Start where they are: An incremental approach to housing the homeless
Silicon Valley cities have spent millions upon millions on affordable housing, and the result seems only to be a steady increase in human suffering, as people live outdoors in haphazard tents and cardboard coverings. Perhaps the Housing First strategies favored by planners--in which units that cost upwards of $800k/unit take years to build--is hopelessly flawed. In what is widely acknowledged as a cornerstone document in the state’s and county’s housing discourse, SJ District 3 council candidate Irene Smith explores a different, more incremental housing strategy based on the perspective of a therapist. From her Medium account.
In visiting and exploring two downtown permanent supportive housing locations I’m reminded that often the residents don’t stay in their rooms. They leave at night to sleep outside because it’s too quiet. They sleep on the floor because the bed is not comfortable. Sensors must be installed to remind residents not to move too far away from the stove while it is on. And a fire fighter mentioned to me that a resident was pushing a grocery cart through the hallway while it was on fire. Moving directly from a tent to an $850,000 apartment can re-traumatize a resident and exacerbate PTSD. In addition, acclimating them to their new surroundings takes time and planned adaptation. We need a better transition plan.
All this while we wait and hope for building.
What is missing is an Incremental Ladder of Housing Success.
Instead of waiting years for more structures to be built, how could we even ever so slightly improve the conditions of the people we see who are suffering living on the streets? In psychology there’s a term we use called meeting the client where they’re at. Attempting to skip the therapeutic process and immediately get to the end result leads to unexpected results such as defiance, anger, depression, and confusion on the part of the client. The same can be true for someone who’s lived on the streets in a tent for many years and is immediately brought into an apartment with four walls, a bed, appliances, and rental contract rules.
Why not meet the client where they’re at? If we can incrementally make their lives just a little bit better, why not? Why wait years for buildings, if we can act right now and make their environment incrementally better?
If our clients are living in tents let’s meet them where they’re at. Let’s ask them to move in their tents, in their communities, with their pets to one or three locations of the city or the counties preference.
Those locations will offer better protection than sliding down a creek bed and they will be protected from predators. We can stop the constant fires and the degradation to the environment on the waterways that go to the Bay. We can stop the infestation. We can provide PO boxes, showers, and allow the nonprofit organizations and churches to find their clients in one location. Making it both easier for city services, county services, and nonprofit services to reach clients immediately, where they are at.
Are tents a permanent solution? No. It is a way to improve their quality of life incrementally and immediately. But tents are one rung on the Ladder.
Read the whole thing here.
Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity