Housing first. Yes, please.

Yesterday I had the privilege of joining other folks in the faith community to discuss the topic of homelessness with a primary task at hand to ask ourselves, “How is that we should be addressing homelessness in our communities”?

As is the case whenever such topics are explored there were a wide spectrum of comments and philosophies on how it is we should engage the homeless. There was a comment made that I still cannot shake from my mind and it was in response to the question as to why it is folks become homeless…

Here it is: A cause of homelessness is part of a cultural condition of nihilism where the individual just stops caring.

Now please keep in mind that there were folks that addressed the causes of homelessness from the delicate and complicated standpoint that there are a wide range of reasons why people become homeless which include: domestic violence and abuse, unemployment, mental health, systemic poverty and addiction. I especially appreciated a speaker who spoke to the reality that sometimes it’s hard to tell what comes first addiction or homelessness, as often times addiction is a symptom of becoming homeless to cope with depression and despair. However, it must be said that someone did make note that nihilism plays a part in homelessness.

I completely disagree with that notion. It’s an oversimplification of a very complicated social problem.

In 10+ years of working with the homeless and displaced I have yet to meet an individual that does not care. Believe me– they care.

I have countless conversations with people sharing how they care about where they will end up– they care about where their families are–they care about how it is they can contribute to their communities– they care about where they will sleep, they care about where their next meal will come from– they care about their health– they care.

When I sense apathy it is usually in response or the need to defend and protect because the reality is– to be homeless is to be oppressed.

In just the past month, I have had conversation after conversation where someone was yelled at, spit at, swore at, kicked while sleeping and the cycle of abuse continues.

This abuse goes completely justified because we find it entirely acceptable to tell a homeless person that it is their fault that they are homeless. If they can get it together– get that shower, make themselves presentable, pull themselves out of their despairing circumstances then maybe they can find themselves in our inner circles where we do church and life and relationships.

To be homeless in our society is to be an untouchable.

Folks care about the fate of their existences and to be homeless is to live under the most fundamental mode of operandi which is survival.

A few years ago I worked with a homeless woman, Christina who came to me black and blue. Her wounds looked fresh but it had actually been an entire week after the incident where she was beaten, raped and left to die in an alley. She had turned to other churches, to the police, to other organizations and had been turned away partly due to the fact that people didn’t know what to do for her. Luckily, we had began a relationship months before this situation and so she felt safe enough to turn to us.

That was a very long night.

We went to an ER where a rape kit and report was conducted.

Unfortunately, this assault had not been the first for Christina– it came in a long line of abusive relationships and assaults.

I can assure you that she cared a great deal about what would happen to her– where she would go– where she would stay for the night.

But her story represented what we see so often– a cycle of abuse that begins in childhood and continues throughout the course of a lifetime.

When I speak to abuse I am not just addressing the horrific violence of physical assault, but I also speak to the day-in and day-out reality of social abuse that one who is homeless experiences in the sneers and jeers of people who pass by.

No one wanted to speak to Christina cause it was clear that she was homeless and struggled with mental health issues and addictions.

The whole housing first model is in response to the reality that human beings deserve the basic human right of housing… of shelter… of stability.

It’s a controversial model because inevitably people believe that to address homelessness one must first address the ills of addiction and individual responsibility.

Housing first comes from the perspective that if we can provide the stability maybe the message of individual change & transformation has more of a chance of reaching the person because the basic instinct to survive is being addressed.

Do I believe in housing first? Absolutely.

Call me a liberal I’ve been called worse things, but folks I don’t think we can be too liberal about the basic human rights to make accessible for every human being– food, shelter and clothing.

What say you?

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