Support a bold campaign to end homelessness

Posted on June 21, 2015 in Inclusion Debates

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TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorials – An ambitious effort to provide homes for 20,000 homeless Canadians deserves wholehearted support. It will save lives and boost living standards.
Jun 21 2015.   Editorial

Few campaigns serve a more worthwhile goal. A national grassroots movement is aiming to put 20,000 homeless Canadians into decent housing over the next three years. Twenty thousand — that’s close to the population of Owen Sound in Ontario.

It’s an ambitious objective but, if successful, one that will save lives as well as improve the living standards of people in desperate need. For that reason, the 20,000 Homes Campaign warrants wholehearted support from coast to coast.

“Homelessness in Canada is a national emergency requiring urgent and immediate action,” says Tim Richter, head of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. The alliance is marshalling support across the country behind a new effort to house without homes, starting with the worst-off — those at increased risk of death from homelessness.

The initiative is inspired by the 100,000 Homes Campaign that proved a huge success in the United States, housing more than 105,000 people before ending last year.

The first step is to find and identify people who are most in need. The campaign will mobilize volunteers in participating communities across Canada “to get to know homeless people by name and assess their housing and health care needs,” say organizers. That data will be pulled together and those facing the direst circumstances will be given priority access to shelter using existing resources, including money from the federal “Housing First” strategy.

Under a Housing First approach, people are given a place to live as well as some assistance, such as a subsidy to cover rent. Often a support team will help them deal with other needs, such as medical care.

There’s solid evidence this can be life-changing. Giving people a place to put down roots and call their own results in less hospitalization and fewer entanglements with the law, as well as more opportunities for education, employment and a thriving family life.

“To give someone a home means they can aspire,” said Katherine Kalinowski of Good Shepherd in Hamilton, and a campaign participant. “They can have hope, they can look to the future, they feel connected.”

Furthermore, a study last year in Toronto found that the Housing First approach actually saved money when applied to people in desperate straits, mainly by dramatically reducing hospital costs.

The progress of the 20,000 Homes Campaign will be carefully tracked and reported. The effort’s website explains this will “keep our movement honest, accurate and continuously improving.”

The challenge it faces is immense. It’s estimated that, on any given night, about 35,000 people in this country sleep in a homeless shelter or outdoors, in the rough. A significant number have experienced homelessness for much of their lives, often struggling with mental illness, trauma, addiction and a host of complex medical problems. As a result, they have lower life-expectancy than others.

The good news is that this can be changed by finally putting a roof over someone’s head and giving them shelter — not just a bed in a crowded hostel, but a real home.

Evidence that it can be done exists in the United States and in Canadian cities where, on a smaller scale, a Housing First strategy has been deployed to remarkably good effect. Real progress is possible, says Richter. “We’re going to prove to Canadians, once and for all, that we can end homelessness.”

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2015/06/21/support-a-bold-campaign-to-end-homelessness-editorial.html >

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