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Mass. struggles to help homeless families

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Mass. struggles to help homeless families

By Steve LeBlanc, Associated Press

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

BOSTON — By now, Massachusetts wasn’t supposed to have any homeless families.

In 2008, Gov. Deval Patrick set a goal of virtually eliminating family homelessness in five years. The program was intended in part to better detect when families were on the verge of falling into homelessness — and then move in swiftly with aid and support.

Five years later, record numbers of homeless families are straining the state’s shelter system, with about 2,000 families finding temporary housing in dozens of hotels and motels across the state and approximately an equal number staying in family shelters.

For homeless advocates, shelter operators, state officials and, most acutely, the homeless themselves, the maddening persistence of the lack of affordable places to live in Massachusetts can seem intractable.

Patrick and others point to a number of reasons for the surge in homelessness, from the yearlong economic downturn to a pullback in federal aid to Massachusetts’ status as a “right to shelter” place, meaning the state is obligated to find a place to stay for all those who are homeless.

But even Patrick concedes that simply extending the state’s existing anti-homelessness strategies isn’t going to work in the long run.

“We’re going to have to think in some fresh ways rather than just try to do better what we’re already doing,” Patrick said. “I’m really worried about this. It’s not just the spike in the number. It’s what the economy has done to vulnerable people.”

The state already has an array of programs aimed at keeping families from becoming homeless — and getting them back into homes when they do.

One is the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition, or RAFT, program, which offers up to $4,000 a year to help low-income families that are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. In the 2013 fiscal year, the program helped keep more than 3,000 families from becoming homeless, according to Aaron Gornstein, Massachusetts undersecretary for housing and community development.

Another is the HomeBASE program, which provides help paying rent, utility bills and other expenses so people can stay in their homes. In 2013, that program helped keep an additional 1,000 families out of shelters, Gornstein said.

The state also has the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, a version of the federal Section 8 program, which offers rental subsidies to tenants and developments.

Yet another strategy is to develop new low-income housing while preserving the state’s existing affordable housing stock.

Since 2007, the state has created more than 4,000 deeply subsidized units, including more than 700 in 2013 alone, according to Gornstein.

The state also has been spending about $100 million each year to modernize its existing public housing units, rehabbing and bringing back into service about 400 vacant public housing apartments in the past two years. Since 2010, the state also has helped preserve 10,000 privately owned, affordable, subsidized units that were at risk of being converted into market-rate units.

Still, Gornstein said, daunting challenges remain. He pointed to the 5,400 families for whom the HomeBASE temporary rental assistance is ending this fiscal year even as the state forges ahead with its goal of getting homeless families out of hotels and shelters.
“The longer a family stays, the more difficult it is to leave,” he said.

Boston resident Altia Taylor knows the challenges firsthand. For the past five years, she has bounced from shelters to hotels.

Her current temporary housing situation is ending in January, and she hopes to land an apartment in a public housing development for herself, her 15-year-old daughter and her 8-year-old son.

“This long-term instability has me completely out of character that I’m so fed up and overwhelmed,” Taylor, 31, told a Statehouse committee recently. “If I could figure out a way to pay market rate, I would. If I could own my own home, I would. I would have done it a long time ago.”

Those on the front lines of the housing fight say they’re trying to stay upbeat.

Peter Gagliardi, president of HAPHousing, a nonprofit housing agency in Springfield, blamed the housing crisis on stagnant wages, the off-shoring of jobs and a minimum wage that hasn’t kept up with inflation. He said about 200,000 families in the state are spending more than half their income on rent.

Each time the state chips away at the number of families in hotels and shelters, he said, the problem gets worse.

“We’re actually spiraling up,” he said. “Not only do we have to go up the hill, but the hill gets higher.”

Chris Norris, executive director of the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership, pointed to a 2012 study that found that the vast majority of homeless families in Massachusetts are led by single mothers with an average income of $8,727. He said a study of homeless families in the Boston area also found that just 3 percent originally came from outside Massachusetts.

Norris warned that solving the problem of family homelessness “will be time-consuming and it will be expensive.”

The problem has already become an issue in next year’s governor’s race, with Republican candidate Charlie Baker vowing to work during his first year in office to eliminate the practice of placing homeless families in hotels and motels.

Patrick, a Democrat who isn’t seeking re-election, said he hasn’t read Baker’s plan, but he’s willing to consider any good ideas.

“If there’s enough detail to put it in place and I think it’s working, I’ll probably do it before the election,” he said.

Article link can be found here:

http://www.recorder.com/news/nation/world/10032766-95/mass-struggles-to-help-homeless-families

Many students rushing to complete GED test

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By Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press, November 07, 2013

WASHINGTON — Americans who passed part, but not all, of the GED test are rushing to finish the high school equivalency exam before a new version rolls out in January and their previous scores are wiped out. About 1 million people could be affected.

With the new version, test takers must use a computer instead of paper and pencil. The test itself will be more rigorous and cost more — at $120, the price in some states will be significantly higher than previous versions. Some places may subsidize all or part of the cost.

‘‘This is the thing that’s sort of putting the spur in the saddle,’’ said Lecester Johnson, executive director of Academy of Hope, an adult charter school in Washington. ‘‘People just don’t want to start over.’’

Test takers have been warned for more than a year about the approaching Dec. 31 deadline to complete the test. States and localities are phoning people, and thousands of letters have gone out — including to 32,000 Californians who passed parts but not all the test in the last two years.

‘‘We don’t want anyone to be caught off-guard and come in and test in January or February thinking they have their old scores, and they have to start over,’’ said Pam Blundell, who oversees adult education for the Oklahoma State Department of Education. She said Oklahoma sites have added additional test days and referred students to other sites.

Nicole Chestang, executive vice president at GED Testing Service, said the rush was expected. In 2001, the year before the last upgrade, there was a 30 percent increase in test takers, most toward the end of the year, she said.

She advised people to register for the exam now, even if they do not take it until later in November or December.

Some critics have challenged the price increases and the mandate that test takers use a computer — issues that affect many people living in poverty.

This is the first upgrade since for-profit Pearson Vue Testing acquired a joint ownership interest in the GED Testing Service. For 70 years, the service has been run by the nonprofit American Council on Education.

GED exam officials have said the changes will modernize the test and align it with new college and career-ready standards adopted in a majority of states. They say basic computer skills are needed in a modern workplace — even to apply for jobs at places such as retail stores and fast-food chains.

On a recent test given to adults worldwide of workplace skills including math, reading, and problem-solving using technology, American adults scored below the international average.

The test also will allow people to receive their scores the same day, rather than having to wait a month or more.

Frustrated with the changes, some states have opted instead to begin using other high school equivalency exams. One is Wyoming, which has adopted the use of two other tests.

Jim Rose, executive director of the Wyoming Community College Commission, said officials are exploring whether students who have passed sections of the GED can apply that toward passing one of the other high school equivalency exams.

‘‘Our centers are really committed to trying to make this something that is workable for students instead of a kind of high-stakes, winner-take-all game in which if you don’t complete by December, then you’ve got to begin again, and that’s going to create a hardship for students,’’ Rose said.

In Washington, D.C., Antoinette Mitchell, a deputy assistant superintendent of education, says she feels some urgency. ‘‘We are trying in numerous ways to get the word out to get them to come back,’’ she said.

In a low-income neighborhood on the new campus of the Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School in Washington, Principal Jorge Delgado said that instead of a last-minute rush, enrollment is declining as word spreads that the GED exam will soon be offered only by computer. The school, which has students from more than 20 countries speaking 40-plus languages, has added new computer literacy classes. Still, he said, many English language learners are intimidated by computers.

Delgado said many of the school’s students work in the hotel and restaurant industries and that passing the GED test will allow them to get a promotion to a supervisory position or enter a training program. Some are taking care of families and barely sleeping as they juggle responsibilities. He said he does not understand why the GED exam is not more flexible about allowing English language learners to take the test using a pencil and paper.

‘‘Why put more blocks in front of them? Why more obstacles when they are doing their best?’’ Delgado said. ‘‘What I’m seeing is students giving up already.’’

One student at the school who is not giving up is Natnael Gebremariam, 32, from Eritrea in East Africa. He goes to class in the mornings, works about 50 hours a week in the afternoons and evenings at a fast-food restaurant, then spends some nights doing homework past midnight.

The former teacher in his home country wants to work in information technology in the United States. He said the pressure he feels isn’t so much about the test changing, but wanting to pass the GED exam so he can take college classes.

‘‘All I know is I have to be ready by the end of this year,’’ Gebremariam said in an interview in between classes.