A recent survey of homelessness response sector employees showed that three in four said their organizations were understaffed. This is a significant barrier to ending homelessness, with these employees reporting service delays, crowded caseloads, and slower progress getting people off the streets and into housing. New research explores some of these compounding challenges. One of the key factors driving the workforce shortage is organizations’ struggle to recruit and retain staff with the needed experience and skills.

The skills required to provide direct services to people experiencing homelessness include building rapport with a diverse range of people who have experienced trauma and navigating bureaucratic systems. Undergraduate, and sometimes graduate, degrees are often prerequisites for these positions and staff often leave for higher-paying jobs after gaining skills and experience (PDF).

Other sectors, including health care, face similar struggles and offer strategies the homelessness response sector could adopt to create alternative professional pathways to meet its needs.

Expanding nondegree certificates

To address the  health care worker shortage (PDF), public and private entities now offer certificate opportunities and nondegree programs focused on mastering specific skills needed to work in particular jobs. These opportunities are generally shorter-term, lower-cost alternatives to traditional degrees and typically last anywhere between a few months and one year.

The National Healthcareer Association offers eight nondegree credentials, which high school students can earn for free alongside their high school diploma. Certifications for these nondegree credentials are recognized by employers across the US and are accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies.

States are also creating opportunities for nondegree credentials in health care. Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services has created a fast track for people interested in health careers called the Certified Direct Care Professional program, which provides free training, a $500 bonus, and job search support.

Creating professional pathways for people with lived experience

Though the emphasis on demonstrable, job-relevant skills (PDF) is common in trades such as plumbing, construction work, and electrician work, job-relevant skills are increasingly emphasized in jobs that have traditionally required degrees.

In the behavioral health sector, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recently developed the National Model Standards for a Peer Support Certification (PDF). The first among these standards acknowledges that “lived experience is an essential component of the peer role and should be addressed in all mental health, substance use, and family peer certifications” (PDF). Peer certifications expand opportunities into the workforce (PDF) while promoting quality and consistency across peer services. The standard also maintains that the peer workforce should reflect the community they serve and be meaningfully involved in the development, adoption, and revision of national, state, and local peer certifications.

People who have experienced the trauma of homelessness bring the wisdom of that experience and have navigated the bureaucratic systems to find a path out of homelessness—essential competencies required of service providers.

Emerging efforts in homelessness response systems build on these strategies

Some homelessness assistance programs are already testing these approaches. Chrysalis, a nonprofit service provider in Los Angeles, California has been working alongside similar organizations over the last several years to minimize degree requirements as well as other barriers to employment within the organization. This year, Chrysalis launched an innovative partnership with CalOptima Health to offer employment opportunities for people staying in emergency shelters as a pathway for people with lived experience to move to permanent jobs in the homelessness response sector. This pilot program may be one of the first to demonstrate the potential for people who’ve experienced homelessness to be a source of skilled labor for the homelessness response system. If the program model succeeds, organizations may have a winning strategy to address their staffing shortages, reduce caseloads, move people into housing faster, and ultimately end homelessness while providing a pathway to permanent employment for the people they serve.

In the long run, workforce development and homelessness response system leaders may achieve these wins by developing relevant career pathways and certifications. In the meantime, this pilot will begin to build the evidence needed to shape these broader system investments.