I did a video story earlier in the week regarding homelessness in Renfrew and the surrounding area, a story that had elements of criticism, as well as praise, within it. I followed that up with an article giving credit and encouragement to some of the stakeholder groups or agencies (in this case police) that have made meaningful and positive contributions to the effort around homelessness.
Today, in what will likely be my final kick at this can, I wish to offer solutions, not of my own making, but crafted by folks living in other parts of North America and involving the very same issue. I don’t want to come across as exclusively critical of the efforts, or non-efforts that I see as I learn more about this topic.
So I want to throw some ideas out there for an alternative approach, ideas not originated by me, but noted by me as having some real honest-to-goodness potential. Unlike some politicians that are exclusively critical, I’d like to show up with some ideas about how to make things better.
One effort, in Austin, Texas, is operated by a group that identifies as Mobile Loaves and Fishes. If you’re Christian, you may recognize the key element of that title from something you may have experienced in Scripture, a story we’ve all heard many times along the way. The story of Jesus feeding the assembled masses who gathered to hear him along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Mobile part of the title alludes to the fact that this group operates mobile food trucks as well as the community I’m talking about.
I’m not here to talk about the food truck. But I will speak to their Community First! Village concept, something now in operation and humming along rather nicely.
This community village has taken 370 people off the streets of Austin, with plans to expand to accommodate 500 souls. They’ve provided them with the basics of life, but more importantly, they’ve given their clients dignity impossible to find when you’re sleeping under a tarp somewhere outside. It gives them an opportunity to build themselves back up, to find and keep employment, and even the possibility of entrepreneurship.
Some forward thinking there in Austin, Texas. And a lot cheaper than scraping bodies up off the street. Smart, critical intervention to get in front of the problem.
Situated on 51 acres, this village gives homeless the very essence of what they need: a home of their own, a home with privacy. A home with a porch and likely a kitchenette, although there are community kitchens, dining halls, and gathering areas to foster a sense of neighbourhood, or I guess neigborhood, since it’s in the States. There are community washrooms and showers, laundry facilities, and places to just hang out and interact with others. Green space abounds. There’s a market and a community centre, gardens, parks and a dog park. There’s a bus stop right there. And, critically, a dedicated health clinic on-site.
In addition to trained a medical presence, there are social workers also, and various types of training opportunities for clients to assist them in their pursuit of a job. I would imagine law enforcement would have a positive presence there as well.
The housing itself appears to be some variation of a shipping container converted into a smallish living space, arranged in a manner that promotes the dignity of privacy but also the encouragement of community. And most importantly, whatever activities the residents take advantage of, they can, whenever THEY want, go home. In short, a mighty big difference from living on the street.
I’m not going to suggest that this is something that ought to be adopted here as it is in Austin. What I am suggesting is that there is no shame in lifting good ideas from the work of others and adapting them to the specifics of our local situation. Maybe not all their ideas, but the ones from whatever sources we come across, the good ones that would apply and make sense in our area. And add our own homegrown ideas to the mix.
Sound expensive?
Well, it does cost money and the place down in Austin relies on the generosity of contributors and volunteers. But yes, it costs. But it costs a lot less than what we’re paying now in policing, paramedic, health care, and social worker costs that arise from us having to respond to a homeless person in crisis on the street somewhere.
In my video, I made reference to a study indicating the costs to our society that homelessness presents. On a monthly basis, it costs society around $35,000 to keep a homeless person in hospital, $15,000 to have them in jail, and $7,500 to support them through a homeless shelter. That’s without paying all the salaries of the police, paramedics, hospital and medical staff, and social workers having to respond to an individual crisis.
The same study showed that it would cost $2,500 / month to house them in some form of supportive housing situation. Place a nurse, social worker, and police officer right there. And free up their agencies to deal with crime, non-homeless health care, and delivery of social services to the non-homeless population.
It’s so smart and works so well and costs so much less money. So why do we insist on old tired models that waste money, human resources, and just take a problem and sometimes make it worse.
Why do we spend so much time, effort, and talent to find effective ways to sweep this whole problem under the rug? Because continuing to use the same models that would be recognized by your grand-pappy up in Heaven will only lead to us to needing ever-larger rugs.
In Renfrew, we’re fortunate to have some forward-thinking being applied to this issue, Pembroke too. In my view, we need to build on that thinking, incorporate the good ideas of others, and add them to our own good ideas.
Humane, cost-effective, human-effective, and quite simply the right thing to do.
We should get on it.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 