Homelessness can happen at any time. Here's what we learned when it happened during one of our MST cases
Close your eyes, and picture a homeless person. What images do you see? Do you see someone begging along the highway? Or perhaps someone just sitting around “refusing to help themselves”? So often, we have a narrow view of those who find themselves on the street, when in fact, homelessness can strike at any time, and therapists have to be armed with strategies to help. Our team learned this valuable lesson just recently when working with Ben and his family.
Sixteen-year-old Ben was referred to our Multisystemic Therapy (MST) program for physical aggression, leaving home without permission and truancy. He was living in an apartment with his mother, Shelby, and three siblings.
Suddenly life changed
Shelby unexpectedly lost her job, causing the family to split up. She took the youngest two children, ages 3 and 6, and moved in with her boyfriend, who had four children of his own living with him. She sent Ben and his 13-year-old brother to live temporarily with their maternal grandparents. Ben’s ongoing behavioral problems constantly disrupted the grandparents’ home to the point he could no longer remain there. Due to significant conflict between Ben and his mother’s boyfriend’s oldest son, moving in with his mother and her boyfriend was not a viable option.
Housing becomes the top concern
During an MST weekly case staffing where possible placement of Ben was being discussed, it became evident to the MST supervisor that the housing issue was the most critical need for Ben and his family. As often done in MST, the team conducted a fit assessment, and identified drivers and interventions that when addressed, could have helped prevent Ben, and young people like him, and his family from experiencing homelessness and avoid the threat of going into care or custody. Though in Ben’s case, the therapist didn’t have an opportunity to apply all the strategies, the learning became an invaluable tool for our team.
The 5 ways MST therapists and supervisors can help their families avoid homelessness
- Get to know the communities they work in by looking into the prevalence of homelessness. Good resources may be the local United Way, school counselors and social workers.
- Build an arsenal of community resources associated with maintaining housing (e.g., rental-assistance and utility-assistance programs, home repairs, extermination-assistance programs for rodent and bug infestations, etc.), as well allocate resources for emergency, short- and long-term housing options.
- Continuously assess threats to housing stability. Asking the right questions can detect housing threats early and possibly prevent a disruption. For instance, it is helpful to directly ask the family about complaints from neighbors about behavioral problems or how many moves the family has had in the past year. Directly inquire if anything puts their housing at risk.
- Become skilled at intervening early when housing threats are detected. The therapist should be ready to empower the family to seek assistance when needed, such as being ready to help the caregiver complete housing applications or employment applications, role-playing/practicing for upcoming interviews. The therapist may help the family resolve conflict with landlords and/or neighbors.
- When housing instabilities are detected, MST therapists should empower caregivers to communicate these risks to courts and probation officers early. Eliciting the court’s support to help address the threats immediately as a team, including the parent/caregiver, MST therapist, MST supervisor, MST expert and the probation officer can make the difference between keeping the youth safely at home and in the community or placing the youth in care or custody.
Working on getting a positive outcome
Back to Ben. The good news is that Shelby was only unemployed for a little more than a month. She’s working 40 to 50 hours a week now, saving money for the down payment, security deposit and utilities for a new place for her and her children. The hope is that she will be able to reunite her family under one roof. Though this is an uphill battle, Shelby is committed to putting her family back together.
This was an important learning opportunity for the team and for those in the court system who work with Ben and families like Ben’s. Families are doing the best they can dealing with multiple stresses. Through early detection and early intervention, homelessness doesn’t have to be one of them.
Kevin Freeman is the President and CEO of Grace Harbour, Inc., a MST provider in Georgia
To learn more about how MST works with families, download this white paper.
