Case Study Of L. A. Family Housing

Criteria for Selection According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Community Planning and Development (2013), in January of 2013, over six hundred thousand Americans were homeless. Sixty-five percent of homeless individuals live in emergency shelters or temporary housing, while the other thirty-five percent are living in their cars, on the streets, or in abandoned houses, shops, and other buildings. When broken down into age groups, under eighteen, eighteen to twenty-four, and twenty-five and up, approximately twenty-three percent were under eighteen years old, ten percent were eighteen to twenty-four years old, and sixty-seven percent of the reported homeless individuals were twenty-five years old or older …show more content…
Family Housing (LAFH) is a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization whose mission is to “to help families transition out of homelessness and poverty through a continuum of housing enriched with supportive services” (2012). LAFH’s vision is to be frontrunners in putting an end to homelessness by providing resources and solutions to the population. LAFH strives to provide assistance and opportunities for individuals to find a home, whether it be temporary, transitional, or permanent. In addition, LAFH aims to address and break down barriers to homelessness by providing tools and on-site supportive services. Through collaborations and partnerships with outside organizations, LAFH is able to provide the community with the following …show more content…
From touring the LAFH facility, interviewing a staff member and clients of LAFH, and attending a meeting, I was very much able to identify the key concepts of community building and social change that LAFH is implementing in their organization. As discussed in class, Israel, Checkway, Schulz, and Zimmerman (1994) discuss the important roles health education and community empowerment play in individual and community control as well as social change. This article states that in order to properly educate, facilitators need to recognize the individual health behaviors and lifestyle choices in terms of their health status. Health educators need to take into account the social, structural, and physical factors that are found in the individual’s environment. Important environmental factors I noticed at LAFH include social support systems, employment and financial status, as well as stress. In order to guide clients out of homelessness, the staff at LAFH does a very good job at understanding the many barriers to community empowerment as well as provides ways to help clients feel empowered to create change in their