How It Happens
You have a job and can usually afford your rent, but your car suddenly needs an expensive repair. How could this unexpected expense put your housing at risk?
Paying for the repair could leave you short on rent or other essential expenses, potentially putting your housing at risk.
Everyone experiencing homelessness sleeps outside.
What is myth?
People may stay in shelters, cars, motels, or temporary arrangements, and some experience homelessness without being visibly homeless.
You have $50 left until your next paycheck, which is two weeks away. You need to buy groceries, refill a prescription, and put gas in your car to get to work. You can't afford all three. What do you prioritize, and what do you do about the things you can't afford?
There is no easy answer. Buying groceries addresses your immediate need for food, filling your prescription helps protect your health, and paying for gas helps you keep getting to work. Choosing one could mean putting another essential need at risk. When money is limited, even basic necessities can compete with one another.
Name the primary mission of Bridges Outreach?
What is making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring?
True or False: Homelessness is solvable
What is True?
Homelessness is always the result of poor personal choices.
What is myth?
Homelessness can result from many intersecting circumstances, including unaffordable housing, financial hardship, and unexpected crises.
You've been sleeping in your car, and someone offers you a bed at a shelter. However, the shelter is far from your job, and staying there would make it difficult to get to work on time. If you lose your job, you may not be able to afford housing at all. Do you accept the bed or try to keep your current arrangement? Why?
There is no easy answer! Accepting the shelter bed could provide a safer place to sleep, but the distance might put your job at risk. Staying in your car may help you maintain your work routine, but it leaves you without stable housing. Either choice could help in one area while creating another challenge.
Name the three New Jersey counties Bridges Outreach serves
What is Essex, Union and Somerset Counties?
What does the term housing stability mean?
What is having a safe, stable place to call home that a person can maintain over time.
Substance abuse is a top reason why someone may be experiencing homelessness.
What is Myth?
The Top 3 Known Causes of Homelessness in New Jersey Are:
1. Asked to leave a shared residence
2. Eviction
3. Job income loss/reduction
You've been offered a temporary job that could help you save for housing, but accepting it means missing appointments with a housing case manager who is helping you find a place to live. You don't know when another job opportunity will come along, and you don't know how long your housing opportunity will remain available. Which do you prioritize, and how do you manage the risk of losing the other opportunity?
There is no easy answer! Taking the job could provide income to help you afford housing, but you might miss appointments that could connect you with a stable place to live. Prioritizing housing support could help you work toward a longer-term solution, but you risk losing an immediate source of income. When both opportunities could improve your situation, choosing one may put the other at risk.
What is the purpose of the kits you are about to assemble?
To not only provide resources for those in need, but ALSO build trust in creating a relationship that can result in additional support.
What does it mean when someone is described as experiencing hidden homelessness?
What is they lack stable housing but may not be visibly living on the street. For example, they might be staying temporarily with friends or family because they have nowhere else to go.