Homeless young adults have another option for getting off the streets and into housing, thanks to a couple of new programs at Janus Youth Services.
The nonprofit, which has locations in Portland and Vancouver, recently launched a housing assistance program specifically geared toward disabled youth. The program, which is called Connections in SW Washington, allows participants to put 30 percent of their gross income toward rent with Janus Youth covering the rest.
Unlike other housing programs, however, there isn’t a cutoff time for participants. Among the few youth-focused programs available, most provide rent support for two years or less, said Scott Conger, housing director at Janus Youth. Staff noticed that some people weren’t successful in Janus Youth’s two-year program and ended up back on the streets.
Clients are referred to Janus Youth by the Vancouver-based Council for the Homeless. The agency considers applicants who are age 18 to 25 and people who are considered to be the most vulnerable while living outside.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will give Janus Youth $180,000 annually for Connections in SW Washington. The funding provides rent assistance for clients as long as they need it, and it also pays for a dedicated case manager, Annie Colton. Ultimately, these clients would become self-sufficient just like participants in other housing programs.
Colton tries to be mindful of where clients are housed, aiming for a place that wouldn’t be too expensive for them to eventually afford on their own.
When she approaches potential landlords about her clients she tries not to use the word “homeless.”
“There are landlords that are going to see that word, which is ascribed to many negative attributes,” Colton said. “Another barrier would be finding landlords that are willing to give our clients a second chance.”
That means working with someone who may have a criminal history, bad credit or no rental history.
In some cases, unsheltered youth can have convictions for both illegal camping and trespassing, depending on where they had camped. While an unlawful camping conviction can be explained in a letter, trespassing is a more serious conviction.
So far, five households are in the program, one of which secured housing.
Colton said the goal is to get youth off the streets before they become entrenched in street culture. The longer they’re outside, the longer the issues that led to their homelessness fester and the more difficult it becomes to secure housing.
“Get them housed, get them fed, and then we can really start working on those mental health problems and anything else that may be a barrier,” Colton said.
Mental health is the most prominent disability, but drug dependency is also considered a disability; in some cases, clients have both.
One of her clients has schizophrenia, which includes auditory hallucinations. When that client got into his new home and turned on all the fans — helping to block out the hallucinations — he started to cry.
Colton said she loved “seeing that glee — like it’s Christmas Day — because he could turn on a fan.”
The screening process to get into a rental can be tough, especially with Vancouver’s low rental vacancy rate, and navigating that process while on the streets makes it tougher. Earlier this month, Janus Youth started Ascend, a county-funded program that covers motel stays for clients while they’re looking for housing.
Getting youth into a motel room helps them get housing because they don’t have to worry about where they’re going to sleep at night, Conger said. He’s already noticed a difference among clients in the couple of weeks that the program has been around.
Clark County provided $70,000 to fund the program for one year. It was seen as a temporary fix to the lack of youth shelters in the community. (Conger said young adults are often afraid of accessing regular adult shelters.) If Ascend is successful, Conger hopes Janus Youth can renew funding.
Janus Youth’s housing programs used to have a 70 to 75 percent success rate, but now it’s about 95 percent, Conger said. He attributes that in part to newly housed clients being able to get furniture for their apartments through the Community Warehouse in Portland. For $50, youth can get everything they to furnish their new place.
“That makes a world of difference,” Conger said.
