Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Why People are Homeless


Working at The Mustard Seed, I actually find I don't have that many conversations outside of work about homelessness. The only conversations I seem to have are talks with friends about the conversation they just had. The conversations I'm referring to,  between my family and their friends and strangers alike, are with people who clearly do not understand the issues, and I laugh it off a bit when they tell me the stories. I trust that people who think this way assume that, because I work at The Mustard Seed, I’m heavily armed with a million things to say to rebuke their homelessness claims. And perhaps they just don’t want to get into it that deeply.

So because I interact mainly with those who are sensitive to the issue of poverty and homelessness, or who pretend to be for my benefit, I have a skewed perception of how sensitive and educated on the issue the general population is. I sat down to think about those who don’t like the homeless, and came to a stark realization: this is my fault. My job is and/or has been to educate the public on the issues, connect with the community, break down stereotypes and communicate clearly about the issue of homelessness in our city. So if there are those who don’t know the real truth about homelessness, it’s not their fault. It’s mine.

So I’ll take this opportunity to redeem myself, and tell you, our reader, why people end up at the doors of The Mustard Seed. And you can bookmark this page. So when you come across the people who don’t know or like anything about the homeless, you can come back here and help to educate them.

  • Low minimum wage
  • Generational Poverty  - Second and third generation homeless and poor – born on the streets and unable to get off of them
  • Lack of affordable housing
  • Low income housing is being eroded
  • Lack of family support and/or life skills  - imagine never having a family that teaches you how to function in society
  • Many come from other provinces to find work - when they are not immediately successful, they lack the resources to live.
  • Unexpected job loss
  • Mental Disability  - includes mental illness, personality disorders, authority issues, coping skills, grieving, fetal alcohol syndrome etc. 
  • Physical Disability - many people have chronic or complex conditions requiring long-term support
  • Family Break-Down/Domestic Abuse - Alberta has the highest rate for domestic abuse in the country) (source)
  • Lack of Education and/or Job Skills - high school drop-outs and people with learning disabilities
  • Language Barriers - many new immigrants and refugees come through our programs.
  • Addictions - substance abuse, prescription drugs, alcohol, gambling or sexual addictions.
  • Frozen and Eliminated Government Programs
  • Criminal Records - a criminal record makes it difficult to find work again
 And there you go. If everyone in Alberta reads this blog post, my job is done and I can retire, having put "Educated 100% of Alberta about homelessness" on my resume. But, more realistically, I hope this has opened an eye or two to the true issues most of the homeless and working poor in our province face.

Did I miss any? Leave me a comment below!

Sarah B

Follow Sarah on Twitter @ispeakcanadian 

6 comments:

  1. This is excellent, Sarah. I've often felt the same way, so thanks for doing the groundwork to get the conversation started.

    I would also add to the list one of our biggest focuses: lack of access to supportive community. Healthy family support is important, but so is engaging in positive relationships outside of that structure. An individual faced with any of the conditions you mentioned, combined with isolation from caring community, would be a prime candidate for ending up on the streets.

    That's just my two cents. Thanks for this!

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  2. I agree with all the reasons listed, but I think it's important to clarify something. Sometimes we talk about the homeless as if they are all victims in a unique sense of that word(a sense that isn't true of everyone else that walks this earth). This simply isn't true. Sometimes I find it nauseating to hear people talk about the poor helpless homeless and never mention that some need to take responsibility for their lives. I don't say this in a demeaning sense or a judgemental one; the same thing is true for each one of us who is not homeless.

    The unspoken truth is that some people are homeless because they've made a number of bad choices and continue to make bad choices. Other's are homeless by choice. I'm not arguing that this is true of the majority or making any claim beyond the fact that we need to talk about this. As a worker and a donor, I don't want a white washed truth told to me. I want someone to look me in the face and say that when you help people sometimes you get taken advantage of, and sometimes people use you. All people are a mix of victim and sinner (homeless or not). Those are the people that we help; people who embody the best of humanity and characterize the worst of humanity to a varying degree depending on the person. I have no less passion for helping them and no less hope that anyone, homeless or not, can change.

    I write this because I believe we can talk about taking responsibility and still maintain a grace filled environment. I'm simply sad that this is so rarely talked about, especially when it comes to the broader public.

    Tim P

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    Replies
    1. Hi Tim,

      Thank you for your detailed comment! I completely agree with you on the choices issue. A lot of people do make bad choices, and unfortunately, can end up in some of the situations above (criminal record, addictions, job loss etc).

      The second part of your comment has just inspired a new blog post Tim!

      - Sarah

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  3. Thanks Sarah this is great...as usual broad strokes don't take into consideration the complexity of each individual. And there is a growing body of evidence that trauma, experienced over a lifetime (which may include any or all of the following incest, family violence, abuse, addiciton and the addicted home, neglect, exploitation, hunger, physical and mental illness) has a compounding disempowerment which leaves many individuals living in poverty unable to "just get a job at Tim Horton's".

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  4. Awesome post Sarah, something I always remind people of is that in order to make good choices, you have to have good options to choose from, and often people in our community are faced with an array of not great choices, but also with challenges to determine what the best choice is! FASD, mental illness and poor parenting play a big affect on one's ability to make "good choices"!

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Thank you for commenting! Your comments are extremely welcome on all Mustard Seed Blog posts. Staff, volunteers and guests are always in need of encouragement and are always willing to participate in healthy dialogue. We ask that all critical comments be fair and relevant to the post.