Homelessness occurs due to a profound catastrophic loss of relationship. Without supportive relationships, those who lose their home struggle to navigate relief systems, submit to destructive survival tactics, and deteriorate mentally and physically, eventually accepting instability, lack of purpose and disconnection as normal.

Yes. But those are also challenges for many members of our community who never become homeless. The difference between a person whose job loss, addiction, mental illness, etc. results in homelessness and the person experiencing the same challenges who never loses housing is usually a support system with the resources and ability to intervene. 

Familial and other supportive relationships break down for many reasons.  Generations of poverty and high costs of living leave some families under-resourced to intervene in meaningful ways.  Many people are ill-equipped to deal with the complex disabilities of a family member and public interventions can be difficult to navigate. People with disabilities, who have depended on family their whole lives, may lose housing when their supporters die and no one can replace them. Kids who grew up in foster care may have never known or had a healthy relationship with a family; yet, when they turn 18, they are held to the same expectations as those who have never been disconnected from family. Elderly persons who pass their working life, find themselves on limited income and experiencing deteriorating health may not have children or spouses willing and able to get involved. Families can also be a source of trauma for people, which sometimes makes homelessness a healthier scenario than accepting help that would keep someone housed. 

All in all, many members of any community experience catastrophis issues like the loss of income, substance abuse struggles, mental health problems, etc., and never experience homelessness. In general, people who suffer these problems and fall into homelessness generally do so because they have no supportive relationships to provide the safety net that can ultimately prevent the fall into homelessness. 

No. Approximately 8% of people in a given community experience homelessness at least once in their lifetime. For most, it occurs a single time and never happens again. Generally, about 30% of those who become homeless get stuck in a cycle that lasts a year or more, sometimes decades. These folks often have serious and complex disabilities that make it difficult for them to regain and maintain stable housing without support. Once a person loses their permanent address, it becomes extremely difficult to apply for and keep a job. Living outdoors also exacerbates otherwise manageable health conditions, and predisposes people to other debilitating injuries. 

• 42% experience ongoing health problems
• 36% live with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• 47% experience serious mental illness
• 15% have a traumatic brain injury
• 21% were in special education classes as a child
• 68% report four or more adverse childhood experiences

Physical and mental struggles, combined with lack of housing and breakdowns in family/supportive relationships does lead to substance abuse in about 38% of the population (SAMHSA).

Lack of relationships for a person with physical or mental limitations does not mean they need to live endlessly in a shelter on the theory that they will someday turn the corner to self-sufficiency. Neither does it mean they need or desire the intensity of 24-hour care, such as a group home or assisted living. If anything, part of the challenge of housing chronically homeless neighbors is that they have been over-institutionalized, living large portions of their lives in jail, hospitals or shelters. In order for these neighbors to live successfully in our community and have a chance at living at their highest potential, there needs to be a housing solution that mirrors the kind of opportunities a person might have if they were being cared for by a close friend or family member.

The Fredericksburg region’s current approach to homelessness largely depends on placing people into scattered site apartments with short-to-long term rental subsidies and accompanying case management. It is rooted in a proven initiative called Housing First, which gained notoriety across the U.S. in 2006. It has successfully demonstrated that people are more likely to achieve stability when basic human needs, including food, housing and safety are accessible FIRST and without precondition (such as sobriety, mental health treatment or employment). 

Yes. A Housing First approach has held the annual census of homeless persons at approximately 200 people on a given night, despite the Fredericksburg region being the second fastest-growing region in Virginia. Within two years of housing placement, 88% of those housed out of homelessness do not return to the street or a shelter (Fredericksburg Regional Continuum of Care). Because of housing-focused efforts targeted to the most vulnerable and those who have spent the most time on the street, local chronic homelessness has also seen a 56% decline since 2010.

Our vision for a Jeremiah Community does not seek to replace long-time, effective Housing First strategies. It seeks to add and enhance the options available for those with the most complex needs. 

The Jeremiahs of our community frequently struggle in new ways when removed from their street community and faced with the added responsibilities of living indoors. In absence of solutions that provide appropriate housing and community, neighbors who have survived the unthinkable on the streets sometimes turn up dead and alone after just a few short months in an apartment. The same four walls that prevent frequent jail and hospital visits bring about such debilitating loneliness and isolation that people deteriorate in ways they never would have while homeless. After years of living on the street, our neighbors remain stuck in survival mode even after moving indoors. In following old patterns and staying connected to destructive circles they even give up and return to the woods or sabotage the positive steps they’ve taken out of fear of losing it all again. To truly overcome chronic homelessness, a person must think of home as a matter of community; that home is about belonging, connectedness, shared burdens and relationships.

In short, Jeremiah community will add affordable units, single-site support, and the ability for people to have their own space while still being part of a community. 

While Micah has leveraged multiple funding sources and mainstream housing resources for many years, rising rental costs and limited stock has made it challenging to find new units in the existing market. Many units on the more affordable end of the market have been absorbed by people who have found the unit through a Housing First intervention and remain stably housed because of it. A Jeremiah Community will create much-needed housing stock in our community, specifically units targeted to the unique needs of chronically homeless neighbors. 

The Housing First model, thus far, has also relied on mostly scattered housing sites. The volume of people with complex needs who are now housed has become increasingly difficult to manage with the highest quality of support when case managers have to travel from site to site and the unique needs of this population does not fit easily into existing neighborhoods. In addition to consolidating support services, a Jeremiah Community will significantly enhance the opportunities for formerly homeless neighbors to be part of a community, have neighbors with shared experiences, and participate in activities that give them joy and encourage a future orientation. 

An added complexity in the current model is that roommate situations are often the only way individuals can find and afford units sustainably. While there are many benefits to shared housing, it does add additional concerns for people who are overcoming trauma, have complicated interpersonal skills and other social challenges. A Jeremiah Community would allow people to have their own separate living space. 

Experience tells us that chronically homeless neighbors have difficulty navigating the geography of shared walls. Apartment-style units may seem easier and more cost-effective to develop, but that doesn’t mean it is the right type of housing for everyone’s needs.

Once someone is in permanent housing, they are no longer homeless. The shared trauma of losing housing and surviving together on the street or in shelters, however, often creates a natural connection between current and formerly homeless neighbors. While intentional separation merges them back into mainstream society, it also removes them from natural support of the current and formerly homeless community they have come to rely on. Sometimes it is the only community they have; and their unique needs often limit their ability to form similar bonds in the neighborhoods they move into. By contrast, a community comprised of people with shared experiences has a unique ability to welcome that uniqueness and create understandings that matter in the long-term journey toward full potential. Micah’s Street Church, an ecumenical congregation of no walls, is one such example of a community that has formed under the Micah umbrella that caters to the unique needs of current and formerly homeless neighbors. 

While mixed-income communities are a long advocated strategy for deconcentrating poverty, expanding job opportunity, decreasing crime and advancing social mobility, this age-old philosophy assumes there are no positive impacts of people living among others with a shared economic background. There are existing social networks in many communities. Where money does not flow freely, relationships often allow people in these communities to survive.  There is little to no evidence that moving lower-income persons into middle and upper class neighborhoods will bridge social networks across class differences. In fact, there is greater evidence that these efforts further isolate people of lesser means and advance stereotypes among those who are more well-off. If mixed income is what is desired, there is greater argument that those of greater means who genuinely care about those living in poor and formerly homeless communities would choose to live among them, learn from them, love them and empower them to channel their own gifts and resources into solutions that change their trajectory.

Our experience and data shows us that the support and services Micah Ministries offers has not made Fredericksburg a “magnet” destination. The majority of the population we serve were born in the region or have family roots in the region. Our data shows us that most of the population we serve identified the Fredericksburg region as “home” before they began experiencing homelessness. Some of our population returned to our region because it is where they graduated high school or because of a promise of stability (i.e. housing with a friend, job, family) that brought them back to Fredericksburg.

To ensure that Jeremiah Community is addressing the problem of chronic homelessness in Fredericksburg, we will require potential residents to demonstrate proof of homeless dwelling for at least one year within the Fredericksburg region.

Housing alone will never solve homelessness, but community will. Most often, we find people on the streets who have a regular, albeit dysfunctional, community, even though they have no houses or shelter to live in. So the fundamental component that human beings need is human interaction, and human interaction occurs within community.

It’s all about relationships. Micah desires to create a life-sharing community where people live affordably, have purpose, and grow meaningful relationships. A Jeremiah community will achieve this vision with a relational approach for connecting with our homeless brothers and sisters, instead of a transactional approach. When we bring an individual into community with others, we truly begin to make a sustainable impact on their lives.

After almost two decades of caring for street neighbors, Micah has developed a holistic ministry that cares for nearly every aspect of people’s lives. In many ways, our organization has all the components (i.e. income development, housing, spiritual care, basic needs assistance, connection to community resources, relationships) we would imagine in a standalone community, if it existed. Those components, however, are currently just scattered.  As we have learned the stories of our neighbors and understood the kind of care that will help them reach their full potential, we have realized how much some of our current and formerly homeless really need to live in a community that looks out for all aspects of their lives. As we began our research and developed a vision, we also learned that other communities that work with the street and chronic homeless have come to similar conclusions. We have borrowed what we can from other models and added our own touches to create a vision for what this community might mean to the Fredericksburg region. That vision is what we call a Jeremiah Community. 

Jeremiah Community is an evolution of a traditional Housing First model, which believes an individual must first be adequately housed before important lifesaving services such as drug and alcohol rehabilitation would be most effective. To go through rehab or receive other vital services only to be released back onto the streets is often counterproductive. Micah has taken this approach a step further by emphasizing community and relationships in all that we do.

Micah maintains long-standing partnerships with a variety of substance abuse resources, including outpatient and inpatient programs as well as community-centric supports such as Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous. When neighbors in Jeremiah Community are ready to engage with those supports, we are prepared to connect them to the appropriate intervention. The added advantage for a person seeking recovery while living in Jeremiah Community is that they can return from treatment to a loving place full of people committed to supporting their journey, rather than an empty house and newfound disconnection from the people, places and things that were bringing them down.