How To Bounce Back From Homelessness

Brad Pitt sported some new celebrity arm candy on March 16 when he attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Make It Right, the actor’s foundation to build new homes to combat homelessness in the lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, La. The 44-year-old star left Angelina Jolie at home, and was instead joined by former president Bill Clinton.

“We hope to see a huge change here in the next six months,” Pitt said. The Lower Ninth Ward is also the site of the Clinton Global Initiative University, a three-day series of workshops directed at college students to help devise solutions to global problems.

Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ homeless rate has surged to one in 25, nearly double what it was before the hurricane. But it doesn’t only take one of the greatest natural disasters in U.S. history for people to lose their homes. From the subprime mortgage crisis to the imminent recession, anyone can lose their home unexpectedly. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, each year between around 3.5 million people experience homelessness, and that number includes such celebrities as Jim Carrey, Daniel Craig, and Halle Berry, all of whom lived for some time without a place they could call home.

For homeless individuals with access to a housing subsidy, studies show they are 21 times more likely to remain stably housed. But being eligible for a subsidy—public housing agencies must provide 75 % of vouchers to applicants whose incomes do not exceed 30% of the area’s median—does not guarantee support. There are millions of eligible low-income families that are denied subsidies due to lack of funding.

So what can you do?

First, don’t stay on the street. Shelters these days often provide a lot more than just a cot and a warm meal. They also have staff counselors. “That’s the key step to turning the situation around,” says Carl Logan, an attorney specializing in poverty law based in Atlanta, Ga. “Accepting your need for help and proactively finding a shelter and a caseworker who will be your advocate is the single most important thing you can do. Pride can thwart even the most determined person from accessing available resources.”

Familiarize yourself with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the government branch dedicated to serving the homeless community. HUD can provide state specific information including housing counselors, listings of food banks, food stamps and health and dental services. But don’t wait until you’ve lost your home to contact HUD. The organization can also provide emergency assistance to help pay utility bills and legal assistance to strategize against foreclosure.

And always keep looking for assistance. The homeless community in San Francisco, Calif. just took a significant step towards returning to normalcy. In January, Google (GOOG) announced that it is offering lifetime phone numbers and voicemail for the city’s homeless population, enabling a homeless person to retrieve messages for his or her number from any phone. The phone number removes the stigma many homeless people encounter when seeking employment—what to put in the blank for contact information. An easy question for many to answer, but a near impossible one if you are homeless.