The Valley Community Center staff profiles Valley City’s homeless population and discusses the types of interventions the agency has to offer.If you’ve lived in Valley City within the last 10 years, it would be impossible for you to describe the community without mentioning the issue of homelessness. It is a glaring problem in our town that’s only gotten worse since the decline of United Pritchard.

Because homelessness is an escalating crisis in Valley City, we as social workers have an especially close relationship with the homeless population. Sometimes, we’re the only advocates they have, so we have a responsibility to understand their needs.

There isn’t one typical homeless person anywhere including in Valley City. The unhoused population includes a range of ages, has a variety of mental and physical health needs, and could have arrived at a position of homelessness for any number of reasons. That being said, there are certain subsets within the homeless population we’ve come to recognize through data collection.

In Valley City’s homeless population, we see a disproportionate number of people of color, as well as veterans.

A large portion of the population has mental health needs or a physical disability. Another subset is made up by youth, mostly young people who have aged out of foster care.

The formerly incarcerated are at a high risk of becoming homeless, and conversely the homeless are at a higher risk of becoming incarcerated. So we see a lot of clients who have been bouncing between the prison system and living on the streets.

Some of our clients are just like you and me. They had steady pay and were making rent just fine until they weren’t. Some sort of crisis struck. Maybe their partner walked out on them. Maybe they had a baby unexpectedly. Maybe they found out that they or a loved one had a medical problem that they couldn’t afford.

No one expects to end up living on the street, in a shelter, or out of their car. I had a client who became homeless because he lost his entire family in an accident, leaving him with zero resources. His life was completely pulled out from underneath him.

Because the homeless population is so diverse, and so many individuals are vulnerable in multiple intersectional ways, you have to be well equipped to provide an assortment of social work services when working with these clients.

At VCC, we offer a range of interventions for our homeless clients. The most common intervention we have at our disposal is to connect them to emergency shelters, transitional housing, or permanent supportive housing.

We offer educational classes, social skills training, and help to connect class to appropriate employment opportunities. Our mental health services and substance abuse treatments can be helpful for clients as well.

Remember, none of the services we provide or the policies we support for the homeless population would be possible without us engaging directly with the community. This is vital to assessing a community’s needs accurately and for reforming those services over time to meet the demands of the community as the needs change.

Regardless of how you specialize as a social worker, it’s extremely likely you will provide service to your local homeless community at some point in time.

Surprises happen. Accidents happen. Tragedy happens. Not everyone is going to have a lifeline, so that’s where we step in.