This year, Stetson University’s annual Ending Poverty and Homelessness Conference called for solutions that require a trauma-sensitive approach.
On Friday, advocates at the event pushed for trauma-informed workers to help the most vulnerable and susceptible to these experiences, such Black or indigenous communities, as well as older adults, people with disabilities, children, and LGBTQ+.
Rajni Shankar-Brown is a professor at Stetson in DeLand and the event’s founder. She is also the President of the National Coalition for the Homeless Board and a United Nations partner.
She said homelessness and poverty are some of the worst forms of violence, and helping people out of these experiences will require systemic changes with a full set of tools to remain sustainable.
“If we are not trauma-informed in the work that we are doing, if we are not also focused on healing-centered engagement, we're not going to have the positive impact that we need to have in our world,” she said.
According to Shankar-Brown, families with children — largely single mother households — make up over 30% of homelessness and are significantly growing in Florida. Older adults above the age of 65 make up the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in the state.
She said social and economic disparities are compounded by climate change and extreme weather events. Living unsheltered, such as residing in the woods or living under a bridge, can have significant adverse effects on an individual's safety, physical and mental health, participation in life activities, and their life expectancy.
“In Florida, we have historic highs with heat, and we are losing more precious lives,” Shankar-Brown said. “When we talk about weather-related deaths, heat is actually the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S., but many times people don't have the fuller conversation of who are the people dying: people unsheltered, experiencing homelessness, who have no place to weather the weather.”
Lacking a trauma lens to assess care could be detrimental, she said, as workers try to lead recovered people into new cycles of prosocial behaviors, productivity, and healing.
Some speakers at the event included activists who’ve lived through foster care, rehab, and criminalization. But the healing-centered conversations were not limited to those who’ve lived through childhood trauma or the violence of poverty.
One of the main points at the conference was that healing is also important to sustain the work that people on the ground are doing to end poverty and homelessness cycles, as they are constantly exposed to secondhand trauma.
“So that we can prevent compassion fatigue, prevent burnout. Make sure people who are doing this work can do it for as long as they can, and show up every day, ready to go. Because it's not easy work. It is hard work,” Shankar-Brown said.
Anyone interested or who needs help can visit Stetson’s Poverty and Homelessness Conference information, resources, and tools guide.
Lillian Hernández Caraballo is a Report for America corps member.
