Shelter leader fears people will be left on Portland streets as Northrup Shelter closes<\/a><\/p>\nThe first part surveyed 541 people experiencing homelessness or who had recently moved into housing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The second took a deeper look at the individual pathways into and through homelessness for 29 people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n
The study identified the following obstacles that keep people from accessing services:<\/p>\n
Inconsistent housing-application processes, long wait times, dense paperwork, mixed messages and unclear follow-up procedures create a cycle in which many people experiencing homelessness get lost. Participants also described safety concerns in congregate shelters that discouraged them from using those options. People with income often did not earn enough to cover housing costs, while waitlists for low-income housing were too long.Financial assistance is crucial for people trying to secure housing, but funding options can be difficult to obtain and often come with time limits.Resources and programs for people experiencing homelessness are often designed to solve specific problems, creating requirements that many people do not meet. \u201cSome were not considered old enough, disabled enough, sick enough, addicted enough, or visibly vulnerable enough to qualify for available programs,\u201d the study reads in part.Progress toward housing often depended on finding a skilled person who could advocate for people and help them navigate the complex system. \u201cToo often, progress depended on exceptional individuals who knew how to work around barriers, and maintain relationships, rather than on systems designed to make those pathways clear and reliable for everyone,\u201d the study reads in part.People often described finding housing as a stroke of luck rather than the result of a clear pathway.People who obtain housing often cycle back into homelessness because their housing situations are unstable. For example, they may live with and depend on family members for support, or rely on government subsidies that eventually run out.The homeless services network does not coordinate well with other services that may help the same people find housing or other support, including jails, parole officers, treatment centers and medical providers.<\/p>\n
The researchers made the following recommendations to county officials:<\/p>\n
Increase access to diverse forms of affordable housing. Researchers said the county should prioritize that over short-term, overnight-only shelters.Prioritize homelessness prevention and housing stability. The data show that, despite the extensive resources and measures the county and city are investing to address homelessness, the problem is growing because more people are becoming homeless than are moving into housing.Build a more coordinated, safe and accountable homelessness services system. The recommendation calls for better shelter conditions, more efficient and easier-to-understand systems for people seeking services, and greater coordination among service providers.Eliminate practices that disrupt pathways to housing. Researchers said sweeps run counter to the homeless services department\u2019s goals because they displace people and can cause them to lose contact with caseworkers.Strengthen community belonging and informal support systems. The study found that friends, family and charitable neighbors often help people experiencing homelessness, but leadership in the field may overlook those supports. The recommendation advises more support for and coordination with those systems.Integrate lived experience into solutions for homelessness. \u201cPeople with lived experience bring knowledge that cannot be gained through professional training alone. Their expertise should shape policy, funding, program design, research, evaluation, and system improvement,\u201d the study reads in part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) \u2014 Researchers at Portland State University\u2019s Institute of Metropolitan Studies and the OHSU-PSU School of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-845107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}