4. Behavior Is the Best Predictor of Behavior

Scientists conducting research often make discoveries that they did not anticipate. In this investigation, I expected to be learning a lot about chronic homelessness in a small city. However, I was also gaining considerable insight into the behavior of the community’s residents and its leaders that was unforeseen. As an example, the city’s response to my group’s request to use a recently vacated fire station building as a “Safe Haven” for chronically homeless people was especially revealing.

At this point in time, only two months into a six months long investigation, we’d already experienced a homeless man’s death and a police raid.  I was beginning to realize that Auburn, New York was a microcosm of much larger cities with respect to homelessness.

Certain kinds of events – especially the death of a study participant – often motivate researchers to revise the initial direction of an investigation.  Instead of continuing to study chronic homelessness in an academic manner, I became far more proactive. I began to look for a safe site or an empty building where I could get the rest of my contacts off the street as soon as possible.

Sometimes the best option may be to do the job yourself.

Two social workers were already helping me and I was confident that I could bring in interns as well as additional professionals who had retired early from human services positions with advanced degrees and lengthy experience.

We began by investigating two options:

1.  Putting up tents and lean-tos on private land:

A local corporation was willing to provide land and a contractor had offered to construct tent platforms and lean-tos on the site as well as to supply all materials and labor. After discussing sanitary requirements with a Red Cross disaster worker, however, it became clear that the cost of providing water and sewer connections to the site for toilets, showers and laundry facilities would be prohibitive.

2.  Acquiring a vacant former convent located in downtown Auburn:

This idea initially made sense given that the location had been utilized as a residential facility for a religious order. However, when I discussed the option with two development corporation executives and with the city code enforcement officer, I learned that the building was now owned by a private seller and the price was steep. In addition, it would require time consuming and costly renovations to bring it up to code.

Then, when the local newspaper reported that the Frederick Street Fire Station had just been vacated and that the city was seeking new uses for the building, we were definitely interested. Several people suggested that it could work well as a shelter or group home given that fire stations generally have a kitchen, bathrooms and sleeping areas.

We visited the building a couple of times, looked in the windows and noted that it appeared clean and empty except for a few rolled up fire hoses lying on the floor in the garage area. The structure looked to be in good shape and it was close to downtown.

I anticipated that the company which had previously offered to assist us in the creation of tent and lean-to shelters would similarly be willing to help us with this site.  In addition, individuals who had been skilled workers before becoming homeless wanted to help with basic carpentry and painting; others offered to help by taking care of the building and grounds maintenance.

Although the building had a kitchen, obtaining a food service permit in advance would not need to be a first priority. As my homeless contacts reminded me, disadvantaged people can eat very well for free every day in Auburn. In fact, I ate lunch often at an area soup kitchen. Local restaurants and grocery stores donated high quality food that was served there.

Housing Auburn’s multiply disabled, chronically homeless population in the vacant fire station sounded like a Win-Win-Win proposition for a number of reasons:

• Most chronically homeless people in Auburn have a history of disabling conditions, especially head injuries, which can make it difficult for untrained case workers to help them. These also put homeless people at very high risk of death on the street

• Auburn social services agency personnel seemed to work well with most homeless people in the area but some seemed to lack skills required to work effectively with multiply and/ or severely disabled individuals. I have those skills and so did the two social workers as well as the other human services personnel I expected to involve

• People in the chronically homeless community wanted to locate there. They would be safe and cared for by skilled professionals, some of whom they already knew

• This municipally-owned building would have a meaningful new use and the city would be receiving substantial assistance with its chronically homeless population.

On the other hand:

It is a well known axiom in the field of psychology that “Behavior is the best predictor of behavior.” Just as the weather this July is an excellent predictor of the weather next July, past human behavior is an excellent predictor of future behavior. In other words:  the city was not likely to change its behavior. To date, housing its chronically homeless people had not seemed to be a priority, particularly in residential areas like the one in which this fire station was located.

After the City Council meeting that we attended together, The Citizen newspaper reported on my group’s public request to use the fire station as a “Safe Haven.”  The article included a quote from the City Attorney, who was also the interim City Manager:

“After the meeting, interim City Manager John Rossi said McLaughlin had not made a formal proposal to the city as of Thursday. But he did say it would be a “novel approach” to utilizing the Frederick Street building.

‘We’d be glad to sit down and talk to her about it,’ Rossi said.”

Bringing this issue to a public forum had made it unlikely that city officials could ignore our request but we were all very encouraged by this seemingly sincere public expression of interest. First, we needed to gain access to the interior of the building; we needed to know how many bathrooms there were and to learn what revisions might be required – if any – as well as other relevant information like the costs of heat, water, sewer and power.

I decided to attend the next City Council meeting and request access to the building.

In preparation, I spent some time talking with an attorney who advises us pro bono:

• Under terms of the New York State Constitution, Article 17, municipalities may have an obligation to provide for the “aid, care and support” of needy people. Certain federal laws may also apply, for example, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act and the Fair Housing Act

• I also wanted to estimate the city’s possible degree of responsibility for the care of its disabled, chronically homeless people in order to propose reasonable, viable and acceptable financial arrangements with respect to utilizing the fire station.

Because another winter was fast approaching, time was of the essence. Winters in Central New York can be particularly harsh. Moreover, the death rate for chronically homeless people is four times that of housed people; brain injuries are a leading cause of death and one of our contacts had recently been found dead. I didn’t believe that it would be responsive to spend the usual couple of years on design and analysis issues; one doesn’t leave people at risk of death on the street, as an example, while talking about building a hospital.

In my opinion, getting these chronically homeless people into safe housing as quickly as possible was a most urgent priority. I hoped that all of my contacts would be safely indoors before Christmas, which was five months away.

The basics of our plan were: we hoped to lease the building for a nominal annual fee, we wanted to negotiate a cost sharing plan for expenses with the city and we wanted to make co-services provision arrangements with area social services agencies.

Our plan was never intended to be perfect or even permanent; it would be improved upon over time. I was convinced that whatever arrangements we could make quickly would certainly be better than leaving these chronically homeless, disabled people outdoors.

I made my second public statement on this matter to City Council members on July 21, 2011. In the video below, Auburn’s interim City Manager/ City Attorney John Rossi is seated to the left of the mayor wearing a light colored suit. My statement begins immediately after the meeting’s introductory formalities and it runs for three minutes.

 

A week later, I received a letter from Mr. Rossi which stated:

“Currently the facility is being used by the Auburn Fire Department in connection with the City’s frequency rebanding program. There is no definitive date as to when this use is going (to) discontinue and there are studies being conducted by the City as to the most efficient use of that property.

“The City is not in a position to discuss use of the Frederick Street fire house for the homeless housing needs which you have brought to the attention of the community.”

In closing, he commented:

“If the City may be of some assistance in reference to this matter, please let me know and we will provide whatever resources we may have currently to assist you for this purpose.”

Two months later, I tried once again to speak with interim City Manager/ City Attorney Rossi. I emailed him and requested a meeting to discuss whatever resources he’d mentioned in his letter that he might be able to offer.

Sadly – but not unexpectedly – he never even replied.

Last month the head of the combined Auburn and Cayuga County, New York, Homeless Task force released the results of its 2011 homeless count to the public. An overall total of 475 people in the area were found to be homeless. Of that total, 10% were estimated to be chronically homeless.

Given that the death rate for chronically homeless people has been found to be four times that of housed people, what this means is that between 47 and 48 human beings in the county  were at high risk of death at the time that my group was attempting to utilize the Frederick Street Fire Station for a “Safe Haven” program.

The City of Auburn, New York is the county seat of Cayuga County and it is its largest community.

One of my contacts and I visited the fire station again this week. At 2:00 PM on a Monday afternoon, there were no cars in the parking lot; there was no flag on the flagpole in front of the building;  all doors were locked; when we rang the doorbell, a very loud sound could be heard but nobody answered the door. The only difference we noted was that there appeared to be a trailer stored in the garage area.

This is the fourth post in my series on chronic homelessness in Auburn, New York. You are invited to return and read more as it becomes available.

© 2012 Mary M. McLaughlin, PhD. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My latest article for Spare Change News

 

 

Brenda Rosen is the Acting Executive Director of Common Ground in New York City.

I recently interviewed her for this article.

Expanding Supportive Housing in New York

 

***JUST ANNOUNCED: Brenda Rosen new Executive Director of Common Ground.***

She has been Common Ground’s Acting Executive Director since January, 2011.

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***Community Solutions, a new non-profit, launched today.***

Incubated at Common Ground, it will focus on national housing initiatives.

Roseanne Haggerty will head the new organization.