I recently talked with a disability client who would become homeless in a few days. Actually, she already was homeless since she's been couch surfing, which is a form of homelessness, but she's about to lose even that. She lives in a rural area with no homeless shelter. There is nowhere for her to go. She has no idea what to do. She needed money immediately but I had nothing to offer. What do I tell her? Hop a bus to an unfamiliar city so she could stay in a dangerous public homeless shelter?
While Social Security promises to speed up cases for the homeless, in the real world little preference is actually given. This client's case will take months if not years.Yes, I'll ask that her case be labeled as "dire need" but, at least where I am, that's nearly meaningless.
Don't sit there and smugly think that, of course, if I really tried, I could get Social Security to act on her case immediately. If you think that, you have no idea how bad things are at Social Security. Immediate help was never available to anyone not already found disabled. We are well past the days when anyone at Social Security could or would do anything to help. I'm sure this gnaws away at many Social Security employees as much as it does me.
There's nothing unusual about her case. Being homeless in an urban areas is a terrible thing but rural homelessness may be even worse, especially since it draws so little public attention.
17 comments:
Contact your local ADRC and in many areas now the 211 system does cover the rural counties for information and referral services. Depending on the age of the person you can contact your local AAoA, if younger the county should have a human service provider. There are options, but of course you wont get paid for that, will you.
No one should be homeless in the United States; we have money going to all the wrong places! Homelessness should be a big priority and it never seems to be :(
Disabled and need immediate help? Section 8 housing can take years... Churches only help members... they tell you, "the government will help." Not if you had been living with a relative. Frankly... go to a liberal city... break into a vacant house and become a squatter. That's you best bet.
@11:28 - We have PLENTY of empty houses nationwide that could be made into a program for the homeless (that want a home). Sadly, Tim is right. Squat, at that point. I see pictures of all these places with houses empty (not derelict and falling down), but also not selling because of back taxes or whatever. What's the harm of creating a path for someone who needs a home, is actively homeless, and WANTS a home. Some prefer to be homeless. To each their own. The majority do not. Also, @11:33 - Tim. Squatting isn't just a liberal state thing. I live in a blood red state, and it's extremely difficult to remove squatters.
ALJs don't consider couch surfing as being homeless because the person does, or did in this case, have a place to sleep.
One wonders what information and assistance you provided? Seems a chunk of the story missing there.
@1:33
Worse yet, ALJs claim the ability to arrange a variety of living arrangements as evidence of ability to interact with others in a work setting.
Unfortunately, the backlog is full of homeless people. Even if this woman's claim is expedited, there are 50-100 other homeless people, 100% P&T, QDD, and other priority claims in line ahead of her. If these claims are assigned immediately, then the ones who have to wait behind become even more irate and upset.
What is the solution? I don't have it. I sure wish I did.
People love complain like they have all the answers. SSA is always hiring, jump right on USAjobs and start applying.
Homelessness is a serious problem in rural AND urban America. Should homeless claimants just immediately jump to the front of the line? How do we tell terminal illness cases, "Hey, you might be dead in two weeks, but this person is homeless, they are more important than you!" Does SSA only expressly process people who are homeless at the time of the application? What about people who become homeless after their application is submitted but not decided? Do we immediately ask them to then express develop the case? What about people who might become homeless during the application process? Do we just expressly process there's so that they don't potentially become homeless? In that case, we might as well just process EVERYONE'S case as fast as we possibly can! Wait...SSA already does that. Until SSA gets a budget big enough to hire enough employees to do the sheer amount of work SSA has, none of this is likely to change.
A responsible adult should prepare for sickness or illness. Unfortunately young adults focus on fun not severe illness. And when older age arrive giving sickness,they endure another kind of suffering.
We have not invested in public housing for too many years. The need is great and only getting worse. Also, the genius (Reagan) who demanded that state hospitals for the mentally ill close is responsible for this mess. I do not know why, and I never will, it is better for a person to be on the streets rather than in a hospital with 3 meals a day, clean clothes, clean bed, and medical care. Granted there were issues with the running of state hospitals, but many people need to be there. We can change the way state hospitals are run. My solution to the homeless problem is: build state hospitals for the long-term mentally ill (get them off the streets!) and build more public housing so that people have a roof over their heads. We can do this! We are the richest county in the world and no one should be without shelter and medical care.
When did SSA become responsible for homelessness in rural America. This sounds like a mission for the Dept. of HOUSING and urban affairs. Perhaps someone could start a blog devoted to criticizing them…
I really hope you don’t work at SSA, 10:19. How exactly are the majority of people we see in the offices to prepare for illness?
@7:06
Nobody is criticizing SSA for people being homeless, they are criticizing SSA for not expediting homeless cases as they said they would.
The homeless that come into my suburban office have the option to go to a shelter but choose not to do so. There are rules against drug and alcohol use that they don't like. There are plans to get the people back to work, if unemployed, and into housing. Almost all are mentally ill or on drugs. The dirty, smelly stereotypical homeless aren't going to be helped by public housing.
Those that become homeless and want to better their situation can get help here. That's not the case many places. These should be helped with low income housing, etc.
@11:43
I think I see your point. I rep people who are mentally ill and homeless. Some tell me they are scared of homeless shelters for safety reasons and others which I didn’t consider before that didn’t include whether they wanted help or not. They felt what few possessions they had were put at risk in that environment. Also if they uprooted to stand in line for a spot at a shelter and didn’t get one, then they just lost what tenuous safety they had at their prior location. If you get in, then you may be surrounded by symptomatic physically and mentally ill people in a crowded bunkhouse environment, with strict rules that may be hard for a person with a serious disability to follow. In rural places shelters are more likely to be distant from treatment locations to the point of making them inaccessible given the homeless person’s limited resources. No treatment? No sufficient proof of disability even as your health worsens. You can see how some get stuck if they can’t get help.
I think 10:19 could be referring to long term health insurance. But, the cost of that insurance can only be justified if you have assets to protect, such as a family farm. Or, at least a job that pays well over 75,000 and your buying a nice house. But, those plans are actually designed for someone with long-term chronic conditions that are LIKELY to cause disability. They charge higher premiums for those.
While cancer, heart disease and other conditions can cause disability in a sudden manor, most on disability are there because of chronic conditions that can greatly limit income long before becoming severe enough to become eligible. Hard to pay for long term insurance when you're living paycheck to paycheck.
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