In recent months, the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) published a series of reports and articles on the needs of the people working in the homelessness sector.
In September, NAEH reported that it would take an estimated $4.8 billion in salary funds to adequately pay the homelessness sector workforce. Specifically, the average salary of an employee working to assist with permanent housing is $42,912 per year and the average pay for an emergency shelter staff is $27,830. In other words, they do not make enough money to pay for the average rent of a one-bedroom apartment in the communities they serve.
We all know that the country is experiencing an affordable housing crisis. We all know that the country has a homelessness crisis as a result of a lack of access to low-income housing. But what we sometimes forget is how the very workers who we expect to assist individuals and families in a housing crisis too often experience a housing crisis themselves.
I recall more than one conversation with a frontline worker where the case manager told me that they struggled with helping a particular family. The conversation went something like this, “Judy, I understand that this family has barriers to access housing, and I am happy to help them. But it’s hard when I see their income is way more than I make.”
NAEH published a follow up report in December based on a survey with a little over 5,000 staff members across the nation. About half of the respondents were frontline staff, the rest were managers, office staff and others. Exactly 50 percent of respondents said they worked for a permanent housing program (27 percent) or an emergency shelter/transitional housing program (23 percent). The rest worked for Street Outreach Programs, CoC Lead Agencies, Coordinated Entry Access Points, Drop-In Centers, Service Provider Agencies or similar organizations.
The report largely confirmed what many of us knew anecdotally, but these specific data points allow for better advocacy with government and private funders including politicians to raise the question: can we effectively end homelessness if we do not invest in people, including the workforce we expect to implement our policies and best-practice solutions?
These are the major findings of the report, pulled directly from the source:
- A Mission-Driven Workforce. Much of the workforce cites altruistic reasons for choosing and liking their profession. In total, 87 percent valued doing worthwhile work.
- Staffing Challenges. Among respondents, 74 percent said that their agencies/organizations were understaffed, while 71 percent reported that their agencies/organizations experienced high employee turnover.
- Overwhelming Work Environments. Homeless services personnel experience significant stress rooted in not being able to help enough people (69 percent). They also feel overworked (46 percent).
- Personal Sacrifices. The workforce is overwhelmingly impacted by low salaries, leading to financial difficulties: they worry about paying for wants like vacations (54 percent) but also needs such as housing (44 percent).
- Harms to Service Delivery. Employees indicate that workforce challenges translate into cutbacks in services and clients not fully getting the help they need.
Most frontline staff work in the homelessness sector because they care, and the work is meaningful to them. However, low wages and high turnover rates often have a tendency to create an unsustainable, disgruntled workforce. Couple that with a challenging work environment where you encounter people in crisis on a daily basis, and you will understand that secondary trauma becomes very real, very fast.
We often have training sessions that frontline staff in this survey reported they have to fight to get into. Thus, they feel, at times, underequipped or insecure to do their jobs at the highest possible level.
Another thing that stood out clearly to me is that when people feel they are in a toxic environment, especially when it’s caused by a manager, top leaders often do not have the flexibility to address the situation appropriately because the organization is already understaffed.
One example I observed here in Nashville was in a scenario when the local government pushed for encampment closures. Consequently, programs were funded quickly, but not given appropriate time to hire and fully train people to implement best-practice solutions before some of the most vulnerable people who had been living outdoors for years were brought into a new program with brand new, underequipped staff. The workforce quickly felt overwhelmed. High turnover resulted, and the program was criticized even though it would have been the correct intervention if implemented in an appropriate manner.
This indicates that solutions to support staff need to be supported by funders and policy makers. Rather than caving under the pressure of the loudest NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) voices, it is imperative that we listen to the frontline staff just as we need to listen more to the people we are wanting to assist.
Fully and adequately funding the workforce is step number one. Providing adequate time and means to train staff, so that they feel equipped to implement programs that are actually helpful to individuals and families is another minimal requirement.
Higher pay will also lead to higher retention rates, which then helps ensure that staff members are not constantly on call or required to do overtime. These are commonsense approaches that go far to ensure that service quality is at an elevated level.
In the most recent report published in May 2024, NAEH focused on street outreach workers. We often underestimate the importance of street outreach. The key to successful engagement is building trusting relationships. Yet, 60 percent of the street outreach workforce (just under 700 survey respondents) reported that they have five years of or less experience in the homelessness sector. This indicates that street outreach is an entry-level position.
The most effective solution to homelessness starts with engagement at the front door and street outreach is one of the most important ways where people build trusting relationships. Considering that there is a political focus on encampments (nationwide, not only in Nashville), governments and private funders should consider ensuring that the workforce is adequately compensated. For one, every time staff changes, a person is requested to repeat their story, likely asked to do yet another assessment, and the relationship building starts from scratch.
Would you be comfortable if an organization sent different staff every six months to work with you on housing — and honestly, you know more about the process (and what does not work) than the new employee who clearly is not fully trained yet?
That’s what reality often looks like. The willingness and caring of the frontline workforce need to be rewarded. Rather than investing in more and more bureaucracy, let’s shift the focus to invest in the people on all fronts. That’s when we’ll see theoretical approaches and policies turn into actual solutions.
After all, It’s not just about placing more people into housing. It is about assisting people in a long-term manner and that is done by a trained, qualified, and supported workforce.
To read the full series of articles visit https://endhomelessness.org/what-the-homeless-services-workforce-needs-to-end-homelessness/