Helping the chronically homeless
I’m a few days late on this, but it makes for good Christmas Eve reading: an online article from the New York Times‘s David Borenstein about the 100,000 Homes Campaign, an attempt to address chronic homelessness in more than 60 communities.
Each day, roughly 700,000 people in the country are homeless. About 120,000 are chronically homeless. They often live on the streets for years and have mental disabilities, addiction problems and life-threatening diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. They are also five times more likely than ordinary Americans to have suffered a traumatic brain injury, which may have precipitated their homelessness. Without direct assistance, many will remain homeless for the rest of their lives — at enormous cost to society and themselves.
The 100,000 Homes Campaign aims to get these people into housing, realizing that a stable home must be the first step, not the last, in addressing their other problems. The campaign is a project of New York-based organization Common Ground, which was founded by Roseanne Haggerty, a longtime friend of Commonweal. Borenstein quotes her and others on the challenges of dealing with chronic homelessness, and what past attempts have taught them that could make this campaign successful.
Here in San Antonio, we are blessed with the Haven for Hope, a multi-million dollar campus outreach that seeks to transform the lives of the homeless by addressing the root causes:
http://www.havenforhope.org/
Local businesses, including Valero, have been generous in their support, along with local taxpayers. There are some issues such as the reluctance of many homeless to submit to the regimentation required, and the need to curtail other ministries to the homeless to discourage homeless from avoiding Haven for Hope, etc. But it is a much needed approach along the lines of “teaching them to fish” instead of just handing them a fish…or a house.
In San Francisco St Boniface, Franciscan church offers the street homeless a place to sleep in their pews from 6AM till the noon Mass. And how about this? Common Ground has ‘ ‘recruited a graduate of West Point, Becky Kanis, who had spent nine years in the military’ The director of SF ‘s Gubbio Project is Laura Slattery also a graduate of West Point and served in the military, until the peace grace arrived. see short video of their Christian hospitality.
http://www.thegubbioproject.org/video.html
Great story. In my city in Ontario, I manage a program and one componet of it works with homeless people trying to get them housing. In our city of 100 k or so people, we see approximately 40 homeless people a month. The monthly income for a single recipient of Ontario Works (that is general welfare – the most basic form of social assistance) is aprrox $520.00 and the average rent for a one bedroom is approx $556.00 so subsidized and supportive housing is definitely a need and a crisis. I also really liked how the author noted the life expectancy difference and with any other population this would be framed as a crisis, and resources poured into it.
Our local district social services board is embarking on a tangible strategy to address in real terms the issue and our staff is working and talking with the board.
It is interesting to see how the issues are all so similar in different cities, states, and I would add countries!! Great ideas for solutions and you are right that it is an excellent Christmas eve story.
Thanks for the sharing this story!!!
These folks are all unsung heroes. A shelter/rehab I like to support in NY is Saint Christoper’s Inn, run by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in Garrison, NY. It’s been doing this wonderful work for over 100 years. http://www.atonementfriars.org