Falling through the cracks

Yuma agencies offer help for those who don’t meet hud definition of homelessness

When you picture a homeless person, the first image that comes to mind might be that of somebody sleeping in park or walking through the streets with all their belongings in tow. But the conditions for those experiencing homelessness are varied and similarly, definitions of homelessness vary too.

In order to provide assistance, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) established its own criteria for defining homelessness. Many organizations provide assistance based on these criteria as well.

These criteria assign four categories under which a homeless person may fall:

• Category one, which is literally homeless

• Category two, which is imminent risk of homelessness

• Category three, which is homeless under other federal statutes

• Category four, which is fleeing/attempting to flee domestic violence.

But there are some people who don’t fall under these categories, yet still don’t have a permanent place to call home. These folks may be couch surfing with family or friends, they may be staying at a hotel until they can secure housing, or living in their car, or perhaps they’re multiple families sharing one roof.

“Those are the people who really fall through the cracks,” said Greg Culver, men’s shelter director for the Crossroads Mission.

Lucia Wilson, chair for the Yuma Coalition to End Homelessness, said the official designation for people in these circumstances is that of someone with no fixed permanent address.

“They meet some definitions of homelessness, but not the HUD’s,” she said. “Some people’s definition is not having a permanent place of your own, which works for some places, but typically not for housing programs. If they don’t have a history of literal homelessness, they most likely will not qualify for housing assistance.”

Wilson and Culver explained that in cases of assisting the homeless, documentation is very important as it can help establish someone as chronically homeless – an important designation for receiving assistance.

In Culver’s experience directing the men’s shelter at Crossroads, he said he puts people with no place to stay up as guests and registers them through the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) – something that other agencies like ACHIEVE Human Services do in order to document an individual’s situation.

“It’s a three-year gap that they (HUD and other agencies) check and in that three years, if you have 12 months in total of documented homelessness, you could be qualified as chronic homeless, and then you could qualify for housing assistance,” Culver said.

Wilson added that having a designation courtesy of documentation can typically mean more assistance as many places will try to help the people who experience the most homelessness first.

For those who don’t meet the HUD’s definition, they end up ranking lower as a priority, but their challenges are far from trivial.

“They face a lot of challenges such as overcrowding,” Wilson said. “If they’re staying with a couple of different people, that’s a lot of personalities in a small area and there are disease aspects too. But in a more personal sense, it’s also more of a sense of ‘I have somewhere to go, but I don’t have a home. This is where I go to be safe for now, but it’s not home.’ And I think it would be a lot of stress and instability.”

As the daughter of a compassionate woman growing up, Wilson has had her own experience sharing a three-bedroom home with people in need of a place to stay. She said a lot of people would stay with her family and there were plenty of kids too.

“It caused a lot of chaos and disruption in the house,” she said. “And it took a toll on the household.”

A housing market assessment published in April 2021 by Root Policy Research for the City of Yuma noted the seriousness of overcrowding in housing as it “can threaten public health, strain public infrastructure and points to an increasing need of affordable housing.”

Using the HUD’s definition of overcrowding as more than one person per room and severe overcrowding as more than 1.5 persons per room, Root Policy Research found that 8% of households (renting and owning) in all of Yuma County were overcrowded in 2019. By jurisdiction, overcrowded households make up 7% of Yuma, 17% of San Luis, 10% of Somerton and 5% of Wellton.

The figure doesn’t place a number on how many of these households include people without a fixed, permanent address.

As Wilson and Culver attest, there is no precise way to estimate the number of people living in Yuma County without a fixed, permanent address either.

But they both said that they’ve seen a considerable amount.

“I see it quite often and it does tug on the heartstrings because they’re not living in adequate housing, but because they don’t meet the definitions, they don’t qualify for those types of [housing assistance] services,” Wilson said. “It’s a lot more common than we think it is. There’s a lot of times mothers of children will prefer to stay with friends and family because they don’t want to go to a shelter and have that negative impact of people viewing them as homeless.”

At Crossroads, Culver doesn’t see a high amount of people who fall through the cracks because most of them can receive a service there in one way or another if they accept it.

“If you do come here, we’ll do everything we can to help you get it,” Culver said. “I do have a lot of people that come just to get meals every day – I have regulars that come to get breakfast, lunch and dinner – and I believe that is due to the cost of living now. A couple of free meals – that saves you 20, 30 dollars a day right there.

“We talk to them a little, we’ll find out what’s going on, but a lot of them don’t want to discuss what’s going on. They’re kinda closed off and that’s understandable.”

In addition to the overcrowding mentioned by Wilson, they’re still struggling to make ends meet. Circumstances vary by person, but they may be paying for rent, bills and gas on their own with no assistance while HUD-qualifying individuals don’t have the same massive debt of bill hanging over their heads.

Culver and Wilson both stated the importance of asking for help in these situations.

“A two- to three-bedroom house can hold anywhere from two to three families and you could have two to six people staying in one bedroom,” Wilson noted. “But the way [people without fixed, permanent addresses] look at it, it’s better than staying on the streets. If I could encourage people that are overcrowded in situations like that: if they could reach out to third-party services, it may be better in the long run because staying with family and friends isn’t going to get anybody assistance.”

“If you don’t ask for help, you’re not going to get it, but it’s tough to do when you’re used to supporting yourself or your family,” Culver said. “...and a lot of people don’t know where to ask for help either. They don’t know what help or what agencies are available out there.”

For someone with no fixed, permanent address, Wilson recommends reaching out first to an emergency shelter like the Crossroads Mission or enrolling in behavioral health services to receive a secondary housing referral.

“You can show up to an emergency shelter immediately,” Wilson said. “That’s reaching out to a third party in the community and by being at the program at Crossroads, you’re not only guaranteeing you have somewhere safe for the night, they also have services to get you assistance.”

She added that despite the assistance that may not be available to those who don’t meet the HUD definition for homelessness, people may qualify for more than they realize.

“People don’t realize how much they might qualify for because they have a bad thought process about the concept of being homeless,” Wilson said.

Culver said that the agencies that can help someone do vary on a caseby-case basis, but he and Wilson identified help to be found at Crossroads Mission, ACHIEVE Human Services, WACOG, Community Health Associates, National Community Health Partners, the Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, Catholic Community Services and more.

For agencies that do assist in these areas, Culver suggests they do more outreach through advertising and online media to make sure people know about the help they offer.

And whether you’re in need of help or see someone who may be in need of help, the Yuma Coalition to End Homelessness can help point individuals in the right direction and Crossroads can help individuals find assistance in their own programs.

To seek assistance from the Yuma Coalition to End Homelessness, visit https://yumahomeless. com/, email 928yceh@ gmail.com or connect with their Facebook page at https://www.facebook. com/YCEH928.

To seek assistance from the Crossroads Mission, visit https://crossroadsmission.org/, call (928) 783-9362 or visit their actual site on 944 S Arizona Ave.