The growing number of homeless families over past few decades has captured people’s attention . Initially, it was considered to be a problem confined to single men or woman. More recently, we have seen it getting common with single women with children.
Typically, a transitional housing is a one or two bedroom apartment complete with kitchen. They are usually in a group in 20 to 40 multi-unit complexes. They differ from other similar programs that “provide temporary shelter, such as emergency assistance and temporary rental assistance (TRA)”. The difference lies in the fact that it integrates services such as social support and emergency shelter with skills training and counselling that help recipients find and keep permanent housing.
Homeless women typically suffer from; depression; fatigue; despair; low self-esteem; and perception of low control over their lives. They also have a desire for privacy and stability. In case they have dependent children, the depression and powerlessness also results in their poor supervision. It is claimed that the major improvement comes from emotional support, which is typically lacking in homelessness and shelter living.
Extensive research on the impact of transitional housing on the perception of quality of life has thrown up some interesting facts. The level of state of depression and/or hopelessness increases dissatisfaction with the quality of life of the residents. The number of program activities that residents participate in has a positive influence on the quality of life. The initial level of perception about quality of life has a significant positive influence on resident’s capacity to change. Contrary to popular belief stressful life events, social support, locus of control, and role performance does not seem to have significant impact on quality of life either before or after program participation. Finally, the socio-demographic profile of residents had no influence on life-quality perceptions.
There is growing concern that those women who have experienced homelessness need social support and housing to stabilize their lives. The trauma of homelessness is further compounded by history of physical abuse, residential instability, and mental health and additions. Against this background, transitional housing offers supportive living environment, opportunity for social environment, and skills for career development. It also helps bring about its residents as a community. The stability thus attained is critical in obtaining employment, going for further training, education, and address mental health and addition issues. All these factors help in enabling the resident to move on to independent living in the community . The transitional housing program is being applied to help people get out of homelessness; there is unanimity on one single program model.
Transitional housing is an intermediate step between emergency crisis services and a long-term permanent housing. “It is more long-term, service-intensive, and private than emergency shelters, yet remains limited to stays of between three months and three years” . They are confined to a building and offer comparatively less private space than permanent housing. It offers women an intermediate step where they can take charge of their lives and move on to live in the community. This step allows them to overcome the history of trauma, address factors that had made them homeless to begin with, and start building their support network.
There are a wide variety of services that are provided to them via community partners. Such services include, but are not limited to, case management; alcohol and substance abuse; financial counselling and employment services. Some centres provide variety of specialized services such as childcare, domestic violence counselling, and services for AIDS patients as well.
There is little difference between an emergency shelter and transitional housing. Both differ essentially in terms of length of stay. Typically shelters are becoming more specialized, and women are staying longer. Thereby, blurring the distinction between the two kinds of facilities. Similarly, transitional housing tends to resemble supportive housing. Here also the essential difference lies in the length of stay, as supportive housing is permanent. The distinction between traditional housing and residential treatment programs for rehabilitation is also not very clear. The major difference between the two being mental illness and substance abuse among residents of transitional housing.
Program Objective
The objective of the transitional housing for women is to provide them with infrastructure necessary for them to attain self-sufficiency. The effort is to ensure that those moving out don’t become homeless again. Even then there is considerable variation in demands and expectations of the participants. At the lower end of the spectrum, there are program focused only on getting people off the street. Then gradually encourage them to alter their behavioural pattern, such as personal hygiene and taking advantage of healthcare services. Among the variety of services being offered are: assistance in opening up of bank account; participating in educational and employment services; and if required access to mental health professional. Some transitional housing programs offer specialty services as well. One based in Calgary, which is focused on children, helps them improve school performance and make them law abiding. Another one based out of New York City has a program that reunites mentally ill homeless parents with their children. This way it strives to improve social connections within the community.
Indicators of Success
It is beneficial to know the indicators of success beforehand. As the main objective of such organizations is to promote economic self-sufficiency, the appropriate indicators of success are: a stable residency; and increasingly greater reliance on employment related earnings, than social assistance. After all, transitional housing programs have been developed keeping in mind the objective of providing services that will enable the residents to maintain residential stability once they move out.
Children of Homeless Women
Children of homeless women generally have compromised child development and well-being . Homelessness also impacts other parameters of child development: growth; education; and health and nutrition.
As can be imagined, homeless children are more likely to miss school and fare worse than those with homes. More immediate concerns, such as getting food and shelter, can deter homeless mothers from taking their child to school. The uncertainty related to location has impacts their schooling too. Any move would mean going through the whole process of transfer to another school. This disrupts the educational schedule and put homeless child in altogether different environment. One can’t ignore the possibility of humiliation at the hands of fellow students, and even teachers and staff. As a result of all this, they are more like to be placed in special education classrooms.
Upon examining the health and nutritional parameters, it has been found that homeless children are more likely to suffer from low birth weight, higher infant mortality, and more pediatric disorders. As can be imagined, they are less likely to get regular medical attention. Consequently, they are more likely to visit hospital for trivial problems. They are also more likely to change doctors due to their ever changing location. This results in less that appropriate level of care and lack of follow-up with the same practitioner.
Compounding the problem further is the lack of social network. The constant mobility prevents them from finding role models in the society.
Conclusion
In conclusion, transitional housing program is an intermediate step between the emergency shelter and long term permanent housing. The chief objective is to establish residency stability. Generally they combine short-term housing and support services, which vary according to type and flexibility. It caters to people who are unable to get permanent housing or are unable to access it.
It has been observed that short term houses are more effective solution to homelessness than support services alone. In a study conducted in New York, those who were provided a combination of temporary housing and support services, were better able to reintegrate themselves into the society.
Almost all the studies have demonstrated some degree of post-program improvement in housing status. They have also demonstrated a significant reduction in readmission to the program. Almost half of the residents have been known to go back to permanent housing facilities. There are some transitional housing programs that also provide subsidized housing to those passing out of their program. Almost all of the programs offer assistance in finding a housing post-program, but not necessarily an affordable one. When some of the programs tried to encourage chronically homeless persons with mental illness to move to supportive housing, they faced some resistance. Such persons wanted relatively better accommodation offered by private sector organizations. Either way only a small percentage of former residents, who went on to live in community housing, were known to drop off within the next 12 months.
As far as the financial independence is concerned, along with employment status, the improvement has been modest. Also, one needs to accept the fact that permanent housing and community services are very crucial to the success of the traditional housing program.
Comparing Canadian versus US traditional housing program, one finds that in Canada there are fewer programs for families as compared to individuals. One of the main reasons could be higher cost of housing and support services for families in Canada.
Bibliography
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Camasso, Michael J. "Quality of Life Perception in Transitional Housing Demonstration Projects: An Examination of Psychosocial Impact." Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention (2003): 99 - 118. Web. <http://btci.stanford.clockss.org/cgi/reprint/3/1/99.pdf>.
Culhane, Dennis P, Sally A Koblinsky and Cynthia P Wilson. "Housing Is Not Enough: Helping Homeless Families Achieve Self-Sufficiency." 13 09 1996. The Annie E. Casey Foundation. Web. 04 01 2014. <http://www.aecf.org/upload/publicationfiles/fes3622h191.pdf>.
Novac, Sylvia, Joyce Brown and Carmen Bourbonnais. "Transitional Housing Models in Canada: Options and Outcomes." Novac, Sylvia, Joyce Brown and Carmen Bourbonnais. Finding Home: Policy Options for Addressing Homelessness in Canada. Toronto: Cities Centre, University of Toronto, 2009. 1 - 25. Web. <http://www.homelesshub.ca/ResourceFiles/Documents/1.1%20Novac%20et%20al%20%20-%20Transitional%20Housing.pdf>.
