Glancing Back, Looking Forward:

Sound Families and Beyond

“Foundations: Agents of Systems Change” National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness

Seattle, WashingtonFebruary 7, 2008

David TakeuchiUniversity of Washington School of Social Work

David WertheimerBill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Framing Results from the Sound Families Evaluation

• Ambiguous loss

• Theory of limited difference

• Seeking housing, finding place

Brief Background of Sound Families

• Began in 2000 with $40M investment by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

• Initiative leveraged more than $200M of public sector support

• Goal of tripling the number of service-enriched housing units for homeless families in Washington state

• 1,445 units funded, with the majority using a transitional housing model

• Large majority of families made strides toward housing stability, economic independence, and improved quality of life

• For more information, visit www.soundfamilies.org

Data Source for this Presentation

Evaluation of the Sound Families Initiative, Final Findings: A Closer Look at Families’ Lives During and After Supportive Transitional Housing. (December, 2007). Seattle, Washington: Northwest Center for Children and Families, School of Social Work, University of Washington

Some Characteristics of Families

• 85% of families were headed by a single caregiver, typically a single mother

• Domestic violence is one of the major precipitating causes of homelessness

• Homelessness associated with different stressors that have no immediate conclusion (debt, separation from family members, substance abuse, mental health, issues, limited earning power, etc.)

What is Ambiguous Loss?

• Pauline Boss: Unclear loss or stress lacking closure that creates conditions that are stressful and confusing

• Lack of clarity generates anxiety, depression, and immobilizes individuals and relational systems

• Long term consequences are manifested as being unable to move on with one’s life

Examples of Ambiguous Loss:

• Physically present, but psychologically absent (family member with chronic mental illness or substance abuse problem)

• Physically absent, but psychologically present (family member separated from a family)

• Some researchers are focusing on ambiguity in separation from places such as immigration and homelessness

A Focus on Ambiguous Loss Helps to:

• Frame problems beyond individuals and focuses on relationships

• Identify whether it is operating within an individual’s family

• Seek closure for the uncertainties

As One Family Member Stated:

“(Our life) is pretty consistent...I’ve gotten a routine

down, we’re not struggling to make things happen or worrying about how to survive. We know we’re going to have dinner and we’re all going to have a bath.”

“(Our life) is pretty consistent...I’ve gotten a routine

down, we’re not struggling to make things happen or worrying about how to survive. We know we’re going to have dinner and we’re all going to have a bath.”

Some General Conclusions from the Sound Families

Initiative• Individuals and families are quite diverse.

While averages can aptly characterize individuals and families, there was no single distinctive feature.

• A number of facets are associated with maintaining permanent housing, finding employment, and educational outcomes for children. No single set of predictors explained a substantial proportion of the variance in various outcomes.

Theory of Limited Difference(Cole & Singer)

• Refocuses from a search for variables that explain large effects

• To a focus on how small effects over time create large differences at a single point in time

• The theory centers on “kicks” and “responses”

• Example of gender differences in scientific publications

Application of Limited Difference to Homelessness

• Focuses on cumulative advantages and disadvantages

• Non-linear, dynamic analyses

• Examines trajectories of families

• Highlights importance of reactions of negative things

Housing Outcomes for Families Successfully Completing Transitional

Programs

991111

61

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100% Exit to non-permanent housing

Secured permanent housing without any subsidy

Secured permanent housing without Sec 8 or public housing but with other subsidy

Secured permanent housing without Sec 8 but in public housing

Secured permanent housing with Section 8

N = 651, excludes unknowns

Success in the Program is More than Finding a House

As one respondent states:

“I (enjoyed) being part of the community ....I had built my own

social life and all of our activities. I felt like I was a little safer there.”

Place

• Empirical research on place typically focuses on built environments or physical spaces

• Tends to have small effects on various outcomes

• Need to expand definitions to include social and psychological facets of place

Place involves …A geographic location that

has boundaries

and reference

points

A nexus where social

life is initiated and

engaged

A holder of symbols, values,

tradition, history; and a

frame for organizing our

experiences

Gieryn, 2000

Incorporating the Concept of Place Helps to:

• Focus on more than the built environment

• Establish connections that make people feel established or in place

• Focus on conditions that make people feel disconnected within communities and change these conditions

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Implications for Moving ForwardNAEH Conference, February 2008

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Where we have been: The Sound Families Initiative -- a significant set of partnerships

1,445 units 2,700 children and 1,500 families served to date

Triple the number of new supportive housing units inPierce, Snohomish, and King counties

2/3 found permanent housing

School absenteeism dropped by 24%

60% of families increased their incomes

Employment increased by 22%

City leaders

County/State leaders

Service Providers

Housing Authorities

Gates Foundation

2020

Acknowledging the successes of our collaborative efforts to date

Sound Families was highly successful in achieving initially articulated goals:

Unit production

Linking services to housing

Helping families recover from the trauma of homelessness

Ensure graduating families were able to access permanent housing resources

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Key Lessons Learned From Sound Families: Individualized housing and services, links to opportunity

Housing + services works

All families’ needs are not the same

Jobs + education is a critical lever

Rapid re-housing and short-term supports v. permanent

supportive housing and ongoing, intensive services

Not enough is being done to bring employment

opportunities to wage earners in recovering families

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Key Lessons Learned From Sound Families: The need for improved response at the systems level

Our family homelessness system

is not functioning as effectively as it could

Emergency services are necessary at times of crisis,

but insufficient to solve the larger problems

Families aren’t always getting the right type of help

Families don’t know where to turn to for help

30 days

Housing crisisEmergency

shelterTransitional

housingPermanent

housing

Up to 2 years

Current system assumes “one size fits all” model

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Recognizing the need to move forward, mindful of the lessons learned

Sound Families evaluation data point towards what we could do differently or better:

Increase efforts to prevent families from becoming homeless in the first place

Match housing and service needs more precisely to each family’s individual experience and circumstances

Minimize the disruption of multiple family moves

Ensure the right intensity and mix of services as we support each family in efforts to move towards both stability and self-sufficiency over time

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Implications of looking through a different research lens…

We know homelessness is a complex phenomenon The symptom or result of a constellation of complex causal

factors Each family’s story, or the way these factors combine, is

unique Different factors may have different significance or impact,

depending on the nature, sequence, geography and results of a chain of related or unrelated events

Recovery from homelessness requires addressing each and all of these complexities» Individually tailored services: The right mix at the right time at

the right level of intensity

No one system or agency has the resources, capacity or skill set to do it all

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From Conversation to Action Plan

Joseph, a homeless man in Seattle: “I am not incompetent. I just need help moving the obstacles out of the way.”

Reframing the solutions: It’s not just about what families have to do, but what systems must do to better support families

We may be part of the problem: Many of the issues have more to do with how housing and service systems are organized and accessed than the individual problems families face

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Systems integration: Complex work for auto mechanics, a mystery to the rest of us

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When it works well: Integration is invisible to the end user -- we get where we need to go

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Looking under the hood of the family homelessness engine: A coordinated and tailored approach

• High quality organizational capacity aligned to meet the needs of homeless families and those on the brink

• Local provider networks collaborate to integrate and match the most effective resources to the needs of each family

• Data systems support real time decisions for homeless families, improve provider practices, and support broader advocacy efforts

• Advocacy builds collaboration and sense of shared accountability; enables use of existing money in new ways; promotes new money into sector

Organizations

State / LocalSystems

Coordinated Intake

Rapid housing

Prevention

Services Opportunity

Families in crisis

• 20,000+ children and their parents in WA experience homelessness

• High (>50%) rates of recidivism

Familiesstably

housed+

+

+

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Moving Towards a Coordinated and Tailored System

Requires that we think about how we do business in a different way:

Asks much of all current stakeholders

Challenges how existing resources across multiple systems are currently allocated and spent

Identifies the need for new resources in capital projects, operations and supportive services arenas

Must leverage buy-in to both a willingness to change current practices and a new way of doing business

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Supporting and/or questioning the status quo when and where needed

Extensive dialogue before anything changes

Convene the right stakeholders, prepared to do business together and differently

Identify leaders and “mechanics” who can serve as agents of change. Find change agents among both the familiar and the unexpected constituencies

Provide infrastructure resources required to support change. (Lead agencies, boundary spanners, advocacy, etc.)

Create incentives to realign existing funds and add new resources in pursuit of new ways of doing business

Evaluate results

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Systems change: Four key roles that can be played by philanthropy in partnership with others

Convener:

Getting right people into right places and dialogues

Advocate:

Providing credible voice to advance systems change

Strategic Investor:

Funding innovations that drive systems change

Knowledge Generator:

Investing in research to inform policy & practice