An interview with Carrie Smith, Outreach Counselor at Samaritan House/Housing First Apartments, New Hope Housing, Inc., in Fairfax, VA.

Q: Tell me a little about New Hope Housing.

A: We work with both individuals and families who are homeless.  Most have some type of mental illness.  We provide different levels of housing assistance.  We work in Northern Virginia, on Route 1 in Fairfax.  Many of the people we work with have lived in the woods in tents provided by the County.

Q: What do you do at New Hope Housing?

A: I work as an Outreach Counselor for two different programs that follow the Housing First model. Samaritan House is a group home that just opened in early March.  It has room for eight single men. Currently, seven men ranging in age from 21 to 65 live there. The other program is the Housing First Apartments. These apartments opened in April 2007. There are seven apartments – two one-bedrooms that house two people each and five studios that each house one person. I provide case management for people in both programs. I visit each resident every week or two and provide financial assistance, employment help, or whatever else they need.

Q: Do these two programs serve the same population?

A: Mostly yes. But most of the men in the Housing First Apartments came directly from the woods. The men in the other program mostly come from shelters.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?

A: I enjoy helping clients – helping them to see the benefits of the resources out there and how to use them. I also enjoy hearing how they see the world – what it looks like through their eyes.

Q: What do you find most challenging about your job?

A: You can’t really plan any activities in advance. People may be interested one day and then the next day they are not. 

Q: Is there anything that makes this job particularly challenging for a recent college graduate?

A: Sometimes it’s challenging to work with people who are older than I am. It can be hard to get them to take you seriously. This is particularly true when I’m working with the younger men. They give me a harder time than the older men.

Q: When family and friends ask about your job, how do you describe what you do?

A: I’m usually pretty vague. I usually just say I’m a case manager for people who are homeless. Most of the time people ask some questions. But most of my friends, even those in the social work field, don’t really understand the Housing First model. 

Q: What do you mean?

A: Some people don’t understand why services are voluntary or why we’re just giving people apartments without working on their other issues. Really, they don’t understand the goal of the program. The successes that you see in this field may not seem like much to an outsider. But to the clients, these are big steps. 

Q: What do you think about the Housing First model?

A: It’s a good idea in theory, but sometimes it needs to be tailored to individual needs.  For some people it works, but for others it kind of feels like giving up on them. It can be a good first step to get people comfortable and safe in housing before working on other issues. But for some people if you don’t push them at all they might never seek more assistance. I think it needs to be used as a tool for building relationships. That way once you gain someone’s trust, you can offer other help.