One Step Away: Nahikian says ending homelessness in Philly achievable

Ending homelessness in Philadelphia is not a lofty goal in the eyes of Marie Nahikian, current director of the Office of Supportive Housing (OSH); it is practical and achievable.
The city does not have thousands living in the streets like Los Angeles and it doesn't have 58,000 people living in shelters like New York City, where Nahikian worked for almost 20 years.
Philadelphia does, however, have the highest rate of deep-poverty among large cities (12.2 percent, nearly twice the national rate of 6.3, according to the U.S. Census American Community Survey). So while there are about 650 people living on the street (according to the 2015 Point-in-Time Count) and 3,000 people in shelters (according to Nahikian) at any one time, there are many more Philadelphians who are either at a high risk of losing their homes or already have and depend on others for shelter.
The goal of ending homelessness is not a simple one, but it is, Nahikian insists, achievable.
"It revolves around having resources and having strong leadership," she says, "leaders who really believe that we should be meeting people where they're at."
While she is not even a year into her tenure as Director of OSH, she has already seen the successes that come along with dedication and coordination.

What is the Office of Supportive Housing?

When Nahikian became Director of the Office of Supportive Housing in January 2015 she had some big shoes to fill. Her predecessor, Dianette Mintz, headed the department for 32 years and was a leader in influencing how Philadelphia viewed people experiencing homelessness. Mintz prompted the departmental renaming from the Office of Emergency Shelter to the Office of Supportive Housing, a change that represented a shift in focus from immediate stopgap measures to long-term housing solutions.
So what is the role of The Office of Supportive Housing under Nahikian's leadership?
"It depends on who you ask," she responds.
"Some people think we're social services, other people think we're housing, I think we're probably both," Nahikian states. "I sometimes say that the role of supportive housing is that we touch all things associated with homelessness. Our mission is to try to meet people where they're at when they're experiencing an emergency, but also to prevent [homelessness]."
While the majority of OSH's funds are spent on emergency housing, homelessness prevention is the sustainable solution in Nahikian's eyes.
"Whether you're a taxpayer and worried about how public tax dollars are spent, or whether you're a family that is, as your paper says, 'one step away' from being homeless, it is much better to keep people out of emergency housing," she says.
Since any number of factors can leave a person or family homeless, OSH utilizes a variety of prevention methods.
"We do rent assistance, we do mortgage foreclosure assistance, we assist with security deposits and utility payments through a whole bunch of community partners, and we use as many strategies as you can possibly come up with," says Nahikian.
These preventative measures help stabilize a family or individual through a difficult period so that they can have an easier path to getting back on their feet.
"It is literally but for one small event in your life that you can become homeless. All you have to do is need to pay for one funeral or get your hours cut from 40 to 20, you don't pay your rent, and there you are," says Nahikian, "sometimes people only need some short-term stability in order to get themselves moving forward."
Stability and support are themes throughout all of OSH's programs, not just the prevention wing.
"Emergency and permanent supportive housing, for the most part, provide some package of services that are needed to support individuals as they try to become more self-sustainining," Nahikian states, proceeding to highlight a new project.
"We have an initiative called the Healthy Baby Initiative, checking in on infants who are living in shelters on a regular basis to make sure they are getting what they need and being fed," says Nahikian. "We have at any one time, about 3,000 people in shelters and in emergency housing, and probably about 40 percent of those are children."
Through their various programs OSH helps all people, from babies through adulthood, stabilize and overcome homelessness.

Funding the Effort

A key element of OSH's range of supports is the Continuum of Care, a program implemented by the Federal government to provide funds for local and state governments as well as nonprofits, to increase access and self-sufficiency for individuals and families dealing with the many effects of homelessness.
The City of Philadelphia has a Continuum of Care Board, a body of 17 members representing the various sub-populations dealing with homelessness, from veterans, to persons with HIV/AIDS, to the chronically homeless. (One Step Away vendor Jerry Tucker is a member of the board.)
In 2013, the Philadelphia Continuum of Care Board applied for $29 million in federal funding to support 107 government and nonprofit projects related to homeless assistance.
When Philadelphia applies for Continuum of Care funding, it competes against the rest of the cities around the United States. Therefore, successes in fighting homelessness create a positive cycle of more federal support and further success.
While a large portion of OSH's public funding comes from the federal government, it is also funded by Philadelphia taxes.
"I always want to remind people, particularly residents of Philadelphia, that Philadelphia makes a serious commitment with your tax dollars to fight homelessness," says Nahikian. "It's still not enough, but it is a lot."
"People are usually amazed to find out how much of the work that's done with people who are experiencing homelessness is supported by public dollars," she says. "It's a shock to most people. 'Really? There's 45 million dollars in this?'"

Coordination is Key

To Nahikian, the coordination between sectors is essential.
"It's amazing what the collaboration of partners at the table has been able to produce," she says.
One such success story is the initiative to end all veteran homelessness.
"We currently have 28 unsheltered vets on the street, that's all. In 2013 we thought there were about 1,100, and we've now housed 1,275 homeless vets," says Nahikian.
This initiative began with the federal government when President Obama in 2009 vowed to end veteran homelessness by 2015. The City of Philadelphia joined with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs "25 Cities Initiative" and then local homelessness nonprofits stepped in as well to provide specific services such as housing placement.
The lesson to be learned from this success story is clear to Nahikian; collaboration, aided by proper leadership and funding, results in real change.
As cold weather begins another collaborative effort is on Nahikian's mind.
Annually, OSH coordinates the Winter Initiative, which provides extra shelter and services during the cold season from December through March. This is made possible through partnerships with the Philadelphia Department of Recreation, the Philadelphia Nursing Home, and nonprofit organizations.
A $1.5 million effort, this year's Winter Initiative has created 467 extra places for people to sleep.
"It's a significant commitment," says Nahikian, "but we are still in greater need for more, so that is always the challenge."
To overcome this challenge, Nahikian states, "We need some real committed leadership and the leadership needs to be broad. It can't just be advocates; it needs to be our elected officials, it needs to be our business community, and it needs to be our philanthropic community."
Nahikian hopes that this kind of collaborative effort can be applied to other fronts in the fight against homelessness.
"Right now we have various small groupings of people that are concerned about the same issue but people are not sitting at the same table," she says, "That is something that is so important if we are going to make any progress."

Finding Solutions

"The thing that I would really like to say is that ending homelessness in Philadelphia can be done," states Nahikian. "This is not rocket science, it is not something we don't know anything about, it is just a question of having the will to say, 'This is intolerable, why do we want to have a city where people have to live this way.'"
While it is also a matter of funding, Nahikian suggests that ending homelessness is fiscally wise in the long run.
"It makes much more sense, from a public dollar spending perspective, to have people in housing rather than on the street or insecure in a way that their children are not being educated, that they are not getting healthcare and that they can not get themselves out of a crisis mode to build a life," she says.
In Philadelphia, homelessness is intertwined with other harsh realities of deep poverty, but housing is a huge first step to stability.
"OSH becomes an entry point for people who are just poor, who just can't compete in the market. They don't need services, there is nothing wrong with them except that they don't have enough money," says Nahikian. "We are now making some real commitments to try to figure out how we have this conversation with people before they are in fact on the street."
Through these conversations, Nahikian has noticed some patterns.
"I talk to people everyday, particularly young moms, who have never paid rent in their lives, have never paid for housing really, or if they did it was because they traded somebody sleeping on the couch for food stamps. That kind of barter arrangement," she says. "These are folks who just need a shot at being able to have a home, to have the time and energy to figure out what they want to do with their lives."
OSH also hears frequently from ex-offenders attempting to reintegrate into society.
"We have a lot of people who are returning to the community after years of incarceration, they have no place to go, there's no housing," Nahikian continues, "we get letters every day saying 'I'm about to be released, do you have a recommendation of where I can live?'"
Even for Philadelphians who do have some funds, there can still be obstacles to obtaining housing. Nahikian hopes to work with not only renters, but landlords as well.
"Let's just assume you can find an apartment for $700 a month—and good job if you can find that," Nahikian puts forward, "in order for you to move in many owners want first and last month's rent and a month's security. And people don't have that kind of cash. That would be $2,100 right there. I think that if there were a way to help people kind of deal with security deposits but also work with owners, that would remove those barriers."
While Philadelphia does have its housing challenges to overcome, the city is not, Nahikian mentions, dealing with a homelessness crisis.
"We have a lot of people that need support and we don't have enough resources, but we don't have thousands of people on the street, and we don't have huge numbers of people who are living in emergency housing," Nahikian acknowledges, pointing instead to Philadelphia's systemic poverty. "What we do have is people who are rapidly not able to compete to take care of their housing needs," she concludes.

How Can Philadelphians Pitch in?

Nahikian points out that everybody can help in the fight against homelessness, even those who don't work in government, or social services, or the nonprofit world.
"The problem is that everyone thinks that it's just too complicated," she says. "Don't think it's too complicated. It's not any more complicated than what it takes you to get through your life from morning to night."
"You have to look at your piece of the world and say, 'Where can I capture resources that would make a difference?'" says Nahikian, "can you imagine what would happen if you brought together a group of friends you know over social media and said, 'We're going to pre-lease a house with three apartments in it,' and you supported three families to rent the house?"
"If you begin to think about how you can pool resources from one place and connect them to another place, that's a great thing I think individuals can do," she says.

For Those in Need

For those who are currently dealing with homelessness or struggling to maintain housing, Nahikian stresses that it is better to seek help too early than too late.
"You always wish people would realize that there are a lot of people here experiencing the same things, because the sooner we can decide to intervene, the better," she says, citing a frustrating recent experience. "I met someone yesterday who had no idea that there was assistance available for someone who was about to be foreclosed on. In this situation, her house was about to go up for sale by the mortgage lender, her husband's hours were cut back, her mom was ill, and when she finally made it to OSH, it was too late. We're going to try to find her some legal connections, but that's somebody who just fell through the cracks."
And where do you seek help or advice if you need it?
"Go to any public library and look at a computer for resources, go to your nearest elected official, go to any community organization," says Nahikian. "I think my advice would be just find a phone, find a computer, find a public office somewhere, we even have people who walk into City Hall and City Hall will call us."
The Office of Supportive Housing, along with the city's other services, is there to help those who are currently in need of finding or maintaining shelter, and they are working so that no one will face that hardship in the future. It is now up to the rest of us to join in that effort. •

If you or someone you know is in need of any type of housing assistance, you can call the Homeless Outreach Hotline at (215) 232-1984.