The Complex Issue of Homelessness

Doug Cowan

CSL President & CEO

September 3, 2021 | By: Doug Cowan, CSL President & CEO

As our area’s largest provider of homeless services, people want to talk all the time about the issue of homelessness. Right now, the issue is everywhere around us. Just visually, there is a large uptick in the number of people on the streets. We can also often forget the hidden homeless that are couch-surfing or living in temporary shelter. Homelessness is a human welfare issue, a child wellbeing issue, a safety issue, and a public health issue.

Substance abuse and mental health. These are the circumstances most people cite when talking about an increase in homelessness. They are certainly two leading contributors to ending up on the streets. But what about a marketplace analysis, and an analysis of how public policy has affected the issue? My hope is to show that this is issue is complex, and will take a multi-faceted approach to solving.

America had tons of tiny homes before HGTV made them popular with many television shows focused on them. They were called trailer, mobile, or manufactured homes. Over the decades those homes have been vilified, and through planning, zoning, and/or conditional use permitting, have largely been prohibited in many communities.

We also collectively cringe at the local hotels and motels where families live. Families often live there because they’ve been evicted, or they have a past due utility balance they can’t pay off, and they can’t start new utility service at a home or apartment. At a hotel/motel, utilities are included with the rent. Hotel/motel renters can also live there without coming up with the cash for first/last month rent and deposit, even though it’s likely more expensive in the long run.

Did you know that in Missouri, an eviction stays on your record for seven years, even if you’ve satisfied a judgement? With imbalances in supply and demand, today, landlords can effectively overlook anyone with an active eviction on their record. At CSL, we keep a list of landlords that will rent to those with an eviction. It’s a very, very short list.

When cities have conversations about multi-family housing (apartments), there’s usually some significant opposition. Many people say, “there will be too much noise or traffic,” or “can our schools handle that many more kids?” Many people will say, “we need that housing, but here is not the best spot.” I always hear the comment, “it will end up as Section 8 housing” someday (which is an uninformed comment about how subsidized housing works, but that’s a story for another day). We call this phenomenon NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard. The problem is… no one wants it in their backyard.

Recently, in my neighborhood in Independence, there was a proposal for a detox center to help individuals off substance abuse. Professionally, I know how important this is to helping people move forward. Personally, I can understand why the families who live across the street from the proposed facility were nervous about the proposal. I was copied on a bevy of emails, and the tone was (paraphrasing), “We know this is needed, but this isn’t the right place.” An elected official chimed in on the email chain and said (paraphrasing), “All neighborhoods and places are special. As a community, we have to come together to bring treatment opportunities. We can’t have it both ways – complain about too many homeless people, and be outraged about a drug treatment facility for homeless folks.” I’m not suggesting there’s an easy solution here. We can see the complexity of public policy around these societal challenges.

Folks at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder can only afford a very limited percentage of the housing stock. When all that is being built is higher-end, it puts pressure on folks at the bottom. When the bottom bursts, we see folks going into homelessness. When I first started at CSL in 2010, rents were much more modest. In fact, we had a cap on assistance at $300/month. Now, we can rarely start a rent assistance conversation for less than $800/month. For someone on Social Security’s Supplemental Security Income (SSI) at $794/month (which is the maximum amount for single individual), there’s no way that person can rent a place and pay utilities. That person has to “double up” with other people or seek subsidized housing. The maximum benefit was $674/month in 2009, and has increased 17.8% in the last 12 years. Conversely, rents across America increased by an average of 36% from 2010-2020.

Let’s reexamine the stressors:

Prohibition of trailer parks or other alternative housing

Demolition of hotels/motels

No development of moderately-priced apartments

Evictions hanging on a person’s record

Lack of public consensus on viable solutions

Affordability issues for the lowest-income households

So, here are some solutions:

We need to embrace development. We have a supply/demand imbalance. Additional developments can soften the market and make housing more affordable for all people. We need development of single- and multi-family housing across all income spectrums.

Not all housing will be alike. We can’t solely build 2,000 square foot homes on a nice quarter-acre lot and call that progress. We need some duplexes interspersed into new neighborhoods; we need policy that promotes and encourages infill development in older neighborhoods where homes were bulldozed or lost to fire; where aligned with transit/jobs, we need multi-family development; we need our Housing Authorities to bring new units of affordable housing (affordable = tenants pay 30% of income in rent) to our communities; we need to develop loft spaces above our downtown buildings, and much more.

Instead of shunning our motels, we should think of the kids and families that live there, and work on pathways that can help them find stable housing.

For those on the streets, we need more shelter and transitional housing. In Eastern Jackson County, we have 68 emergency family shelter beds for a population base of 300,000+ people. The 68 beds are at Salvation Army’s Crossroads Shelter in Independence, and does not count the domestic violence shelter beds we have in our area. We have nowhere in Eastern Jackson County to put single men. Nowhere. The best we can do is give men a bus pass to City Union Mission or Shelter KC (formerly KC Rescue Mission) downtown.

There needs to be drop-in centers where those on the streets can come in for basic services (laundry, phone calls, showers, mental health, substance abuse, food, etc.). Our community needs to come together and find a place where that can be accepted. At some point, a group of neighbors is going to have to say, “let it exist near me.” As I mentioned above, opportunities are often brought forward and met with fierce opposition from neighbors.

So, what is CSL doing about this? In my decade-plus with the organization, we’ve increased our work in homeless services many times over. Here’s a quick summary of our work:

• We operate HUD’s Permanent Supportive Housing Program, which houses about 150 formerly homeless people. We provide each family with a Case Manager to help them remain stably housed. We devote significant staff time to trying to increase the amount of money we receive.

• Our Noland Road office is a “Coordinated Entry Access Point;” one of a few in the metro area. Essentially, people who are homeless can complete the appropriate intake that may allow them to receive permanent housing with HUD’s support.

• We have a team of people that organize and assist with intentional outreach efforts to those on the streets. We take basic items with us, and always ask if people are seeking permanent housing. We are always prepared to talk about shelter options that can be a first step towards permanent housing.

• As requested by partners or cities, we conduct specific outreach to identified individuals. We utilize agency resources to pay for motel stays, buses to shelters, etc.

• We administer hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to combat homelessness. We can pay rental deposits, monthly rent, and much more as needed. Our wraparound supports with Employment Services, Financial Coaching, and Basic Needs assistance work to help in all facets of a person’s life.

• Perhaps the greatest amount of our energy is spent preventing homelessness. We work diligently, across all program areas, to keep families and individuals stably housed. We are presently administering $11.5 million in federal rent and utility assistance through Jackson County. To date, we’ve prevented close to 1,600 needless evictions that might have forced families on the streets.

Above all, we need thoughtful dialogue. I hope, if nothing else, you have an understanding of the complexity of the challenge of homelessness. It’s not just mental health, it’s not just substance abuse, it’s not just market-based, and it’s not just public policy. It’s all things, and all things need to be considered. We often want to be able to fix just one thing and alleviate a problem. With homelessness, it’s going to take a lot of fixes.

We also have to recognize that we reap what we sow. A diverse society needs a widely diverse housing stock. If we don’t look at housing through that lens, then of course people are going to slip through the cracks and not be able to afford or maintain housing.

If you’ve reached the end of this blog post, thanks for taking the time to give some critical thought to a complex issue. If you have thoughts or comments, please send them to me at cowand@cslcares.org.