Preventing homelessness for families through advocacy and education
Janeal M. White, Ph.D., CFLE, MIE
By Janeal M. White, Ph.D., CFLE, MIE
Assistant Professor, McNeese State University
Coordinator, Southeast Texas Coalition for the Homeless
No one plans to become homeless. Homelessness is scary, precarious, and tragic.
Unfortunately, homelessness is a reality for more than half a million people in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
I’ve focused on homelessness in several settings, working to prevent poverty housing and homelessness as well as studying relationships within the homeless community. My training in Family Life Education — a primary practice profession of Family Science — has been invaluable in my work:
As a case manager for Louisiana’s early childhood intervention program, I educated client families and colleagues about housing issues and their impact on family functioning, and about resources for families. I worked with clients experiencing housing difficulties on prioritizing wants and needs, creating budgets, developing family goals, and more.
For four years, I served as a consultant for a large church working to serve the homeless. During that time of inspiring development, church members formed partnerships to establish a food pantry, soup kitchen teams, a new housing program for homeless families, and more.
As a faith engagement coordinator with Habitat for Humanity, I provided community education about the impact of poverty housing resulting from changing family demographics and dynamics, and about the challenges in accessing community resources.
In academia, I’ve studied how homeless adults define family and have explored the continuum of housing experiences. My passion for ending poverty housing fuels my commitment to educate and empower my university students as they prepare to become human services professionals.
As coordinator for the Southeast Texas Coalition for the Homeless, I'm in charge of HUD's annual Point-In-Time Count for our three-county region, and I educate service providers, faith communities, government officials, and concerned citizens about how families work and why family functioning is important to consider when creating effective solutions to homelessness.
Overall, my goal in sharing my experiences is to inspire others to think creatively in service to families at risk of homelessness.