Homeless Brother

 

Oppotunity Village Eugene OR

                                

           Homelessness cannot be solved overnight or by tossing out vast amounts of money without addressing a lot of the underlying issues: mental health, addiction, lack of civic support, but to the homeless these are secondary to the simple problem of not having a safe place to be. This country treats the downtrodden as scapegoats to society's issues, fake compassion while turning a blind eye will never solve the problem.

            "How will we pay for this? " ignores government money mismanagement in regards to housing/shelters. Those who refuse to allow the homeless to integrate back into society makes it costly for everyone. We should consider the homeless as an investment- like a human repair shop where the broken are mended to be useful again. Most don't see a return on the investment only the cost, but homelessness already cost the taxpayer in emergency services, police and courts.

            The solution to homelessness is actually simple-- what is lacking is incentive. As long as the problem is viewed as some vast, abstract issue we can't possibly fix, nothing will be done. It's only when there is a personal connection can change occur.

             Traditionally the approach was clean up your act and then you can get a home. Insisting that sobriety, treatment and employment happens first puts the onus on the homeless. It's unrealistic to expect someone trying to survive to manage such change. It also places blame for the problem on them when most are victims of circumstance rather than willful weakness.

            Dr. Sam Tsemberis founder of Pathways Housing First Institute has addressed this backwards thinking with data that housing people first actually decreased costs.

            Here in Eugene OR where the homeless problem is acute, there are several temporary shelter sites and a tiny home community that are helping out with little complaint from neighbors and it works.