“We estimate that in 2014 alone, SSI/SSDI for the individuals served by SOAR brought over $227 million into the economies of participating states and localities"

In addition, states report that through SOAR they are serving individuals who are chronically homeless and based on data from 29 states, the individuals served had been homeless for an average of three years. Eighteen states report that 50 percent of SSI/SSDI applicants were housed within an average of 23 days.

The SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery Technical Assistance (SOAR TA) Center is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The goal is to increase access to SSI and SSDI for eligible adults who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a mental illness, medical impairment, and/or a co-occurring substance use disorder.

Since 2006, the SOAR approach has been used to assist more than 42,000 people experiencing or at risk of homelessness with applications for Social Security disability benefit programs — Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

SOAR2014 Outcomes assisted applicants, 65 percent, representing 22,863 persons, were approved for SSI/SSDI upon initial application [Table 1]. An additional 3,406 persons, whose applications were denied initially, were approved on reconsideration or appeal [Table 4]. Taken together, since 2006, the SOAR approach is responsible for assisting 26,269 persons with accessing Social Security disability benefits.

Decisions on SOAR initial applications were received in an average of 94 days in 2014, a decrease of 6 days from 2013. The SOAR allowance rate has remained constant at 65 percent. This compares to the initial allowance rate of 26.7 percent for all persons aged 18–64 who applied for SSI in 2012.

Success from Coast to Coast

Miami, Florida

Court officials in Miami have expanded a federal support program for homeless people with disabilities to help those with mental illness who are involved with the criminal justice system return successfully to the community.

The use of the SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) program is appropriate because many people with mental illness who are in jail facing charges or are to be released from prisons are likely to become homeless without some initial support.

“SOAR is a tool for people to move toward recovery," said Cindy Schwartz, M.S., M.B.A., who runs the Miami SOAR program, in an interview with Psychiatric News. “You can’t move ahead without a roof over your head and some money in your pocket."

Portland, Oregon

From “Living New Urbanism: Stepping into Sustainability", “homelessness will require rethinking policing, social work, and provisions for the mentally ill. The first step is to recover people who need a safe stable place to live and then provide the necessary medical care. Next, individuals must secure meaningful work and have the means to enhance job skills through education. SOAR is one of the few federal programs to draw bipartisan support."

Central City Concern, has 1,034 Reasons to Celebrate. “For our 1,034 and counting clients, successful awards have meant dignity and pride in being able to meet basic needs, pay rent, access healthcare, and engage meaningfully with their communities because of the financial stability that SSI and SSDI benefits provide. In total, these benefits have also contributed $30 million to the local economy."

Final Thoughts & 42,000 Stories

Somebody once said that the definition of hell was the impossibility of reason; that’s what it feels like to be homeless. After my wife died suddenly in 2009, I was devastated, in shock, and for the first time in my life, I had a crisis of faith. Darkness had descended into my heart, soul, and being, and rather than face the thought of my wife’s horrible death, I wondered.

Earlier in my life, faith and hope had brought me home from climbing Mt. Everest where I had faced a different type of crisis and death. Now, decades later, I rediscovered my faith and hope, and it brought me home once again. Home to a place of great kindness, where my heart was once again filled with the love of my newlywed wife.

Every person that has ever been homeless has a story to tell. A story of survival, a story of hitting rock bottom, a story of doing whatever it takes to survive just another day. Most face unimaginable suffering, loss, and depression as they fall from the precipice into the abyss of darkness that is homelessness.

Medicare expansion programs like SOAR are helping communities across the country solve their homeless crisis. There are 42,000 opportunities to change lives. Whether a veteran, a battered woman, a youth, a reoffender, or just someone that looses their wife tragically, helping those homeless and most fragile individuals in our communities is critical to the health of our nation.

Remember, we all need each other.

Peace & Kindness, Jeff Woodward