Is this any way to treat the economy?

I was going to write about what is sometimes referred to as “the poverty trap”, but today is the last day of the government’s fiscal year. As of right now, we expect the government to shut down tomorrow because there is no continuing resolution, much less a federal budget to authorize government spending.

 

USA Today’s story “66 questions and answers about the government shutdown” ended with the following points about what it means in the long run:

 

“64. How much money would a shutdown save taxpayers? Most likely, it wouldn't. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says shutdowns cost money in terms of contingency planning, lost user fees and back pay. A government estimate after the shutdown in 1995-96 estimated its cost at $1.4 billion.

 

65. What effect would a shutdown have on the economy? Economists say even a short shutdown — of three or four days — would begin to shave decimal points off economic growth. A sustained shutdown of three or four weeks "would do significant economic damage," economist Mark Zandi told USA TODAY.

 

66. What about the stock market? The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 3.7% during the 1995-96 government shutdown, according to S&P Capital IQ. Stocks quickly rebounded after the government got back to work, rising 10.5% the month after the shutdown ended.”

 

The economic recovery hadn’t really trickled down to very low income people like the homeless families we serve, so we’re fervently hoping a fragile economy isn’t dealt another setback.

 

Jobs Matter: Barriers to ending homelessness

By Constance Taylor, Employment Services Job Coach

The U.S. economy lost nearly six million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. Kansas City alone lost nearly 70,000 jobs since 2007. Government estimates show that from August 2010 to August 2011, only the Atlanta area lost more than the 120,000 jobs lost in the Kansas City area. Both on a numerical and percentage basis, the area ranks second worst among the 127 major U.S. cities where employment shrank over the year.

In such a competitive environment, the difficulties of job-seeking as a homeless person can be almost insurmountable barriers.

For those with limited skills or experience, there aren’t many opportunities to find a job that pays a living wage.

All segments of the homeless population, especially heads of family households, face significant and multiple barriers to employment. These barriers are personal, programmatic, and systemic.

People who are homeless often lack stress management, social interaction, independent living and vocational engagement skills, as well as a place to live and financial resources. On top of that, many members of the homeless population have to combat barriers, such as limited transportation and reduced access to educational and training programs.

The digital divide remains a deep void for homeless populations. Competing for jobs today requires some understanding of and competency in information technology. Lack of computer knowledge and fear of failure can prevent these populations from seeking to use computers available through public access. These limitations contribute to poor labor market outcomes for homeless people.

To equip our formerly homeless clients to overcome their barriers, we provide job readiness classes and job coaching.  We work with each family to assess educational and vocational needs. And, we seek relationships with employers to establish a broad support system for the families we serve.

On the positive side, about 70% of adults are employed when they exit to their own homes. Less encouraging is that the average wage is $9.39 per hour. That’s an annual income of less than $20,000 a year.

Hopefully, the very low income population will soon share in the gradual improvement in the economy. 

Not Like Them

Senior Director of Programs and Operations Jeannine Short tells the story of Traci...

Traci and her daughter entered our transitional housing in September 2008. Prior to entering the program, she had a very lucrative career in real estate and was accustomed to providing a stable home for her daughter. When the economy began to turn for the worse and the housing market bottomed out, Traci found herself without an income and the ability to maintain the arguably lavish lifestyle she had become accustomed to. Consequently, with no income, no savings and a delay in unemployment benefits, she and her daughter found themselves without a home.

Upon entering the program, Traci admits she was challenged by the structure of the program. To suddenly be held accountable by someone else after a lifetime of self-sufficiency was more than a struggle for her. Too, viewing herself as “not like them” initially prohibited her from settling in and perpetuated a sense of entitlement. But, despite her best efforts, she struggled for several months to find employment. She was fending off harassing creditors, and as a last straw was turned down for housing due to outstanding debt. She gradually discovered that she was very much “like them”—needing the opportunity to put the pieces back together.

Fortunately, Traci was able to overcome her personal prejudices and begin actively participating in the program. As a result, she was able to find employment, settle over $3000.00 in tax and housing-related debt, obtain a license to sell insurance and move to permanent housing.

- Laura Gray

A Hand Up

Federal stimulus funding enabled us to implement a Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing program targeted to prevent and quickly end homelessness for families impacted by the downturn in the economy. By definition, if not for this funding, the families served through the program would stay or become homeless.

From HPRP Case Manager Travis Beye:

A couple with four young daughters had been evicted from their home and were living in a homeless shelter. The mother was employed, and the father, who had lost his job due to medical reasons, was recovering and looking for new employment. The couple had located a rental house that would accommodate their family and that was within their budget. They were able to pay the security deposit, but needed assistance with the first month’s rent, after which they would be able to maintain their rent on their own. Their need was urgent, because they were about to reach the end of their allowed stay at the homeless shelter and they did not know where they would go. They also were afraid that the landlord of the house they planned to rent would become impatient and put the house back on the market.

The family met with Community LINC’s HPRP Case Manager to determine their eligibility for HPRP. They qualified for because they were experiencing an episode of homelessness but could also show that, with some assistance to get back on their feet, they would be able to maintain housing on their own.

After working with the landlord to enroll in the program, HPRP made a payment of the first month’s rent, allowing the family to move into a stable home. Realizing that the family had no furnishings for their new home, the HPRP Case Manager was able to work with Church of the Resurrection’s Furnishings Ministry to have beds, tables and chairs, dishes, kitchen items, furniture and even a television donated to the family. Since moving in to their new home in mid-December, the family has been able to follow their budget and maintain their rent and other necessary payments on their own.

- Laura Gray

The Homeless in This Economy

At the end of January, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City published their Low- and Moderate- Income (LMI) populations Survey. It confirmed what we’ve observed among our homeless residents – that it’s taking much longer for them to find jobs, both because there are fewer jobs and because they are competing with more qualified people for low skills jobs.

From the survey: “Unemployment, lower incomes, lack of insurance and poor housing choices were commonly cited factors impairing recovery in the LMI community.”

". . .Survey results suggest that job prospects for the LMI population continued to decline in the fourth quarter, as most respondents reported that fewer jobs were available for LMI workers than in the previous quarter.

Survey comments offered that one factor curtailing job recovery in the LMI community is the employment of relatively high-skilledworkers in the low-skilled jobs that often were taken by LMI workers prior to the recession.

Respondents also reported that many of those finding jobs were earning less pay than before, putting continued strains on household budgets. Respondents observed that the unemployed in the LMI community were remaining jobless for longer periods of time.”

The next survey will be published in April. Hopefully, there will be some signs of the recovery.

- Laura Gray

The Power of Giving Thanks

Yesterday I was inspired by a friend. She’s one of the people deeply impacted by the downturn in the economy – the people whose lives have changed dramatically. She and her husband are going to lose their house because his business had to close. She had retired when things looked good and then the bottom dropped out for their business. With her part-time income and the minimum wage job her husband took, they would no longer qualify for their house.

So, why was I inspired?

Because instead of being defeated by what she is losing, she is giving thanks for what she has. She has a husband she loves dearly, her children are healthy, and they have a place to go when they leave their house.

She will be my inspiration forever - to give thanks for the good, while acknowledging the bad.

As bad as this economy has been for so many families, I want to share my thanks for the funding to help families, who like my friend, had to make unforeseen changes in how they live.

We have received funding for the last two years from the William T. Kemper Foundation to provide emergency assistance to families we serve. This year, we received funds from United Way’s United for Hope Campaign to both provide emergency assistance and establish a job services to the families we serve through our various programs. Just last week, we launched our own outreach to more families using stimulus funding to prevent homelessness or rapidly re-house the newly homeless.

And, thanks to all of the individuals, congregations, corporations, civic groups, and foundations that made it possible for Community LINC to provide homes for more than 170 people this year and do outreach to hundreds more.

And, a special thank you to all of the volunteers who keep our mission alive: to the Board of Directors for their contributions of wealth, wisdom and work; to the committee members who help us do a better job in our programs, marketing, fundraising, public policy, human resources, and in managing our property; to “The Guys” from Atonement Lutheran Church who come each week to maintain our facility; to our volunteer Apartment Coordinator; to the congregations and groups who refurbish and furnish our apartments; to the many people who come so faithfully to budget with our families; and to the wonderful souls who work with our children week in and week out. You are a blessing to us all.

- Laura Gray

Our Little Corner of the World

A week of less than encouraging news about the slump in employment. In our little corner of the world, our supportive housing program has proven to be a microcosm of the economy when it comes to employment.

A third of our families are two parent families now. That’s a remarkable percentage for us - the highest ever in our history. Only 85% of our adults have found jobs – a requirement in different economic circumstances - and only 20% of our teens have summer jobs. In at least one two parent family only the mom had a job for several months.

In the July 7 Business Intelligence Brief from Armada Corporate Intelligence they observed that “Men have experienced this unemployment situation differently than women as two of the hardest hit sectors have been construction and manufacturing – both traditionally male dominated… There has been a sharp rise in the number of women serving as the primary wage earners in the household. This has had some social impact as well as economic…Adjusting to this new employment reality will be very hard for many people and their families.”

“The issue of youth employment will be a festering problem for years…There has been less job exposure in this group than any previous cohort as many parents have chosen to keep their kids involved in various activities while paying generous allowances. That practice has faded as the recession has deepened but now these kids are having great difficulty getting summer employment. Studies have shown that lack of exposure to the work world at an early age makes it harder to transition to the workforce later.”

“For those kids that come from lower income neighborhoods the lack of work is even more problematic. This is not discretionary money for the most part ...”

Having a home at Community LINC lessens the necessity for our kids to contribute to the household income, but we know the need is very real. The teenage son of one of our favorite graduates is deferring college to help support his family.

As bleak as all of this might sound, at Community LINC we have faith that things will get better. For the last 21 years, we’ve seen people overcome the circumstances that so many are experiencing because of the recession. In our world, personal circumstances rather than the economy pulled our families down to the bottom rung of the economic and employment ladder. Eight out of ten rebuilt their lives. Things do get better.

-Laura Gray

A Point in Time

Each year Community LINC takes part in a “point in time survey” of the homeless in Kansas City. It’s a count of homeless individuals and families both in shelters and on the streets.

The preliminary estimate was that on one day (January 27 this year) there were at least 2,655 people, including 715 children, homeless in Kansas City. In past years, before the economic downturn, about 15,000 people became homeless over the course of the year. There are an unknown number who are not counted in the survey. These are the homeless who couch surf with families and friends or stay in a weekly motel.

It makes me realize that our goal is for homelessness to be just a point in time for the families in our transitional housing program.

Right now, half of our families were raised by grandparents or other relatives. Like foster kids who age out of the foster care system, these young parents have no one left to fall back on. They didn’t have families or friends to give them a place to stay when they became homeless.

We can see the impact of the downturn in the economy in a lot of ways. Today, there are 64 families on the waiting list for an apartment. A surprising 30% of our families are two parent families. In a typical year, less than 10% of the families have two parents. We are also seeing more families from situational poverty rather than generational poverty.

We will help most of our families ensure that they don’t become homeless at any other point in time. We will provide about 36,000 bed nights this year. The average family will stay for 7 months. What they learn while they are here will ensure that, for at least our two year follow-up period, more than 8 out of 10 will not become homeless again.

-Laura Gray

Giving Hearts of Project Change

A beautiful thank you from our Director of Facilities, Robert Ontman, to the Awaken KC team of Project Change.

"I just wanted to share my personal gratitude and appreciation. In my many years of working with charities, churches, and volunteer groups, I have never seen such a well planned and committed effort. The team has taken the worst and roughest areas of our facility and transformed them into beautiful sanctuaries that will serve our families for years to come.

They took a dark and dismal basement with a ruined floor and completely redid the floor, walls, décor- everything at considerable time and expense. It has been masterfully crafted into our teen center and is now in use to prepare our teens for a better future as they learn job skills, work ethics, spiritual growth classes, financial management and many other life skills classes that will break their cycle of poverty.

Their other project took a muddy field and created a vibrant rain garden complete with decorative stone walk way, drainage away from our buildings that were getting flooded, and a rain garden too peaceful to describe. All of this tells our beleaguered and down-trodden families that they are loved and that there is hope- without which they can never even attempt recovery back out of homelessness.

The Awaken K.C. team took the biggest group of volunteers that I have ever seen from every walk of life and from diverse jobs and organized them into a well prepared, hard working, cohesive unit. They even smiled all the way through and enjoyed their work. They enjoyed each other and the task at hand. They literally worked through snow storms and rain storms- excelling through every challenge that emerged.

I cannot think of a more dedicated or thorough group that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Many thanks to Kate Wind, Randy Huber, Michael Hurd, Tim Parks, Patty Kruger, Melody Meek, Kelly with A L Huber, SFS Architects, Western Fireproofing, Lafarge Cement, Wallace Engineering, the gardening companies and so many more. You all have gone well beyond anything that we could have hoped or dreamed for. Please come again."

-Laura Gray

Hope

Driving to work one day last week, I was mulling over all of the people whose lives have been changed by the current economy - by being downsized, laid off, or just plain let go. The resemblance to what has happened to so many of our residents felt very vivid to me.

When you lose something like a job, hope is central to whether you despair over the future or believe that things will get better.

It's apparently the same for the economy. Hope is vital to our ability to recover.

Fortunately, as economic hope returns, businesses will recover and most people who have lost their jobs will find other ones. Their lives will be restored.

It strikes me that Community LINC is a microcosm of what happens at the poorest end of the economy all of the time. Our families have lost a lot. They have lost not just their jobs, but their homes, and, because they were homeless, sometimes even their children. Faith and hope are necessary. We need them both to recover from loss and rebuild lives.

-Laura Gray, March 29, 2009