The 2015 Conference to End Homelessness

I got back from the 2015 Annual Conference to End Homelessness yesterday. I was asked to co-facilitate two workshops, and I facilitated my own workshop called How to Stay Engaged with Advocacy.  This years conference was very much like the one I attended last year in Yakima, Washington.  There were lots of white faces, very a few black faces and a full compliment of classes and workshops to one again examine a great many of the issues surrounding homelessness in Washington State. 

The conference itself was sponsored by the non-profit, Washington Low-Income Housing Alliance. I have been working with them for a couple of years learning how to be an advocate for ending homeless.  Between going to workshops, co-facilitating workshops, and preparing to co-facilitate workshops, I saw a lot of people only in passing, and stole a few glimpses from a few attractive women. One thing that I have noticed in both conferences is that there are A LOT of service workers, professionals and community leaders trying to help the homeless.  Two days of classes - 48 workshops in all, with names like, "Neutralizing Homelessness: Federal Policy & the de politicization of poverty" and "Unleashing the Capacity for Deeper Collaboration Among Congregations, Service Providers, & People Experiencing Homelessness" While the long names might be an indication of how serious some Washingtonians are about ending homelessness, the irony of it can't be escaped: All these professionals walking around attending workshops on how to end homelessness, and not one single homeless person on any panel, in any workshop, or anywhere else at the conference. 

While that sounds kind of slick to write, the truth is, the problem of homelessness is extremely complex mostly because many of the homeless are mentally ill and frequently exhibit anti-social behavioral patterns that will keep them on the margins of society as they are not able to maintain anything close to healthy interrelationships. However, with the right commitment to build affordable housing, and a modified Housing-First model that can somehow address the increased need for case management services with the objective of seriously moving their client towards independence, simply building more affordable and low- income housing is not going to solve the problem. In fact, it could be said that building more subsidized housing might present us with a whole new set of challenges related to helping mentally-ill persons maintain their various residences. The services most homeless people need are multi-teared; housing, healthcare, employment need to be in a wrap-around type system and in one location to insure easy access. Providing social services to the homeless is only half the battle, however.
 
The other half of the equation that can solve homelessness is examining our legal and court systems. Recently, cities and states have responded to increasing homelessness by creating laws the criminalize homelessness. In many Washington State cities, local governments have begun to create ordinances that make it a crime to sit, stand, lie down, eat, or sleep in public. These ordinances have a devastating effect upon the life of the homeless person. There is a 'cycle of homelessness' that occurs when a homeless person is caught breaking one of these ordinances. Here's how it works:

The Criminalization of Homelessness

a.     Root causes of homelessness - must ground ourselves in this to be able to talk about addressing criminalization.

b.    What does the cycle of criminalization look like?

        i.   Examples of laws and policies that criminalize people who are homeless - Kirk can draw on examples from his advocacy and personal experience (park hours, no sit/lie ordinances, sprinklers in parks, restricted parking hours, etc).

Connection to the criminal justice system - civil citations result in court dates and fines to pay. Missed court dates result in arrest warrants. Suddenly you’re in the system.

Acknowledging the cycle of criminalization is also bigger than this, because there is structural and institutional racism and oppression at play: economic inequality, school to prison pipeline/criminal justice system at large, unemployment, food/housing insecurity, access to health care, etc. These systems interplay with the criminalization of homelessness and perpetuate disparities in how homelessness and criminalization impacts people of color, people with mental illness, people with disabilities, LBGTQ people.

 

 How does the “personal responsibility” frame that pervades our thinking and policy making around homelessness play into criminalization? I should also point out that this narrative reinforces the cycle of criminalization, flattens the issue and keeps us from looking at this as a racial justice issue, disability justice issue, etc. If we can’t see it as a systemic problem, pushing for the systemic solutions we need will remain incredibly difficult.

The practical application here comes down to how we treat the individual and how we work toward a solution for that individual. We cannot give mere mental ascent to the fact homelessness has its roots in systemic failure, but then treat the individual as if all of the responsibility for their condition rests solely upon them. We need to work towards changing the system, not just changing the person.