Clark County’s homeless population is growing rapidly but the number of homeless service providers aren’t. Burnout and lower pay compared with other industries make retention and recruitment a struggle, say managers of these nonprofits.
“The need has increased and our staffing hasn’t,” said Sesany Fennie-Jones, executive director of Council for the Homeless, the central nonprofit addressing homelessness in Clark County.
Funding hasn’t kept up, either. So in addition to hearing devastating stories from people in their darkest moments, homeless service providers grapple with low pay and often must tell desperate people there is no quick help available.
“We’re constantly looking for folks that can handle the pain of not being able to provide that resource, this moment, today,” Fennie-Jones said.
Complex needs
People who can help others find shelter, affordable housing, mental health care and addiction treatment are essential to reducing homelessness in Clark County, homeless service providers say. But working in the field is more challenging than ever, with a mental health and addiction crisis occurring simultaneously.
Substance use and mental health issues have been a particular problem for getting people into housing, said Brondalyn Coleman, deputy director of Share, a nonprofit that helps homeless people navigate resources.
Staff of homeless service providers, including Share, recently attended a training through the University of Oklahoma called “Managing Aggressive Behaviors” to learn de-escalation strategies when people are in crisis, Coleman said.
“What our staff are experiencing is working with clients with even less life skills or survival skills in reference to being able to take care of themselves,” Coleman said.
Last year, at a roundtable about fentanyl use in Clark County, Vancouver police officers said they estimate two-thirds of the homeless population have substance use disorders. As The Columbian reported in April, drug dealers often target homeless camps and fuel addictions that keep people homeless longer.
Many homeless people told The Columbian they started using drugs to cope with homelessness or past trauma. Coleman said her staff are often working with survivors of domestic violence and children who have been abused.
“Our staff are working with individuals that have had multiple layers of trauma, hardship, various capacities of loss,” Coleman said.
That’s why help for mental health and substance use disorder is a major component of getting someone housed and helping them stay in housing, experts say. But there’s a staffing shortage on that end, too.
Mental health
Columbia River Mental Health Services, which primarily serves people experiencing homelessness, needs more therapists as caseloads become heavier and more complex, Chief Clinical Officer Anne Willis said.
With the pandemic came a significant increase in mental health and substance use disorder issues due to isolation, she said.
“The need has gone up. At the same time, tuition for, let’s say, a master’s level therapy program is pretty high,” Willis said. “With the economy, (fewer) people might go into a master’s program because it’s so expensive, but the need we have is just rising and rising.”
And when master’s students do graduate, they often have hefty loans to pay back — debts that could be paid back much quicker with higher salaries in private practice.
Although Columbia River Mental Health Services does have loan repayment programs, private practice continues to draw candidates, Willis said. The therapists who join her team specifically want to work with vulnerable populations who often need mental health services the most.
“People that work in community mental health centers are really passionate about serving individuals that are underserved and may not benefit from more traditional mental health services,” she said. “We have teams that go out in the community that work with the unhoused population that meet people where they are.”
Willis said more Medicaid reimbursement and funding would give Columbia River Mental Health Services an edge in recruiting and retaining staff. (It’s one of the few providers taking new Medicaid clients in Clark County.)
Harder work, lower pay
When Fennie-Jones took over as executive director of Council for the Homeless two years ago, she was horrified to find out the nonprofit’s lowest paid employees made $17 an hour.
“Those staff qualified for our services,” she said, “which is extremely frustrating and sad as a service provider that we would have staff providing services and also receiving services because we pay so low.”
Over the past couple of years, Fennie-Jones made sure $17 an hour increased to $26.24 an hour. Still, to afford the average one-bedroom apartment in Clark County, a renter needs to make $34.15, according to a recent report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Low pay is a common issue for homeless service providers across the country. A recent study by the University of Washington found workers in nonprofit and human services are paid 37 percent less on average compared with non-care industries.
Many nonprofits, such as Council for the Homeless, rely on donations and outside funding to maintain operations. Once a certain kind of funding ends, the nonprofit must figure out how to pay staff or let them go.
That was especially an issue these last few years, when an influx of COVID-19 dollars suddenly ended.
“There was a lot of staffing that occurred so that we can get the money out the door to the folks that need it. When that program goes away, those staff go away,” Fennie-Jones said.
Council for the Homeless has tried to get creative to keep those staff, but it doesn’t always work out, she said.
“We increased our capacity by increasing staffing. And then the dollars went away,” Fennie-Jones said. “The issue was homelessness increased, and we were supposed to decrease our staff.”
Need for more funding
People call Council for the Homeless’ housing hotline in the most desperate of situations. They’re facing imminent eviction or a night on the street. But with long waitlists for shelter, rarely can the person on the other end of the line offer quick help.
People have to spend one night on the street to stay in a publicly funded shelter, based on a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rule.
“A person can’t come to Council for the Homeless and seek shelter — today. We don’t have the shelter capacity,” Fennie-Jones said.
Often homeless service providers can only offer information or a tent.
“We’re giving them everything but what they’re asking for because we don’t have it,” Fennie-Jones said. “Even if we did have shelter, where is the permanent supportive housing to get them from the shelter?”
Waiting lists at shelters in Clark County aren’t long just because of the large homeless population. A lack of affordable housing means those staying in shelters have no place to move on to.
It’s a painful daily experience to deny people help while trying to convince them to engage with the system, since help down the line might be available, Fennie-Jones said.
When the housing hotline can’t help people find shelter, an outreach team usually checks on the person, according to Council for the Homeless. But there’s a shortage there, too.
“We could have our outreach team be double, triple the number of staff that we currently have. We don’t have the funding for that,” Fennie-Jones said.
Volunteers have been filling in the gaps for many homeless service providers, Coleman of Share said.
“If you can volunteer, that’s something that has been a true, a true asset and benefit to us as an organization,” Coleman said.
