Humbly Homeless

Canada is in fairly good financial shape, broadly speaking. Far better than most in the G20.  The latest issued figures emphasized a sizeable number of job losses.  And the issue of homelessness isn't going away; those living on the streets of Canadian cities are growing in number. 

There are, of course, various causes, not just unemployment.  But also people suffering from mental illnesses.  People whose lives have been upended as a result of alcoholism, drug addiction.  And young runaways, or young people cast out of their families.

It all represents a national tragedy.  People living on the street live tenuous, vulnerable lives.  They cannot be happy with what has happened to their lives.  We shouldn't be.  They have little reason to feel comfortable about where they are, and content with what their lives have turned out to be.  If, as a result, they become anti-social where's the surprise?

They're likely to be hungry at times, even though there are social support agencies both municipal and private run by churches and institutions who mount programs to aid the homeless.  Their health cannot but suffer.  Exposure to extremes of weather conditions doesn't make for a reasonable existence.  The potential for disagreements is always present, and with it the occasional violent outburst.  Deaths from exposure or from physical altercations occur.

And some street people, people with no homes but the streets - a condition that in the West we used to intake our breath about, knowing it to be a regular feature of a country like India, for example - can become belligerent.  Those with some element of enterprise still alive, try to make a few dollars where they can.  And sometimes they use a bit of extortion, like the squeegee "punks" who make drivers anxious when they approach.

A Montreal restauranteur has an idea to turn things around: "This growing epidemic threatens the economic and political station of Montreal and is one of the great challenges to face the next administration", he has written, while attempting to organize an anti-homelessness community group. 

Businesses are alarmed that the growing presence of homeless on the streets are detracting from their businesses, frightening people away.  Some panhandlers make people fearful by their demanding demeanor.  "Someone should have the freedom to run a business without somebody running a secondary business outside",said the director of Saskatoon's Downtown Business Association.

One business owner of a restaurant asked a group of panhandlers to leave his terrace.  They refused.  "They find it fun since we're tolerant here, but there's violence that comes with it", explained the restaurant owner.  When he asked the young panhandlers to leave his property they began smashing bowls and overturning trays.

The solution?  The communities in which these homeless live have an obligation beyond feeding and temporarily housing them in overnight situations when the weather is too inclement for humans to endure.  Start investing into resources to rehabilitate the urban poor, chronic drug abusers and the mentally ill.

Homelessness now costs the Canadian taxpayer between $4.5 and $6-billion in health care, criminal justice, social services and emergency shelter funding.  Research has reached the conclusion that house-the-homeless programs represent intelligent economic solutions.  Social housing initiatives to end homelessness, to enable health-care workers to follow individual clients before they succumb to end-stage hopelessness pays for itself.

"Issues arising from homelessness are more costly to deal with after the fact than if homelessness were prevented in the first place.  It is essentially a problem of 'pay now or pay more later'", reads a position paper commissioned by the Government of British Columbia.  In 2001.  So we've identified a potential solution and feel good about its possibilities. 

But haven't bothered yet to implement even a pilot project.

As well, an $110-million anti-homelessness strategy is set to make its debut.  Called "Housing first", the strategy matches homeless people into a home - then exposes them to a number of treatment and training options.  But the strategy and intention was identified in 2006 as an initiative by the Conservative government.  And it still hasn't taken off. 

When will it?