Glancing Back, Looking Forward: Sound Families and Beyond

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Glancing Back, Looking ForwardSound Families
and Beyond
David Takeuchi University of Washington School
of Social Work David Wertheimer Bill Melinda
Gates Foundation

• Foundations Agents of Systems Change
• National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness
• Seattle, Washington
• February 7, 2008

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Framing Results from the Sound Families Evaluation

• Ambiguous loss
• Theory of limited difference
• Seeking housing, finding place

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Brief Background of Sound Families

• Began in 2000 with 40M investment by the Bill
  and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Initiative leveraged more than 200M of public
  sector support
• Goal of tripling the number of service-enriched
  housing units for homeless families in Washington
  state
• 1,445 units funded, with the majority using a
  transitional housing model
• Large majority of families made strides toward
  housing stability, economic independence, and
  improved quality of life
• For more information, visit www.soundfamilies.org

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Data Source for this Presentation

• Evaluation of the Sound Families Initiative,
  Final Findings A Closer Look at Families Lives
  During and After Supportive Transitional Housing.
  (December, 2007). Seattle, Washington Northwest
  Center for Children and Families, School of
  Social Work, University of Washington

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Some Characteristics of Families

• 85 of families were headed by a single
  caregiver, typically a single mother
• Domestic violence is one of the major
  precipitating causes of homelessness
• Homelessness associated with different stressors
  that have no immediate conclusion (debt,
  separation from family members, substance abuse,
  mental health, issues, limited earning power,
  etc.)

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What is Ambiguous Loss?

• Pauline Boss Unclear loss or stress lacking
  closure that creates conditions that are
  stressful and confusing
• Lack of clarity generates anxiety, depression,
  and immobilizes individuals and relational
  systems
• Long term consequences are manifested as being
  unable to move on with ones life

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Examples of Ambiguous Loss

• Physically present, but psychologically absent
  (family member with chronic mental illness or
  substance abuse problem)
• Physically absent, but psychologically present
  (family member separated from a family)
• Some researchers are focusing on ambiguity in
  separation from places such as immigration and
  homelessness

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A Focus on Ambiguous Loss Helps to

• Frame problems beyond individuals and focuses on
  relationships
• Identify whether it is operating within an
  individuals family
• Seek closure for the uncertainties

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As One Family Member Stated
(Our life) is pretty consistent...Ive gotten a
routine down, were not struggling to make things
happen or worrying about how to survive. We know
were going to have dinner and were all going to
have a bath.
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Some General Conclusions from the Sound Families
Initiative

• Individuals and families are quite diverse. While
  averages can aptly characterize individuals and
  families, there was no single distinctive
  feature.
• A number of facets are associated with
  maintaining permanent housing, finding
  employment, and educational outcomes for
  children. No single set of predictors explained a
  substantial proportion of the variance in various
  outcomes.

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Theory of Limited Difference(Cole Singer)

• Refocuses from a search for variables that
  explain large effects
• To a focus on how small effects over time create
  large differences at a single point in time
• The theory centers on kicks and responses
• Example of gender differences in scientific
  publications

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Application of Limited Difference to Homelessness

• Focuses on cumulative advantages and
  disadvantages
• Non-linear, dynamic analyses
• Examines trajectories of families
• Highlights importance of reactions of negative
  things

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Housing Outcomes for Families Successfully
Completing Transitional Programs
Exit to non-permanent housing
Secured permanent housing without any subsidy
Secured permanent housing without Sec 8 or public
housing but with other subsidy
Secured permanent housing without Sec 8 but in
public housing
Secured permanent housing with Section 8
N 651, excludes unknowns
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Success in the Program is More than Finding a
House

• As one respondent states
• I (enjoyed) being part of the community ....I
  had built my own social life and all of our
  activities. I felt like I was a little safer
  there.

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Place

• Empirical research on place typically focuses on
  built environments or physical spaces
• Tends to have small effects on various outcomes
• Need to expand definitions to include social and
  psychological facets of place

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Place involves
A geographic location that has boundaries and
reference points
A nexus where social life is initiated and engaged
A holder of symbols, values, tradition, history
and a frame for organizing our experiences
Gieryn, 2000
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Incorporating the Concept of Place Helps to

• Focus on more than the built environment
• Establish connections that make people feel
  established or in place
• Focus on conditions that make people feel
  disconnected within communities and change these
  conditions

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Implications for Moving Forward
NAEH Conference, February 2008
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Where we have been The Sound Families
Initiative -- a significant set of partnerships

• County/State leaders

• Service Providers

• Housing Authorities

• Gates Foundation

• City
• leaders

Triple the number of new supportive housing units
in Pierce, Snohomish, and King counties
1,445 units 2,700 children and 1,500 families
served to date

• 2/3 found permanent housing
• School absenteeism dropped by 24

60 of families increased their
incomes Employment increased by 22
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Acknowledging the successes of our collaborative
efforts to date

• Sound Families was highly successful in achieving
  initially articulated goals
• Unit production
• Linking services to housing
• Helping families recover from the trauma of
  homelessness
• Ensure graduating families were able to access
  permanent housing resources

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Key Lessons Learned From Sound Families
Individualized housing and services, links to
opportunity
Housing services works
All families needs are not the same
Rapid re-housing and short-term supports v.
permanent supportive housing and ongoing,
intensive services
Jobs education is a critical lever
Not enough is being done to bring employment
opportunities to wage earners in recovering
families
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Key Lessons Learned From Sound Families The
need for improved response at the systems level

• Our family homelessness system
• is not functioning as effectively as it could

Families dont know where to turn to for help
Families arent always getting the right type of
help
Emergency services are necessary at times of
crisis, but insufficient to solve the larger
problems
Current system assumes one size fits all model
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Recognizing the need to move forward, mindful of
the lessons learned

• Sound Families evaluation data point towards what
  we could do differently or better
• Increase efforts to prevent families from
  becoming homeless in the first place
• Match housing and service needs more precisely to
  each familys individual experience and
  circumstances
• Minimize the disruption of multiple family moves
• Ensure the right intensity and mix of services as
  we support each family in efforts to move towards
  both stability and self-sufficiency over time

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Implications of looking through a different
research lens

• We know homelessness is a complex phenomenon
• The symptom or result of a constellation of
  complex causal factors
• Each familys story, or the way these factors
  combine, is unique
• Different factors may have different
  significance or impact, depending on the nature,
  sequence, geography and results of a chain of
  related or unrelated events
• Recovery from homelessness requires addressing
  each and all of these complexities
• Individually tailored services The right mix at
  the right time at the right level of intensity
• No one system or agency has the resources,
  capacity or skill set to do it all

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From Conversation to Action Plan

• Joseph, a homeless man in Seattle I am not
  incompetent. I just need help moving the
  obstacles out of the way.
• Reframing the solutions Its not just about what
  families have to do, but what systems must do to
  better support families
• We may be part of the problem Many of the
  issues have more to do with how housing and
  service systems are organized and accessed than
  the individual problems families face

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Systems integration Complex work for auto
mechanics, a mystery to the rest of us
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When it works well Integration is invisible to
the end user -- we get where we need to go
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Looking under the hood of the family homelessness
engine A coordinated and tailored approach
Families stably housed
Coordinated Intake

• Prevention

Services

• Opportunity

• Families in crisis
• 20,000 children and their parents in WA
  experience homelessness
• High (gt50) rates of recidivism

Rapid housing

• High quality organizational capacity aligned to
  meet the needs of homeless families and those on
  the brink

Organizations

• Local provider networks collaborate to integrate
  and match the most effective resources to the
  needs of each family

• Data systems support real time decisions for
  homeless families, improve provider practices,
  and support broader advocacy efforts

State / LocalSystems

• Advocacy builds collaboration and sense of
  shared accountability enables use of existing
  money in new ways promotes new money into sector

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Moving Towards a Coordinated and Tailored System

• Requires that we think about how we do business
  in a different way
• Asks much of all current stakeholders
• Challenges how existing resources across multiple
  systems are currently allocated and spent
• Identifies the need for new resources in capital
  projects, operations and supportive services
  arenas

Must leverage buy-in to both a willingness to
change current practices and a new way of doing
business
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Supporting and/or questioning the status quo when
and where needed

• Extensive dialogue before anything changes
• Convene the right stakeholders, prepared to do
  business together and differently
• Identify leaders and mechanics who can serve as
  agents of change. Find change agents among both
  the familiar and the unexpected constituencies
• Provide infrastructure resources required to
  support change. (Lead agencies, boundary
  spanners, advocacy, etc.)
• Create incentives to realign existing funds and
  add new resources in pursuit of new ways of doing
  business
• Evaluate results

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Systems change Four key roles that can be
played by philanthropy in partnership with others
Convener Getting right people into right
places and dialogues
Knowledge Generator Investing in research
to inform policy practice
Advocate Providing credible voice to
advance systems change
Strategic Investor Funding innovations
that drive systems change