Alameda County Homeless Action Center
Homelessness entraps. Short-term homelessness morphs into chronic homelessness. Life on the streets causes or intensifies mental illness and addictive behavior. Homelessness leads to helplessness.
The Alameda County Homeless Action Center (HAC) is the only nonprofit legal services program in the Bay Area to focus exclusively on public benefits advocacy as a critical tool to reduce and end homelessness. HAC’s special expertise is its skill at overcoming obstacles faced by homeless people when they apply for the essential public safety net services they need to put their lives back together.
The typical HAC clients are both homeless and suffering from mental illness or physical disability. Virtually all have been homeless for a year or more or suffered at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years. In short, their homelessness is chronic.
Last year, HAC assisted 3,550 individuals. HAC staff includes more than 30 licensed attorneys, plus benefits advocates, consulting clinical psychologists and a physician.
HAC serves a broad spectrum of the community. Clients include Cambodian refugees (HAC speaks Khmer), those previously incarcerated, runaway and former foster youth, survivors of domestic violence, and veterans. In 2015, 59% of HAC’s clients were male and 41% female. Ethnic groups included African-American (49%), Caucasian (25%), Latino (7%), Asian/Pacific Islander (9%), Native American (2%) and other (17%). 74% were between the ages of 18 and 59.
Why Effective Legal Advocacy is Essential
Many programs to end homelessness emphasize the importance of jobs and job training to provide financial resources and living stability. But people who are mentally ill or physically disabled are essentially unemployable. Work-centered strategies are not effective.
For chronic homelessness, the most effective approach is Housing First – unconditional admission to Permanent Supportive Housing. No screening, no treatment prerequisites, no hoop-jumping, just immediate housing. A Seattle program that targeted “chronic inebriates” had amazing success. Costs for emergency services, medical care and law enforcement, etc. were reduced from about $4,000 a month to $1,500 a month. Drinking also decreased even without mandatory treatment programs.
No less an authority than the Melville Charitable Trust has concluded that Housing First solutions are the way to end homelessness. After “working with more than a hundred partners over twenty years, we are now convinced [that] . . . . Providing housing with support services to those who have enduring disabilities is the smart, humane, cost-effective solution to long-term homelessness.”
But Housing First programs call for the homeless to pay part of the cost and residents can be evicted for failure to pay rent. That’s why the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is a critical part of the process.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) was created by statute in 1974 and assists, at present, approximately 8 million indigent and low-income Americans. Eligibility is based on a physical or mental disability that prevents gainful employment. This description not only fits many who are homeless, it explains why they are homeless.
SSI is one of the most difficult safety net benefits to acquire. Disability is carefully defined and there is a rigorous five step test to establish the statutorily required level of disability. If an SSI claim is denied by a local Social Security office, the claimant must pursue a difficult appeals process that runs the gamut from a request for reconsideration, hearings before an administrative law judge, appeal to an Appeals Council on the East Coast and filing a case in federal district court. While some claims are resolved within two or three months, it is not uncommon for cases to continue for a year or even longer.
Monthly SSI payments in California are at least $889.40 and continue as long as the client is disabled. Compare this to county welfare (General Assistance) which provides $336 a month and only lasts for three months, unless there is disability.
The SSI program benefits local taxpayers as well as the homeless. SSI payments are federal money while General Assistance is paid from county coffers. Benefits are awarded retroactively to the application date. Alameda County is able to recoup past general assistance payments as an offset against the client's retroactive benefits. In fact, HAC’s SSI advocacy has paid for itself many times over because the program has resulted in hundreds of millions of federal SSI dollars flowing into the local economy.
HAC’s Seven Step Approach to Getting Homeless People the Help They Need
SSI advocacy is extremely challenging from the legal perspective and HAC’s SSI clients present additional challenges. Their situation is desperate. Their behavior may be erratic and uncooperative. Many suffer from severe psychosis, paranoia, and personality disorders. HAC’s approach to SSI advocacy addresses these challenges.
1. HAC advocacy is culturally competent, unbiased, and client-centered. Staff languages include Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean and Khmer. For languages no one on staff speaks, HAC has interpreters on call. Staff are trained to be sensitive to stigma associated with incarceration, homelessness, disability and limited English proficiency. They are equally sensitive to the complicated issues around race, class, gender and sexual orientation. HAC has a zero tolerance policy for any kind of discrimination or bias.
2. At the start of an SSI case, HAC immediately applies for General Assistance, CalFresh (food stamps) and Medi-Cal to help the client survive the long SSI waiting period. Medi-Cal, which covers essential health care, can be available in 45 days; the other benefits take even less time. HAC also helps clients get a California I.D. and, if necessary, a birth certificate so they can apply for subsidized housing that is appropriate to their needs. If the case goes to federal court, the client will need an I.D. to enter the court house!
3. HAC leaves no stone unturned to collect the necessary evidence. HAC schedules and pays for psychological examinations. If additional documentation, information and appointments are needed, HAC has three insured vehicles and can transport clients to necessary meetings.
4. HAC attorneys and advocates actively pursue all stages of the SSI application process, from filing applications and appeals to representing clients at judicial hearings when necessary. All HAC staff are trained to use every client interaction as an opportunity to build trust with the client, keep the client motivated and treat the client with dignity.
5. HAC’s client-centered approach encourages the client to make decisions, provides extra-legal services such as help with housing and transportation, and actively demonstrates that HAC will go the extra mile in support of the client. HAC’s open door policy means that both current and past clients can visit at any time during open hours for assistance, advice or coffee and a supportive chat.
6. HAC recognizes that erratic and self-defeating client behavior is often the result of severe psychosocial stressors, trauma and mental illness. HAC does not terminate clients for such anti-social behavior as acting inappropriately, missing appointments, or being intoxicated. HAC has even arranged to hold SSI hearings by telephone if the client is in jail. When those clients get out of jail, HAC arranges a softer landing by making sure they have a shelter bed for the night they get released.
7. If Social Security determines that a beneficiary is not capable of handling money, it requires a designated payee to manage the SSI payments. HAC can assist clients to sign up with a reliable institutional payee. If recipients later have a problem with an uncooperative payee, HAC again provides pro bono assistance.
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