City News

Fort Worth homelessness program’s first-year report to be released June 23

Posted June 18, 2010

The Fort Worth Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Homelessness and the United Way of Tarrant County’s Special Allocations Committee will conduct a joint public meeting June 23 at 4 p.m. to review the first-year evaluation of  the Directions Home program. The meeting will be held at the Tarrant County Academy of Medicine Building at 555 Hemphill St. at the northeast corner of Hemphill and Pennsylvania Ave.

The report was produced by the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work and summarizes the activities carried out during Program Year 1 of the Directions Home 10‐year plan to make homelessness rare, short‐term, and nonrecurring.

The report reveals that Fort Worth’s financial and programmatic investment in Directions Home  resulted in dramatic progress during the first year. Through the support and coordination of the United Way of Tarrant County, community organizations were charged with high performance expectations and urgency to implement new programs. The year‐end result has been a strong shift to move people out of homelessness, increase their self‐sufficiency, and begin offering the tools needed to prevent recurrence.

Program achievements include:

• 181 individuals were housed with permanent supportive housing vouchers and 88 percent of these were able to retain their housing.
• Case managers in the emergency and day shelters were able to house an additional 141 clients for a total of 322 people housed through Directions Home programs.
• Tenants in voucher-linked permanent supportive housing programs improved their levels of self sufficiency by 43 percent after nine months and their overall income increased by 22 percent.
• Clients of shelter‐based case management programs experienced a 16 percent increase in self sufficiency in three months.
• The Tarrant County Homeless Coalition continued to play a key role with Directions Home. TCHC is using technology to streamline the case management processes.

The report also cites the work being done in partnership with eight local congregations. Their efforts are helping to give individuals an opportunity to escape the stress of homelessness – even for one night. It is also helping to dispel myths and stereotypes about homelessness as members learn that many of the concerns they have about people who are homeless are unfounded and the differences between them are not as great as they believed.

Program expansions have been launched to meet ongoing needs and those that emerged during the initiative’s first six months. These programs include a street outreach team, clinical and social services for housed clients, additional case managers, housing specialists and job specialists.