Is ending homelessness a realistic goal?
Are members of your discussion group in support current National/regional efforts to end homelessness, or support a reduction of government efforts and criminalization of the homeless, or support the search and application of best practices in the courts/jails, medical care for the poor and foster care/juvenile detention, and why?
What was new for you to learn about the “other side” regarding the continuing efforts to end homelessness balancing against efforts to keep the homeless from overwhelming a community’s public space?
OPTION THREE
Now is the time to expand the reforms in public assistance, courts, jail diversion, medical care, and foster care.
Meeting the needs of the current population of chronic homeless, the needs of those caught up in event (job loss, unemployment, medical crisis) –usually short term cycle of those struggling to keep from becoming homeless, and the needs of the disabled physically and mentally. Little research has been done to identify the relationship between homelessness living with Asperger’s Syndrome, a notable brain development where a host of “social skills” are not developed.
The specialty court reforms, jail diversion programs and building a robust foster care system are important
Specialty court reform began with homeless courts, where the experience of being homeless is factored into something other than serving time. These “second chance” courts use a network of resources to recovery. Drug courts, veterans’ courts, and girl court combat tradition practices to addiction, military-related post-traumatic stress disorders, and the victims of human trafficking.
Healthcare for the Homeless Houston jail diversion program InReach has a proven record for recidivism to the Harris County Jail by meeting the health care needs of inmates the day of discharge.
Much has been done to change a culture where youth with disruptive behavior are criminalization to one where community and network support to extended families and a new generation of foster family oversight and community volunteerism. Two thirds of those involved in human trafficking are runaways from foster and juvenile systems or from homes unable to deal with gay youths.
Can communities support the search and implementation of best practices and court reforms, medical care and foster care to effectively end the institutional and society contributions to an ongoing population of homeless?
Trade offs
Will fix long-standing problems in Will force major examination and
Our nations courts, jails, hospitals, clinics, costs to change what has been in
Foster homes. Place, in some cases, 100 years.
Pursuit of these changes will address Hard conversations on race, equal
Issues related to social justice and opportunity, and future needs will
History of discrimination toward poor. Force confrontations between haves and have not’s.
History and review of court reform movement.
http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1094&context=law_journal_law_policy
San Antonio Texas Jail Diversion Program.
http://www.naco.org/sites/default/files/documents/Jail%20Diversion%20Toolkit.pdf
Foster care reform movement report.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-heimpel/a-national-foster-care-movement_b_1322304.html
Derber, Charles. The Wilding of America Money, Mayhem, and the New American Dream. Worth Publishers. 2011.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The Continuum Publishing Corporation. 1981.
Hurst, Charles E. Social Inequality Forms, Causes, and Consequences. Pearson. 2013.