Local Non-profit Homes to Good’s approach to Housing First
The best solution to homelessness is to build more housing for everyone and to minimize barriers to housing. While it may seem trite to say that the solution to homelessness is to build more housing, it really is that simple. Building more housing for people from different socioeconomic classes allows more housing to be available overall, therefore diminishing the financial barriers to that housing if demand remains stable. It is important to note that studies must be done to determine which types of housing (“affordable,” workforce, SROs, middle-housing, market-rate, luxury, etc.) and in what amounts (percentage of total need) is best for each community to solve this issue. The city of Eugene is offering incentives currently to build more housing downtown with visible progress out of our studio windows!
In terms of the unhoused, it is important to note that homelessness as it currently stands in the US has only been around since the 1980s and the last major time this occurred was around the Great Depression. That being said, there are several locales that have taken a “Housing First” approach to this problem by providing housing to anyone who is unhoused without stipulations around sobriety, mental capacity, financial capacity, public record, employment or the like. You can read more about this approach in depth here, here, and especially here. This approach works because it is nearly impossible for a person to be able to handle big personal hurdles like addiction, mental imbalances, or job acquisition when they do not have the physical security and stability that housing provides. It is nearly impossible for a single parent to take care of their children and find a job to qualify for traditional housing. It is nearly impossible for someone with a record to step out from under that shadow and find housing.
If we truly want to solve homelessness, we need to stop diminishing the humanity of the unhoused or those that are struggling. We need to stop blaming the victims of the failed systems and instead acknowledge their basic human right to shelter and security. If one person is suffering, it shows we are all suffering. They serve as a reminder that any one of us could end up in that position with the next bad call–and that is exactly how you stay complacent to the broken system based on fear and oppression. By taking control of the narrative and changing how we view the unhoused, we can not only ensure a better future for them, but for ourselves also.