That. seriously. MADE MY DAY.
I'll spare you all from a flood of capitalized letters and exclamations marks, but ever since I did that research paper on housing models for homelessness way back in junior year, I was hoping that Houston would switch to this. Oh my goodness. I am so happy.
A bit of background info: there are generally two ways to go about housing the homeless--housing-first vs. housing-ready. Housing-ready is what has traditionally been done--if you're homeless, you need to be "ready" somehow, like having a steady job or being free of substance abuse for x amount of months/years. Most transitional housing also falls into this category. The housing-first model puts homeless people into housing regardless of circumstances (housing being SROs, or single room occupancies, kind of like a single in a dorm), and offers a variety of services that clients can choose to utilize. Barring any kind of extreme or criminal behavior, residents may stay there for a lifetime if they choose. Housing-first was started in New York City, and the model actually reduces costs to the city, because annual hospital, police, and other fees spent on the homeless ring up to be more than refurbishing or building housing plus associated costs (it is also federally supported). In Houston, several units will be built near UH, starting in a few months I believe....super exciting =].
YEAH.
Okay. So I took some other notes during the training, and here are some of the things I found very interesting:
- Houston cracked down on massage parlors, since that is where a lot of sex trafficking is happening, so traffickers got really savvy and re-opened their business as "tea houses," where you can "have a cup of tea with a lovely lady for $60." A cup of tea for $60? Yeah right. But the reason computer searches don't catch these ads as human trafficking is because searches usually use the words "sex" or "under 18" or something similar.
- Traveling sales crews can be another form of human trafficking. These are the people that go door to door trying to sell you magazines or something. I bring this up primarily because it reminded me of something from my own experiences, and it really threw me off balance for the rest of the training. During sophomore or junior year of college, I had to cancel my credit card because a random magazine company had somehow gotten ahold of it and was charging (and sending) me magazines I had never ordered. I could never find a number for them, and they actually called me numerous times (sometimes once a day, even after I cancelled the credit card, even during senior year) to ask about further subscriptions, etc. So I never got anywhere in the conversations, because every time I said no, the caller (usually a female) would keep asking me if I wanted a subscription. So then I would say something like, "Can I speak to your manager?" or "What company is this?" and then the caller would hang up on me. I was shocked the first time that happened, because that was like, RUDE, you know? So I called the number back and got that automated message that went something like, "I'm sorry, but the number you have reached is no longer in service. Please try again." And I always found that extremely odd. I put it down as being just a scamming company (which it is, duh), but thinking about the traveling sales crews, I am now also wondering if those callers were victims of human trafficking...because that behavior (the hanging up; giving no information) is typical of such a situation. So, it really shocked me to think it was a possibility, and now I want them to call me again so I can get the number and give it to the National Human Trafficking Hotline (which, by the way, is 888-3737-888, very easy to remember).
- There are books written about how to be a pimp. And they're even sold on Amazon and Google Books, etc. One of the most famous ones was written by Mickey Royal, The Pimp Game: http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Pimp_Game.html?id=auYOqKne2McC. Wow.
- Article about Snoop Dogg, who actually used to be a pimp: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/snoop-lion-opens-up-about-his-pimp-past-20130508. Wow.
- So APPARENTLY, there is such a thing as a pimp ball, or more formally known as Players Ball. This is an annual gathering of pimps where awards are given out for being the best pimp of the year (I don't know how they calculate that--how much you make? How many girls and boys you pimp out?). Here's the Wikipedia article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_Ball. Oh my gosh. I just Googled it and it has its own website(s). AND A YOUTUBE VIDEO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygOaek9fxZQ. Wow. These men you see in the video--they abuse women, girls, and boys and force them to have sex with strangers. How does this even exist. Wow.
You know what, I'm very glad I'm staying in Houston. It's one of the biggest cities in America, if not the biggest, for human trafficking. And I'm very glad that it has one of the best task forces on human trafficking (HTRA--Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance), and that I'm going to law school for this.
Some questions that you may or may not know the answers to. I don't think I quite understand the two housing models.
ReplyDelete1. You're saying that transitional housing is considered housing-ready? I always thought the purpose of transitional housing was to give people a place to stay while they are still not self-sufficient. It also provides resources/services to guide these people into a long-term solution. (although they probably have a 1-2 year time limit or something to stay there.) This sounds like housing-first to me?
2. Do people have to pay rent for SROs (based on their income and circumstances)?
3. There aren't enough SROs (for example) to house every homeless person who wants to stay there, so does it work purely on a first come, first served basis since admittance is not circumstantially based?
4. Do you have any idea on the percentages of cities in America that use housing-first versus housing-ready? Is one model significantly more used right now over the over?
hi evie!! =D i will do my best to answer....
Delete1. hmm i think there are different types of transitional housing, but i am under the impression that most of them require you to check out in some areas, such as being free of substance abuse, or have proof of work, or something like that, thereby making them housing-ready instead of housing-first.
2. depends--some SROs are housing-ready and some are housing-first, but i think in the housing-first instance, you pay a certain percentage of your income, or if you don't have an income, you don't pay.
3. yes, or at least that's what i've seen and heard from the one i visited a couple years ago (and i mean, you can't have like, extreme or criminal behavior, and other factors may play in if multiple people are applying to get a room, although i'm not entirely sure how they would decide).
4. yes, housing-ready is significantly more used right now over housing-first, just because it's what's traditionally been done, and housing-first wasn't even started until the 1990s (i think in 1990, actually). so although i don't know the percentage of cities using which model, i'd guess maybe........98% to 2% housing-ready vs. housing-first? that may seem extreme, but i still feel like it might be around there somewhere. of course, as more cities test housing-first out, and as it gains popularity (and i do believe it will, because pilot studies up to now generally show better results than housing-ready, and greater cost reduction to cities), i think that comparison will change.