Stakeholders Of Homelessness

Discussion

The homelessness problem in communities across America is real and is certainly not an easy social problem to tackle (Howard, 2013). However, if a large city such as the City of New York that spending over a billion dollars a year in homeless shelter programs is having trouble funding the program and accommodating the ever-increasing homeless population, imagine the mission impossible facing smaller cities around the nation (Stewart, 2014). Although it is a fact that increasing funding for homeless service programs helps the effort to eradicated chronic homelessness, it is also true that cities across America are working with restricted budgets of their own (Moulton, 2013).
Therefore, what the future holds is that communities across
Most of those needs met by these two organizations include shelter, food, clothing, and counseling. Additionally, there are other small organizations offering some other types of services to the homeless citywide.
Community Assessment
The Stakeholders
A stakeholder is a person or group that is directly or indirectly tied to the homeless problem in communities. There were different types of stakeholders that I wanted to either interview or survey in an effort to obtain or gather data conductive to a broader view of the problem. I decided that directly tied to the problem were the primary stakeholders or homeless individuals themselves, and the secondary stakeholders or service providers that offer the service programs to homeless subjects.
Other stakeholders indirectly tied to the homeless problem are family members of the homeless subjects, community residents, and public officials and or policy makers that make the public policies and allocate the funds that in the end determine how communities deal with the homeless problem. These are the stakeholders and the individuals or groups directly or indirectly impacted by the homelessness problem in the community.
Primary Stakeholders
The first interview took place at 8:00 am on Thursday, July 2015 at the Springfield Rescue Mission on Bliss Street, Springfield, Massachusetts. The interviewee was Mr. Ron Willoughby, Executive Director of Springfield Rescue Mission, Inc. After the interview, I was allowed to make a visual inspection of both of their facilities, including their emergency shelter building in Taylor Street. In addition, I examined several years of IRS Forms 990 for two of the homeless service providers in the City of Springfield, MA.
All non-profit organizations in the U.S. are required by law to file IRS Forms 990 annually. These forms give great insight into the organizations by detailing the reported revenues, the programs they run, and the total expenses they incurred during the year. I examined the IRS Forms 990 for the Springfield Rescue Mission, Inc., a faith-based organization, and for Friends of the Homeless, Inc., a community-based organization. Both organizations offer emergency shelter services and rehabilitation programs for the homeless among other services.
Other Stakeholders (Appendix