Chapter 4: Implications for Serving Homeless Families

The experiences of the 16 demonstration projects suggest that there are a number of effective approaches to serving homeless families, and that the efficacy of any particular approach often depends on the characteristics of the community with respect to its resources, local policies, and service delivery systems for homeless families. Services approaches that are "ideal" in one community, may not work in another community. Head Start grantees interested in implementing services for homeless families must carefully consider the characteristics of their communities in determining the most effective approaches.

A primary implication of the demonstration projects' experiences is that Head Start has a critical role to play in serving homeless families. In many communities, it may be the only agency serving homeless families that focuses on children as well as parents. In addition, the fact that Head Start employs a family-based approach to serving children means that it is in a unique position to provide homeless families with the kinds of services necessary to meet their multiple needs. Most child care programs, for example, rarely provide the classroom environments and curricula that homeless children require to address their developmental and socio-emotional problems. Child care programs also do not usually ensure that the children they serve receive basic medical, dental, and mental health services, nor do they devote special efforts to help parents improve their parenting skills and enhance their knowledge about child development. Homeless families, even more than other low-income families, clearly need the types of services that Head Start offers, and Head Start programs may be the only place where they can obtain these services.

Another implication of the demonstration projects' experiences is that Head Start programs cannot "do it all." Collaboration with other agencies serving homeless families was a critical element of each demonstration project. However, collaboration often proved to be a challenging task, and many Head Start programs desiring to expand their services to homeless families may require training and technical assistance in developing effective partnerships in their communities. Collaboration also was found to be problematic in communities in which services to homeless families were limited. This suggests that Head Start Centers may have a role in advocating for greater services for these families in their communities or may need to expand their own services to fill some of the existing gaps.

Finally, almost all grantees identified transportation and extended-day and full-year child care as critical needs for homeless families, as well as for other low-income families. Most of the grantees indicated that public transportation in their communities was not adequate to meet the needs of homeless families. Transportation was necessary to get children to Head Start classes, parents to parent and family activities and events, and both children and parents to service or job-related appointments. Similarly, most grantees indicated that child care services in their communities also were not adequate to meet the needs of these families. Affordable infant-toddler child care services were almost nonexistent in many communities, and unless the Head Start program operated for at least 9 hours a day, and provided full-year programming for children, it was not adequate for parents who were working or in training programs. Head Start programs interested in extending their services for homeless families may need to assess the transportation and child care situation in their communities, as well as their own capacity to provide transportation services and to extend their hours to meet the needs of working parents.