Hi!

I watched the livestream today about solving homelessness. I did see a lot of information shared about poverty and economic disparity. These are indeed the reality of many.

I’ve been working in the homeless sector for over a decade. I would say that lack of social inclusion, complacent wages and a lack of obtainable housing do play a role, but these are symptoms of the problem, not THE problem.

Housing, while vital, is not the solution to homelessness, but a part of it. What I found missing from the panel was a candid discussion about why people end up homeless and maintain this status. 99% of the assessments I do with vulnerable populations I serve all have something in common: at one point, as early as childhood, have experienced trauma. Trauma is the root cause, drugs and alcohol, violence, lack of self-sustainability stems from it. THEN, we observe how the systems we have in place do not make it easy to recover.

What is important to note is the difference between surviving (ie. being out in housing) and thriving (ie. beyond shelter, addressing the needs, coping with crisis and finding a sense of self and belonging in your community). This is imperative for anyone trying to bridge the gaps to understand, but I would have preferred more details about how these initiatives are achieved under a Housing First model. In my experience, people think a job well done is for an agency to record that so and so is now housed. That’s actually just the beginning. This is difficult to quantify in terms of stats and I would be interested in the stats Path, for example, have in relation to housing stability beyond the 12 month mark.

This is a paradigm for any social service agency, as eventually people leave your care and you have no way of knowing if individuals facing these struggles are still in recovery. The definition of success in this regard is arbitrary, as we may perceive ‘success’ differently.

I would love to know more about Cisco’s involvement and would be interested in how to become directly involved myself.