The two biggest factors driving homelessness are poverty and the lack of affordable housing. The loss of a job, an illness, marriage breakdown, domestic abuse can quickly lead to missed rent or mortgage payments and ultimately, to eviction or foreclosure. Some have mental illnesses that can be treated, but not if they have unstable living situations in abandoned buildings, crack shacks, homeless camps, vehicles, couch surfing or roaming,. Some have addictions, and being high is the answer to erase the pain, fear and indignity of being without a home. Some enter the sex trade to survive.
Most are hidden, the homeless we don’t see, the youth, adults, families and seniors who move between the homes of others while looking for affordable housing. They are the adults who live in cars and abandoned buildings. They sleep in emergency cold weather shelters in winter. They are women who accept housing from a man, even in dangerous situations, rather than be on the street. They are children who are put in the care of the Ministry for Children and Families because their parents can't afford to care for them.
The remedy for homelessness is housing. Many in the general public, government and public health authorities adopt a "housing last" model. They think that the best course of action is to first stabilize a person by addressing the mental illness and/or drug addiction so that they could go into housing.
But there is just cause to concentrate on finding housing first, and addressing the mental health, addiction and poverty issues second. “Housing First” was developed in the 1990’s in New York City and based on the belief that homeless people respond best to professional intervention after they are secure in their own housing. Instead of offering hospital, jail cells, shelters, or transitional housing through a continuum of care, Housing First takes people out of their homeless situation and places them in their own digs, with supportive case management services, intensive home visits and a service plan to go along with it.
Without a safe place to call home, how can someone move forward? For marginalized people, emergency shelters have become their homes, on and off, as shelter policies allow. As a result, their health issues, including mental illness, addictions, HIV, Hepatitis, wounds and abscesses, poor dental health and malnutrition are left untreated.
Three hundred cities in the US have completed ten year plans to end homelessness. Many of those included the Housing First Strategy and the results are remarkable. Portland experienced a 70% drop in the number of chronically homeless in the last two years and an average housing success rate of 85% has been recorded across the US and in Toronto. Studies show that not only is it more cost effective to treat homeless people this way, it found that people are more successful if they have a stable place to live before they get treatment, secure employment, and receive health care.
Toronto’s “Streets to Homes” program is another success story. Improvements included a 49% decrease in alcohol use and 17% reported they had quit altogether. Another 74% reported reduction in drug use with 33% stopping it altogether.
Housing First proponents say that people in supportive housing spend only one third as much time in hospitals, prisons, and psychiatric centers as people who are homeless.
The Homeless Outreach Program at Island JADE Society supports the Housing First philosophy and so far, since November, 35 homeless in Campbell River have been housed, another 60 are waiting, and 10 came in the doors to our offices yesterday alone. The 35 homeless remain housed. Rental contracts are negotiated, subsidies are available which provides landlords with guaranteed rent payments and potentially long term tenants. Outreach workers intervene before problems arise and insurance policies are in place. Yet it is still a struggle to find affordable housing here in Campbell River, and to find landlords willing to take a chance on someone who is “homeless”. The stigma often keeps them on the streets. What we need to remember is that homelessness is not a dirty word. It doesn’t make someone less deserving of a basic human right. It is not who they are, it is what their situation is.
Ultimately, it is poverty that renders people homeless. This is up to the provincial and federal governments to address and for local communities to insist on. Minimum wages, welfare rates and assistance to seniors are too low, our First Nations populations have been neglected, childcare is unaffordable, disability assistance is too hard to get, rents are too high and social housing is too few. This keeps people poor with no incentive or opportunity to maintain a basic standard of living. Too many homeless, hidden or not, are slipping between the cracks. They need to start with a foundation, four walls and a roof, statistics show the rest will come.
Most are hidden, the homeless we don’t see, the youth, adults, families and seniors who move between the homes of others while looking for affordable housing. They are the adults who live in cars and abandoned buildings. They sleep in emergency cold weather shelters in winter. They are women who accept housing from a man, even in dangerous situations, rather than be on the street. They are children who are put in the care of the Ministry for Children and Families because their parents can't afford to care for them.
The remedy for homelessness is housing. Many in the general public, government and public health authorities adopt a "housing last" model. They think that the best course of action is to first stabilize a person by addressing the mental illness and/or drug addiction so that they could go into housing.
But there is just cause to concentrate on finding housing first, and addressing the mental health, addiction and poverty issues second. “Housing First” was developed in the 1990’s in New York City and based on the belief that homeless people respond best to professional intervention after they are secure in their own housing. Instead of offering hospital, jail cells, shelters, or transitional housing through a continuum of care, Housing First takes people out of their homeless situation and places them in their own digs, with supportive case management services, intensive home visits and a service plan to go along with it.
Without a safe place to call home, how can someone move forward? For marginalized people, emergency shelters have become their homes, on and off, as shelter policies allow. As a result, their health issues, including mental illness, addictions, HIV, Hepatitis, wounds and abscesses, poor dental health and malnutrition are left untreated.
Three hundred cities in the US have completed ten year plans to end homelessness. Many of those included the Housing First Strategy and the results are remarkable. Portland experienced a 70% drop in the number of chronically homeless in the last two years and an average housing success rate of 85% has been recorded across the US and in Toronto. Studies show that not only is it more cost effective to treat homeless people this way, it found that people are more successful if they have a stable place to live before they get treatment, secure employment, and receive health care.
Toronto’s “Streets to Homes” program is another success story. Improvements included a 49% decrease in alcohol use and 17% reported they had quit altogether. Another 74% reported reduction in drug use with 33% stopping it altogether.
Housing First proponents say that people in supportive housing spend only one third as much time in hospitals, prisons, and psychiatric centers as people who are homeless.
The Homeless Outreach Program at Island JADE Society supports the Housing First philosophy and so far, since November, 35 homeless in Campbell River have been housed, another 60 are waiting, and 10 came in the doors to our offices yesterday alone. The 35 homeless remain housed. Rental contracts are negotiated, subsidies are available which provides landlords with guaranteed rent payments and potentially long term tenants. Outreach workers intervene before problems arise and insurance policies are in place. Yet it is still a struggle to find affordable housing here in Campbell River, and to find landlords willing to take a chance on someone who is “homeless”. The stigma often keeps them on the streets. What we need to remember is that homelessness is not a dirty word. It doesn’t make someone less deserving of a basic human right. It is not who they are, it is what their situation is.
Ultimately, it is poverty that renders people homeless. This is up to the provincial and federal governments to address and for local communities to insist on. Minimum wages, welfare rates and assistance to seniors are too low, our First Nations populations have been neglected, childcare is unaffordable, disability assistance is too hard to get, rents are too high and social housing is too few. This keeps people poor with no incentive or opportunity to maintain a basic standard of living. Too many homeless, hidden or not, are slipping between the cracks. They need to start with a foundation, four walls and a roof, statistics show the rest will come.
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