Category: The City of South Bend

Date of Immersion: 3/2/17
Type: Analogous Immeresion
Participants: Amanda Berusch, Sarah Reihl, Matthew McCormick, Paul Cepak, Yuwei Tu, and Parker Mathes
Event: Homeless System Simulation

Event Description: The Homeless System Simulation was created by the National Alliance to End Homelessness in order to better understand the issue of homelessness. Using the tools of the game/simulation, players are able to understand the public assistance system. Throughout the game marbles are placed into different services and the point is to have the smallest score. At the end, points are added when beads are left in the unsheltered homelessness and emergency housing categories, and points are subtracted when beads are left in the market housing, rapid rehousing, and permanent supportive housing categories.

Key Takeaways:

Funding for Public Assistance
By playing the game, we realized the limitation of government funded assistance programs and resources. Since there is only a certain amount of marbles, only so much can be placed into the most important resources. Although permanent supportive is one of the most important resources to reduce homelessness, other services such as emergency shelters and outreach are necessary to keep those who still struggle with homelessness safe. Therefore, we knew that we wanted to increase the number of marbles in permanent housing and rapid re-housing, but the ability to increase this type of housing would mean there would be less emergency shelters and transitional housing. We would like to decrease the funding for the latter, but that is contingent on the homeless population’s willingness to use other public resources such as counseling to permanently get out of their situation.

We were able to conclude that public assistance is very dependent on the resources made available by the local government. For example, if the city of South Bend pushes the publicly funded counseling and welfare services, the homeless population may be more likely to take advantage of them and be in a better position to qualify for permanent housing. If more homeless people qualify for more permanent housing, then the city can put more money towards these resources than emergency shelters.

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).

 

The results of our card sort were not as surprising since we understand that food and shelter tend to be the most important necessities to the homeless population and to those looking to escape homelessness.

However, something we did not take into account is that most of the individuals who participated in the card sort knew about the resources available to them in South Bend, they just simply did not take advantage of them. We did not ask enough questions as to why resources such as Memorial Hospital and Oak Lawn were not popularly were not typically used even though we concluded that mental illness and substance abuse were two big issues in the homelessness issue in South Bend. Both resources provide services such as counseling for mental health and substance abuse, addiction treatment, and child services. Therefore, it may be important to ask and get more information on why these services are underused. Something we didn’t account for was the possibility that the current homeless population or those in danger of homelessness do not have the proper transportation or simply are not aware of how to get to these programs.

On gallery day, our team had the opportunity to show Cherri Peate all the research we had conducted over the past month. We showed her the processes we went through in attempting to prevent homelessness in South Bend. Aggregating and analyzing the information from the interviews we conducted, the card sorts, the immersions, and the analogous Homelessness Game we played, we were able to come up with three main factors that contribute to South Bend’s homeless population: mental illness, alcohol and substance abuse, and an inability to cope with ‘normal life’.

In response to our findings, Cherri had some helpful questions and feedback for our team. She pointed out that all of our interviews shared a pattern of middle-aged, white, men. This could have skewed our results and in order to get a more representative idea of the homeless population, it will be necessary to interview people of other demographics including sex, race, and ethnicity in the future.

Additionally, she asked us what we thought homelessness was and what we are really trying to prevent in South Bend. The problem may not just stop at providing housing for the homeless. Something we are trying to solve is people re-entering homelessness or preventing them from becoming homeless in the first place, so we must come up with a solution that is longterm. Simply providing housing would, by definition reduce homelessness, but it may not stop people from continuing the same bad habits they were doing before they had a home. Therefore, it is necessary to address the major issues amongst the homeless population to keep them off the streets in the long run.

In response to Sarah’s post, I would like to remind viewers that our card sort only represents a small portion of the homeless population in South Bend, and the results may not be true and applicable for others. The card sort may be skewed as result of:

1. The interviewees’ reluctance to reveal the truth (We know substance abuse is a major problem, yet alcohol and drugs are ranked low in our card sort)
2. Our sample population was mainly middle aged, White males at the United Church Soup Kitchen. They are most likely not representative of the South Bend homeless population.

Takeaway: We’ve realized our sample population is not diverse enough to be representative of the general South Bend homeless population. Therefore, we either need to reach out to other minorities, or narrow the scope of our project to fit our research.

Additional Takeaways: from Suzanna and Cherri

• Need to interview homeless people of differing demographics (i.e. women, African-American)
• Need to define chronic homelessness
• Need to hone in on one specific group of the homeless population, instead of trying to analyze the entirety of the group (i.e. mentally ill, alcohol abuse, opioid abuse)
• What role has trauma played in their lives?
• Do these men/women have ID’s?
• Need to further assess the competency of the educational programs offered