2022 COMBAT Funding: $99,738.00

In reStart's Own Words

reStart, Inc. provides comprehensive homeless services at its 9th Street location in Kansas City, including vulnerability assessments, diversion, emergency shelter, family shelter, youth network services—youth emergency shelter, youth street outreach—Supportive Services for Veteran’s and Families, Healthcare for Homeless Veterans, Rapid Rehousing, and Homeless Prevention. In addition, clients have access to Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon.

COMBAT funds support a key staffing position within reStart, Inc.’s Substance Abuse Prevention program, which includes secondary and indicated prevention activities delivered across youth programming services offered at reStart’s emergency shelter. The full-time Prevention Specialist coordinates on-site and off-site substance abuse prevention education services, including:

• substance abuse education
• health and nutrition programming
• smoking cessation services
• Narcotics Anonymous
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• Al-Ateen groups, arts and recreation programming
• Service learning opportunities for participants in reStart’s Adult Emergency Shelter, adults and teens from the Family Emergency Shelter, Youth Emergency Shelter, Youth Transitional Living Program, and Youth Maternity Group Home

Vulnerable To Disorders

Domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, and parents with mental health issues are primary reasons why people become homeless. These experiences leave individuals experiencing homelessness especially vulnerable to substance abuse disorders.

Program strategies include:

• assessment
• case management
• education
• evidence-based curriculum and approaches
• enrichment activities
• and aftercare

These strategies are designed to help deliver the following outcomes for homeless individuals:

• reduced substance use
• improved attitudes
• knowledge and behaviors in pro-social behavior and life skills. 

Needs

Drug use for people experiencing homelessness is higher in comparison to their housed counterparts. The National Coalition for the homeless estimate that 38% of people experiencing homelessness are alcohol dependent and 26% are dependent on other harmful chemicals.  Substance Abuse and homelessness go hand-in-hand resulting in homelessness because of drug abuse or drug abuse as an end result of homelessness.    

In January 2020, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimated that 567,715 people are homeless on any giving night in the United States, a 2.7% increase from 2018.

At a minimum, 30% of people experiencing homelessness are seriously mentally ill, and 45% or 250,000 have some form of mental illness. The occurrence of mental illness among people that do not experience homelessness is 4.2%. The most common types of mental illness among people experiencing homelessness include depression and bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse disorders. It is estimated that 20-25% of people experiencing homelessness also have concurrent disorders (severe mental illness and addictions). 

It is estimated that 89.2% of people experiencing homelessness as well as mental health conditions are untreated.  

Due to the higher levels of substance abuse and mental illness, people experiencing homelessness are more likely to be incarcerated. In every state of the United States, more people with mental health conditions are arrested than hospitalized. A recent study found that 17.3% of prison inmates with severe mental illness were homeless prior to being arrested and 40% were homeless at one point in their lives, compared to 6% of undiagnosed inmates.  

People with mental illness are often trapped in the criminal justice system. People with severe mental illness go from homelessness, to substance abuse, and finally incarceration. From incarceration, people with mental illness are often released from hospitals and jails without proper community supports in place and the cycle repeats itself.  

People with mental illness experience homelessness for longer periods of time and have less contact with family and friends. In general, 30-35% of those experiencing homelessnes, and up to 75% of women experiencing homelessness have mental illnesses. 

According to “The Costs of Untreated Mental Illness in Kansas City” mental illness costs $625 million in hte city alone.  A study from the University of Pennsylvania found that allowing someone that is mentally ill to be homeless costs an average of $22,342 per year in outreach and public shelter services, psychiatric inpatient and outpatient care, and jail costs. In Jackson and Wyandotte (Kansas) Counties, it is estimated that almost 1,798 are homeless on any given night. This means that almost 450 people living on the streets are experiencing homelessness costing $10,067,400 in public resources. 

Identification with street culture includes engaging in accepted practices for earning money (such as panhandling), and developing strategies to prevent victimization.

Using, even abusing, substances is often viewed as “normal” by those identifying with street culture. Individuals experiencing homelessness report using drugs and alcohol as a coping strategy and often have more favorable attitudes toward drug use than their non-homeless peers.

Drug use is a common approach to numbing the daily experiences of life on the streets and alleviating the stress of street life and the negative emotional effects of traumatic experiences.

The stress resulting from sleeping outdoors and in public places may be alleviated or eased by using drugs and alcohol to keep warm and suppress hunger. Some drugs are used to help young people living on the streets stay awake for extended periods, especially at night when the chances of victimization increase. Drugs also provide a means of escape from the physical and emotional pain associated with surviving on the street.