Special Project
Housing Insecurity in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Introduction
From August 2020 to May of 2021 I had the honor of working with clients of the Eviction Prevention Initiative, a pilot program through the City of Chattanooga, Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, CALEB, Legal Aide of Tennessee, and Southern Adventist University’s School of Social Work. The main points of the program were to deliver clients facing eviction with the right to counsel and social work case management while advocating for legislation to improve the living conditions and rights of clients involved and collect research on all of the above. The participants of the project were individuals who were being evicted from their housing by landlords in the Chattanooga area. I was able to conduct research on the success and importance of having a right to counsel alongside the case management services we were providing for our clients this research will hopefully help with the integration of the EPI into the City of Chattanooga as a permanent fixture.
The second part of my special project was doing outreach at local tent cities with my colleague Elizabeth Riley. Weekly we would gather supply donations, and shop for needed items to bring survival necessities to individuals experiencing homelessness in the Chattanooga area. Over the course of ten months, we were able to bring necessities such as food, tarps, hygiene products, and clothing to over 100 people in need and develop some great rapport with those we were serving. This amazing opportunity began to grow and we decided to call it Friends Helping Friends.
Statement of the Problem
Even before the global pandemic hit last year in March, thousands of people in the Chattanooga area were struggling with paying unaffordable rent and staying in their homes and off the streets. Thousands more were already experiencing homelessness and living in tent cities scattered throughout the community. When the pandemic hit, people lost their jobs and struggled even more to pay their bills and many were found with nowhere to stay.
The community struggled to help the immense number of people in need but efforts were made all over the city to help with food banks, rent assistance, and childcare efforts. Sadly it was not enough to help everyone. When I was brought on to the Eviction Prevention Initiative I was eager to do my part. The number of clients that were going through the intake was almost impossible to keep up with although we did our best.
Homelessness is a social problem that does not discriminate, it does not matter if you are white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, healthy, ill, have children, or single. When a person does not make enough money to pay their bills regardless of working multiple jobs, the law protects the owners of the property by allowing them to evict the tenants. Chattanooga does not have enough affordable housing as it is, but when hundreds are being evicted at incredible rates, it is impossible to find new housing for everyone. When we look at the ridiculous and unrealistic expectations of housing applications it is even more unreachable for a family or person that is struggling with an eviction on their record to find adequate affordable housing. High application fees, background checks, and jumping through hoops is the unfortunate reality that tenants need to accept to get into a place to live. Add on top of all this that many were still without employment, and had not received their stimulus checks, they could not pay for the excessive deposits required if they were able to miraculously be approved for rehousing.
The Community Foundation gave a great deal of money to Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise to help support their cause and help find long-term housing for the clients while also providing counsel in their eviction cases. Southern Adventist University came on as a research team and provide case management through the MSW practicum placements of myself and Liz. Donations for the homeless outreach that Liz and I did were given by community members, friends, and churches in the area. These donations were used to pay for the supplies that were not donated and kept our outreach going through the cold winter months.
Interventions
Mission and Goals
The EPI was developed to address the needs of the community during the beginnings of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The goal was to significantly reduce the number of evictions in the Chattanooga area as a direct result of COVID-19. The EPI provided funding for temporary housing, deposits and fees of permanent housing, free legal assistance on the client’s eviction case, and social work case management services (if accepted by the client). Through the collaboration of these entities, we were able to impact the lives of many Chattanooga residents.
Friends Helping Friends was started by Liz Riley and I had the amazing opportunity to come on and make some great new friends weekly by visiting the camps and bringing supplies. We accepted donations from wherever we could and took requests from the residents of the camps as to what they needed. This allowed us to make sure we were meeting the needs as they came along, and helping in the most effective manner. By visiting the camps weekly, I was able to build trust with many of the camp residents and help them with access to local social services such as Homeless Help and the Department of Homeless Services Division. Seeing the faces of the friends we made each week light up when they heard my Subaru rumbling down the gravel drive, was the most humbling and warm feeling I have ever had. BI was able to bring dignity, respect, empathy, and compassion to many people who had not experienced these basic kindnesses in years and let them know that we do care and want everyone in our community to be successful and alright.
The third component of my special project was interpreting the research done by Dr. Kristie Wilder, Liz Riley, and Dr. Nina Nelson along with my own personal research on the right to counsel and successes in other states. I hope that this research collection can help impact the incorporation of the EPI into a permanent entity of the City of Chattanooga’s Homeless Services Division. It brings to light the importance of both aspects, legal assistance, AND social work case management.
Theoretical Perspectives
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need is one of the greatest theoretical perspectives to understand the importance of addressing housing insecurity not only in Chattanooga but worldwide. We cannot expect someone to be a thriving member of society when their basic needs are not met. If an individual does not have basic needs such as food, water, shelter, and safety met, they are in a state of crisis. The EPI and Friends Helping Friends both address this perspective by addressing housing, and other needs. While EPI focuses on housing and safety needs, Friends Helping Friends focuses on safety, food, water, first aid, and hygiene needs.
Systems Theory is another important theoretic perspective that helps us to understand how to address the needs of this complex population. Systems theory reminds us to look at everything as part of a whole and the whole as a lot of moving parts. When it comes to the EPI and Friends Helping Friends, we don’t just focus on the person experiencing their situation. We have to look at every aspect that is affecting their life. The systems failing them such as losing their job due to a global pandemic, lack of knowledge of resources in the area, and personal issues such as family dynamics, drug, and alcohol use disorders, and health issues. By looking at each client’s needs from a systems approach, we are able to then modify our interventions and advocate for change on their behalf when the problems are coming from a larger system problem.
Intervention Tools
When working with the EPI I needed to ensure my clients knew that they could trust me. By using confidentiality agreements with each client from the very beginning it began a professional rapport that would allow me to help them navigate the hard times they were experiencing. As I worked with clients on both the EPI and Friends Helping Friends I began to take note of problems with the systems in place in Chattanooga. Lack of resources was a problem, but a more significant problem was that many of my clients did not know what resources were actually out there. I used my advocacy skills to present to the Coalition of Emergency Service Providers (CEAP) to make the concerns known and address how we, as providers, could improve the accessibility to services for those in our community who are in need. This presentation was an opportunity for me to advocate and collaborate with other service providers to address the issues such as making it more clear who is eligible for what programs, best contact methods, and where the gaps are. Advocacy is a dire intervention that social workers must use to fight injustices in an array of different areas. I also created a resource list to be used with both projects. It is not extensive but has some of the most important referrals I could think of at the time that would benefit clients in need. Having a resources list for the intake process of clients allowed for a streamlined process to be able to help clients even if they were not interested in the case management aspect of EPI. Another aspect of my interventions with clients was to advocate for change with a policy proposal that I plan to submit to the Chattanooga Department of Business and Neighborhood Services for the implementation of a landlord registry. I submitted this proposal to my Field Instructor for review and am excited to propose, if possible in the future as it has served successfully in other states. There are many interventions that were taken with clients and with the advocacy of my clients throughout my time at the EPI and Friends Helping Friends. I believe that regardless of the work I have done to help my clients, I have received the biggest impact of these interactions. I understand the issues regarding an often forgotten population in more detail and plan to continue advocating and assisting individuals experiencing homelessness well into my future. As previously mentioned, I wrote a literature review of the benefits of having case management services and legal aid. This is something that I hope will encourage the City of Chattanooga to fully incorporate the EPI as a permanent entity to help those in our community.
Results
Over the course of the last year, the Eviction Prevention project has helped more than 350 individuals and families in the Greater Chattanooga area with free legal aid and financial assistance to get back on their feet from their eviction cases. Some of the cases were able to stay in their homes and the team of lawyers were able to work out settlements with the landlords of the various properties. Without this aid hundreds of people, including children, could have been left on the streets and without housing. Four of the ten clients I worked with directly have been rehoused in their own rental properties, and two were able to secure Section 8 housing vouchers. I have received so much gratitude from the clients I have helped either find housing or connect with other local social service resources to get back on their feet. The gratitude from clients for being able to become more self-sufficient is what makes all of this work worthwhile to me.
Friends Helping Friends has had the privilege of delivering necessities to over 50 people from the time I came on the project. I have become close with several of these clients including one middle-aged, white, female struggling with breast cancer. She is an amazing woman who every time I have been to the camps, has opened up more and more to both Liz and me. One friend at the camps is a younger (24 or so) black, female who has survived over 27 surgeries since a young age. Regardless of her health issues, she is doing well at the camps and expresses how happy she is to see us each time we visit. Another friend has stayed at multiple camps throughout the city and has walked with me introducing me to multiple newer residents to ensure they feel safe and unthreatened by our presence. The supplies we bring weekly, on a set day, and a set time, have helped the residents of these tent cities to struggle just a little less in the horrible economy we are all trying to navigate. Their stories, smiles, and laughter have filled a place in my heart, that I was unaware was empty. It has given me perspective and gratitude for things I did not realize were struggles for people before I met the bright souls at the tent cities. This is a gift that is immeasurable and I would not trade for anything in the world.
Conclusions
Limitations
Both the EPI and Friends Helping Friends had and continue to have struggles with as they progress and unfold. Funding is an issue that every non-profit agency struggles with and these are certainly no exception. Although the Community Foundation has given a great deal of financial assistance to the EPI, the need became so great that money had to be set aside and allocated on the most severe of cases. This made it difficult to help long-term clients looking for housing as we could not offer them any type of financial assistance. When it comes to Friends Helping Friends financial need is also a struggle. The need almost always outweighs the number of supplies we are able to get, and this makes it hard when we are at the camp and run out of the week’s supplies when we have not been able to give some to every person in need. The residents of tent city are always gracious and appreciate whatever it is that we can give them, but it does not make it easier to turn people away.
Time has been a struggle for both projects as well as manpower. Being that there are only two social workers on the EPI providing case management services, we were not able to offer the services to as many individuals that wanted to receive them. The slow process of finding housing for EPI clients also made it difficult to serve as many clients as I had hoped for without sacrificing the quality of service delivery. When pairing the time needed to spend with clients, personal responsibilities such as school work and employment, and the time dedicated each week to the Friends Helping Friends outreach, it was always a struggle to balance time management.
Looking back over my time with the EPI, I wish the project could have had at least one more active social worker to help with the case management services. I think that with one more social worker, we may have been able to rehouse more people, and have new ideas for funding and advocacy work as well. Friends Helping Friends was very successful but with more marketing, on Facebook, local newspapers, and other social media outlets we may have received more donations and volunteers to help distribute supplies. This aspect of addressing housing instability is ongoing, and Liz and I continue spending our free time to help where and when we can.
Unexpected Outcomes
I think the biggest unexpected outcome for my projects overall was how I would grow as a professional and as a person. I did not expect to struggle so much with finding success in the small things. Due to the housing market being so poor for the last year, and massive layoffs it made the work very slow. I was not used to this from my previous experience with disaster relief and a nationally recognized and funded agency, the American Red Cross. The work I did there was fast-paced, and the results did not take months. I had to learn to be flexible and adapt to the needs of my clients because every single case was so drastically different from the next. This flexibility improved my service delivery and allowed me to really connect with clients and build rapport.
Competency Application
Competency One: I have, through every step of my practicum, and other projects shown professional and ethical behavior to ensure the best service delivery to my clients. I have had constant support from my field instructor and other mentors and received supervision weekly to discuss issues and successes throughout the process. Dr. Wilder even joined us at the camps in the spring with donations in hand! I have made it a mandatory practice to work on boundaries and self-care throughout the last year and will continue to do so throughout my career.
Competency Two: Through my time with Friends Helping Friends and the Eviction Prevention Initiative, I was able to truly appreciate and learn about the diversity and differences with the populations I served. The diverse people I met and served through both projects allowed me to challenge my personal biases, grow, and respect differences in others. I have advocated for the rights of my diverse clients and tried to ensure that no matter their life situations, that my clients feel honored and respected.
Competency Three: While working with individuals facing housing insecurity, including homelessness, I have been honored to advocate for change, and eradicate the stigma that society places on this population. I followed local news stories, and educated the community through letters to the editor, wrote a Memorandum of Understanding to push for a long-term partnership between the Chattanooga Housing Authority and Southern Adventist University, and even presented to other service providers at the CEAP meeting to help fill the gaps in service delivery in our community.
Competency Four: My part of the research was not one-on-one with clients, but I believe it is an important part of the EPI’s work. Understanding the efficiency of the right to counsel alongside the grunt work of social work case management will be an essential part of the continued success of the program as a whole. It also will be beneficial to future advocacy to have a collection of literature supporting what our research found.
Competency Five: Policy is a love of mine that I discovered early on in my social work education. Creating a policy brief to submit to the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services was a great accomplishment for me. Landlord registries have been highly successful for both tenants and landlords in many other states, and Chattanooga could learn from the success of others. I also was able to speak on behalf of my clients to the City Council at a meeting to push for change and dedication to addressing housing insecurity here in Chattanooga.
Competency Six: Incorporating evidenced-based practice across systems was something I truly enjoyed doing and am quite proud of. I demonstrated this by presenting to CEAP on service gaps and delivery to the clients of many agencies in Chattanooga. I was able to draft and submit to the Dean of Social Work and the Chattanooga Housing Authority an MOU that outlines a mutually agreed upon, and beneficial partnership that would greatly benefit the residents of our community and increasing self-sufficiency with these clients.
Competency Seven: Assessment is a huge part of the social work field, and these projects were no different. I worked with many of my clients on their housing applications and assessments to ensure their eligibility with the housing navigator and Section 8 housing. I also presented the needs of our clients and the difficulty of assessing these needs to the CEAP members back in April. It is important to assess our own abilities as service providers in order to advocate for change and improve the help we give our clients.
Competency Eight: When working with my clients at the EPI, needs changed rapidly from week to week and day to day. Frequent and consistent motivational interviewing was a necessity in staying on track and being flexible to meet the goals of my clients through these changes. On a macro level, integration of partnerships between agencies is often a great way to improve service delivery with limited funding, I helped with this through the writing of my MOU for CHA and SAU.
Competency Nine: Evaluation could be the most important aspect of social work practice. It allows us to see what we are doing, and adjust as needed. I was able to evaluate transcripts of research participants to ensure the accuracy of the data. I evaluated all of these transcripts and other literature on the benefits of the right to counsel and case management with housing insecurity. These results were compiled in a literature review to help with the incorporation of EPI into the City of Chattanooga. Friends Helping Friends needed evaluation at times too. We often had to evaluate the benefits and issues of going to certain camps and not others. We wanted to help as many people as possible and decided that consistency (going to the same camps, at the same time of day, on the same day of the week) ensured we were doing the most good for the most people. Self-evaluation is something I struggled with along the way and with the recommendation of Dr. Kristie Wilder, the podcast Learning How to See, allowed to me recognize my personal biases and learn more about them in order to become more self-aware and respectful to those around me.