was the main
breadwinner
she now works two jobs just above
minimum wage
and her average take-home pay each month
is sixteen hundred dollars
rent for her two bedroom apartment is a
thousand dollars
she pays 400 in child care each month
and that leaves her with 200
to cover food gas utilities and other
essential expenses
she tries to save money but unexpected
expenses often come up like
last month when her seven-year-old boy
got a bad case of the flu and school and
daycare wouldn’t take him
she had to miss a week of work without
pay missing out on 400
in wages she does the math and after
paying for
her kid’s doctor bill food utilities and
gas
she’s now 200 short on making her rent
she pays what she can but her landlord
isn’t willing to give her more time and
puts an eviction notice on her door
michelle is terrified in my work
i meet people like michelle every day
the good news is
we can prevent michelle’s eviction and
potential fall into homelessness from
happening to her
and we should housing is a basic human
need
without a safe and stable home and a
place to sleep shower prepare
food do laundry and gather with loved
ones it’s nearly impossible to do
anything else
i’ve seen this in my work in our
community supporting tenants at risk of
eviction
from working with indigenous communities
in asia and africa at risk of losing
their lands to agro industry
to working with people in the bay area
who had been living outside for decades
i’ve seen this fact again and again
across all kinds of different people
and communities without housing it’s
impossible to think about anything else
housing is everything unfortunately
there are so many people around the
world right now that are housing
insecure
or living without housing this has only
been amplified by the coven 19 pandemic
in the u.s the cost of housing has
continued to increase at an
unprecedented pace while urban centers
experience population growth
and struggle to keep pace with housing
needs
at the same time the cost of other
essential expenses such as child care
health care and education have also
continued to
increase and wages aren’t keeping pace
as a result the gap between income and
basic
essential expenses continues to grow
people aren’t able to save money let
alone save up for a down payment
which decreases their ability to control
the cost of housing
year to year the reality is
the united states is in the middle of
what many are calling the great
affordability crisis it’s why two out of
five americans
can’t come up with four hundred dollars
in an emergency why
three out of five can barely pay their
monthly bills
it’s why any unanticipated expense or
shortfall like a doctor bill
traffic ticket or job loss can easily
lead to an eviction
and potentially homelessness can you
imagine what you would do
if your kid got sick and you had to
choose between getting needed care for
your child
and paying your rent this is the kind of
choice
many people like michelle are having to
make every day
it’s the main driver behind increasing
rates of eviction
and homelessness around the united
states there is now
one eviction filing for every 17 renting
households
and one legal eviction for every 40
renting households the majority of these
evictions are happening
because people can’t pay their rent
alongside the increased cost of housing
and eviction numbers
the rates of homelessness around the
country are also
increasing this isn’t a coincidence
eviction and homelessness are a housing
affordability problem
at the root people want to have a home
they just can’t afford it
in our community a large majority of
people requesting rental assistance
around 80 percent are unable to pay
their rent because of job loss
while the rest have experienced some
other unanticipated expense
or shortfall national data confirms that
eviction
and homelessness are a housing
affordability problem
at the root virtually anyone could be
susceptible
to eviction and homelessness given the
right set of circumstances
and the impacts of housing loss are huge
research has shown that housing
insecurity of any kind
causes physical social and mental health
impacts that last a lifetime
especially for children a record of
eviction and homelessness
operates similar to a criminal record
precluding people from housing and
employment opportunities
for decades tenants apply to dozens of
rentals
pay hundreds of dollars in application
fees and may not get a single response
back
in a high demand rental market with a
low vacancy rate
affordable housing is even harder to
find
housing loss is also expensive for a
family
it costs around five thousand dollars on
average for a family to find new housing
after they’ve lost their home it costs
the community as well
in our community it costs around fifty
thousand dollars per person
per year who’s homeless taxing our
health care system
first responders and non-profit
organizations
thankfully there are solutions that work
to prevent
housing loss from happening to our
neighbors and to our community
we know what works to prevent eviction
and homelessness
financial assistance and supportive
services
we have invested in these interventions
in our community and it’s proven to be
successful
so far those interventions have been
shown to reduce
housing loss by over 90 percent in our
community
and nationally and they’re cost
effective
compared to responding to housing loss
after it’s already happened to a family
around five thousand dollars it costs
our community a thousand dollars
to keep a family in their home
so we know what works but because we’re
in a housing crisis
demand for our resources is high we
can’t possibly keep up
this has only been exacerbated by the
kovid 19 pandemic
where the cost of housing continues to
increase
while many remain without work requests
for rental assistance in our community
went up 300 percent during the pandemic
so the next question is how do we decide
who gets
what resources most of us like the idea
of being able to help
everyone who walks through our door
operating on a first-come
first-served basis but because we’re in
a crisis if we did that
we’d run out of resources in a day
so we’ve come up with a system to
care for our most vulnerable neighbors
those at highest risk of eviction
and homelessness first to do this
we use a research-based assessment tool
and algorithm
to decide the level of support people
receive
modeled after the way homeless resources
are administered around the u.s
we asked tenants a series of questions
based on their vulnerabilities and
history of housing and security and
financial insecurity
then run their answers through an
algorithm to assess their level of need
that way we can tailor their level of
support to meet each
individual where they are the approach
can be likened to an emergency room in a
hospital
if three people walk into a hospital one
with a serious head injury
one with a broken bone and one with the
flu hospital staff will assist
each person while also effectively and
efficiently
using their limited resources
in the hospital a person with a flu will
receive over-the-counter medicine
and a referral to urgent care when my
staff sees someone with lower needs
maybe someone with a strong employment
and housing history and a good
relationship with their landlord
they can be provided with information
and tools to set up a payment plan with
their landlord
in the hospital the person with the
broken bone will be sent to a nurse to
get an x-ray done
when we see someone in the middle range
of risk who’s being evicted maybe
someone with a bad relationship with
their landlord
and poor budgeting skills but the
ability to pay rent going forward
they can be provided with supportive
services including landlord mediation
and assistance setting up a budget and
payment plan that works for them
in the emergency room the person with a
serious head injury will go
to the doctor when we see someone with a
history
of eviction and homelessness or someone
going to eviction court
we treat those cases as more urgent they
are provided with financial assistance
to catch them up on the rent that they
owe as well as intensive supportive
services including landlord mediation
employment and budgeting support and
connections to community
resources some folks may need more
financial assistance
including background a security deposit
or a couple
months of rent going forward
so far initial results of our approach
are looking promising
but because we’re in a crisis it’s
important that we continue to triage
like our hospitals to allocate what we
have to people who need it the most
we may not have the immediate power to
raise wages
and solve for our affordable housing
crisis across the country
today but we can deploy what we have
to people who need it the most to our
most vulnerable neighbors and this is
something we
as a community can do right now
and you as an individual can always help
too
keep your eyes and ears open to your
neighbors friends
relatives and co-workers financial
insecurity is
oftentimes invisible and you could be
that linchpin for someone
during their greatest time of need get
connected to non-profit organizations on
the front lines of the housing crisis
by donating or volunteering get involved
in
local government including neighborhood
associations and city and state
government
to advocate for the growth and
availability of affordable housing
and housing supports consider creative
ways
you can grow our affordable housing
stock by
opening up a spare bedroom in your home
or building a tiny home in ba
in your backyard to lease to a long-term
renter at an affordable
rate eviction and homelessness
really could happen to anyone right now
maybe all our neighbors need is a hand
up during a critical
point in their lives if that means more
of our neighbors
like michelle can stay in their home and
we’ve done it at a lower
social and financial cost that’s a big
win for her and for our community
thank you