Housing Insecurity: KCEOC rep talks barriers to security and sustainability

Beverly Isom with KCEOC delivers supplies to a local homeless encampment

Imagine for a moment that an unfortunate series of events has left you with no immediate permanent housing options. Perhaps you have been in this position before. Now imagine that you are doing all of the work necessary to get yourself back on the track to self-sustainability. You are connecting with folks who are helping you to overcome whatever obstacles may be in the way of you once again having a roof over your head.

Next, imagine that, as a part of this climb back toward self-sustainability, you obtain employment with a job that: 1) pays enough so that you no longer qualify for certain benefits that you have been receiving; and 2) does not pay so much that you can keep up with the cost of rent and utilities without the help of said assistance.

Sounds like an impossible situation, right? According to Beverly Isom with KCEOC Community Action Partnership in Gray, this is unfortunately a reality for many people in the area who are trying to overcome living with housing insecurity.

Isom is the Supportive Services Director for KCEOC, which services Clay, Knox, Laurel, Bell, Whitley, Harlan and Jackson counties. As part of her duties, she supervises the case management of chronically homeless individuals throughout that service area. When it comes to housing insecurity, she knows firsthand just how complicated and multi-faceted the problem has become.

“Our goal is to provide supportive services so that these people will not just survive, but have housing stability,” Isom said. “We are finding that there are a lot of barriers, though, with people not having any means of transportation and also having a hard time finding employment with places that will accept their criminal record.”

Isom said that the majority of cases like this are currently coming from Whitley and Knox counties.

NOTE: For more information on a new initiative focusing specifically on workforce readiness among current inmates who are lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center, see the Thinking Out Loud column titled “A new perspective: Thinking of jails as ‘employee factories’” online at thenewsjournal.net.

“We have people who can’t get a job, and they are not disabled, so they also can’t get on disability,” Isom continued. “Even if they could, they don’t have transportation or the means to continue going to the physician in order to prove that there is a medical need for their disability.”

“There are just so many factors. If someone is on disability and it gets canceled, they may not have the means to figure out why it was canceled. Everybody thinks that all of these homeless people have phones and internet access, but they do not. The ones that we are finding are under bridges or in the mountains, and they have nothing. They just have no resources, so there are a lot of barriers there to keep them from getting the housing that they need. They can’t get ID’s, they can’t get birth certificates, they can’t get social security cards… They don’t even know where to start, so they have just given up because everywhere that they look there is another roadblock.”

Isom said that she has seen a wide range of reasons why someone might find themselves dealing with housing insecurity. For some, it may be the aforementioned criminal record. For others, it may be a drug addiction. In many cases, there is a serious mental health issue to be considered. Regardless of the situation, however, she said that there are certain systemic problems that are continuously hindering people’s progress.

“We have had many long-term success stories,” Isom said. “But we also have many people who are constantly struggling. We had one client, a lady who was homeless, whose case manager got her housed, got her to some physicians, and generally just took care of the whole person. Every aspect of her life was being addressed. We helped her resolve all of these issues, and she was placed into an income-based apartment, which was great, but now she had to have money coming in in order to pay the utilities and eat.”

Isom went on to explain that this lady was able to find employment, but once she started her new job, her cost-of-living was going to far exceed what she would be making on her paychecks.

“So, she quit her job because she couldn’t afford the rent,” Isom said. “It was taking every dime that she had. It was just a bad situation. She was doing her best, but she actually had to quit the job in order to get food stamps and stay in that home. It is situations like this that will often drive people to do illegal things. You can’t always just sit them down inside four walls and then just walk away from them, because it may be easier for them to just walk back out into the mountains where they at least know some of the people there.”

Most people would probably agree that situations like the one just described simply should not be happening, but they are. Why?

Isom said that rental rates are, generally speaking, just too high right now, and it is a situation that has gradually worsened in recent years. “Four years ago, we could rent a two-bedroom home for someone and they could have a $9 an hour job,” she explained. “They could maintain and stabilize that home after their rental assistance ended, but now a two-bedroom unit is $725, $800 or $850. There is just no way that these people can do it.”

Then there is the issue of individuals trying to qualify for Section 8 housing vouchers through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This program allows people meeting certain criteria to receive government-funded vouchers to help them pay for housing, but Isom said that, increasingly, local landlords are no longer accepting these particular tenants.

“We are having a really huge issue here,” Isom said of landlords in the local area no longer being willing to accept HUD vouchers. “The rent rates have increased, and HUD does not pay enough for them to justify taking it. HUD is just not paying enough out. The reimbursement rate to them is not meeting the level necessary to satisfy the rent requirements that they have.”

This problem alone is one of the major reasons why there is such a serious housing insecurity in our area. Once again, Isom said that it wasn’t an issue just a few years ago, but with costs skyrocketing across the board, it has become yet another component in a much larger, overarching crisis.

There are some rays of hope shining through this darkness, though. As previously mentioned, Isom said that she has witnessed many success stories over the years. When asked what the biggest difference is between someone who can climb their way out of these types of situations and someone who seemingly cannot, one big answer seemed to be job training and education.

“We have people whose case managers are assisting with them going to college,” Isom said. “They are graduating, and then getting higher paying jobs.”

Isom suggested that anyone requiring case management services should enquire about job training or educational opportunities that might be available. Receiving specialized training and possessing a certain skill set or knowledge base will typically greatly increase their chances of obtaining gainful employment and arriving at housing stability.

When asked about what she would like to see happen in order to move us back toward a more manageable situation when it comes to housing security in our region, Isom said, “We definitely need more subsidized rental units in these counties. Right now we have the funding, but we do not have rental units. We are searching every day for units, and we need more for these low-income individuals.”

Isom also added that she would like the government to re-evaluate some of the conditions that are placed on Section 8 vouchers, as she feels that some of the guidelines are a bit too strict when it comes to disqualifying a person for a minor offense.

Isom said that she and her colleagues have seen children in homeless encampments in the local area, and she stressed that many folks who find themselves without housing are not addicted to either drugs or alcohol. “They are low-income people, and they have had one thing that has just come along and wiped them out,” she explained. “It could be a medical condition, a divorce, a death in the family, anything. There are so many factors to this. Substance abuse often is a part of it, yes, but it is definitely not just centered around that.”

To find out more about the services offered by KCEOC call (606) 546-3152 or visit them online at www.povertyisreal.org.