Liz Murray Case Study

The Continuum of Care Program would have been beneficial to Liz Murray’s family, as well as, herself after her mother’s death. Liz Murray spent much of her early life in an inadequate apartment on University Drive in Bronx, New York. After her mother moved out, her father could no longer pay the rent which resulted in him living in a shelter. After her mother’s death, Liz Murray was homeless and sleeping anywhere she could manage to lay her head. Therefore, had preventative services been utilized Liz’s father may have been able to keep his apartment; therefore, Liz may have had somewhere to return after her mother’s death.

Therefore, the component of the CoC program that I would have implemented was the tenant-based rental assistance cost

It purpose was to revitalize and reform the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990: Section 811. The reformed Section 811 program has two new features that were designed to create additional units of integrated permanent supportive housing:

“(1) providing stronger incentives to leverage other sources of capital for 811 units, including federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits, HUD HOME funds, and bond financing; (2) authorizing a “stand alone” Project Based Rental Assistance approach to help state and local governments systematically create integrated supportive housing units in affordable rental housing developments” (Technical Assistance Collaborative, 2011, pg.

Granted, the time period in which Liz’s life occurred there were not as many policies dictating child welfare and housing policy. However, there were also times when different system’s enabled Liz’s family to fall through the cracks. Using funds from two great policies, The McKinney Vento Act and the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Act of 2010, great opportunities would have opened up for Liz’s family and enabled her mother and father to get the help they needed for issues such as substance abuse and mental health. The McKinney’ Vento Act could have utilized funds to assist Liz’s father maintain housing for himself as well as Liz. In addition, the funds could have also been utilized to create a macro project, which could have benefited not just Liz’s family and Liz during her times on the street, but also many others in the community. Funds from the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Act of 2010 could have assisted Liz’s family in securing affordable housing and helped to provide supportive services for issues in the family such as mental health, substance abuse, employment, and food. This act may not have directly provided money for some of these issues; however, it could have been used to connect to services, as well as, enable Liz’s family unit to become