The 'new face' of homelessness

MORRISON INSTITUTE BLOG

By Kristin Borns, Senior Policy Analyst

On my way back from lunch one afternoon recently, a kind, clearly homeless man; torn, dirty clothes, skin the deepest shade of brown from having been in the sun constantly, asked if I wouldn’t mind sharing my leftovers. Just one of the everyday encounters with the struggling homeless population that happens in any downtown. This is who Arizonans think about when they think about “helping the homeless”, and they’d be right – but only in part.

The face of homelessness is changing nationwide and in Arizona. Now, more than ever before, homelessness is affecting professionals out of work, single parents, and families - the fastest growing group of homeless, according to the Department of Economic Security (DES).

DES provides an annual point-in-time count of individuals experiencing homelessness in Arizona, and in January of this year, approximately 50% of those individuals who were sheltered were in families. This is a jump from 2007, where only 37% were in families. Additionally, school districts statewide are reporting increases in homeless students as well as students accessing the free and reduced lunch program. In October, Mesa Public Schools reported an increase of 400 homeless students over the last three years. As the recession continues, and more Arizonans lose their jobs, the realities of poverty, hunger, and homelessness become more acute.

Service providers also are seeing clients they’ve never seen before. In fact, in a recent news interview, the spokesman for St. Mary’s food bank noted they are now seeing people coming in for services who last year were providing donations.

Yet, even with this tacit recognition of the increase in need, lawmakers are looking to make even more cuts to adjust a current-year budget that is $2 billion short. Some suggested impact scenarios put forth by state agencies include the Department of Housing’s complete elimination of the Homeless Prevention Program, which could result in 2,000 households now facing eviction or foreclosure; the Department of Economic Security’s reduction of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) cash benefits for families in poverty; and perhaps most frightening, the elimination of the KidsCare insurance program, resulting in 47,000 low-income children losing coverage. Nothing can spiral a family into financial ruin like an uncovered health emergency.

Policymakers may not even know or understand the size and need of this new community. Without this understanding, it is impossible to know what long-term impact cuts alone are going to have. Serving those who are experiencing homelessness has always been complex. Even the notions of who those experiencing homelessness in downtown are likely to miss the nuances and needs of the individual I encountered during that lunchtime.

HUD releases an annual report on homelessness nationally, and in the report for 2008, released last July, it was noted that families were more likely than other groups to have been housed the night prior to experiencing homelessness, often staying with family or friends. As families experience lost jobs and incomes, they are exploring other options, with homelessness being the last stop. Even more so now than before, policymakers defining the need and possible consequences of choices is complicated, since preconceptions of those experiencing homelessness do not apply in this new normal.

Our neighbors and friends are the new face of the recession.

Arizona's Public Behavioral Health System: Critical Issues for Critical Times

Arizona's Public Behavioral Health System: Critical Issues for Critical Times prepared jointly by ASU’s Center for Applied Behavior Health Policy and Morrison Institute for Public Policy, notes that Arizona’s billion-dollar public behavioral health system, which serves 150,000 ill residents and their families, is inadequately staffed and struggling under budget cuts and the demands of a 28-year-old class-action law suit.

Among the findings of the report:

35% of Arizona adults with serious mental illness do not qualify for AHCCCS/Medicaid, primarily because they are working poor and uninsured, and thus are at risk for inadequate treatment
Funds for housing and food to support patients’ recovery are essential, yet are not provided to even patients covered by AHCCCS/Medicaid because they are not considered "medically necessary"
Budget pressures put Arizonans at risk through cuts to crisis services, which not only avert suicides and drug overdoses, but provide vital assistance to local hospitals and local law enforcement officials.
The report’s release comes just weeks after Governor Jan Brewer’s October 9th call for a major reorganization of the statewide system.

Are Arizonans Living on the Edge?

In the July 2009 AZ Views, "Arizonans On Edge ... So Why Not Involved?" there was a 30% net loss in those panelists saying they had an improved quality of life and those who said it had declined. This is the highest reported decrease since Morrison Institute started asking this question more than 10 years ago.
To read the report: http://MorrisonInstitute.asu.edu

• How do you feel about your quality of life?
• Is your life status threatened?
• Are your hopeful it will improve?
• What needs to happen for an overall and individual improvement?

Make your comment below. Please include your name and city.

Arizona's second-class status for behavioral health care

Some of Arizonans’ most common and destructive illnesses—those of the brain—are failing to receive adequate treatment due to a combination of modern governmental gridlock and a centuries-old philosophythat separates the mind from the body.
That is among the findings of a new publication by Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University.
"Arizona’s Mind-Body Problem: Mental Health Systems and Choices" is the latest issue in the Institute’s Forum 411 policy briefing series.
The eight-page report looks at why mental health care has been relegated to second-class status, resulting in markedly fewer benefits for Arizonans with private insurance and a public system that has long has been criticized as underfunded, understaffed, and highly uneven in its quality of care.
How severe is the gridlock?
Arizona’s system, which spends more than $1 billion annually, has been embroiled in a major class-action lawsuit for 28 years.
National studies have repeatedly shown that mental disorders, from phobias and panic attacks to schizophrenia, are widespread throughout the population, inflict suffering on millions of individuals and their families, and cost society billions in lost production.
Most people still shrink from the stigma of acknowledging mental problems, and most health care providers still labor under the false premise — refuted by the U.S. Surgeon General and other authorities — that problems of the mind should be dealt with separately from problems of the body.
Arizona’s Mind-Body Problem offers a range of policy choices, ranging from combating the stigma of mental illness to merging the public system with Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (Arizona's version of Medicaid).
To read the full version of Arizona’s Mind-Body Problem, go to http://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/
This Forum 411 on mental health is scheduled to be presented on June 17 to the Arizona Senate Committee on Healthcare and Medical Liability Reform.
Sponsored by Westcor, Forum 411 is a quarterly briefing series offering policy, business, and community leaders information on Arizona’s critical issues.
Morrison Institute is an independent and non-partisan public policy research organization based at Arizona State University as part of the College of Public Programs. The Institute is located in downtown Phoenix.