How Do Homeless Nonprofits Help?

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Image Credit: Jonathan Levinson (OPB); https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-police-sweeps-homeless-cleanups/

Homelessness, as things stand, is an unfortunate inevitability of contemporary society. Long standing social, economic, political, and even natural forces render endless droves of people not just without shelter, but without stability nor a clear path to recovery.

While the slow process of policy making continues to lag behind rectifying the many systemic, root causes of homelessness, more immediate solutions are necessary to help those in need right now – those who can’t afford to wait decades for their situations to improve.

This is where nonprofit organizations shine. Homelessness-oriented nonprofits have a variety of ways to address the needs of the homeless and populations at risk of homelessness. Pouring over the National Alliance to End Homelessness and Central City Concern’s webpages, there appear to be, roughly speaking, two ways of tackling the issue: prevention and assisted recovery.

Preventative measures seek to reduce or completely quash homelessness, and this is achieved through a variety of methods. A nonprofit can provide financial support and advising to those at risk of homelessness, and they can redirect those who’ve just lost their houses by providing immediate access to alternative housing. Finding people in need of such services can be achieved by setting up an outreach network and coordinating with the community and any other local homeless-oriented efforts. The National Alliance to End Homelessness really stresses the importance of creating these coordinated systems as swift, organized assistance if often necessary for proper prevention (e.g., when people are fleeing from abusers).

Assisted recovery encompasses efforts to help people survive and transition out of homelessness. These efforts are necessarily multifaceted and individualized; the needs of any given person are going to differ. Basic necessities such as clothing, food, temporary shelter, and medical care (general, mental, withdrawal treatment, etc.) can be provided at minimal or no cost – ideally with no strings attached – to give immediate aid. More permanent solutions such as vocational training, help finding jobs, and rapid re-housing programs can all be implemented to quickly transition those facing homelessness back into stability.

This was just a basic overview, but the main takeaway is that there are a large variety of ways that homelessness-oriented nonprofits can provide immediate and even future-oriented solutions to homelessness.

For more in-depth reading, go to https://endhomelessness.org/ending-homelessness/solutions/ and https://centralcityconcern.org/services/

 

 

Published by: Christian Kim 

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