Author: Sarah

City of South Bend:

 

Our Ideation Summary focuses in on 3 potential solutions for preventing/eradicating chronic homelessness in South Bend using the “5E” framework.

 

1. Hire social worker as a counselor in charge of three chronically homeless individuals

 

Entice: Develop a counselling program and market it to social workers around South Bend. Additionally, begin to stir interest amongst the homeless population by making them aware of the benefits associated with having a counselor.

 

Enter: Start with at least 10 social workers. Train them on how to effectively work with the homeless population (i.e. attitude, motivation, behavior, drug issues, mental stability, etc.). Begin to introduce them to key figures at hospitals, social service providers, center for the homeless, soup kitchens across town, employers, landlords, and many other influential figures that the homeless people need to interact with on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

 

Engage: The counselors would provide mentorship, access to drug and mental illness counselling, employment opportunities, resume reviews, increased access to social service resources, access to food via soup kitchens, their personal network, personal experience, access to temporary and permanent housing. They would help homeless population begin to develop a social network, hopefully giving them the means for advancement.

 

Exit: Counselors could make weekly visits/checkups after their assigned homeless individual is in permanent housing to make sure they are still clean from drugs, mentally stable, and still employed/attending work.

 

Extend: Staying in touch with the homeless individuals (hopefully now fully independent/not homeless) and utilizing them to help the current homeless population with their problems. Continuing to grow the network and have people sharing their experiences.

 

Key Takeaway: Homeless individuals are in need of a support network to get themselves out of their situation. Without developing support relationships, it is difficult for them to receive the motivation and support overcome their homelessness situation.

 

1. Shared living to help develop a network. Develop subsidization program.

 

Entice: Spread awareness to homeless people by means of their counselors. Attract the homeless population by informing them of a way to live more independently, while having a support network of similar individuals. Low cost, non-discriminatory, and provides address for social security purposes.

 

Enter: Allocate resources and funding to apartment buildings or houses in South Bend that can be turned into communal living homes. Create a specific program with regulations (ex: drug tests, job requirements?) that allow 4 or more homeless people to live together in government subsidized housing.

 

Engage: The housing would lift a burden off the residents’ shoulders, so that they can spend more of their time toward finding a stable job, paying for food, paying off other bills or loans, etc. The residents would have their own rooms to ensure individual privacy and independence, but would share other areas like the kitchen and living rooms, thus strengthening the support system between them.

 

Exit: After the residents establish a stable income and can support themselves, connect them with local landlords who can provide low-income housing. The residents would eventually move into their own private apartment and live on their own.

 

Extend: Maintaining close relationships with former housemates and building new relationships to expand each individual’s support network. With greater support, homeless individuals and people in danger of becoming homeless can reach out for help and advice.

 

Key Takeaway: Establish a support system that homeless individuals feel they can connect with on a personal level. These individuals have gone through similar experiences and can empathize with each other.

 

1. Hire homeless to deliver food via bike.

 

Entice: Create corporate partnerships with food delivery companies such as Grub Hub, Dine In, Uber eats,etc. and create a program in which homeless people could deliver the food via bikes owned by the company for a small fee, and consumers would have the option to purchase a meal for the homeless person as well (BOGO model). This would be a good PR opportunity for companies, and provide jobs and meals to the homeless.

 

Enter: Counselors would connect members of the homeless population with this program, and the City of South Bend would create incentives for corporations to participate (tax credits, financial incentives, etc.).

 

Engage: The partnership would give homeless people a source of part-time work, while also providing some food and building work experience. Biking to deliver the food ensures that users do not need a license, and it is a type of work that most people could participate in.

 

Exit: The users would establish a steady source of income and begin building a professional network. Hopefully, they could get a full-time job after this position.

 

Extend: Eventually, the homeless individuals could use this network to find full-time work and establish more contacts in the professional world. They could also spread the word to other individuals in the community who may be looking for a low-skill requirement job with a flexible work schedule.

 

Key Takeaway: Finding a source of simple, and relatively easy work could go a long way for these individuals if the company is willing to hire them.

 

1. Create database with information of all chronically homeless individuals in South Bend. Without defining the population, it will be difficult to create an effective solution.

 

Entice: Understanding the profiles of chronically homeless individuals is the first step to designing and implementing a comprehensive solution to this issue in South Bend. We must first gain insight into exactly how many homeless people are within our range, and also learn more about their individual needs so that resources can be allocated more efficiently. The homeless offer their information to be collected in order to access personalized solutions.

 

Enter: This information will be individually updated through personal accounts, or gathered from individual interviews and consulting sessions. Additionally, it is important to gain insight into the individual’s life from another person’s perspective, a person that he or she might frequently interact with, to get the full picture of the individual and an unbiased story.  

 

Engage: This database will include biographical information such as a basic description of their appearance (height and weight) and other unique characteristics that would separate them apart. It also will include the individual’s “story”, along with a list of prioritized needs that the individual and the interviewer have conversed about. Lastly, a picture of the individual will be included for future identification purposes, if needed. This information will be uploaded to the cloud where counselors and city officials can access the data without having to re-mine for it.

 

Exit: When an individual has successfully entered into permanent housing, he or she will be moved to a section on the database separate from the biographies of current homeless people.

 

Extend: It is important to maintain a relationship with all of these individuals in order to track progress on their recovery and integration back into the real world. Also these biographies with the permission of individuals, can be shown as examples of how to move out of homelessness or of how to prevent it from happening. These stories can be uploaded to a blog so people can ask questions and so it can be easily accessible.

 

Key Takeaway: Identifying homeless individuals and gaining a more detailed understanding of who they are and what they might need in a timely manner is a small step towards further organization of the homeless assistance system. In addition having their stories can help the city understand the nature of homelessness and how to better deploy resources into the future.

Date: 3/3/2018

Type: Interview

Location:Downtown Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry

User Characteristics:

• Male
• 50 years old
• Single
• Homeless in South Bend

Bill has been without a home for about twenty years.

He has lived in different states and utilizes shelters and food pantries regularly.

Recently, he has seen the rise of heroin use and sees South Bend as a hub for drug users.

He also notes that the Center for the Homeless is South Bend is one of the best throughout the country and often times people that are homeless will come to South Bend because of its superior resources.

Main Takeaways:

• Need resources for substance abusers (usually these people cannot stay in the homeless shelters if they are using)
• Circumstances/a traumatic event can dictate homelessness –> Fall into a pattern of losing job, then not paying bills, then  homelessness
• Three main reasons for homelessness: substance abuse, criminal record, mental disability
• Veterans have a hard time getting services through the VA
• Disability payments are not sufficient to live off of (Bill said several homeless people are physically disabled)

 

 

Below are the patterns that we compiled using our ethnography research.

Tackling the South Bend Homeless Problem

Guiding Principle 1: Make it Personal

• There is no clear or direct path to homelessness.
• Homelessness is almost always a combination of factors.
• They need personalized guidance and care based on their situation and background.
• Help them prioritize in an individualized way.
  • “I would like a more personalized experience to get housing. Right now it is difficult to work with the broad requirements. I just can’t meet them.” – Rodney (Soup Kitchen, individual interview)
  • “I think it would help to have one person that I can go to with my needs. Right now I don’t have that person though. I have to work with different people and groups for getting Medicare/Medicaid, Housing, and Food. It’s a lot of people to try and work with” – Daniel (Homeless by Starbucks, individual interview)

Guiding Principle 2: Stop Me Before I Get There

• The best way to combat homeless is to prevent it in the first place.
• Help them before they hit rock bottom to avoid falling into homelessness.
• Clear need for preventive resources.
• Very difficult identifying individuals on the brink of losing their home, job, or support system.
• Preventing homelessness is also teaching people about how to prevent getting entangled in dangerous cycles. These cycles include debt, drug abuse, and many others.
  • “I knew a man who once owned his own business. He had a family and was very successful, until he succumbed to alcoholism. This man lost everything, including his business, family, and house, in only a matter of years. There should have been better resources to stop this man from falling victim to homelessness.” – Rob Booker (Correctional Facility Director, expert interview)
  • “I also knew a man in my correctional facility who was in and out of criminal trouble for years. Now I know his son because he is the same way.” – Rob Booker (Correctional Facility Director, expert interview)
  • Drug addicts don’t say they have a problem they just say they self medicate.” – Bill (Homeless Individual from Food Kitchen)

 

Guiding Principle 3: Homeless Beyond Just a House

• Homelessness isn’t simply not having a place to live.
• They often lack a support system, which can be pivotal to getting people out of homelessness and back on their feet.
  
• Help them establish a strong network that can see to their success not only during homelessness, but also beyond.
• Sometimes being homeless is not a result of economic difficulties rather a result of a mindset wanting to be separated from society or responsibilities.  
• Providing shelter and moving the homeless from one location to the other is not a viable solution. They need to be motivated and given counseling and professional help to rise from their situations.
  • “My family is no longer around, and my wife’s family won’t even speak to me. They think I dragged her into homelessness with me.” – Daniel (Homeless by Starbucks, individual interview)
  • “How do you define homelessness? In my opinion, it transcends simply not owning a house. It includes lacking a job, food source, resources for substance abuse, and a clear need for a support system.” (Suzanna, expert interview)
  • “My family and I are no longer in communication.” – Rodney (Soup Kitchen, individual interview)
  • “The city is trying to do a quick fix…there is no structure, no professional people, no counseling to help these people.” – Robert Powell (Pastor, expert interview)
  • “They need to send people out in the field and talk to these homeless people and give them a program—you can’t tell them to go and do this and do that…they’re not used to showering, used to doing laundry, it’s like training a child again. You forget these people are coming from the streets.” Robert Powell (Pastor, expert interview)
  • “A lot of people choose to be homeless, they got money.”- James (Homeless Individual From Soup Kitchen, Individual Interview)
  • “In special cases, people view the connection with society as a burden. They find it more beneficial to be free from that type of responsibility.” – Michael Hayes (Director of Mishawaka Food Pantry, Expert Interview)

(Picture on bottom left)

The analogous immersion exercise was a powerful experience that helped us to see the homelessness problem from the opposite perspective. It is important to note that although solutions that we suggest may be helpful, they may not be feasible from a cost perspective– and the simulation showed us just that. It is incredibly difficult to allocate resources to different programs and shelters that the city may provide. Even if they are all helping in some way or another, it is difficult for the city to fund all initiatives.

Key Takeaways:

• There are situations that arise out of the city’s control that may force them to allocate resources in one way or another.
• Moving people to permanent housing is a very difficult process.
• It is important to see the homelessness issue from both sides of the spectrum (people receiving the money vs. people allocating the money).

 

When we were at the Downtown Soup Kitchen, we did a card sort for our interactive ethnography. We asked two questions, (1) What do you think a homeless person would spend their income on first?, and (2) What resources do you think a homeless person would take advantage of first? Above is a picture of the most frequent answers; for income: Food, housing, bills, medication, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, clothing; for resources: Social services, Center For the Homeless (used for continuing education)/Churches (used for soup kitchens), Hospitals, and Oak Lawn.

Key Takeaways:

1. It is important to ask the questions in a way that attempts to avoid biased answers. Rather than asking what they themselves would use income on, we tried to ask it in a way that avoided some preconceptions.
2. Even so, people were hesitant to say that income was spent on alcohol/drugs. Therefore, there is either a misconception that this population is using income to buy these things or our card sort does have some inherent biases.
3. As far as resources, the homeless population does largely depend on Social Security payments. Therefore, it is essential that they have addresses to send these payments to and/or a form of identification.

 

Workaround #1: Using clips to pin posters to the wall (so you don’t have to put holes in the poster)

Workaround #2: Using the electric panel as a necklace holder

Workaround #3: Using a plastic shot glass to keep the sunscreen from spraying in his bag.

Presenting our research to our partners at the City of South Bend was definitely insightful for us, as they pointed out areas where there were gaps in our research or areas that we should focus more on. For example, we had mostly interviewed white males, and Cherri thought it would be interesting to have a greater range of interviewees that includes African Americans and women. In addition, they pointed us to other resources that the homeless population in South Bend has at its disposal, such as St. Margarets House. Using their advice, it will be interesting to see where our research goes in the future and the conclusions we reach based on a broader range of evidence.

 

Main Takeaways:

• Focus on one subset of the population instead of trying to tackle the issue of homelessness as a whole
• Research a wider range of homeless individuals
• Define homelessness
  • Think about income stability, support system, etc.
• Use ethnographic research and statistics, sometimes the people themselves can be misleading

 

Memorable Quote:

“If I gave _____ a home to live in rent free, would that make him not homeless anymore?”- Suzanna

On Friday, Parker, Matt and I interviewed Daniel, a chronically homeless man that is usually on the corner of S Bend Ave and Ironwood.

Ethnography Summary: Daniel

Date: 3/3/17

Type: Interview

Location: Corner of S Bend Ave and Ironwood, where he was sitting/walking around asking for money

Team Participants: Sarah Riehl, Matthew McCormick, Parker Mathes

User Characteristics:

• Chronically homeless
• Male, age 34
• Physically disabled
  • Bilateral drop foot
  • Seizures
• Has seizures

What is this person’s biggest point of pain? He is physically disabled, he had seizures which led to a buildup of fluids in his legs, causing nerve damage and loss of feeling in both feet. Therefore, he cannot get a job and cannot get the funding needed for an apartment (need first and last month’s rent plus security deposit).

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Once Daniel lost his home, he no longer had an address to receive his Medicaid, so he lost it for a month and a half, thereby making his health issues worse. Cyclical process
2. The resources that South Bend provides for shelters and food pantries are good, but need long-term solutions.
3. Physical disabilities are a huge issue for getting a job.

 

Key Insight:

• The homeless population in South Bend needs some sort of low-income or transitional housing as a more permanent solution.
• The resources available for food and temporary emergency shelters are helpful.

 

Activities:

• Came to corner near Starbucks
• Held sign “Homeless and waiting for disability check. Anything helps even your prayers”
• Asked for food/money from surrounding cars

 

Environment:

• Corner of S Bend Ave and Ironwood, near the drive-through Starbucks
• Cold, very windy day
• Friday morning
• Heavy traffic

 

Interactions:

• Asked if we could buy him a sandwich from Starbucks
• Talked to him about

 

Objects:

• He had two backpacks he was carrying with him
• Uses crutches
• Food from Starbucks
• Cardboard sign

 

Users:

• Local businesses around the area
• Drivers/traffic through the area
• People who give him money or food
• People who ignore him