Application Nominated: Alleviating Homelessness Through Technology
Organization Name: BAHA (Bay Area Homeless Alliance)
Category: Government & Non-Profit Organizations
| Benefits | Importance | Originality | Success | Difficulty |
Long Summary
Please describe your application and the information technology used in conjunction with it. Please keep your language simple and your explanations non-technical.
The Bay Area Homeless Alliance (BAHA) is an innovative collaborative project that was established in an effort to create change through the collaboration of community efforts and the use of high technology throughout the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area. Community Technology Alliance of San Jose is the lead agency for the project.
BAHA's mission is to improve access to shelter, housing, support services, benefits, and employment for homeless individuals and families and those at risk of homelessness. To accomplish this, BAHA has created a regional information system using, Internet technology and state of the art telecommunications. It has supported the development of a human infrastructure of service providers and organizations working together, to ensure increased health and well-being of homeless and at risk individuals and families in the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The problem of homelessness extends across all nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. This is a geographic region the size of New Jersey. It impacts every region, ethnic group, and income class in the area. Homeless people include single men and women with alcohol or other drug problems, families rendered homeless by domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and/or poverty, individuals with mental health problems, homeless youth fleeing abusive families, veterans, and unhoused or ill-housed migrant workers. Homeless individuals and families and those at risk of becoming homeless, have multiple and complex service needs. Coordination among service providers is essential in serving those needs effectively. There are a number of dimensions in which BAHA's technology and organizational infrastructure have enhanced the regional effectiveness of services and access to services to homeless and at-risk people.
The collaborative has developed a Provider Library, an Internet-linked database of homeless service providers in all nine counties, a telecommunications system that provides toll free voice mail for homeless or at-risk persons and a Shelter Bed Hotline, a regional hotline of shelter bed availability throughout all nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Internet Web-Site (www.baha.org) contains a comprehensive regional database of information on homeless service providers throughout the Bay Area. This database is searchable by geographic location, category of service required and by keyword search. Information on services available throughout the region was previously nonexistent. Prior to the introduction of this project, information on homeless services in each county, was often fragmented and difficult to access. Information on the region was nonexistent. BAHA has created a truly regional information database linked to the Internet that is readily accessible to all free of charge. In addition to the Database, the Web-Site has a comprehensive "walk-through" on how to apply for limited SSI benefits. This is an incredibly complex and daunting benefits provision, which requires those individuals who wish to claim benefits, to have knowledge of what is available. Using the "walk-through" a service provider can help individuals through the maze of forms and procedures. Appropriate forms may even be downloaded from this site. Also available are comprehensive links to local, regional and national job sites to assist individuals find appropriate work.
The telecommunications system is made possible through a unique partnership involving private, nonprofit and faith-based organizations all working together under the umbrella of the Bay Area Homeless Alliance Project. Thanks to private donations of telecommunications systems by Octel Messaging Division of Lucent Technologies, Apex Voice Communications, Inc and WorldCom, Inc., and Active Voice, together with volunteers from the BAHA'I faith community, dozens of Bay Area social service agencies dispense seven-digit voice mail numbers where families, potential employers, landlords, schools and doctors can leave messages for homeless people to retrieve. The voice mail boxes are provided at no charge to homeless people and clients, who record their own outgoing messages, and can use the voice mail for up to 3 months (longer if circumstances require). Homeless people are no longer unreachable when opportunity knocks, with a job or housing, or when important personal information needs to be conveyed. The system is seamless and ensures that clients anywhere in a region the size of New Jersey can access their voice mail without incurring toll charges. The system also allows for a Shelter Bed Hotline which is a 1-800 toll free number which provides current information about shelter availability at certain shelters throughout the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area. Information including who the shelters serve, entry requirements, and location of the shelter can be obtained by calling a single memorable toll free number from anywhere in the region. 1-800 7 SHELTER.
BAHA acts as the communication and technological link for service providers across the region. It has been designed to be sufficiently flexible to incorporate future technologies as well as to connect with systems currently being tested in other cities. This innovative use of networking, technology and telecommunications greatly increases the scope and coordination of resources and support services available for clients to access. The coordinated network of service providers have been working together to develop protocols regarding confidentiality and the sharing of information to be applied uniformly across the region, and in providing a greater sense of security and dignity for those seeking assistance. BAHA has thus developed the first step of an integrated service system that will eventually allow for immediate, comprehensive analysis about service gaps, trends, outcomes, and which programs are successful, as well as those that are not, so that policy makers can address system-wide issues.
In addition to the technological infrastructure that has been established, a human infrastructure has also been created as individuals in the collaborating organizations come together to regionally solve problems and build trust, and to better coordinate efforts toward the mutual goal of increasing the health and well-being of individuals and families in the region. The Alliance consists of 54 collaborative partner agencies.
Benefits
Has your project helped those it was designed to help? In your opinion, how has it affected them? What new advantage or opportunity does your project provide to people? Has your project fundamentally changed how tasks are performed? In your opinion, have you developed a technology that may lead to new ways of communicating and processing information? What change might unfold?
BAHA has fundamentally changed the way in which homeless and at risk individuals and families interact with the community through the voice mail component, and the Provider Library has changed how service providers refer homeless and at risk clients to available services. The human infrastructure developed as a result of this project has changed the dynamics of service provision from local to regional and has developed a collaborative approach to problems that were previously handled in isolation from each other. A collaborative learning from each other's experiences has developed.
BAHA is achieving incredible results in helping the homeless and at-risk population find housing and jobs. In addition, it is returning to homeless individuals and families, a sense of belonging to the community and pride in being more self-sufficient. The voice mail is often the only contact a homeless person has with the community. "When you are homeless, where do you plug in your phone?" asked Jim, a 41 year old homeless, recovering drug abuser. "When you go for a job, you don't want them to know you're homeless because they frown on it." Imagine trying to find permanent housing or a job without a phone number to give to a potential landlord or employer. Voice mail is given to case managers at homeless shelters, employment programs, public schools and other social service agencies. Case managers meet with their clients to set goals - usually to find employment and/or permanent housing, but sometimes simply to maintain communication with medical service providers or their children's teachers. The client is then given a phone number that appears to the caller to be a home answering machine, personalized with the client's own message.
A regional shelter bed "hotline" has been created. Using a single memorable toll free number (1-800 7SHELTER) callers are asked to chose a county, then choose from several languages. They are then given information about the shelters available, the clients they serve and entry requirements to a particular shelter. This information is available 24 hours a day. The system allows agencies supplying the information to either remotely record prompts directly into the system or have calls bounced to a live case worker.
The Provider Library has provided a fast and accurate way for service providers and homeless people alike to retrieve information on desperately needed services at a given geographic site or anywhere within the whole region. Prior to this project, approaches to addressing homelessness where local and often fragmented leading to redundant efforts, inaccurate data collection due to multiple databases being used and inefficiencies in time spent collecting and managing multiple databases. The Provider Library available on the Internet is a simple way to distribute widely, the information residing in a single database. Previously, service providers had to rely on paper directories to assist their clients. These directories were often out of date and were local to the service provider. The "on-line" Provider Library allows a service provider to access accurate and up-to-date regional information. This is now "one-stop information gathering." Service providers no longer rely on these bulky, hard copy, out-dated directories and are moving toward a new more accurate way to process information in order to better assist their homeless and at risk clients.
While the project has not developed a new technology as such, it employs existing technology in a new and innovative way to better serve the community. The successes attributed to this project have resulted in the collaborative agreeing to investigate the use of the infrastructure developed to expand the database to cover all health and human services and to link the database with a standardized intake and tracking process on a regional level. This will, we think, be unique and could be used as a model for the rest of the country.
Importance
How did information technology contribute to this project? Describe any new technologies used and/or cite innovative uses of existing technology. For example, did you find new ways to use existing technology to create new benefits for society? Or, did you define a problem and develop new technology to solve it? How quickly has your targeted audience of users embraced your innovation? Or, how rapidly do you predict they will? Does your work define new challenges for society? If so, please describe what you believe they may be.
Information Technology is at the very core of the project. Telecommunications technology has been used to develop the seamless voice mail and Shelter Bed Hotline system and the Internet used to develop our regional Provider Library.
Most voice mail systems are used for private business communication rather than for serving the community. BAHA has introduced a seamless infrastructure for assisting homeless and at-risk individuals and families that is robust and streamlined. Using state- of-the-art voice mail systems, BAHA has created a unique partnership between private, nonprofit and faith-based organizations to bring a communication tool that is easy to use to those who need it. The project simplifies complex systems. Menus have been simplified and specialized telephone carrier trunk lines (Direct Inward Dialing) simulate personal home answering machines. Compatibility issues have been overcome between the different systems used, and systems have been strategically placed throughout the region (the approximate size of New Jersey) to ensure that no toll charges are incurred to a homeless person accessing their voice mail. A memorable 1-800 number has been used throughout the entire San Francisco Bay region for shelter bed information.
The Provider Library uses existing relational database management systems and links them to the Internet. By employing advances in Web technology the project has been able to utilize interactive Web pages which allow the information on the Form to be used to dynamically query the back end database program. Platform independent Java scripts have been used to perform processing of the return database information at the client/Browser side, not the Web Server side. The project developed a sophisticated search engine, which allows querying of the database at various levels of information such as "all counties", "several counties", "single county" and can search down to the fifth level of detail, or multiple categories to the second level.
The target audience has been homeless and at-risk individuals and families and those agencies or service providers set up to assist with homelessness issues. Both have wholeheartedly embraced all aspects of the project. The impact that voice mail has had on clients has been phenomenal. The number of voice mail boxes issued has continued to increase as case workers report on success stories of clients finding housing or jobs as a direct result of having access to voice mail. The Provider Library is growing in popularity as more and more service providers and clients are discovering its capabilities. Since the creation of the search engine enabling interactive searches, there has been a marked increase in the web site traffic.
The project fundamentally changed how service providers deliver services and how homeless people are perceived by potential landlords and employers. The project has seen a flowering of a movement toward regional, harmonized action among governments, nonprofit homeless service providers, advocates, funders, the private sector, and homeless people, to alter the regional system that allows homelessness to flourish in the San Francisco Bay Area, while at the same time giving immediate relief to homeless people. The technology for this project and the human infrastructure seizes the opportunity to implement the changes and improvements that the technology has made possible.
Originality
What are the exceptional aspects of your project? Is it original? How? Is it the first, the only, the best or the most effective application of its kind? How did the project evolve? What is its background?
BAHA is exceptional and original because it is a large, multi-county, public-private collaborative that works. The sheer size and scope of the project coupled with the degree of outreach undertaken make this a revolutionary approach to the way in which the problem of homelessness is tackled.
The project grew out of The Bay Area Regional Innovative Homelessness Initiative. This initiative supported efforts to demonstrate comprehensive federal/local/private sector solutions for achieving major reductions to homelessness. In addition to local solutions, the initiative's goals were to find regional solutions that removed jurisdictional barriers.
Lack of communication and information capacity have been major impediments to the effective assistance of homeless people throughout the region. BAHA confronted these major challenges in a uniquely collaborative way. Community Technology Alliance in San Jose acted as a Central Hub in a nine county, 54 nonprofit agency collaboration. Hub agencies were chosen in each county to lead the local implementation of all aspects of the project's work. Each county Hub then selected 5 Remote Sites to follow through and continue the outreach necessary. A network of collaborating agencies was thus developed. Private sector companies were included with such companies as Lucent Technologies, Octel Messaging Division, Apex Voice Communications Inc., WorldCom, Inc., and Active Voice providing the voice mail systems and 3Com. providing networking equipment. Federal and local government participation and funding was made available as well as private Foundation funds. 54 nonprofit agencies form the infrastructure and the BAHAI' faith community plays a major partnership role in helping homeless and at risk populations access voice mail. Collaboration on this scale involving diverse communities in rural counties like Napa and Sonoma to very urban counties like San Francisco, Alameda and Santa Clara is extremely challenging given the different needs and priorities across the region coupled with the many jurisdictions involved.
The sophisticated technology in use on this project has been specially designed and refined to be user friendly to both the homeless population and the nonprofits that serve them.
Success
Has your project achieved or exceeded its goals? Is it fully operational? How many people benefit from it? If possible, include an example of how the project has benefited a specific individual, enterprise or organization. Please include personal quotes from individuals who have directly benefited from your work. Describe future plans for the project.
BAHA has far exceeded the projects expectations. In Santa Clara County, which was one of the first voice mail systems to come on-line, 331 homeless people used the voice mail system and just over sixty percent of those users achieved their primary goal of finding permanent housing or a job. Almost all achieved these goals within three months of having access to the system. With the phased introduction of voice mail throughout the Bay Area we currently have over 2000 voice mailboxes allocated. This number is growing daily.
The voice mail component was brought on-line in a phased manner over the period of the project. Eight of the nine counties are now served and the ninth is expected to be fully operational by January 1999. Covering a geographic region the size of Connecticut with a network of voice mail systems that serve homeless and at risk populations without recourse to toll charges together with a Shelter Bed Hotline that is regional throughout all nine counties is an amazing achievement in itself. The Shelter Bed Hotline received over 10,000 calls in 1998. With the phased expansion into all nine counties of the Bay Area we expect these numbers to drastically increase.
The Provider Library database is fully operational and allows for immediate and accurate retrieval of information on a regional basis not just a local one. The website gives consumers more options in service delivery, prevents duplication of effort by providers, and allows for increased inter-county collaboration. The collaborative effort of putting together the site has already resulted in a better understanding and greater acceptance of the role of technology in streamlining and enhancing the provision of services to homeless individuals and families. It has changed the way that service providers serve the homeless population.
From April to September 1998, over 1300 people were referred to housing and over 250 actually received housing, over 1500 were referred to jobs and almost 600 obtained a job as a direct result of using the system.
At 61, David is not the stereotypical homeless American. He has over 40 years of experience in retail management, but when his wife developed cancer and died, David found his safety net had been used up in medical expenses. David arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area with $1,000 in his pocket. With the fair market rent in Santa Clara County at $922 month, David soon found himself homeless. He could not find a job without a phone number or address to leave a potential employer, and could not find housing without an income. With the assistance of a case manager and the use of the project's computer at one of the BAHA Remote sites, he prepared and distributed over 40 resumes. Using the voice mail allocated to him by the case manager he was able to check messages from prospective employers. David reported that "having the voice mail gave me a sense independence and a sense of security. At that point it was the only way I had to contact the outside world. It's very hard to explain to someone who's never been homeless - you are kind of a nothing!" Lynn, a disabled homeless mother of three commented that "having our own private voice mail box helped us immensely because landlords heard my voice, not some motel operator and/or our friends' answering machine. This service also kept me in touch with my three sons' schools and doctors."
Future plans for the project include a major expansion of the Provider Library database to include all health and human service sectors, not just those relating to homelessness. In addition, the project hopes to pilot a standardized intake, assessment, and tracking system covering the whole Bay Area. Additional outreach and technical assistance as well as expansion of the remote sites in each county are also planned. With these enhancements we will approach the ability of the private sector to integrate all sources of data, text, transaction and voice into a simple easy to use system.
Difficulty
What were the most important obstacles that had to be overcome in order for your work to be successful? Technical problems? Resources? Expertise? Organizational problems? Often the most innovative projects encounter the greatest resistance when they are originally proposed. If you had to fight for funding, it would be useful to include a summary of the objections you faced and how you overcame them.
A project of the size and scope of BAHA had numerous obstacles to overcome. These ranged from obtaining matching funds for the federal dollars received, obtaining funding in order to sustain the project, technical problems and organizational problems.
As is the case for all nonprofit organizations, funding is an ongoing problem. Our original project involved an additional element relating to the creation of a Confidentiality and Civil Rights Protocol for sharing data on homeless populations. This element of the project had to be dropped given the funding shortfall. The Central Hub for the project is located in the heart of Silicon Valley (San Jose) and the project started with an expectation that donations of computer equipment would not be too difficult to obtain. These expectations proved overly optimistic, and some funding had to be diverted to purchase necessary computer equipment.
The project was originally conceived in 1996 as a "Frame Relay" network. By the time the project got off the ground we discovered that Internet Web technology had advanced to a point where we could do everything we had planned for a "hard-wired" system, faster and cheaper by use of the Internet. During the early part of the project, the technology was changing so fast that we found the ground constantly moving under our feet and it became a challenge to keep abreast of all the technological advances being made and making best use of these advances. Expertise on databases and in particular search engines is hard to find and expensive. We took advantage of our geographic location in the heart of Silicon Valley and tapped into expertise in the University system. We entered into a partnership with San Jose State University to use student interns in the MIS field and used faculty expertise to help us solve some of the more complex technical issues.
Making high technology tools available to a population that is least likely to know about, understand the workings, or the valuable possibilities of the technology in serving a high-risk population has been extremely difficult. This places an even greater reliance on training, technical cooperation and outreach.
The major obstacle was however organizational. It is hard enough to develop working collaboratives within one geographic area and jurisdiction, but it is even harder when a project encompasses nine counties, numerous jurisdictions and tries to bring together over 50 nonprofit agencies that serve different clients and have never worked together before. With persistence and patience we were able to develop a mutual trust within the collaborative and an understanding of each other's points of view. Our rural and urban priorities and differences added to the dynamism of what we have achieved.
Produced by Community Technology Alliance
115 East Gish Road, Suite 222
San Jose, CA 95112
Tel: 408-437-8800 Fax: 408-437-9169
Copyright © 2008 - All Rights Reserved
