By Mike Wells
CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OREGON – While I agree with many of the concerns for the homeless that Rev. W.J. Mark Knutson and Alison McIntosh express in their June 30 guest column “Portland’s homeless need permanent housing, not warehousing,” I applaud the Homer Williams concept to attack the homeless problem overwhelming our communities. It applies the Family Justice Center model by bringing the efficiency of delivering services to those in need.
In Clackamas County, we too have some talented people and officials who had the foresight to create A Safe Place, opening on Dec. 10, 2013, as a partnership between the nonprofit Clackamas Women’s Services and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.
My focus here is to concentrate on the homelessness of women and children, as well over 50 percent of homeless women and children are victims of domestic or sexual violence fleeing a traumatic situation. That same domestic and sexual violence is the cause of nearly 65 percent of the foster children expense in Idaho, but to my knowledge Oregon has not yet been able to isolate those costs.
On average, victims of domestic violence try to leave the trauma five times before succeeding. In 2012, Clackamas County and many agencies did a mapping program to look at the cause and efficiency, or lack thereof, of what a victim with a child must go through to seek basic care — from safety to housing to food to medical need. We found that she needed to go to six buildings and tell her story to seven or eight people, almost all of whom were public employees.
Is it any wonder more than half gave up? The system had become another trauma, and it was easier to go back.
My big difference with the Knutson/McIntosh guest column is the use of the phrase “scarce public resources.” There is no scarcity of funds; they are just being wasted as every office, agency, church and nonprofit operates in its silo with duplication of efforts but no real collaboration. Public funds are being spent after the fact — or, as my friend and Alliance for HOPE International President Casey Gwinn often says, at the bottom of the cliff, not at the top.
Social services do not have a history of collaboration, which the victims desperately need.
When we opened A Safe Place Family Justice Center, we were the 91st in the country. I believe that number has now reached 122. It brings business efficiency to a variety of services all in one place under one roof. That saves public dollars.
Domestic and sexual violence increase in intensity (and public cost) as the incidents go unaccounted for. National data tell us to build the fence at the top of the cliff. Looking at the cause is the start. Organize services around the customer/survivor.
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Mike Wells, of Sandy, is Clackamas Women’s Services board president.
Click here to view original article: Consolidating homeless services can create efficiency (opinion)