What factors contribute to homelessness in La Plata County and what

effective solutions can we apply to help homeless numbers decrease

within a community?

Amelia Baca

Senior Project Advisor: Libby Cowles

Abstract

Homelessness in La Plata County has been a long-term issue. WIth lack of education,
resources, health care, and housing, In this paper I explore how a community can support our
homeless families and individuals in need. This research is gathered from local homeless
organizations and homeless strategies proven to work across the world. I discover La Plata has
dropped the ball by not using multifaceted proven solutions to decrease our local homeless
numbers. This issue has been subsided by other community issues arising. Our community needs
to step up and apply proven solutions to our homeless population to make sure each and every
citizen's basic human needs are met. These conclusions prove that using proven methods can
help our community decrease homeless numbers and eliminate homelessness in La Plata County
for good.

12th Grade Humanities

Animas High School
Submission Date
 Part I: Introduction

Have you ever given money to a local homeless person and wondered about their story

and how they ended up in this circumstance? The answer is lack of resources within

communities. In La Plata county we lack many important outlets for recovery and support.

Though we have systems in place, those systems lack many aspects of help as well as have many

holes within them. With this good start, if La Plata county applies proven solutions, we can

create an inclusive and supportive community for our local homeless population to rehabilitate

and reenter the community.

The key contributors to homelessness are; high rates of domestic violence, and substance

abuse, as well as inadequate access to affordable health care, housing, and jobs. Communities

around the world have found many multifaceted solutions that help decrease the rise of homeless

numbers and La Plata County needs to apply proven solutions within our community.

Part II: Historical Context/Background Knowledge

For hundreds of years homelessness has been a worldwide issue, but until recently, being

homeless was heavily frowned upon and unspoken. In the United States in the 1870s, the term

“homelessness” was meant to describe “tramps” across the country in search of work.

“The primary emphasis at this time was on the loss of character and a perceived emerging

moral crisis that threatened long-held ideas of home life, rather than on the lack of a permanent
home. One religious group described the problem as “a crisis of men let loose from all the habits

of domestic life, wandering without aim or home” De Pastino 2003, p. 25). The solution to

homelessness today is often perceived to be the creation or availability of affordable housing, but

during the early 20th century, jobs (rather than housing) were viewed as the solution to the plight

of transients wandering the country.”

Briefly, after the Civil War, homelessness first became a national issue in the 1870s,

“tramps” were only getting more and more spread across the country. They were in search of

short-term jobs they could not manage to keep for long periods. Many people were upset by the

homeless community was creating a blockage in the railroads. Many homeless individuals would

sleep along the train tracks. “Jacob Riis, the Danish-born social reformer and muckraker whose

later photojournalism depicted the deplorable lives of those in slums and tenements, arrived in

America in 1870 at the age of 21 and described his subsequent 3 years as a member of “the great

army of tramps” seeking work across the country. This “army” of overwhelmingly young,

able-bodied, white men created a culture that blended the search for work with a love of the open

road and a disdain for the constraints of workers in industrialized America.” Jacobs' story has

been very vastly spread across the world. His story talks about how his experience being

considered a “tramp” and how it affected him. In past years those in need were heavily frowned

upon and were looked at as a disappointment and a “disgrace to society”. In current days,

homeless individuals are more supported but there are many gaps within our systems.

Homeless individuals at this time were sorted into groups due to housing situations and job

opportunities. Authorities were struggling with keeping those individuals off the streets due to
the decline it was making in their city's appearance. Cities now knew they had to make a change

and fix this problem. Blame and discrimination could no longer help the problem but only make

it worst. “Until the late 19th century, the problem of homelessness was in the hands of local and

state authorities. Urban slums in many cities, plagued with overcrowding, poor hygiene, and

rudimentary sanitation, became a frequent source of outbreaks of major infectious diseases. To

address the growing problem of urban slums, in 1892 Congress allocated $20,000 to the

Department of Labor (DOL) to investigate urban slums in cities with at least 200,000 residents.

In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt formed a formal housing commission to continue these

investigations, but these efforts were halted with the stock market crash of 1929.” With this new

addiction granted from the DOL, those known as “tramps” were now allowed to get correct

housing as the first step as rehabilitation. This was the slow start to the United States helping our

homeless population gain their independence and basic human rights. With no money, comes no

home, no food, no water, and no clothes. When basic needs are not meant this leads to the

increase of homelessness.

Part III: Research and Analysis

Many aspects that contribute to the rise of homelessness, high rates of domestic violence,

and substance abuse, as well as inadequate access to affordable health care, housing, and jobs,

are the major aspects of that rise. Those of which all have simple solutions but lack the funds and

authority to provide.

Domestic Violence is a common aspect of life nowadays. In La Plata County, 45% of our

homeless population has reported some form of domestic violence within their lifetime. This
number is way too high for our tight-knit community. “Battered women who live in poverty are

often forced to choose between abusive relationships and homelessness. In addition, 50% of the

cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors identified domestic violence as a primary

cause of homelessness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005).” Says the U.S Conference of

Mayors. With these numbers shown, domestic violence holds a heavy hand and hand in the cause

of homelessness. In La Plata County, we have 2 local Women's Shelters where women and

children can be housed but only 10 families can be held at a time. With this start, we still need

more families and women being helped at a time.

The relationship between addiction and homelessness has always been a controversial

topic. A common stereotype is that homeless people only spend the tax-paying money on drugs

and alcohol. A study was done to address this large percentage of citizens 12 and older and how

substance abuse affects their life and how common it is to have substance abuse problems. “In

2016, approximately 20.1 million people aged 12 or older had a substance use disorder (SUD)

related to their use of alcohol or illicit drugs in the past year, including 15.1 million people who

had an alcohol use disorder and 7.4 million people who had an illicit drug use disorder. Among

those who had an illicit drug use disorder, the most common disorder was for marijuana (4.0

million people). An estimated 2.1 million people had an opioid use disorder, which includes 1.8

million people with a prescription pain reliever use disorder and 0.6 million people with a heroin

use disorder.” States SAMHSA. This study shows the commonness of substance abuse which is

not talked about much in society. Abusing drugs and alcohol is an issue that does not have

enough education and awareness around. Homeless people tend to use alcohol and drugs as a
way to cope with circumstances and at times this abuse has led to the fall of them being

homeless.

Mental Illness

Public Assistance

Healthcare

Housing

Jobs

Part IV: Discussion and Conclusions

As a community, there are many multifaceted solutions we can apply to help decrease our

homeless numbers. Those proven solutions are federal housing assistance, integrating health

care, building career pathways, fostering education connections, strengthening crisis response

systems, reducing criminal justice involvement, and building partnerships.

Federal housing assistance has been a proven solution around the United States, La Plata

County has a large sum of money granted to our homeless population which involves federal

housing. This money needs to be better distributed to our community homeless. We need to
heavily decrease our numbers before they begin to rise more. “Federal housing programs are one

of the most successful housing-based solutions to reduce homelessness. The two largest federal

housing programs are public housing and federal housing vouchers, known as Housing Choice

Vouchers or Section 8 vouchers.” With this given quote, federal housing is proven to help. In

hand with federal housing, comes Permanent supportive housing. Permanent supportive housing

is an intervention, with this comes affordable housing assistance with possible assistance for

those with chronic illness. This program is for the TANF which stands for Temporary Assistance

for Needy Families. This is for people in economic crisis and or unemployment. This program is

to help recent those in need to society and it has been found to help benefit them with a stable

environment. “Pioneered in New York City in the 1980s, permanent supportive housing has now

proven to be a successful and cost-effective solution to the homelessness crisis. The supportive

housing model combines affordable housing assistance with vital support services for individuals

living with mental illness, HIV/AIDS, or other serious health problems. Moreover, numerous

research studies have shown that permanent supportive housing costs less than other forms of

emergency and institutional care.” This small article proves that the solution of Permanent

supportive housing is proven to help our homeless in need of extra support.

La Plata County needs to apply this within its plans to see success in the fall of our

homeless numbers. The solutions they have applied have been proven to not be successful. With

so many multifaceted solutions at hand, why have we not applied these? Money has always been

a topic that is not addressed. But with the money we have been given for those in need, we need

to apply these proven solutions as soon as possible. This can be changed with the right plan and

authority.

Need to Add:
Criminal Justice

Crisis Response

Foster care

Job help

Annotated Bibliography

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“Proven Solutions.” Coalition For The Homeless,

https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/proven-solutions/.

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SAMHSA, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. “Key Substance Use and
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519584/

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