Anyone who’s listened to me spread the word about ending homelessness has likely heard me tell two stories:
- When I started this work as an activist over 20 years ago, I volunteered at The 410 homeless shelter — now People Serving People, a shelter for families experiencing homelessness. My “job” each Wednesday was to mentor the kids and help them with their homework. The kids were not that old, so they didn’t have that much homework. I really just spent most of my time playing games with them. Now, the kids at The 410 quickly discovered that one amongst them was really good at playing the game Connect Four, and that I was pretty terrible at it. Needless to say, I spent a number of Wednesdays being thoroughly embarrassed as this child of no more than 9 years old beat me at Connect Four as a roomful of children watched and laughed. (Is it any wonder I don’t do so well around kids these days?)
- Years later when I started to organize with single adults experiencing homelessness, one of the guys told me that the thing he hated most about being homeless is that many people would cross to the other side of the street just not to be near him. That really stuck with me. I realized that people experiencing homelessness didn’t want to be seen as “homeless people”. They certainly did not intend on staying homeless forever. They just wanted to be seen as people.
These two stories resonate with me as I read Opening Doors: the National Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Why?
Well, first, I applaud the Obama Administration for expanding the national goal to end long-term homelessness to the new goal of simply ending homelessness. The children temporarily staying in family or youth shelters (for example) would be happy to know that they are just as much a priority as any other homeless population.
Second, I am pleased to see that Opening Doors takes lessons we learned locally and the best practices we developed in the Plan to End Long-term Homelessness to show that different communities have developed different strategies to successfully address homelessness.
And third, while the Administration must still prove it is serious about the themes in this new plan, it looks like it takes a broader view of how to end homelessness. The Bush Administration’s Plan to End Long-term Homelessness was frequently faulted for its narrow focus. While it played up the role of developing housing, it said too little about jobs, health care, services, etc. The new plan relies on 19 federal agencies to address homelessness. Bravo!
Of course, the new plan has flaws. Chief among them is that there is no new funding identified to reach the goal of ending homelessness except for the National Housing Trust Fund — which still requires an appropriation from Congress. Let’s be clear, the plan will go nowhere without money.
Secondly, this plan suffers from the belief that the best way to end homelessness is to end it primarily through population-specific strategies: ending veteran homelessness, ending youth homelessness, ending family homelessness. True, sometime specific populations require special attention. But everyone needs health care, everyone needs a home, and most everyone can and wants to work. Carving out particular populations just divides those who are homeless and makes them compete when there are limited funds. (I remember hearing some guys at the Dorothy Day Drop-in Center complaining that they weren’t “chronic yet” (that is, they weren’t homeless long enough to fit into the specialized plan to end long-term homelessness).
And that brings me back to The 410. Twenty years ago there were two other kids I came into contact with and a friend of mine stays in touch with. Back then, we didn’t do enough to help them and their family address their homelessness. The foster care system failed them. The child protection system failed them. Society failed them. While I don’t know where either of them lives now, they are both struggling adults. One spent at least some time living in supportive housing for individuals who have been homeless. Another spent quite some time in jail. Homelessness as a child can turn into homelessness as a youth and then homelessness as an adult. Short-term homeless can turn into long-term homelessness. Temporary homelessness can become a lifelong disadvantage.
Sometimes treating someone experiencing homelessness as part of a homeless population simply pigeonholes them into being a “homeless person” rather than being the whole person they really are.
I guess the last thing I’d say about the new federal plan (for now), I’ll actually steal from my friend Liz Kuoppala, Executive Director with the Minnesota Coalition for the Homelessness (MCH): “A plan is a plan is a plan. Now, we need action.” If you care about ending homelessness, I’d strongly recommend you stay in touch with MCH. They’ll keep you in-the-know on what next steps are needed to keep the federal government serious about preventing and ending homelessness. To read Liz’s take on the plan, click here.
Read what others are saying about the National Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness:
