THE TEXAS 21 STEP: A Composite Continuum of Care for Homeless Adults in Texas
by Lynn Slater, El Paso Community College
Texas Homeless Network

If you're a person who happens to be homeless in Texas, I say "Congratulations! You came to the right place. Let me introduce you the Texas 21 Step."

Frankly, I stumbled upon the Texas 21 by accident. My college has had a campus for the homeless for the past 9 years, called the Opportunity Center and operated in partnership with the El Paso Coalition for the Homeless. Pappy Hoyle, a mission director, used to say: "Most programs for the homeless just teach them how to be homeless. This program is different."

The Opportunity Center is different, but we can always consider new possibilities. So, my college granted me paid leave this summer to study other Texas programs that offer occupational education to homeless adults in Texas.

One project partner was The Texas Homeless Network, furnishing me with an Austin office, supplies, a computer, a parking space (no small thing in Austin), and travel expenses. Another partner was my social worker / educator wife, who donated 12 weeks of her summer to this project, living in Austin and reviewing programs.

I sent out more than 5,000 requests for information, asking readers to nominate programs for review. About 75 to 80 programs were nominated, with the majority operating in Austin, El Paso, Dallas, Arlington, Houston, Waco, and San Antonio -- with isolated others in Corpus Christi, Galveston, Victoria, and New Braunfels. As you can see, a sizable portion of the state isn't on the list.

However, just looking at this sample, there is a marvelous continuum of care available for homeless adults in Texas. One track of the continuum is prepared to take participants from the dumpster to graduate school in a well designed, supported system of workable steps. There is an alternative track for those unable to transition, taking them to a safe, supported stopping place.

The full continuum can be described in 21 steps, leading to my name for it: The Texas 21 Step. Unfortunately, this full continuum does not exist in any single city, but it could. Since we have existing models to study and copy, the distance between where we are and where we could be might not be so very long.

However, at least three factors seem to work against complete local continuums:
  • community A knows often little about what is being done in community B, even though THN works to create a broader knowledge base;
  • service providers frequently have a high sense of turf, with each working to develop the perfect answer in their own back yard;
  • and often there is no effective coordinating presence. Since community colleges usually have surplus bureaucracy, administrative skills, and are turf neutral, they can become exceptional coordinating presences.
Also, there may be no common agreement as to which pieces of any possible continuum are the most valuable. Therefore, this document deals with that ambiguity by listing useful services in order of appearance rather than order of importance. This document is one of two parts: and often there is no effective coordinating presence. Since community colleges usually have surplus bureaucracy, administrative skills, and are turf neutral, they can become exceptional coordinating presences.

A. The Texas Continuum,

B. Snapshots, a quick description of reported projects, grouped by region, offering more individual detail than can be held in Part A: The Texas Continuum.

In Texas, we could begin by finding a clients trying to sleep in traffic, and enable about half of them to have a lives of work, school, and family, if they simply had access to services already available in Texas. While some of the Texas Continuum could be improved by content refinement or stronger couplings, our individual visions form an amazing collective possibility, capable of delivering survival care to all, as well as transitional paths for those who want to change their lives, moving towards comfortable self sufficiency.

If Valentine, Texas were to bring the Texas Continuum to Valentine, these 21 steps would be the likely sequence:
  1. Create an emergency wet shelter which would allow clients to sleep the night, even if intoxicated (alcohol or drugs), as long as they do not disturb other clients. Once inside the shelter, both consumption and acquisition of substances are prohibited. ESG funds are available for such a service.
  2. Provide food.
  3. Provide a day center for storage of back packs, delivery of mail, day labor opportunities, and access to telephones, bathrooms, and showers. Such centers exist in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Amarillo, as well as several other cities.

    Voice Mail - For clients who are actively seeking employment, provide 30 day voice mail for messages. This eliminates the "Rescue Mission" voice answer when an employer tries to make contact with a homeless, prospective employee.

    El Paso Opportunity Center -The Opportunity Center in El Paso, operated by a community college / coalition partnership spends about $400,000 a year serving 1,800 to 2,200 individuals with education, educational referral, job placement (40 per month), substance counseling, veterans counseling, transportation, medical care, social work, a self employment sewing program, and a modern lab. The community college birthed and mentored the Opportunity Center, providing incredible support at little cash cost -- maybe $4,000 a year of college "hard money."

    Street Newspaper - Clients, especially addicted clients, may well need employment with flexible hours. For these, a solution may be a street newspaper -- on that describes the problems of the homeless, and is marketed on the streets by homeless clients. Clora Hogan (214-746-2785, x243), who edits Endless Choices in Dallas, has some vendors who sell better than 1,000 copies a month at $1 donation per copy.

    The Austin Homeless Advocate (512-482-8270) serves a similar function, and serves as an editorial companion of "Dialogues for the Homeless 101:", a public television show presenting the views of the homeless every Monday evening on Channel 10.
  4. Offer hope. Many homeless wake each day to lives that are barely worth living. The two hopes for better tomorrows are religion and education.

    Religion is often promoted to homeless populations, while the possibilities of education are under advertised. To make education more visible, community colleges could use distance education to beam course content to homeless gathering places, such as ARCH in Austin. While some could be enrolled in a course, others would have the opportunity to blot away their boredom with a different flavor of TV, exposing them to the possibility of more.

    Also, there's nothing wrong with educational evangelism. In El Paso, college counselors come to the Opportunity Center with special workshops for the homeless, prepared to stay and discuss whatever the homeless client would like to pursue. In El Paso, 30 to 40 college enrollments a year result from this process.
  5. Add the Internet. Arrange for surplus computers to be housed at the homeless day center, link them to the net, and have the room supervised by one paid staff supplemented by volunteers and/or community college students earning service learning credits in their computer courses.

    (Should the computers be reserved for the net, or also be available for word processing and other standard uses? This is an open question with different answers, since computer access may also be available at some local libraries. Allowing clients to reserve a time slot to use any software that comes with the computer, as well as Internet access, seems to be a common answer.)
  6. Offer help with substance management. Mental illness and substance addiction are common homeless problems, leading to no job, no house, and no family. While there is no sure escape route from the prison of substance dependency, there are identified starting places with shortened treatment times. The client may be able to receive 14 to 30 days of treatment before being passed forward to transitional case management.

    While only a few providers are willing to begin with detox, nearly all transitional facilities encourage continued support from AA or NA. (There may be an alternative to a Christian 12 step program, but we've not found one. If you know of one designed for non-Christians, please let me know.)
  7. Once the client decides to move inside, help him/her find transitional housing and case management. While some communities have a generous supply of transitional housing, most do not. It's generally easier for women with children to find long term transitional housing than it is for single men, probably because the women and children are more vulnerable. The Passages project in Austin, an excellent model of the possible, is a six agency partnership designed to empower client transition. For additional details, call Kathleen Ridings, Executive Director of Social Services for the Austin Salvation Army, 512-476-1111.

    [In a four year period, Passages served 2,301 participants. 63% acquired permanent housing, 84% remained permanent housed, 60% decreased their use of public assistance, 85% were employed, 45% upgraded their job, 82% established a monthly budget, 83% achieved at least two of the personal goals that they had established, 95% increased their knowledge of basic living skills, 84% in mental health / substance abuse counseling achieved their one major goal. During the prior 3 years, all of this was accomplished at a cost of about $567 a participant.]

    If a match can be found, service providers often stand ready, on a space available basis, to provide shelter, food, child care, transportation, life skills education, and continued help with substance management. Also, transition projects tend to see time in terms of 18 to 24 months, as opposed to 7 to 90 day shelter stays. Transitional projects understand that it's hard to educate a client living in a dumpster. Basic life needs must be temporarily stabilized before the client can begin transition towards permanent stabilization. Causing change is hard work, best done without the distraction of meeting survival needs.
  8. Help the client learn to stay straight while he/she practices working. CWT, Compensated Work Therapy, is used by the VA hospital in Dallas, by the Resource Center in Dallas, and by Trinity Works in Dallas. The foundation principle is that the client learns to work by working under close supervision, while he/she leads a substance free life (monitored by breath and blood testing).

    As practiced at the Resource Center in Dallas, which serves both veterans and non-veterans (often released public offenders) with CWT, each client has been referred by an agency that has already absorbed the detox function, and the client has a at least a two week record of staying straight.

    Upon entering the program, the client is urine tested, with random follow up tests each week. Two dirty urine samples send the client back to detox, removing the client from the CWT income opportunity. The possibility of earning money at CWT is a motivator, and so is the prospect of losing the ability to earn money at CWT.

    The CWT room offers basic piece work in such things as wrapping and sorting. Clients are supervised by an MSW and another staff member, and can earn $25 to over $100 a day, depending upon their project and production speed.

    CWT offers the client a three to six month opportunity to relearn how it is to be at work. About 1/2 of those who enter the program graduate. Those who graduate are then eligible for job placement, school enrollment, or perhaps both placement and enrollment.

    Some programs believe, as I used to, that all the homeless person needs is a job skill coupled with a job opportunity. In one program, this well intentioned belief has lead to 300 homeless people beginning as part time workers, with the opportunity to convert to permanent full time if their job performance merits the transition. Out of 300 possibilities, NONE have made this conversion -- because what made them homeless was not the lack of a job, but lack of an ability to hold a job. CWT, supported by substance monitoring, helps reach through to this other layer of the problem, increasing the probability of success to about 50%.
  9. If CWT makes sense as a process, but there is no pace in your facility, consider bringing Goodwill into the partnership. As seen at the Goodwill in Corpus Christi, they are expanding their service population to include the socially disabled as well as the physically disabled.

    A grant funded contract with Goodwill probably could be arranged, allowing the client three to six months of practice time, while giving Goodwill a supervised employee.
  10. Add Life Skills, Occupational Social Skills, GED education, and Basic Computer to the CWT mix, spending 3 hours a day in education and 5 hours in production.
    1. GED - Good GED software apparently exists, perhaps in both English and Spanish. SEARCH in Houston, the Rescue Mission in Port Arthur, and El Centro's project for the Central Dallas Ministries (located across from a housing project) all use GED software.

      If a client lacks a GED, some would argue that ALL of the education time should be spent working on the GED. Others would argue that the client also lacks necessary life skills, occupational social skills, and work skills. The best mix for a specific community may be best designed by that community.
    2. Life Skills (one hour a day, 5 days a week, 13 weeks) - there are many life skill curriculums in Texas, most in English, but a few are also in English and Spanish. It's becoming increasingly clear that the Texas Continuum must be available in at least two languages.

      Class times range between 40 and 80 hours, with more hours obviously allowing time for more topics and/or deeper treatment of topics. If mixed with a thirteen week CWT system, a 65 hour curriculum, offered 5 hours a week over 13 weeks would be possible.
    3. Between class sessions, add basic computer training (one hour a day, 5 days a week, 13 weeks).

      I suggest that computers be added at this point, both to offer the client a shift for his/her attention span, and as a move to develop a needed work skill. Computers have become ubiquitous in the work environment, AND they are compelling learning tools for homeless students (maybe because they require little social interaction, was suggested by one social worker).

      When the client is seriously considering reentry, computers help lobby on the side that learning can be fun as well as useful; and, if there is an adequate supply of machines, computers are always available to deliver mind soothing challenges, such as looking at the world through the Internet.
    4. Occupational Social Skills (one hour a day, 5 days a week, 13 weeks) - The DOL found that homeless unemployment is not so much a function of missing job skills as it is a function of missing social skills necessary. The homeless person has a hard time bending to and blending with the work environment to remain employed.

      An excellent program of work related social skills is published by WorkNet, currently used by the Star of Hope in Houston.

      WorkNet has developed an excellent curriculum in this area, approaching occupational social skills as simply learning to be bicultural: "You already know the culture of the street, now we'll teach you the culture of the work world." Their approach teaches the client to see work from the employer's eyes, without having to feel like a life loser because their socialized to work is incomplete.

      WorkNet claims to achieve a placement rate of more than 90%, a 6 month retention rate of 75%+, a one year retention rate of 60%, and an upgrade rate (improvement in one year) of about 30%. Those numbers are impressive.

      The basic WorkNet position is that no one is unemployable. They can be reached at 818-810-4447 / or P.O. Box 5582, Hacienda Height6s, CA 91745-0082 / or worknetts@aol.com They offer two week staff training programs for $2,500, as well as simpler one and two day seminars.

      Another example is Nancy McCulloch's program at Victoria College: Employment Essentials, compressing basic computer skills, workplace literacy, scans skills, and job readiness in a 64 hour program (moving to 80 this Fall), delivered in weekly blocks of 20 hours. Nancy gives a special ID card for 100% on time attendance -- a special challenge for people accustomed to organizing their lives around crisis and emergency.
    5. Some small shelters and other service providers may not have the resources or experience to provide clients with these educational experiences. For years, clients have solved this sort of problem by referring clients out to service contractors, such as community colleges. A new wrinkle has risen in Houston.

      Rescue in Motion, founded by Rev. Leslie Smith II and managed by Amana Turner (713-651-1470) is prepared to deliver contract education and change facilitation to "your" facility (remember the old "have gun, will travel" series), increasing the probability of relevant expertise while reducing cost. They are prepared to deal with life skills, substance abuse, economic dependence, case management, children's services, parenting, job placement, and transition to a permanent home.

      As funding becomes tighter and inter-program communication more intense, the natural tendency to duplicate is likely to be transformed into the natural need to sub-contract. Remember the Passages Project in #7 -- partnerships are in, stand alone fortresses of good operated by the righteous are becoming financially obsolete.

      Of course, some of those fortress programs have strong local financial support, and may survive for a time. However, the growing probability is the type of faith based partnership portrayed by Austin Interfaith, responsible for Capital Idea (a national model for transition funding, discussed in #20), or San Antonio's COPS which gave birth to Project Quest (which began to work with the homeless in 6/2000, supported by city funds).
  11. For some, the next best step is facilitating movement to the job market. For them, more reinforcement of their job search skills is useful, as well as practice resumes and interviews. Citizen volunteers can be recruited to help with the mock interview process, which helps the client make some straight world friends and/or contacts. This can be a strong confidence builder for the client.

    An even stronger confidence builder is a known job opening, found by a job developer, who may have already spoken on behalf of the client. Asking for a job that you know you'll probably get is much easier than trying to pass over in general. If placement goes well, the client may need assistance with clothing and/or work tools.

    Some programs deal with this outfitting as an earned gift, others as a revolving credit advance, with the client expected to pay back the program so that the money can be used for others. Since this need is so obvious, job related, and concrete -- it makes a good place for specific fund raising.

    While many may believe in God, everyone believes in work, especially for others, most especially for homeless others. Therefore, any plea for funds that promise to return homeless people to the workplace plays to a wider audience than any plea for social / economic justice or simple mercy.
  12. For others, help them enter school. They may be interested in better jobs, those requiring more education. The limiting step at this point is funding, but usually that obstacle can be removed or reduced.

    Funding concerns are always a center point when dealing with poverty clients, and I will discuss funding concerns as Step #20, at the end of this paper.

    Once the funding bridge is crossed, there still needs to be considerable discussion and assessment, making sure that the client's education plan is both useful (pointed to an occupation) and workable (enough hours to qualify for financial aid, few enough hours to be realistically possible).

    If possible, as they enter school, the formerly homeless client needs a mentor. The most effective mentors are people working within the school system, followed by other formerly homeless students now in the system. Several mentor programs have been tried, and I have not found one that has enjoyed sustained success. Suggestions welcome.
  13. Create a one semester program that orients the homeless client to education, while introducing them to a specific occupational credit course.

    Vicki Di Benedetto's Project Opportunity in El Paso (915-831-2377) uses Carl Perkins funds to facilitate transition from street to school, and several other programs seek Perkins funds to promote the transition of women from street to school:
    1. Mary Lee Henderson at McLennan Community College, Waco (254-299-8681), has 300 women students taking their orientation on a one on one basis in her program, served by her, a counselor, and two part time counselors. In this situation, the orientation is spread over a semester.
    2. Similar Perkins programs can be located through

      Mary Dickerson, 903-874-6501 (Navarro CC)
      Central Texas CC in Kileen, 254-526-1299
      Tyler Junior College, 800-687-5680
      Temple CC, 254-298-8333
  14. Take the feelings of homeless clients seriously, because they do. My experience has been that homeless clients take their feelings VERY seriously, often feeling that they have to feel good to do good. Since about 1/3 of the homeless suffer from mental problems, substance abuse for some is self medication (90 proof Zoloft) against difficult feelings. This leads to an overlapping 1/3 with substance abuse problems. It seems to me that a unifying factor with the homeless -- those with mental limits, substance abusers, just plain broke and out of luck -- is that they value their feelings.

    How do we show that we too value their feelings?

    In a homeless service office, we could start by insisting that all clients be treated with respect and dignity. However, that's made more difficult by the fact that the counter person is often a formerly homeless person, working out his/her power needs on more vulnerable people. Ray Tullius at the Opportunity Center in El Paso (915-577-0357) insists that his staff treat clients respectfully, and occasional exceptions happen.

    We may have a better possibility for clients entering the education system. We can present them with an exceptional counselor -- one who understands their circumstances and expectations, one who understands homeless service programs, one who understands the school's offerings, and one who the homeless can believe cares about them. It's generally easier to find this sort of person in a provider environment, and bring them up to speed by teaching them about the college.

    In the educational setting, the need for counseling may be almost continuous. As the homeless client moves through the educational system, all problems loom large, and they are accustomed to using crisis as a energizer. They may also hold a default belief that they are misplaced as a student, and probably should be doing something else. On the reverse, Tammy Allen at Economic Opportunities Advancement in Waco has observed that once they realize that they can perform as well or better than ordinary students, some become obsessed with the possibilities of education, and develop a drive to do as well a possible.

    Going back to a prior suggestion, a support person, such as a mentor, can be of extreme value. So can a support committee, leading to the next step.
  15. Create a support group of "regular" people, scheduled to meet on a regular basis with formerly homeless clients moving towards self sufficiency. These meetings tend to focus on confusions about how life usually works, especially as to resource and authority issues. The committee of people, already connected to the community, can teach the client how to connect and contribute on their own, usually increasing their knowledge about access to resources.

    Tutoring could make a major difference for the homeless student, but I've not found any way of presenting this as a comfortable option to potential volunteers. Tutoring is seen as hard work (which it is), and tutoring the homeless is seen as even harder. Perhaps "study halls" for homeless clients, using the group environment for leverage, could work.
  16. Increase the motivation for homeless students to attend ALL classes. One solution, used by SEARCH in Houston and Caritas in Austin, to secure grant money to pay the homeless client to attend class. It works pretty well, offering a better point in time motivation than guilt and responsibility.

    An extension of this is to pay clients to keep in touch with the program, so that some valid tracking statistics can be developed. One program hopes for more contact with less money by giving client e-mail addresses, and keeping in touch with them through e-mail. Another simply pays clients to keep in touch.
  17. Develop articulation links for those students who pass through to the next academic level. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen -- and contact between the client's case manager or counselor and the university department can occasionally be helpful (with contact made ONLY at the request of the client).
  18. As the client prepares to leave education and enter work, he/she may again need support and assurance. It's helpful if the client can always call upon the counselors in his/her transition program for continued advice, or be able to call upon those who dealt with his/her first school issues, or have a continuing relationship with a mentor.

    This sort of supportive relationship is something like a Catholic marriage (permanent), with the call for contact always coming from one partner to willing ears waiting to respond -- maybe a guardian angel equipped with a pager.
  19. Let those who are escaping the prison of poverty serve as models for those considering escape. Schedule panel events where formerly homeless students in successful transition can talk to clients considering the transition decision. It gives the transitional student the reinforcement of talking about change, while presenting the considering client a believable possibility.
  20. FUNDING -- Funds for education are always an apparent limit when dealing with homeless student, but the limit may be more apparent than real.

    Higher Education - Service providers can do more with fewer resources by creating links with tax supported institutions accustomed to educating adults. Public universities, colleges, community colleges, and technical institutes are all higher educators in Texas, regulated by The Higher Education Coordinating Board.

    Senior colleges and universities may be interested in researching homeless issues, and some students may be interested in working with service providers. Community colleges and technical institutes have the most experience in providing occupational education to adults, including adults who may need remediation.

    However, even experienced community college educators may misunderstand the problem of working with homeless students. For example, I asked a 25 year colleague if he had any suggestions for our homeless program. He did. After thinking about it for a day or so, he thought that we should bring all of our clients into a room, hire a motivational speaker to talk to them about success, and . . .

    If you begin to create a relationship with educators, take some time to introduce them to your clients. Also, if they want to help but wonder how, refer them to a 1998 web site about how colleges can prepare the homeless for the workforce: http://www.epcc.edu/Community/Homeless/home.htm

    Community College Partnerships - After considering what you might do, you'll probably want to create a partnership with your tax supported, occupationally oriented community college. Not only do that have considerable experience in delivering occupational education to difficult to serve populations, they are also accustomed to solving administrative complications, and they've long realized the need for community partnerships.

    Given this mind set, the balance of this section focuses on how to find money for formerly homeless students planning to attend a community college program.

    Credit Education - College programs are offered in two major forms, credit and non-credit (also called continuing education or CE). Most long term, degree plan education is credit, while non-credit is often used for short term, specific training. Some credit programs are sometimes one year or less in length, and are called "Certificates", while the standard program is two years in length and ends in an Associates degree (often an AAS or Associates In Applied Science).

    The short term certificate is a better option for most homeless students, with two important "IF's":

    IF all of the hours in the certificate can be used by an AAS degree plan,

    and IF the certificate is eligible for financial aid. If a certificate is between 16 and 30 hours in length, financial aid is usually possible.

    Non-Credit - Non-credit has become more common for skill specific programs, designed for a specific job market, usually not containing academic credit courses. The Workforce Boards like this type of program, because they believe that the student will move more quickly to the job market at less cost.

    From a longer term perspective, future employers are more likely to understand and accept credit programs, especially if a degree or certificate has been awarded.

    Pell Grant Financial Aid - First, if the student plans to enroll in credit courses, Pell Grant financial aid is always a consideration. When the student can qualify for financial aid -- and most formerly homeless client can qualify -- tuition, books, and some basic living expenses are covered. This is an excellent system for financing a complete education.

    However, if the student has a default on some prior Pell Grant -- a common complication -- this can be a problem, requiring another solution: such as some other agency either paying off the default OR paying the student's tuition and books (both solutions happen, depending upon where the student lives).

    TASP Exam - Another concern with credit education is the TASP test, a basic academic entrance exam that the student takes upon entering any Texas college. Students fear the TASP. One possible delay is to see if the student can enter a one year credit certificate, between 16 and 30 hours in length, and eligible for financial aid.

    TASP Waived Certificate Program -If such a certificate exists as the specific school, the student can delay TASP by enrolling in the certificate program, and then enrolling in the full AAS degree program later. When "later" comes, the student will then have to take TASP, but is likely to be less likely to fail parts of the exam.

    Non-Credit - Again, non-credit has become more common for skill specific programs, designed for a specific job market, usually not containing academic credit courses. The Workforce Boards like this type of program, because they believe that the student will move more quickly to the job market at less cost.

    Non Credit $ Aid - Most forms of traditional financial aid will not cover non credit courses, which is unfortunate. However, since these short term, job specific courses can be very useful for quick entry towards a specific job market, the Workforce Boards are usually willing to pay.

    "From the college's side, it is possible to make non-credit courses reimbursable by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, as was done by Victoria College with Employment Essentials. Nancy McCullouch made her program sustainable by making it fundable for each contact hour."

    Carl Perkins DOE $ - Schools used to fund non credit courses, offering them directly to the students without any tuition, by funding the courses from Department of Education Carl Perkins grants. The grants are now harder to get, and are not as pointed towards "special" (difficult to serve) populations.

    TPEG - All community colleges have Texas Public Education Grants, because they come from the tuition revenue. Some colleges, such as Mountain View in Dallas, allow TPEG to be used for non-credit financial aid. Others, such as EPCC and ACC, use all of their TPEG money to support credit courses.

    WIA - However, if clients are connected to the Workforce Development Boards, WIA funds may be possible. The Boards take a very strong WORK FIRST position, stressing a job now (even a bad job) as opposed to education now. However, with strong counseling, some of that problem can be reduced or eliminated.

    IF WIA does decide to spend money on a client, they can spend a lot -- up to $10,000 retreading the client for the modern work force.

    HUD Funds - HUD has funded some educational programs, such as Dallas Works, serviced out of the Mountain View Campus in Dallas. However, this will be the last year of the three year Dallas program, because HUD has announced that it will require a hard money match in 2000, rather than the relatively soft money match that they have been requiring. Because of the match requirement, Mountain View has elected to not try and meet the match, and this valuable program will end this year.

    Perhaps a college could go to the corporate community, seeking tax deductible donations to use for the HUD match. In El Paso, Ray Tullius has tried to interest our City Council in creating a match pool, fed from tax funds and used by service providers to bring services and funds to the community. I don't know of any institutions that have solved the hard match problem -- except for the Austin Capital Idea, which eliminates the need for a match.

    The Austin Model - Austin, Texas has developed what appears to be a nationally unique model. In a tax abatement negotiation, an agreement was reached that the City of Austin (700,000 people) and Travis County (900,000) would pool money towards worker retraining.

    $1.71 million of this money now comes to a project called Capital Idea, now associated with the Austin Interfaith Council. Capital Idea spends the money on education, job training, and job support. They have three tiers of education:

    Tier 1 = GED and English as a Second Language

    Tier 2 = OJT / job placement and training

    Tier 1 = Education for up to 3 years

    More information is probably available from the City Homeless Coordinator, Mary Rychlyle.
  21. The Giving Up Place - Steps 7 through 20 assume that the homeless client is in transition, moving from the street to a suburb. The success rate is usually not much better than 50%, and is often more like 1/3 or less. This leads to the obvious question: "What happens to the rest of those folks? If they aren't going to medical school, where are they going?"

    The best answer than I've seen to this in Texas is held by Pam Schaefer's Trinity Works in Dallas, 214-653-1711. She has single parent families in a Family Stabilization Program, others in the Vocational / Occupational Therapy Center (see earlier comments on CWT), and an inventory of adults who will never be independent in her Managed Care Program.

    When I was a boy, people who wanted to give up could enlist in the French Foreign Legion. Once they closed their office, there hasn't been much of a giving up place left -- with the possible exception of Trinity Works.

    It's pretty clear that we need one. Some of the people in my town are homeless because, at 12 to 14% unemployment, there is no work. The other extreme are the homeless in Austin, with 0% unemployment, who, for several reasons, either can't or won't perform sustained work. (As Wesley Leonard said, "Whenever we move to help those who "can't", we will also find ourselves helping some who "won't."" Maybe that's just part of the cost of doing business in social services.)

    This may be the hardest part of the continuum to duplicate.


RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE THN ACTIVITIES:
  1. Prepare an inventory of services available to the homeless in each region. The continuum may be thicker than we think. Have grant funded staff create an equivalent of the Houston Coalition Directory of Services.

    Given this information, we can better see gaps and opportunities.
  2. Create standard data forms for reporting available services, and input the data on grant funded lap top computers. Individual regional directories can be printed from region specific disks.

    Then, all of the disks can be combined into a total state model, which can be distributed to network members in disk form.

    That will allow individual program people to more easily find models and partners.
  3. Once all of the information is available and has been analyzed, the THN Board may want to identify the model continuum, recommend for each region.
  4. After agreeing upon the ideal continuum, consider hiring a foundation funded Continuum Facilitator to travel the state and help individual communities, upon request, weld together more complete continuums of service.