Diana* had been living in the woods for 10 years before she met the McKinney Team in 1996. Suffering with undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, Diana was eventually admitted to Dorothea Dix Mental Hospital. After a stay there of several months she was stable enough to be released, but had no place to go, and no one to call. Thankfully, the McKinney Team stepped in, and referred Diana to CASA; she signed the lease for her new apartment 2 weeks later.
In 1987, the McKinney-Vento Act created a variety of federal programs to help the homeless, and these programs approached homelessness not as a short-term issue, but as a chronic social problem that required a sustained investment. The law provides several tools to end homelessness among persons with severe mental illness and other disabilities. These tools include funds for developing housing, rental subsidies to keep people in their apartments, and funds to provide case management, therapy, and health services for them.
One of CASA’s original McKinney properties
When CASA was formed in 1992, its first priority was to partner with Wake County and apply for a grant under the McKinney Act to harness these tools to serve people here in our community. Wake County was one of five locations in the country to be awarded a McKinney grant as a demonstration project. As soon as the award was announced, Wake County and CASA got to work. CASA purchased its first 13 units scattered in four different properties throughout the county. Wake County put together the McKinney Team – an Assertive Community Treatment team made up of therapists, social workers, and substance abuse counselors who reach out to persons who are homeless and seriously mentally ill (25% of homeless adults.)
Pam Floyd, Assistant Program Manager at Wake County’s Drop In Center for adults with mental illnesses, joined the McKinney Team in 1996 and worked as a job coach and then social worker for the Team until 2003. She recently shared her memories about CASA and the McKinney Team.
Q: What were your initial impressions when you joined the McKinney Team?
Pam Floyd: I remember being impressed with how well the two agencies, Wake County and CASA, worked together. I also remember feeling like the McKinney team was really something unique. The model of housing plus assertive community treatment made so much sense to me. The focus was on building relationships with clients, gaining trust, and using clinical and practical knowledge to move clients from homelessness to permanent housing. I found it was the little things that really made a difference-taking time to listen to clients, being patient, working with them “where they are”, being genuinely concerned about them, educating them about their illness, being honest, offering them choices and being up front about the consequences, working with many, many people in the community to educate and advocate for our clients, etc.
Q: What makes CASA’s partnership with the McKinney Team so unique?
Pam Floyd: CASA and Wake County had such an amazing understanding of what works with this population and they gave us the freedom and time to do what we needed to do. I can’t say enough about how important it was to have the support and genuine understanding of the administrators and managers. The small case loads and client-centered focus gave us the chance to take our time and provide really intensive and relevant services to the clients. We also had more funding for clients than other teams and this really helped. We did not have to go through so many hoops to address the financial issues faced by clients when establishing housing, so we were able to focus our attention on the client and the clinical and housing needs. The real testament to the importance of the team is realizing how many of those original clients remain housed and mentally stable to this day. It is truly amazing.
Q: Tell us about your relationship with Diana
Pam Floyd: She is one of my favorite people in the world. I was her job coach and then her social worker. She went out on a limb to trust me and the team. She was initially, so afraid, paranoid. The one story that sticks in my mind to this day is about the green jacket. She asked me one day, after years of working together, how she would go about getting rid of a jacket – would the trash people pick it up. I knew which jacket she was referring to. She had worn it constantly since we began working together. It was an old army jacket, 2 sizes too big. I gave her a few options, trash it or donate it. I also asked her why she was giving it away. She said she didn’t need it anymore. I asked her about donating it. She said no, she did not want anyone else living in that jacket. This jacket was Diana’s defense, her protection. It hid her from others and disguised her gender when she was on the streets. Getting rid of it was so significant to her. It was an act of freedom [for] someone who finally felt secure and safe with who and where she was. I know her involvement with the McKinney team helped get her to this point.
Through her work with Pam, Diana soon got a job at a library, working there part-time until she retired in 2005 at age 60. Diana continues to live in her CASA apartment after 14 years. Now living on Social Security, Diana pays just $132 per month for rent. The fact that Diana has remained independently housed for so long is truly remarkable. Her success is a testament to her own bravery, the unflagging support of the McKinney team, and the healing power of having a home.
