Keep people who are unhoused safe in housing instead of safe on the street, suggests guest columnist
- By David Witty From Nanaimo New Bulletin
Those who work with people experiencing homelessness point to the ever-increasing numbers, including the increase in the numbers of youths and elderly living on our streets and the toll on first responders who are tasked with dealing with overdoses and disorder.
There are a few key factors that have led to the overwhelming numbers of people experiencing homelessness:
Between 1947-1986, the federal government built 253,000 public housing units. But, since then many were allowed to be turned into market housing. In the late ’80s the federal government stopped building social housing and in 1996 handed the responsibility for social housing to the provinces. Senior governments left the supply of housing to the private sector.
There are more and more people unable to afford the cost of housing, particularly rental housing. A combination of factors have accelerated the cost of housing so that as many as 43 per cent of Nanaimo’s homeless population live on the street because they cannot afford current housing costs.
The complications of COVID-19, increase in drug use, overloaded health-care systems and combination of legal and enforcement issues have accelerated the number of people who fall outside of traditional care and as a result have defaulted to a life on the street.
As the number of people experiencing homelessness has increased significantly, corresponding investments in wraparound supports have not increased proportionally, resulting in more people who are homeless taxing existing care givers and their financial resources.The federal and provincial governments have downloaded some of the responsibility for addressing the issues of homelessness onto local governments.
Many of us have accepted homelessness as our new normal with resultant lack of commitment to address its root causes. Yet, there are many other countries and some Canadian cities that have been able to reduce homeless numbers significantly. What are their lessons?
Housing homeless people and providing wraparound supports known as ‘housing first plus’ has proven effective in addressing homelessness and is cost effective. Studies in Finland confirm that provision of a housing first plus strategy saves on average €14,000 for every person who is housed and provided needed supports. Finland has proved that taking people off the street saves money in the end. In Nanaimo, it is estimated to cost $21 million for all levels of government to provide services related to homelessness and supports to keep people on the streets with the supports needed to address their on-street safety, health and basic needs.
What if we carefully and co-operatively implemented a housing first plus strategy in Nanaimo? What if we redirected over a 10-year period the money spent on keeping homeless people safe on the street to safe in housing?
Completed this year, a report ‘Developing a Homelessness Action Plan for Nanaimo: Finding a Way Home’ offers Nanaimo a way forward by redirecting the $21 million spent on homelessness to the construction of a variety of 900 required housing units ($65 million less land costs) and needed wraparound supports.
We have a choice: stay the course and build some needed housing units or adopt housing first plus with its comprehensive, co-ordinated mix of housing and wraparound supports. What will it be?
David Witty is senior fellow urban design, master of community planning, Vancouver Island University.
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