Good morning!
Yesterday, we released an article on how entrepreneurship can help improve systems that deliver aid to the most underrepresented populations. Check it out here.
Today’s question: How much does the United States spend on services related to homelessness each year?
News
Digitizing Services
The government can be extremely inefficient in providing benefits to the right people.
For example, in California, a 70% increase in applications for food subsidies and a 20% vacancy rate in jobs has led to a huge backlog of people who are waiting to receive benefits. In Missouri, Medicaid requests take 99 days on average. These problems are not new: Even Gandhi spoke about the inefficiencies of governments in providing benefits to its citizens in his autobiography, which was published 100 years ago.
One of the ways in which governments have begun to tackle this issue is by digitizing social services. This wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision by the government, but a necessity that came about as a result of COVID.
This is highlighted by the NCCARE360 program in North Carolina, which helped expedite and provide essential services such as food delivery and wage replacement during the pandemic. UniteUs, a software company that “ builds coordinated care networks of health and social service providers” is at the forefront of this movement and has partnered with numerous governments around local governments around the country.
Other social work-related news
Colorado launches a support line to help parents with children ages 6 and under
Why is it so hard to find a good therapist?
Food Lifeline, a non-profit that supplies food to different food banks across Western Washington, increases its wages to $25 per hour in order to retain more workers
2021 was the deadliest year on record for homeless New Yorkers
Policy
Portland’s New Plan
Last week, we spoke about California Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to remedy homelessness by requiring those with severe mental illness to receive supportive services through what came to be known as “Care Court”.
The city of Portland seems to be have been inspired as they also proclaimed last week that they would take strong steps towards ending homelessness. In Portland, however, this would not be done through “Care Court”, but by building “three mass shelters with a capacity of 1,000 each”.
In addition to building shelters, the Portland plan of action would involve:
Using eminent domain to take control of private land for public use as a shelter or camping space
Using emergency decrees to “cut through processes that are fine for everyday work but not in a crisis.”
Prohibiting all unsanctioned camping, starting with clearing camps near “schools, medical facilities, shelters, ADA violators, and in camps located in higher-speed transportation locations.”
Other reads on policy
Georgia House passed a bill that requires health plans to “cover mental health and substance use treatment at the same levels as physical conditions.” The bill also incentivizes the training of mental health professionals and creates “co-response” teams with police officers and mental health professionals around the state.”
Research
Pollution and Mental Health
The new field of environmental justice has begun to systematically examine how different types of pollution affect our brains and our mental health.
About 40% of us live in counties with unhealthy levels of air pollution. And unfortunately, air pollution has been linked to numerous physical and mental illnesses including asthma, chronic bronchitis, cancer, depression, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. Research has also found that childhood lead exposure is a risk factor for anxiety, depression, and other mental health and behavioral health disorders.
But environmental justice is about more than just the link between pollution and our health: It is also about examining and uncovering the relationships between pollution and disenfranchised communities. For example, one study fund that “people of color in Pennsylvania were 61% more likely to live in a county with a ‘failing’ pollution grade”.
Other reads on research
A recent study found that many young Americans who overdosed on mental health medication had a recent prescription. This data may highlight the need for physicians to monitor high-risk youth.
Answer: We could not find a specific answer, but overall the federal government may allocate less than $3.5 billion. States, however, spend much more. For example, the 2021-2022 California budget allocates $10.7 billion to managing homelessness within the state.
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