Frances Edwards

In a forum published in the winter 2011 issue of The Public Manager—“Federal Leaders Open Doors to Tackle Homelessness”—Jeanne Van Vlandren and Myra Howze Shiplett offer a unique perspective on a hidden threat to national security and how the U.S. government is responding. This is a national security threat because it challenges the whole nation as it did in September 11, after disasters, during economic recession. The authors’ introduction to the 3-article forum frames the nation’s homelessness problem as a threat—stemming at least in part from the lost productivity of roughly 650,000 people who are without housing, adequate healthcare, and stable employment.Getting down to brass tacks, three divergent case illustrations describe efforts underway to respond to these challenges, including:Shaun Donovan’s article, “Ending Homelessness in Our Time: Why Smart Government Is Key”—Shaun Donovan is U.S. Secretary for Housing and Urban Development. Previously, he was the commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in NYC. He created and implemented the biggest municipal affordable housing plan in America. Donovan argues that homelessness is a problem that can be fixed by partnering with state and local agencies as well as private and nonprofit organizations, keeping track of successfully-implemented projects, and using existing resources efficiently.Barbara Poppe’s article, “Interagency Collaboration Moves U.S. Closer to Ending Homelessness”—Barbara Poppe is executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Poppe says USICH’s “Opening Doors” project aims to end homelessness by 2020. In her article she describes the project’s four goals: “1) End chronic homelessness by 2015, 2) prevent and end homelessness among veterans by 2015, 3) prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children by 2020, and 4) develop a plan to end all types of homelessness.” “Opening Doors” has 10 objectives and 52 strategies that include support of health, education, housing, and human service programs to prevent and end homelessness.Frances Edwards article, “Homes Wiped Away by Natural Disasters”—Frances Edwards is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at San Jose State University. Formerly, she was the director of emergency preparedness for the City of San Jose for many years. Edwards discusses homelessness as a result of natural disasters. She gives examples of “disaster homelessness” and suggests preventive measures to reduce their effect on urban populations.Read more in the winter 2011 issue of The Public Manager.

Homelessness: A National Security Threat

The winter 2011 issue of The Public Manager kicks off with a 3-article forum on homeless in the U.S. and what government can do to make a difference. Having had first-hand experience on these matters during my long government career - including assignments with the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) during the early years of the 'war on poverty" and the US Department of Health, Education & Welfare/Health & Human Services (HEW/HHS) - I was interested to learn what 's different in 2012! Well, these articles indicate that today's solutions are largely built around a combination of: 1) sustained, creative intra- and inter-governmental collaboration, 2) vigilant performance measurement (at all levels) and 3) smarter governance.The first article, contributed by U.S Department of Housing & Urban development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, is "Ending Homelessness in Our Time: Why Smart Government is Key," offers a very promising overview - particularly the "teasers" about actual case illustrations across the country. One would like to learn more about the innovative efforts already showing results in Cleveland, Chicago, NYC, Greater KC, Nashville and the State of Utah and such related apporaches as "HUDstat" and the varied HUD partnerhsips with HHS, the US Departments of Labor (DOL), Education (EDUC) and Veterans Affairs (VA). Are there Web sites where we can learn more about these innovations AND their measurable performance outcomes? I guess for that, we'll have to dig further at HUD's Web site - which I will do and report back in my next post.The second article, Interagency Collaboration Moves the U.S. Closer to Ending Homelessness authored by Barbara Poppe, executive director of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, drills down more deeply into the strategic planning, goals, roadmap building AND numerical measures of success that have gone into these efforts. The key to all these multi-farious investments and undertakings at different levels of government and the private sector is Opening Doors Across America, "the nation's first (integrated) strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness" which has four goals: 1) ending chronic homelessness by 2015; 2) preventing & ending homelessness among veterans by 2015; 3) preveneting & ending homelssness for families, youth & children by 2020; and 4) setting a path to end all types of homelessness.Finally, in the third article, Homes Wiped Away by Natural Disasters, Frances Edwards, former emergency preparedness director for San Jose CA, shares poignant lessons from several natural disaster-devestated communities that demonstrate what kind of mitigation steps can be put in place to reduce the extent of homelessness. Some of these measure include: risk-based zoning, strict building codes, limitations on building in flood zones and along fault lines, further requirements in wild land and urban interface zones, etc. Again, further probing needs to be done to share links to sites that provide readers with more details on the rich case illustrations Ms. Edwards refers to (including the Whittier Narrows earthquake of 1987, the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, the Oakland-Berkely Hilss firestorm of 1991 and Hurricane Katrina less than six years ago.Please feel free to share more thoghts and details (including links) on these and related matters. I will do likewise.

Confronting the Challenge of American Homelessness in the 21st Century

Winter 2011 - The Public Manager

Natural disasters leave survivors who will never recover from the impact or never own a home again. News coverage of Hurricane Irene showed ravaged communities and homes that disappeared under the floodwaters of swollen rivers. Atlantic seashore communities; inland Paterson, New Jersey; and towns all over Vermont were damaged by the st...

Frances Edwards

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