Neighborhood Partnerships

Back in November, we told you about an exciting off-shoot of Bridges to Housing. This project is moving forward, and has exciting updates we wanted to share with you.

Bridges to Housing serves high need homeless families throughout the Portland metropolitan area, and has included a substantial evaluation component, conducted by Portland State University’s Regional Research Institute. Their 2009 Year End evaluation report highlighted the impact of trauma on families in the program. Diane Yatchmenoff, Ph.D. and Mandy Davis at the Regional Research Institute identified the impacts of trauma as an area in which they could do additional work in the community, and positively impact the way people are served to address this trauma.

National research indicates that most of us at some point have experienced a traumatic event – the death of a loved one, a car accident, divorce, violence, or other traumatic events. For homeless families or individuals, living on the street or in homeless shelters increases the likelihood of numerous traumatic incidents. Exposure to violence – either on the street or in an intimate relationship, cycles of housing instability, substance abuse and other problems are more prevalent among homeless families, and these events can become cycles of violence and trauma. All too often, the residual impacts of this trauma, which might include an inability to form trusting relationships, to maintain appropriate boundaries and relationships, and seeking to regain power or control, can hinder a person’s ability to interact within our service systems. Families or people seeking services with histories of trauma can often be labeled as paranoid or non-compliant.

Research in the field has led to strategies and program design methods called “trauma informed care.” These methods and strategies seek to understand the trauma families have experienced, and to improve services to help minimize retraumatization experienced by families and help them heal from past trauma.

Diane Yatchmenoff and Mandy Davis have continued this work in new ways: From November 2010 to February 2011, they held a series of informational sessions and focus groups in order to gauge interest, knowledge and status of Trauma Informed Care services and policies in the Portland area. They discovered that there was significant interest in forming an ongoing “Learning Community” in the Portland area that will involve members of various agencies and systems to increase understanding and implementation.

In January 2010, I was selected to participate in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Ladder to Leadership program. This fellowship selected thirty individuals from the Portland metro area who are working in health or health related fields. As part of the program, we divided into teams and were asked to take on a challenge within the community. My team decided to work on the issue of Trauma Informed Care, and worked closely with PSU to help them with their efforts.

As part of our project, we did research to further define the principles of Trauma Informed Care. We determined these to be the primary seven principles:

1. Trauma Awareness: Trauma Informed Services incorporate an understanding of the nature, impact and effects of trauma, recovery from trauma is a primary goal. Recognizes vicarious and secondary trauma.
2. Safety: Ensure physical and emotional safety.
3. Trustworthiness: Maximize trustworthiness, making tasks clear, and maintaining appropriate boundaries.
4. Empowerment: Prioritize consumer empowerment and skill-building.
5. Choice: Prioritizing consumer choice and control.
6. Collaboration: Maximize collaboration and sharing of power with consumers.
7. Inclusiveness: cross cultural effectiveness, competency and sensitivity in working with other cultures and populations.

In addition to doing research into the topic of Trauma Informed Care, we also collected local case studies of agencies implementing Trauma Informed Care or an intentional model that falls under or utilizes those principles. From these, we developed a matrix which describes ways in which Trauma Informed Care is operationalized across organizations. These results will help inform implementation at the agency level and also provide guidance in the systems change process.

Our goal is to further disseminate an understanding of how Trauma Informed Care can create better environment and working conditions for service recipients, agencies and the larger service system. Our team’s project sought to begin a system-based assessment of agency policies, practices and structures in TIC practices. The major components of the project include agency interviews, a matrix of local best practices and involvement into the locally organized Learning Community.

We chose this topic because as a group we felt that this topic was relevant across each one of our agencies regardless of the population served. Our group members work with people in several different settings and include programs addressing the areas of mental health, homelessness and domestic violence. Regardless of the program or population served we all felt that these principles could be utilized in all our agencies as well as benefit the community in several key areas.

Overall, my team and I were excited by the significant amount of work we have accomplished and our on-going work. We believe our project had a positive impact on the on-going work in our community related to trauma informed care, and we look forward to seeing continued progress. Stay tuned here for more as this project progresses in the future. If you’re interested in learning more about Trauma Informed Care, I would suggest starting here. If you provide direct services to people, try this book.

One of Neighborhood Partnerships’ guiding principles is to strive for program excellence; we’re committed to programs that operate at their maximum impact and produce first-rate outcomes.   To help us assess our impact, NP has contracted with principal investigator Dr. Diane Yatchmenoff at the Regional Research Institute for Human Services (RRI) at Portland State University for independent evaluations of Bridges to Housing and the Oregon Individual Development Account (IDA) Initiative, two of NP’s collaborative programs.   RRI’s analysis has demonstrated what works to create valuable pathways of opportunity for low-wealth Oregon families, as well as guided us towards improvements and changes which could increase effectiveness.

Bridges to Housing is a four-county effort to stabilize families who are homeless and face barriers to success with affordable housing and other critical supports like case management to address family goals, training and child-care.  RRI has been doing consistent evaluations of Bridges to Housing since 2007 by collecting and analyzing data on dozens of outcomes including stability in permanent housing; increased income, through employment and/or access to benefits; and for children increased stability in school or childcare. The Bridges to Housing evaluations show dramatic changes for many families. In addition to obtaining stable and safe housing for families, many parents have also made positive steps toward education or employment. Children showed important changes like improved success in school and better social skills.  Read the full evaluations.

RRI also completed an evaluation in 2010 on the Oregon Individual Development Account (IDA) Initiative, a state wide program that matches savings for low-wealth Oregonians to develop greater financial stability through building financial assets, such as buying their first home, starting a business or going to school after high school for a degree or job skills.   Click here for a full copy of the evaluation, which shows promising results in changing savings and financial habits as well as improving financial stability.

NP is committed to ongoing thoughtful evaluations of our work and appreciates the excellent resources that RRI and Dr. Yatchmenoff offer to help us and others learn from our experience. To learn more about PSU’s Region Research Institute, go to www.rri.pdx.edu.

Bridges to Housing continues to serve homeless families throughout the Portland metropolitan area.  Neighborhood Partnerships is pleased to report on an exciting offshoot of this innovative program.

Bridges to Housing included a substantial evaluation component, conducted by Portland State University’s Regional Research Institute.  Their latest evaluation report highlighted the impact of trauma on families in the program.  As PSU processed those findings with partners in the community, the group identified a promising area of practice and is now doing additional work in the community around trauma and homelessness.

National research indicates that most of us at some point have experienced a traumatic event—the death of a loved one, a car accident, divorce, violence, or other traumatic events. For homeless families or individuals, living on the street or in homeless shelters increases the likelihood of numerous traumatic incidents. Exposure to violence—either on the street or in an intimate relationship, cycles of housing instability, substance abuse and other problems are more prevalent among homeless families, and these events can become cycles of violence and trauma.

All too often, the residual impacts of this trauma, which might include an inability to form trusting relationships, to maintain appropriate boundaries and relationships, and seeking to regain power or control, can hinder a person’s ability to interact within our service systems. Families or people seeking services with histories of trauma can often be labeled as paranoid or non-compliant.

New research in the field has led to strategies and program design methods called “trauma informed services.” These methods and strategies seek to understand the trauma families have experienced, and to improve services within these five areas: safety of clients; trustworthiness; choice over services; collaboration with program staff and sharing control with families seeking services; and empowering people seeking services.

Now, the Regional Research Institute is partnering with two local agencies—Impact Northwest and Catholic Charities—to test how trauma informed services might be effective within a housing complex. This work will include assessments of the participating organization related to how well they already provide trauma informed services, and a support-group model for women who have histories of significant trauma. While Bridges to Housing families will not necessarily be directly impacted through this work, we are confident that both Bridges to Housing and the larger housing plus services system in Portland will benefit from this work.

We believe that this important work by the Regional Research Institute and its partners will mean that families can be served more effectively and efficiently, and will have better outcomes. We hope it will also mean that these families will also begin to heal from past trauma and therefore have a better future for themselves and their children. We here at Neighborhood Partnerships offer our congratulations and good wishes to the Regional Research Institute, Impact Northwest and Catholic Charities as they embark on this important work.

On Friday, July 16, 2010, Bridges to Housing case managers, staff, and Multnomah County partners gathered to appreciate and celebrate the success of the program, now four years old.

Commissioner Deborah Kafoury, describing herself as a member of the Bridges to Housing fan club, welcomed families, case managers and those who’ve worked at the City and County to make this program a success.  Commissioner Kafoury also announced the great news that Multnomah County had committed over $400,000 to services in 2010-2011 for Bridges to Housing!

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Commissioner Nick Fish discussed the importance of the regional effort, and talked about the critical contributions made by various partners: the Housing Authority of Portland, which dedicated project-based Section 8 vouchers, making housing affordable for these families and allowing funds to be spent on case management; the City of Portland, who contributed resources to build new affordable housing units and to reprogram existing units to create 139 units dedicated specifically to this program; and Multnomah County, who committed funds for services to continue the program.

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Janet Byrd of Neighborhood Partnerships described the four county effort, and the importance of the ongoing evaluation, which is being conducted by Portland State University.  Janet also talked about the private funds raised to support Bridges to Housing and thanked the many foundations who have contributed over the past four years.  She also described the huge contribution of time from Regional Steering Committee volunteers and thanked them for their efforts.

Jean DeMaster talked about the contribution and partnership shown by housing providers, and property and asset managers, and how important their support had been to making the program successful.   Suzanne Washington recognized the dedication and hard work of case managers who have been working alongside these families since day one.  The case managers have played a huge role in helping these families maintain their housing, and move forward on their goals.   She thanked them for their commitment to the program and to the families

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

We also had the opportunity to hear from some of the families who have participated in Bridges to Housing.  Several were generous enough to tell us their stories of how they came into the program, and how it’s helped them.  We heard from a family of four, who camped for a year after losing their rental apartment when it was sold.  The father is now back in school and earning a degree in green building.  We also heard from a family who escaped domestic violence and substance abuse and is now also back in school.  Commissioner Kafoury said it best when she reminded us that the families are the one and only reason this program matters.

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Thanks to everyone who came, and thank you especially to the families who shared their stories and their afternoon with us.

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Also special thanks to those who donated food or raffle prizes to the event: Cupcake Jones, New Seasons Market, Starbucks, World Cup Coffee, Human Solutions, and Ellington Handbags.  Thanks to Maileen Hamto of Portland Housing Bureau for taking photographs. And thanks to Hacienda CDC’s Micro Mercantes for a wonderful lunch.

In mid-May, staff from Neighborhood Partnerships attended the Northwest Area Foundation conference, Grassroots & Groundwork, here in Portland, OR.  The conference was focused on strategies to end poverty and featured sessions around asset building strategies, improving state policies, partnering with employment systems, green jobs, increasing access to healthy food, and other great sessions!

All of the presentations were recorded, and are now available for downloading on the NWAF website.

NP staff attended several sessions, including:

• Innovations in Job Training & Workforce Development Programs.  Presenters from New York City talked about their effort to create job training programs that really worked for their communities.  There were several models discussed, including a Jobs-Plus Model that targeted public housing residents, and brought job training and intensive services on-site for residents.  The New York City Housing Authority also participated in this pilot, removing disincentives to work through their rent policies for tenants participating in the program.   Another model discussed was a prisoner re-entry program for youth coming from the criminal justice program.  This six month program included job training, skill building, community service projects, internships, and job or education placement.
• Your Public Policy Toolkit to Reduce Poverty. This workshop presented by STEP, or Strategies to Eliminate Poverty, talked about the importance of well designed state policy as a way to create significant change.  The workshop discussed federal anti-poverty efforts, including efforts to reform poverty measures; asset cliffs and barriers; coalition efforts to end poverty and increase economic security. This session highlighted several efforts around the country, including South Dakota Voices for Children, a coalition focused on child poverty.  This group also participates in a multi-state Bridge to Benefits program—a  benefits calculator for families.
• Effective Advocacy Campaigns through Cross-Cultural Collaboration. Portland-based leaders from three culturally distinct nonprofit community development organizations established the Housing Organizations of Color Coalition to develop joint action plans related to the housing needs, aspirations, and challenges faced by African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. Historically, these groups have approached their issues in isolation. Their outstanding presentation focused on finding strength through collaboration and the benefits of approaching policy challenges with a strong, united voice.

Grassroots & Groundwork was a great conference—thank you so much to Northwest Area Foundation for their work and thanks also for bringing it to Portland!

The 2011 Legislative session is just around the corner! Please join Neighborhood Partnerships in a meeting of homeless family advocates and others to discuss possible legislative proposals in the 2011 session. If you’re planning to advocate for policy or resources that affect homeless families and children, we’d love to hear about it.

Many of us are working to plan our 2011 legislative agendas, and there is interest and momentum around homeless families and children in particular. Please join us at this meeting to share what you’re thinking about in 2011 or learn about other policy proposals under consideration.

Please join us to discuss possible legislative proposals in the 2011 session on Tuesday, June 15 from 1—3. If you’d like to attend or have questions, please contact Alison.  If you can’t attend, we’d still love to hear what you’re doing, so please email or call us, 503-226-3001 x107.

Please join us!

Bridges to Housing is very excited to release our 2009 Year End Evaluation report!  Once again, this report indicates that Bridges to Housing is serving homeless families with very high levels of need.  The report also illustrates that Bridges to Housing is very successful in helping these families maintain their housing, helping children remain stable in educational settings, and helping these families make progress on health, safety, stability and other goals.

The evaluation of Bridges to Housing is being conducted by Portland State University’s Regional Research Institute.  On Thursday, May 5, 2010 Diane Yatchmenoff, Ph.D. of the Regional Research Institute presented the 2009 Year-End Evaluation Report to the Bridges to Housing Regional Steering Committee.

This report focuses on families who have been in Bridges to Housing for 18 months, families preparing to exit Bridges to Housing, and overall program retention rates.  The evaluation contains some exciting results about Bridges to Housing.  Overall, it finds that families enrolled in Bridges to Housing have continued to make gains in safety, stability and child wellbeing.  Families have also experienced dramatic improvements in basic life skills, social support networks and progress towards education or employment.  Impacts on children have also been significant.

The evaluation report shows significant improvements in safety.  Forty-two percent of families reported one or more instances of domestic violence during the six months prior to intake.  This drops in the six months after intake to 5% and remains at 5% through 18 months in the program.

Results for children are also promising – with significant improvements in stability in childcare or educational settings, children with primary health care providers and dental care providers, and improvements in meeting grade-level benchmarks in school.

As Bridges to Housing moves forward, we hope to share these evaluation reports and learnings not only with our local partners but with others working to develop housing plus services models for families.

You can download and read the full report or the executive summary here.  Earlier reports are also available.

Bridges to Housing’s Regional Steering Committee met in December 2009 to recommend funding awards for the four metro area counties that are part of this groundbreaking effort to re-design services and housing for high need homeless families.  Because of the demonstrated impact of the program, the four participating counties have shown remarkable dedication and commitment to the Bridges to Housing approach.  As private funding for the program tapers off, counties are working to ensure that the program remains part of the continuum of services that assists the homeless in their communities.

The Regional Steering Committee and the Neighborhood Partnerships Board approved the following grants:

Clackamas County will serve an additional seven families in Phase III of Bridges to Housing.  Case management services will be provided by Clackamas County Social Services and families will be placed in scattered site, private market rental units throughout Clackamas County.  Clackamas County Social Services received $121,973 for their project, of which $13,473 will be used to provide rent subsidies for Bridges to Housing families.

Clark County will serve an additional thirty clients in this next phase of Bridges to Housing. Case management services will be provided by Share, and families will be placed in housing provided by Vancouver Housing Authority.  Share is receiving $205,337 for their project, of which $100,837 will be used to provide rent subsidies for Bridges to Housing families.

Multnomah County will have 139 units of housing for Bridges to Housing families available in 2010-2011.  Services for this housing will be provided by Human Solutions, Impact Northwest, Central City Concern and El Programa Hispano.  From Bridges to Housing, these agencies will receive $232,500 to serve families.  Housing is provided by a variety of agencies.  In order to help housing providers meet uncompensated costs associated with serving this difficult-to-house population, Multnomah County is receiving $167,272 for housing costs.

Washington County will serve fifteen new families in Phase III of Bridges to Housing.  Case management services will be provided by Community Action of Washington County.  Families will be placed in housing provided by Community Partners for Affordable Housing, Bienestar, and Washington County Housing Authority.  Community Action is receiving $144,918 for their project, of which $40,418 will be used to provide rent subsidies for Bridges to Housing families.

We’re all looking forward to the next evaluation report on this remarkable collaborative effort. It will be available in March of 2010. Previous evaluation reports and more about the program can be found here.

The Portland Tribune’s recent editorial on homelessness focuses on the growing problem of homelessness, as well as several solutions.

The editorial highlights a growing and serious problem – children are making up a larger and larger percentage of those who are homeless.  In 2008-2009, over 18,000 school children were homeless at some point during the school year.   We couldn’t agree more with the sentiment that “[t]emporary solutions, of course, are not the best way to go for families and children, who need the stability of a real home.” Without a real home, the consequences can be severe – children fall behind in school and experience more health problems than children with stable homes. Children deserve an opportunity to succeed in school and life, both of which are tied to having a stable home.

Bridges to Housing is a great example of a permanent solution for homeless families.  Bridges to Housing serves high need homeless families in the Portland-metro area.  Families served by Bridges to Housing often have non-monetary barriers to stability and need intensive support to get back on their feet.  However we don’t need these types of interventions for everyone – homelessness is a complex problem, and our systems need to be flexible to meet everyone’s needs.

Many families who are experiencing homeless may just need some short term rent assistance to prevent their homelessness, while others may need rent assistance plus some short-term services to get back on their feet.  Increasing the supply of affordable housing for families in this region would move us towards solving the problem of family homelessness.

The editorial calls for a reexamination of the division of homeless services between the City of Portland and Multnomah County.  We think that increased state and federal resources are also critical to adequately addressing the problem of homelessness and the severe shortage of affordable housing.

We need a wide range of solutions to solve the problem of homelessness. But the good news is that homelessness can be solved and we know how to solve it.  Everyone does deserve a place to call home.

On Thursday, October 8, 2009 Diane Yatchmenoff, Ph.D. of Portland State University’s Regional Research Institute presented the 2009 Mid-Year Evaluation Report to the Bridges to Housing Regional Steering Committee.

This report focuses on the employment experiences of participants currently in Bridges to Housing, and has several interesting results:

• 45% of heads of households are either employed, pursuing education and/or in a job training program.

• 66% of those who have been enrolled in Bridges to Housing for 13 to 18 months were either employed, pursuing education and/or in a job training program.

Unfortunately the current economic climate means that employers are less willing to consider potential employees who have poor employment history, a criminal background or other barriers to employment.  Currently, less than one in five (19%) heads of households were currently employed.    Only 14% of heads of households were engaged in a job training program – something we hope to improve on through partnerships with Department of Human Services and WorkSystems, Inc. in the coming months.

The evaluation also reveals that mental illness is the strongest predictor of unemployment: Ten percent of heads of households were currently in jobs, in contrast to 23% of those who are free of mental illness.  This is unsurprising in light of other data – those with mental illness in Bridges to Housing were previously found to be more likely to be among those with early, negative exits from the program. Unfortunately, getting consistent and on-going treatment for Bridges to Housing families is extremely difficult.  Families in Bridges to Housing enrolled in the Oregon Health Plan have both long waiting lists and time limited services for mental illness.

The report also looked at retention of families in the program:

• 92% of families remained in the program for at least six months, while 74% remained at least twelve months.   47% remain in the program for 18 months or longer. This figure includes both positive and negative exits from the program.

You can download the full report, or see other earlier reports here.

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