Private caseworker?

October 16, 2021 2:09 PM

Is it possible to hire a service or person sort of like an independent social worker, who would have the appropriate expertise to try to help a specific houseless person get into housing, when city services are too overwhelmed to be able to do much? This is in San Francisco.

A houseless person is living in front of my friend's apartment and is causing substantial disruption and distress to my friend, unfortunately. Neither my friend nor I are willing to involve police; we just want to help this person get into supportive housing or similar. City case worker is already involved occasionally but has very limited options and very limited time. The houseless person speaks a language that my friend does not speak. Is there a service my friend can hire to try to get this person support and treatment?

posted by dreamyshade to Human Relations (6 answers total)

There are lots of private nonprofits, yes, but they aren't exactly for hire. You would want to find one that considers this person part of their target demographic. Do you know what language they are speaking, even to an approximation? Take a guess, and look for local community groups for that language/country/ethnicity, and contact them to ask for help for the guy.
posted by bashing rocks together at 2:30 PM on October 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

I think starting by figuring out the language the person is speaking is a good first step; from there you could likely find someone who I speaks that language. I think the most caring way to approach this would be to ask the person you hire to inquire if the individual desires assistance and if so what kind of assistance they would like (e.g. would they like help or a translator when trying to navigate the bus system, or communicate with city departments for services, or ________).
posted by arnicae at 3:37 PM on October 16, 2021

I don't know of private services that can be hired to do street outreach, which is what you're looking for in this case.

In other situations, there are private social agencies that can help. For example, there are services that can be hired to help provide practical support for an adult family member with mental health and/or substance abuse issues, at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

But in your situation, there is an unhoused person who needs to be convinced to engage with the system. They likely need an array of services, not just an apartment. Those services might include transitional shelter, substance abuse and/or mental health support, housing search services, etc. But the first step is convincing them to engage.

There are groups that do this sort of work. Even if you can't hire them, it could still be helpful to contact them and encourage them to help this person. For example, SFCCC Street Outreach Services, and the HSH Homeless Outreach Team. (I found those groups by DDGoing "San Francisco Street Outreach". I don't have any direct experience with them. They're just examples.)
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:18 PM on October 16, 2021

Street outreach is totally different than an independent caseworker solving a problem, and in general homelessness resources are specific and the pathways into programs are very very very narrowly defined. If it isn't someone's full time job to navigate this stuff, there are just things and time you will be spending to catch the person up on the current state of social services in your area. I wouldn't want to hire someone to work on a single case of homelessness who didn't have significant local experience doing so.

I'd recommend trying to get him connected with some of the agencies mentioned above, letting them know the the language he speaks.

Going from homelessness to housing can be an incredibly long process. It really really can be. Some of it is being connected to the right service at the right time, some of it is luck, some of it is remaining in contact with a service provider for long periods of time. Homeless people who don't establish a routine with a service provider are the ones who stay homeless the longest, because a service provider who finds a service for the person can't provide it if they have moved to another location etc and the process had to start all over again.

If you want to spend money at the issue, I suggest providing this person a phone (if they don't have one) or being a contact so that agencies and service providers can reach out to this person at will. There are programs that do help people get free phones but do require citizenship. Anyway, Having a reliable way to contact someone really really really helps service providers to be able to do their thing.

This is assuming that this person wants help or services, they may not.
posted by AlexiaSky at 4:53 AM on October 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yes. There are many social workers and counselors in private practice who would be willing to take on a case like this. The cost would be quite high as hourly rates in a place like San Francisco might be $200+ an hour, and the process of going from unhoused to stable housing is a complex one. If you are willing to spend that much money, it might make sense to take a "housing first" approach and just pay for the unhoused person's housing for a few months. Once housed they could then accesss substance abuse/mental health services (if needed) more easily. They also would likely qualify for SNAP benefits, Medicaid, and utility assistance, which are much easier to access with a permanent address.
posted by hworth at 12:13 AM on October 18, 2021

Response by poster: Oh yes, I understand that trying to support this person would be a very complicated and long process that would depend on how much the person is willing to engage. I was hoping to figure out how to find a person who knows what kinds of helpful things to try and can try them with a specific person (even if just a couple visits to attempt improvements like finding out whether the person has or wants a phone), in addition to the efforts of city services and nonprofits, since those resources seem stretched very thin and may not be able to try to engage with any specific person. It's ok, it's also helpful to know that what I had in mind isn't really a thing, and I appreciate the suggestions.
posted by dreamyshade at 8:45 PM on October 18, 2021