Iain De Jong

Iain has held senior management and professional positions in government, non-profits and the private sector. He has also been a high school teacher in Oakland, California; a community-development worker in St. Lucia; a chaplain in a mental health facility in Toronto; and, a community-organizer in various communities throughout Canada and the United States. Iain joined John at the helm of OrgCode late in 2009. In addition to his work with OrgCode, Iain holds a part-time faculty position in the Graduate Urban Planning Programme at York University, and the emphasis of his teaching and research pertains to housing, homelessness, community development, public participation, social determinants of health, urban and community planning, and, applied social policy.

Setting the Tone for Successful Home Visits

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Jan 022013

Once an individual or family has been accepted into a housing support program, the support worker (aka case manager) must work to set the tone for successful home visits. This starts with the very first visit. Practicing the tips below consistently – right from the beginning – and communicating these expectations to the people you are supporting results in more focused interactions and better case management results. Be on Time & Stay on Time The home visit is a professional interaction with a client. For the home visit to be taken seriously and to reduce missed visits, from the very start it is critical that the support worker is on time. Time management and not trying to see too many clients in any given day is essential to ensure being on time more often than not. At the beginning of the home visit it is also important to outline how much time you have for the interaction that day. These will vary in length depending on the amount of material to be covered off during the visit. Once you lay out the time for the visit, do not exceed it. Outline Your Objectives for the Visit at the Beginning A home visit is a highly structured conversation in the case management process. It is NOT a matter of showing up, checking in or just seeing how they are doing. It is a purposeful meeting to advance the case plan. At the beginning of the home visit, remind the client of [...]

Mental Illness — Language & Perceptions

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Dec 152012

I am writing this blog on the day of the tragic shooting deaths of 20 children and eight adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Like so many incidents over the past year (and before), this is an atrocious event that leaves us searching for answers. I am experiencing a mixture of both sympathy and utter disgust. But, I am also feeling anger towards the extensive media coverage that was generated by the event. In the papers, blogs, news coverage, television discussion, etc. – I have repeatedly heard the mental status of the shooter reported in the most derogatory manner. It may well be that the compromised wellness of the 20 year-old, young adult who perpetrated the shooting contributed to his decision and actions. But, all mental illnesses are not the same. It is like saying that all physical illnesses are the same and clearly they are not. The use of the broadest terms to describe someone’s purported mental state without addressing the type of illness, the impacts of that illness, the treatment options, the access to treatment, potential medications for the mental illness (and the implications of medications), etc. is inflammatory and disrespectful of millions of people around the world who live with mental illness. It doesn’t advance the education about what mental illness is and how best to support individuals and families that are impacted by mental illness. This level of reporting and dialogue takes us backwards in our thinking and perceptions of mental illness. [...]

Make a More Lasting Impact on Homelessness & Housing This Holiday Season

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Nov 202012

This holiday season I am making a plea that well-intentioned people do more than make a financial contribution to a homeless serving agency, or donate a non-perishable food item to a food bank, or volunteer at a community meal. The spirit of giving this time of year is dandy, but I know that many people want to do more…they just don’t know what to do. Here are some ideas: Do something for the staff in non-profits working to end homelessness and support people in housing. These are the unsung heroes in each community. The general community does lots for their clients during the holiday season. But I’m asking you to do something tangible for the staff in these non-profits that support those clients day after day. These folks chose to work in a non-profit. For that, already, they should be commended, most often choosing (yes, choosing) a lesser wage in return for greater social good. You could: Send them a note signed by all the people you work with or socialize with or worship with (or all three) thanking them for what they do day in and day out. Get enough movie gift cards for all the full time staff so that they can be treated to a night out at some point during the year. Sponsor a thank-you lunch for them in, like, February. More impactful? Have all the people you work with serve them lunch. Create a mentorship collaborative or learning community with people who work in the [...]

Does Everybody that Experiences Chronic Homelessness Need Permanent Supportive Housing?

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Nov 052012

I have heard many well-intentioned service providers speak of Permanent Supportive Housing as the only housing option for persons that have experienced chronic homelessness. Permanent Supportive Housing is an important housing option for all communities to have, and many persons that have experienced chronic homelessness may choose this option. But let me repeat: may choose this option. Let us also be clear about chronic homelessness and use the HUD definition: An unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has either been continuously homeless for a year or more OR has had at least four (4) episodes of homelessness in the past three (3) years. The individual must have been on the streets or in an emergency shelter (not transitional housing) during these episodes. Where there is error is thinking that Permanent Supportive Housing, whether it is through a scattered-site model of supports or a congregate model of supports, is the only housing model that will work for people that have experienced chronic homelessness. That type of mentality reinforces a housing placement mindset rather than a housing choice mindset. If we believe in client-centered service delivery then we need to wrap our heads around what it means to offer meaningful choices, not on thinking we know what is best for the people that we serve. A 2007 study examined what Housing First means to people served through a Housing First program. It shows a very strong relationship between housing satisfaction and whether the individual felt they had a choice in [...]

Be Grateful

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Oct 102012

At one point in my life I was an angry practitioner. Why? I spent pretty much all my time frustrated about what I could not do or things I could not control instead of grateful for what I could do. I had to learn to change my perspective to one that embraced gratitude. For example: I’d dwell on the past and live in history or find myself anxious about the future rather than focusing on the present, yet the present is where I can exercise the greatest influence. When clients lost their housing I’d think of the housing work of our program as a failure rather than being grateful that there was an opportunity to learn and re-house the person. I’d lament external reviewers of the program rather than being grateful that there was another set of eyes that could offer a different perspective. I’d get lost in despair about the poverty that people experienced, rather than being grateful that they could be housed and still be poor rather than living in economic poverty and still being homeless. When my staff team seemed to be less energized I’d get frustrated with what I saw sometimes as weakness or apathy, rather than being grateful that some of the most talented people I had ever met were sticking with the work during the low times and that I had the opportunity to express my gratitude for all that they do and re-energize them. When people would ask pointed questions about why housing [...]

Therapeutic Incarceration

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Oct 032012

A dozen times in the past few weeks I have found myself speaking about therapeutic incarceration. It has nothing to do with jails or prisons. It is about how some homeless and housing service providers treat their clients. I didn’t coin the term (see The Therapeutic Incarceration of Homeless Families Naomi Gerstel, Cynthia J. Bogard, J. Jeff McConnell and Michael Schwartz Social Service Review Vol. 70, No. 4 (Dec., 1996), pp. 543-572) though I wish I had. And it sounds like something I would say. When I use the term, I am talking about those non-profit (and sometimes government) programs that go out of their way to hold onto the households that they serve. They smother them with service plans more oriented on trying to heal or fix people that trying to house and support them regardless of their imperfections. They keep them in life skills programming, for example, refusing to talk about housing options until they have demonstrated success in the program. Or they have them stay in a compliance-based a transitional housing model. Or they keep providing case management services to them years from when they first encountered them, unfortunately (naively?), thinking that their supports are necessary to keep them housed. News flash – and it can suck to hear – that ain’t what the job is supposed to be. When it is more about our desire to hold onto people then it is wrong. When we think we can intervene to prevent any mistakes from happening, then [...]

The “Yes, buts…”

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Sep 212012

“I agree with prioritizing clients being a better practice than first come first, served, but I think our staff will have too hard of a time with that.” “I agree with focusing on housing stability before launching into a complete case plan, but our clients really need longer case management before they are ready to be housed.” “I agree with the idea of working with a smaller group of people really intensely to solve their homelessness, but our funders want to see high numbers of people we interact with.” “I agree that we should know the difference our program makes in people’s lives, but we don’t have the time nor are we required by our funders to track those types of changes.” “I agree that we should spend time talking about how to better work like a system, but our CoC thinks they already do that really well.” “I agree that we need to have an assessment tool, but youth are too different from other populations to be assessed.” “I agree that publicly reporting how we are doing relative to targets would be helpful, but our staff would freak out.” “I agree that we should offer person-centred services, but there are some administrative things that we are required to do that makes that impossible.” “I agree that we should be non-judgmental and meet people where they are at, but people need to be sober for at least 7 days before they can really make a decision about housing.” “I agree [...]

“We are Not Venture Capitalists”

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Aug 222012

This is a quote written on a white board in the office of a Continuum of Care that I am doing some work with. I saw it on a recent visit and loved it. In some way, shape or form I think all of us that have worked as a funder in our career have had similar experiences with people calling out of the blue looking for money to open a shelter or start an outreach program or begin a meal program or build housing or start a drop-in or something similar. When I was a funder working in government it would seem that once or more per month I’d get a call or email from some organization or person I had never heard of seeking funds for a housing or homeless program. I don’t know enough about the people who make these calls out of the blue to form a comprehensive opinion, but for the sake of argument, let us assume that they are well-intentioned and mean well, but generally without extensive (or any) experience in delivering homeless and housing services. I think the fact that calls are received seemingly out of nowhere by people and organizations that have no real experience in receiving funds or delivering programs says a lot about service provision to people that experience homelessness. Allow me to make five very general observations about what this may mean: The “Outside World” doesn’t see what is happening in homeless and housing service delivery as a professional [...]

Home Making

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Jul 232012

Home Making In the effort to end homelessness, it has been my experience – generally speaking – that getting chronically homeless people into housing is the easy part. Providing the supports to help them stay there is the harder part. Here are a few tips that frontline workers can consider when supporting people in their apartment unit to help with the transition of a blank apartment into a place that feels like home. Positive reinforce the housing choice. On the day of move in, meet the person moving in at least one hour before you are supposed to meet the superintendent for getting the keys and moving in. One, this will reduce the likelihood of the person disappearing. Two, if you are even earlier than you said you would be when you show up at the encampment of shelter, you can tell the person that you are early because you are so excited about them moving in. Before they set foot at the building, take the time to engage in positive reinforcement. Let the genuinely know that you think this is a great step for them. Let’s say the apartment is downtown and that was one of the most important criteria in the housing search, reinforce how amazing it is that you were able to find a place that was close to downtown. Let’s say they wanted a smaller place so that it would be easier to clean, before you set foot in the unit talk about how glad you [...]

You Are Awesome – The Making of a Video Tribute

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Jul 092012

On July 5, 2012 we released a video tribute to all those housing workers that are working tirelessly to end homelessness. The making of the tribute is the focus of this blog and a lesson in how leveraging social networks can help define the message. Since January I have been taking 5-10 second clips of video on my iPhone in various locations throughout North America. Anytime I saw a word or phrase or image that I liked, I recorded it. I didn’t know how it would possibly be used. I just kept shooting. I ended up with over an hour of material. That’s a lot when you consider that each clip is very short. About a month ago, I started the experimental phase of the project. I selected three people in various areas of North America that were friends of mine on Facebook. I asked each one, using only social media, to find out which phrases they had heard me say in speeches I had given in their community really resonated with people in their social network. A couple of points here: none of the “friends” I asked via Facebook were close friends in the more conventional sense; and, I knew full well that not everyone in their social network would have heard me speak. Anyway, through this process the text phrases that appear in the video were selected. The only thing I added was the “You are awesome” tag at the end of each one. I record many of [...]

You Are Awesome– A Video Tribute

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Jul 062012

View the video You Are Awesome —Dedicated to Housing Workers who Believe in Ending Homelessness Ending homelessness is possible when there are awesome, professional people dedicated to the task. This video is dedicated to those individuals. These people inspire me and I hold them in high esteem. … More to come detailing the video and the role that social media played in creating it. Watch the video You Are Awesome

Input from Persons with Lived Experience

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Jun 202012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:23 — 3.4MB)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:23 — 3.4MB) I think it is critical in Human Service delivery that time is spent speaking with recipients of services and benefits to hear directly from them. In the projects we have done – from homeless counts that use surveys to developing long term affordable housing strategies; program evaluations to redesigning income benefits; strategic planning to developing plans to end homelessness – we fundamentally believe that the voice of the consumer must be heard in legitimate, defensible ways to inform and empower end users of services. The adage “Nothing about us without us” from the psychiatric survivor movement rings very true in our work. Here are 12 tips to introduce/improve interactions with persons with lived experience in your work. 1. Have a research design. You can’t gather this sort of input and use it responsibly if you have not sorted out the methods by which you are going to gather information and the ethics involved in having people with lived experience involved. Just going out to talk with people is insufficient. How, when, where, why, who and what is spoken about are all essential questions that need to be answered before you start talking to people. 2. Seek informed consent. Just because someone has received a service from you doesn’t mean they have to talk to you. Same goes for someone who may be eligible for a service but has never accessed a service. People have to be able to provide informed consent to provide their input and for you to use it. It is ethically dubious [...]

Generating Data is Outstripping our Ability to Interpret It

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Jun 142012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:50 — 3.6MB)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:50 — 3.6MB) I was reading a newspaper article the other day about it now being possible to create the genetic map of an unborn child. Fascinating stuff. But there was one line in the article that really got me thinking about data more than genetics itself: “The capacity of genomics to generate data is outstripping our ability to interpret it in useful ways.” I don’t think this phenomenon is limited to genomics. I can think of lots of fields and industries and individual organizations that place a premium on collecting data but do not have the ability to interpret it in useful ways. Some errors that drive me around the bend: Data for data’s sake. I have encountered too many organizations where they jumped on the data bandwagon and collected oodles of info that they never use. They devote loads of time to data for data sake without doing anything with the data. Data should drive decisions and program improvements. Feeling. I once had a boss that used gut check and nothing else to see if he could use the data to tell the story he wanted to tell. Ugh. If ever the data collided with his world view he would either want to bury the data, have us re-run the analysis (which came up with the same conclusions time and again) or would challenge the methods of data collection (there was nothing wrong with the collection methods). We cannot shy [...]

POST HOC ERGO PROPTER HOC

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Jun 062012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:58 — 2.7MB)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:58 — 2.7MB) Welcome to today’s Latin lesson. “Post hoc ergo propter hoc” means “after it, therefore because of it”. It is the title of a West Wing episode from Season 1 (and you can watch the scene here where it is discussed). It also happens to be the sort of thing they teach you if you study logic and comes in handy if you love data and helping organizations improve services. In a nutshell, you can write up the formula like this: X happened, then Y happened Therefore, X caused Y You can also have people reverse elements of the equation. Let’s say it really sucks for Y to happen. In that case, if you avoid or prevent X then Y won’t occur. If you look just at the order of events rather than the influences on the events you can draw oodles of false conclusions. A temporal succession of events is not evidence of a causal relation. Does a rooster raising a cacophony just before the sun rises cause the sun to rise? A lot of times when engaged with people, there is a reliance on anecdotes to explain causation rather than examining influences independently. The problem with anecdotes (amongst many) is that they are open to subjective interpretation, have the bias of the anecdote teller, rely considerably on intuition and frequently ask the listener to believe based upon the existing relationship between anecdote-teller and anecdote-listener rather than facts. For [...]

Dealing with C.R.A.P.

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Jun 012012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:08 — 5.6MB)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:08 — 5.6MB) Want to make the world a better place? Want your organization to run more smoothly? Want to change the way people view their community or work environment? Be prepared for CRAP. CRAP = Criticism, Rejection, Assholes and Pressure Criticism…talk about a gift for people who believe it is better to give than to receive! One observation I have from the field and working with dozens upon dozens of communities – if you are being innovative people will ask what your evidence-base is; if you are drawing upon an evidence-base people will challenge whether that evidence rings true locally and will challenge you to be innovative. We need to balance innovation and evidence-informed service delivery. We need data to defend criticism from uninformed outsiders, but also be open to criticizing ourselves in the spirit of improvement. Criticism is normal. A bunch of “yes people” do not advance ideas or improvement. About the only type of criticisms that I reject are unsolicited ones based upon uninformed opinion and vague criticism that I don’t know how to interpret or put into actionable improvement. Rejection…often seen as the flipside of acceptance, one of the toughest lessons in my professional career has been not taking rejection personally. I have confused rejection with ostracism. Rejection happens both passively and actively…the former keeping me up at night and the latter sometimes raising my “fight or flight” response. I have come to expect that people will reject [...]

Health Needs and Permanent Supportive Housing

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May 302012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.7MB)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.7MB) Do all chronically homeless people have health issues requiring permanent supportive housing? No. But the design and delivery of PSH needs to heed the health needs of chronically homeless people, while avoiding the pitfalls of a solely medical model in service delivery. Homeless individuals have poorer health than the general population[1]. However, these individuals with poor physical and mental health and substance use issues can achieve stable housing[2]. Research from Toronto indicates that 72% of people in a Housing First program report improved physical health once moved into housing; however, while people with longer-term homelessness were likely to report improvements in mental health after moving into scattered-site housing with supports, they were less likely to report improvements in physical health[3]. There are statistically significant differences in self-reported physical health and self-reported mental health amongst homeless people, with homeless people fairing worse than the general population[4]. Length of homelessness has a direct link to the severity of the health issues, with people experiencing homelessness 5 or more years much more likely to have chronic health issues, and multiple chronic health issues much more prevalent amongst those homeless for a long time[5]. This would seem to suggest that PSH should first focus on those that have been homeless for longer periods of time with co-occurring health issues rather than focusing solely on health issues in the assessment. The various types of specific health issues confronted by homeless people are numerous. For example, cardiovascular disease [...]

The Difference Between That Which We Think and That Which We Know Is One of the Most Important Distinctions To Be Made

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May 232012

Kathryn Schulz is a “wrongologist”, with a stellar ability to explain why we shouldn’t regret regret and provides some very credible and compelling thoughts on being wrong. I am a fan. Her book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error is a terrific read and if you have never seen her TED talks, I recommend both. One of her quotes which I have used over and over again because of the brilliance of it is, “The miracle of your mind isn’t that you can see the world as it is. It’s that you can see the world as it isn’t.” People make mistakes. They should. Theories need to be tested and will frequently be wrong or prove something unintended. Being wrong doesn’t make someone a bad person. Being wrong, however, can hinder our ability to be better at our jobs and in our lives when we fail to make distinctions between what we think – sometimes are beliefs not backed up by facts – and what we know – things that can be proven. Over the past couple of decades being engaged with various social justice initiatives I have seen evidence over and over again that what we think is often different than what we know. The difference manifests itself in a couple of problematic ways. For one, there is a tendency to ignore knowledge when it flies in the face of what we think – on a personal, community or organizational level. For example, there is still a [...]

Back to Basics – What Exactly is Housing First & Rapid Re-Housing?

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May 152012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:16 — 8.1MB)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:16 — 8.1MB) A lot of the time I find “Housing First” and “Rapid Re-Housing” to be misused terms. Below I briefly outline the definitions and service components to each. When asked to assist organizations or communities realign their service delivery to be more effective or to evaluate their housing programs, this is the understanding of Housing First and Rapid Re-Housing that I try to generate awareness of in the community. As this is a blog and not a two or three day training seminar, I am focusing on hitting the high points. (Maybe some day I will find a publisher that will take me on to write the more exhaustive description, program examples, etc – but I digress.) As a philosophy housing first (intentionally a lower case “h” and lower case “f”) focuses on any attempt to help people who have experienced homelessness to access housing before providing assistance and support with any other life issues. In this orientation, the intervention of Housing First and Rapid Re-Housing both fit. Given housing is the only known cure to homelessness, the success comes with helping ideal candidates achieve the cure sooner rather than later. As an intervention Housing First is a specific type of service delivery. Delivered through Intensive Case Management or Assertive Community Treatment, fidelity to the core aspects of the service can be measured. Housing First is specifically not a “first come, first served” intervention. It intentionally seeks out chronically homeless [...]

There’s A Difference Between Wanting to End Homelessness and Committing to End Homelessness

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May 012012

If you work in the homeless service sector you should have a very simple career goal – to put yourself out of a job. I have this belief that homeless and housing support services exist to end homelessness. They don’t exist to make people in human services feel good about themselves. They don’t exist to cleanse the consciousness of corporations through their philanthropy. They don’t exist to keep government bureaucracies humming along. There is a difference between wanting to end homelessness and committing to end homelessness. If you want to do something, you may or may not achieve it, and likely only under certain favorable conditions. If you commit to do something you will have steadfast fixity of purpose. When the conditions are unfavorable you will be the catalyst to actively change those conditions, remaining solution-focused all the while instead of accepting barriers as immovable, intractable problems that get in the way of ending homelessness. Am I so naïve to think we will never need homeless shelters again? Heck no. But we will have a lot less of them and they will return to their original use – short term, infrequent stays to meet emergency needs. They will no longer be de facto housing. They will no longer be places that we load in program incentives that actually make it difficult to leave. I like to think of homeless shelters in the same way that I think of fire stations – I hope I never need the fire department, but [...]

Vacuum Sales and Organizational Reporting

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Apr 262012

When I lived in a Fine Arts Residence 20 or so years ago, I saw, heard and read all sorts of weird and wonderful things that I don’t think I would have ever experienced in any other setting. One of those experiences was a weekly group reading of Raymond Carver’s 1976 collection of short stories called Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? If you aren’t familiar with Carver, he is a rather gloomy, minimalist writer in the “New Realism” school. Time and location aren’t always clear in his short stories. So different than other literature I had been exposed to in high school, I really enjoyed Carver. One of the short stories contained within Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? is called Collectors. In a nutshell there is an unemployed guy waiting at home for mail to come (as I recall), and instead a door-to-door vacuum salesman arrives. My impression from the story is that the vacuum salesman knew that a sale was unlikely/impossible, yet he enters into the home and does the full vacuum demonstration anyway. It comes across as absurd – yet depressingly realistic – as the vacuum salesperson goes through the complete sales pitch, in what seems to take hours, to someone who will never buy the product. (There is even some confusion in the story as to whether the vacuum salesman is speaking with the right person.) A couple of paragraphs in, I suspect some of you are wondering what the heck this has to do [...]

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