Thinking systemically about homelessness: What is our system's purpose?

I've been thinking a lot about homelessness lately as a system, particularly studying systems dynamics, an approach to understanding complex systems. There are different ways to think about a system. Writer, teacher, Donella Meadows, says a system has three components: (1) parts, (2) interconnections, and (3) a purpose.

So if we are to examine all the forces, actions, structures, and attitudes that lead to high rates of homelessness as a "system," let's look first at the purpose of such a system in the ideal. I say the ideal, because I want to think here about the system of factors acting to prevent homelessness and create/support homes for all people in the U.S.*

For starters let's describe our purpose as something like, "to end homelessness in the U.S." That's a good start. But it's negative: ending not having a home. It's more inspiring to shoot for the creation of something, something positive. How do we put our purpose in positive terms? How about: "to create decent sustainable homes for all people in the United States." By sustainable I mean that people can live there for a very long time, not necessarily that it's green (although energy efficient would be great). How about, "decent homes all people can live in for a very long time." I specifically did not mention "home ownership" or "housing" or "American citizens." I want to keep it open to how people actually live in homes because I assume there will be some rental housing, some home ownership, some communal living, some boats, whatever. If people are happy in a community, have access to food, have good social networks and are sheltered from the weather, that is my hope - the type of home I'm less concerned with. And if someone is here illegally I still don't want them living in an alleyway...for their sake or mine.

Thinking systemically about any issue--and even determining a purpose--is a team sport. Because a system involves many people it takes collaboration to define the purpose, the vision for it, and even what the system is. I whipped the above purpose out alone on a laptop for this blog. Not the best process. There are hundreds of perspectives on this system I do not, could not, have. I need to share it with people that bring different perspectives of the system. No one person can have a view of the whole system at any one time, so collaboration is vital to capture those perspectives to get us closer to the truth of how it functions (or can function). Together we'll adjust, change, add, tweak, sleep on it, share, and adjust some more. We need to talk to homeless people, low income residents, market rate renters, teachers, housing developers, legislators, service providers, not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) folks, mainstream resource administrators, landlords, employers, public officials, health care providers/recipients, etc. I'd ask them, "What is the purpose you'd like to see for the system you're a part of that affects the creation of homes?"

We incorporate the wisdom of the group in the purpose statement. In a systemic process like this, getting the purpose statement right can take a day, a week, or longer. But it's vital and it's time well spent, like laying the foundation of a new house.

Next step (for next blog): identifying the parts of the system and their interconnections!

* My assumption here is that if we looked at the purpose of the actual system in place (as opposed to our ideal), it would not be to create homes for all people but rather to hide homelessness.  Maybe it's unintended but that is the purpose of the system that's created.  But, again, that's my assumption.

Photo is titled, "14 Purpose" by midoubleko and is used with permission.

National and state college scholarships available for HS students that are/were homeless (Deadline Oct 30!)

One of the key factors in ending homelessness is education.  This Saturday, October 30, is the deadline for homeless, formerly homeless, and at-risk high school students across the U.S., including Puerto Rico, to apply for a Horatio Alger Association college scholarship.  Almost 1,000 scholarships are available this year.

Horatio Alger is a fantastic organization which exists to help students who have overcome hardship attend college. This year, through a partnership with Give US Your Poor: The Campaign to End Homelessness (part of UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies), they are targeting students that have experienced homelessness.

The relationship came about in 2007, when we were hosting, along with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, the Give US Your Poor Concert for Boston’s Homeless. The concert featured amazing artists that happened to have experienced homelessness performing with celebrity artists (Natalie Merchant, Mario Frangoulis, Mighty Sam McClain, Buffalo Tom). All artists that night were also on the Give US Your Poor CD (Appleseed Recordings) alongside many other homeless and celebrity artists.

During his performance, Greek tenor, Mario Frangoulis, welcomed 13-year-old Kyla Middleton on stage. Kyla is a top-notch student, articulate public speaker, sings beautifully on the CD (with Dan Zanes), and was homeless with her family for a year. Mario and Kyla sang a duet of John Lennon’s, “Imagine,” before the Dorchester audience.  Tears.  Applause.  Standing ovation.

Then Mario had a special message for Kyla. She was being awarded a $20,000 college scholarship from The Horatio Alger Association.  (See article.) That was a cool moment. So cool, that it inspired UMass Boston Chancellor, Dr. Keith Motley, to create a 4 year scholarship, given annually, to attend UMass Boston for a Mass. student that has experienced homelessness.

Which leads us to the scholarships offered this year: almost 1,000 total. Please encourage high school students you know that are graduating in the spring or summer of 2011 and have been, or are, homeless to apply for this scholarship. There are over 100 national scholarships worth $20,000 each as well as state-specific scholarships of $2,500-$10,000 depending on the state. For links to criteria and on-line application, click here. Deadline is Sat. October 30, 2010 and some paperwork (is collecting of supplementary materials is required, so make sure to allow time to assemble). If you can help get the word out in this final week to your network it is most appreciated.

Photo title is "College Graduation Smile" by portorikan via Creative Commons.

To give or not to give? by Abby Strunk

A question I've been asked frequently since taking on the role of Executive Director of Street Sense is, "What should I do when I see a homeless person?" Many people reference a memory from their childhood when they were told by their mother or father not to give money because doing so enables the person. In other words giving a dollar might contribute to that individual remaining on the streets. I disagree. But, I also do not believe that giving money to a homeless person is the only action one can take.

While I've never been homeless myself, I don't know anyone who wants to or likes to feel invisible. But, that's how many of our homeless neighbors feel. I once heard a homeless man say, "I feel like a ghost, like people can see right through me."

One of my favorite yoga authors, Judith Lasater, suggests a mantra for daily living: I will do what I can in response to what is needed here. I recommend using this mantra as a guide when deciding how you can help someone who is struggling. Simply ask yourself, "What is it that I can do in response to what is needed here?" Can I carry granola bars in my bag to give out to someone who needs it? Can I ask a homeless person if I can buy them a cup of coffee or tea? Can I sacrifice a half-hour of my time to buy someone lunch?

Can I make a commitment to give my time, money or resources to an organization that is making a positive difference?

All of these are incredibly noble efforts.  What is almost certain is that the next time you pass someone who is living on the streets, you can make eye contact, say "hello," ask how he/she is doing and wait to hear a response. Give someone who is homeless the gift of being seen and heard.

I draw inspiration from the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he spoke at the National Cathedral just before his death. He said: "We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be."

Please do what you can in response to what is needed.

Abby Strunk is the Executive Director of Washington, D.C.'s Street Sense, a 16-page biweekly street newspaper that offers economic opportunities for people experiencing homelessness through a newspaper that elevates voices and encourages debate on poverty and injustice.

At the base of the pyramid with Paul Polak (Part II of II)

(Continued from previous blog.)

Some facts Paul shared:

(1) Of the 90% of the customer base in the world, 2.75 bil living on less than $2 a day,
(2) 1.2 bil living on less than $1 day,
(3) 800 million (maybe 850 m) live on small farms depending on agriculture,
(4) There are 525 million farms in world (85% are less than 5 acres)
(5) Avg size of farm in Africa is 4 acres.

Given the above, Paul argues that small farm prosperity is the key to ending rural poverty.

Marketing is a critical element. There is no mass media at the BOP; people cannot read or write. So at IDE they recruited troubadours to write songs and skits with marketing messages imbedded. Bollywood movies were produced every year, they hired a top director and a top male and female lead and adopted familiar Indian plots: boy meets girl, they want to get married, there is a near suicide, then... INTERMISSION!! The actors talk of the benefits of low cost, effective pumps for poor farmers. They put customers on treadle pumps and after intermission, the movie continues where the father tells the boy to buy a treadle pump and boy and girl get married.

Polak says there are three (3) great myths of poverty eradication that must be overcome:

1. We can donate people out of poverty.
2. We can end poverty through GDP economic growth.
3. Multinationals as they are now will end poverty.

He also suggests, instead, 12 Steps for Ending Poverty:

1. Go to where action is
2. Talk to the people who have the problem and actually listen to what they have to say (interview at least 25 people)
3. Learn everything about the specific context
4. Think and act big (minimally reach 1 million people)
5. Think like a child (children have no limit to their thinking but get to the heart)
6. See and do the obvious (rural farms)
7. If someone invested it you don’t have to
8. Design for critical price targets
9. Design for measurable improvement
10. Work off of a practical 3 year plan
11. Keep learning from your customers
12. Stay positive: don’t be distracted by what other people think.

Moving forward in his quest, Paul has left IDE (although still on their board). He has launched another non-profit (D-Rev) – fomenting a design revolution to reach the other 90% of the population not targeted by marketers, aka the BOP. He is also launching a for-profit (Windhorse International) that takes on projects and influences how big business designs prices and markets its products. Its mission is to earn remarkable profits by serving the world’s poorest customers.

Paul started his career in poverty alleviation by talking to homeless people in Colorado where he lives and at the time worked with a friend of mine. We talked of our mutual friend then I asked him if he felt his approach to ending poverty would also work in developed economies. "Absolutely!" he said. "All the rules apply here too." I'm not convinced of the latter (yet) but I was very convinced by his approach and results at the BOP.

Paul Polak has done 1000+ interviews (all of which he records himself) with poor people around the globe, mostly with poor farmers at the base of the pyramid. His very first interview was with a homeless man in Colorado.

At the base of the pyramid with Paul Polak (Part I of II)

This entry is about global extreme poverty. It looks at solutions that may have implications about homelessness in the U.S. which is where Paul Polak's interest in poverty began.

Paul Polak is in his mid seventies, witty and funny, and has an old school charm that is engaging and even comforting as he throws his revolutionary ideas and stunning facts at you. If they made a Paul Polak doll I would buy one. A psychologist by training, Paul has spent the last 25+ years working at alleviating extreme poverty for those living at the "base of the pyramid (BOP)" and released a book in 2008 called, Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail. I heard him speak at a breakout session at Pop!Tech.

The Base (or bottom) of the Pyramid is an expression popularized in C.K. Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits (2005). The BOP is the 4 billion people, the majority of human beings, that together make up a huge potential market. Prahalad believes "if we stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepeneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up" for both poor people and businesses. He adds that serving the BOP will "demand innovations in technology, products/services, and business models, and require large firms to work collaboratively with NGOs and local government." This collabrative approach is a big part of IA's Accelerator Expedition.

Polak is all about the BOP. The NGO he founded, IDE, has helped 17 million people out of extreme poverty in 25 years. Its approach is to apply business models to help extremely poor entrepeneurs with innovative design of their products and to creatively and effectively bring those products to market.

He believes that there needs to be a revolution in how multinational corporations design and market to people at the BOP. In his Wed. presentation, after Bunker Roy showed the amazing work and ingenuity of poor, illiterate women, young and old, and others were doing at the Barefoot College, Polak asked, "What if we had a million amazing barefoot people, and designed a package that a multinational corporation develop as an offering to them as franchisees? What if you franchised these 1 million folks and had a product they could sell to poor people. There would be money to be made for investors, for the franchisees, and products that could help the poorest people out of poverty (e.g., efficient lighting, watering systems for small farmers, cheaper electricity, etc.)

"We need a revolution where you can create a revenue stream for the poor person and the parent company," Paul exclaimed. He talked about combining vital products with "the ruthless pursuit of affordability" for true sustainables solutions. So, embrace the profit model and we'll create a true revolution when big business enters the market place for poor people because it makes money. Once there exists a workable model, the marketplace responds and soon big corporations start tweaking products that have a real benefit to poor consumers. The world runs on bottom line process, he says.

For part II of II of this blog click here.

Identifying High-Cost High-Need Homeless People by Dan Flaming

My colleagues and I at the Economic Roundtable in Los Angeles, along with the L.A. Co. Chief Executive Office, recently released a study titled, "Tools for Identifying High-Cost, High-Need Homeless Persons." This paper provides tools for identifying homeless individuals with acute needs, the highest public costs when homeless, and the greatest reduction in public costs when housed.

We analyzed 10,193 homeless, destitute single adults in Los Angeles County – 1,007 of whom exited homelessness by entering supportive housing and were able to link records for these individuals across multiple public agencies, providing crucial information about their characteristics and the public costs for health, mental health, justice system, and welfare services they used. Supportive housing is permanent, affordable housing with on-site case management and additional on-site, or readily available, services such as health, mental health and substance abuse rehabilitation.

When we rank the overall population of homeless single adults by their public costs and break them into ten groups of equal size (deciles), we find that most have comparatively low public costs (an average of $710 per month). But the most expensive ten percent is an average of $8,083 per month, because of extensive use of hospitals and medical and mental health jails in that group. This ten percent of accounts for 56 percent of all public costs for homeless single adults.

When information about a person’s recent history is available, it is possible to combine multiple characteristics of a homeless adult to estimate his or her likelihood of being in the highest decile. No single characteristic defines the tenth cost decile, but by using combinations of key characteristics it is possible to identify these individuals with reasonable certainty. That is useful information for both the homeless person and the public entity working to help him or her.

We developed two tools for combining multiple characteristics to identify high need individuals. The first is a look-up table that shows results from profiling groups within the study population based on seven characteristics and determining the proportion of each group that is in the tenth cost decile, as well as in the combined ninth and tenth deciles. The second is a calculating tool derived from statistical analysis that uses sixteen pieces of information to determine the probability that an individual is in the highest cost decile. You can access these Excel spreadsheet tool by clicking here.

There were some surprises that resulted from this study. I was most surprised by the range of variation in public costs for homeless individuals, with over half getting by with minimal subsistence-level help. Also surprising was the level and frequency of crises that engage the attention of hospitals and jails in the lives of the individuals with the highest public costs. Their lives are very precarious without housing and greatly stabilized with housing.

Our study also has seven major conclusions and recommended action steps. Please visit the Economic Roundtable website to download the full report as well as the tools we created.

Daniel Flaming is the President of the Economic Roundtable in Los Angeles.

Second photo by Ed Yourdon.

What, Me Homeless? by Delmark Goldfarb

According to statistics, I am living way below the poverty line. I might not have known this without those good ol’ numbers. These statistics help me gain a reflection of myself in accordance to a standard of measure I might not have known otherwise.

Homeless? What does that mean? Is it the opposite of “homed?”

I thought I was just like everybody else...I tote around a laptop computer, and a cell phone and I have a taste for triple espressos. But I don’t have one of those roof-topped structures filled with furniture, gizmos, closets, windows and a doorway.

I’m portable.

My ancestors were nomads.

Nevertheless, I’m one of those persons who listens to such descriptive words and attempts to forge them into meaningful thought. When I think of “home,” I imagine a comfort zone wherein one feels most relaxed, at ease and in tune with the immediate environment. I believe that many people feel “at home” for the most part when they are partaking of their most rewarding activity, be it the workshop, the playing field, on stage or quite frequently a particular place of reflection such as a golf course or fishing hole.

If it weren’t for those statistics, I would never have applied the term “homeless” to myself. But a lot of us are getting snared by those numbers as of late. A wave of layoffs and foreclosures has introduced many hard-working people to study up on their couch-surfing skills. Even those with jobs are taking advantage of food banks and thrift stores.

One statistic that does come to mind when trying to get a handle on how times are changing is the fact that a majority of college attendees now return to their parents’ house upon graduation. Does camping out with Mom and Dad absolve the grown child of the negative sting carried by the term “homeless?”

I grew up under the influence of the ‘60s, in the era of “Route 66,” Kerouac’s “Dharma Bums,” and television shows such as “The Fugitive,” where the protagonist could ramble coast-to-coast picking up odd jobs here and there as they explored new vistas while mingling with people and cultures otherwise unknown to them.

We called it “day labor.” Show up in a town someplace, find the nearest factory, farm or warehouse and dig into some up-close-and-personal sweat equity. A day’s work earned a day’s pay, which would usually be enough to buy some food, rent a room and/or buy some gasoline if need be.

The secret was to simply keep going forward, keeping the momentum going and the wind in your sails. If you landed in some miserable sweat shop, then you made the best of it and got the heck out of there. In this manner you learned about those not so lucky, who’d be left behind in the life you’d only had a taste of.

Some would call this a way to learn to “count your blessings.” I just saw it as a reality-based standard of measure. Sort of like a politicians’ breezy “how am I doing?” quip. We can figure it out for ourselves if our eyes are open and our minds free.

“Homeless?” From what angle does it appear that way? Your perspective might not match mine. But that’s okay with me. I’m on the move.

Songwriter, bicyclist, movie extra, photographer, grandfather, deltiologist and coast-to-coast portable man, Delmark Goldfarb is known for his activism and good humor. He founded an annual food drive/music festival now in its twenty-third year (Waterfront Blues Festival), which has raised tons of donated items and millions of dollars for food banks. He is featured in the newly-released jug band documentary "Chasin' Gus' Ghost" and appears on the Give Us Your Poor compilation CD (Appleseed Recordings) accompanied on harmonica by John Sebastian.