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The Roles of Social Work

1. Improve Collaboration Among Services           2. Develop Crisis Response Capabilities              3. Program Planning & Execution

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1. Improve Collaboration Among Services
 

Stergiopoulos (2016) mentions two components of an effective model for collaboration among service providers (p. 278):

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(a) Community Engagement 

(b) Care Coordination/Service Integration

An example of a collaborative approach can be found here:

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The Québec Homelessness Prevention Policy Collaborative. (2023).

 https://www.qhppc.ca/

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Case Study:

Toronto's Inner City Health Associates brought together community and public sector partners and created the following programs:

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  1. Shelter and Drop-in Based Collaborative Mental Health Care Teams

  2. Multidisciplanary Outreach Team (MDOT)

  3. Coordniated Access to Care for the Homeless (CATCH) (Stergiopoulos, 2016 pp. 281-285)

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Image source: https://www.icha-toronto.ca/history-of-icha

Noted Barriers with the ICHA programs:

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  • Poorly resourced frontline homeless service providers

  • Tensions between health and Health and Community resources

  • Lack of central planning

  • Different privacy legislation

  • Limited mental health training for front line staff (Stergiopoulos, 2016, p. 286).

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​The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH, 2023) provides 5 strategies in implementing effective Crisis Response Systems: 

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  1. Outreach

  2. Coordinated entry

  3. Diversion & Prevention

  4. Emegency Shelters and Interim Housing

  5. Permanence Housing

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Image source: https://endhomelessness.org/ending-homelessness/solutions/crisis-response/​

Click the link below for more details on an effective Crisis Response System

2. Develop Crisis Response Capabilities (NAEH, 2023)

3. Program Planning & Execution​

  1. Data Collection & Securing Funding

 

Example of indicators that can be used ensure that we are responding to the current housing crisis and meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 11). (Mosley, 2019, p. 316):

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  1. Homelessness:                                                                                                                                              An indicator to measure how many people do not have safe and secure housing.

  2. Housing Affordability:                                                                                                                                       A measurement for the proportion gross income spent on housing costs. 

  3. Housing Quality :                                                                                                                                               A measurement for the physical condition of the housing.                                                                       

  4. Overcrowding

        A measurement for households living in overcrowded conditions.

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Factors that could encourage funding from both public & private spheres (Moseley, 2019, p. 317):

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  1. Rate of return:                                                                                                                                                    Return on investment and perceived economic losses.

  2. Product design:                                                                                                                                                 Reducing the complexity of the new financial loan or equity product.

  3. Scale:                                                                                                                                                                 Lenders, investors and funders seek larger projects.

  4. Risk:                                                                                                                                                                     Parties need a clear understanding and expectation of risk-sharing.

  5. Developer/Team:                                                                                                                                               Developers must have a proven track record.

  6. Government:                                                                                                                                                      Government participation in the project. 

2. Design

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Inner City Health Associate (ICHA) Model:

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‘’(1) Developing partnerships with local stakeholders

(2) Collaborative planning and program development

(3) Collaborative organizational program structures’’ (Stergiopoulos, 2016, p. 279)

 

Designing housing and user input is an important component on the projects development. Here is an example o shelter designs based on user feedback (McLeod & Walsh, 2014, pp. 28-32):

 

1. Site:

Ensure that there are shared spaces and maintain a sense of security and privacy for individual residents. The site itself has to be able to provide housing that is secure and ensure that privacy of the individual residents is respected.

 

2. Situation:

The geographical area that the project is developed in is important. User reported that safety was an important issue for them. 

 

3.Service Delivery:

Ensure that residents are close to services that can be helpful to them. For example, counselling services, access to affordable food and clothing services.  

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