Consider, Homeless

No showers for you!

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In its continuing quest to attract a better class of clientele, the right sort of people to bestow charity on, the pancake breakfast discontinued showers and had very little in the way of men’s clothing Saturday October 13 while continuing the policy of no longer sending the bus around to give a ride to those in need of a big hot breakfast.

I suppose I could cite scripture and verse about how Christ would feel about this judgment of who is worthy of charity and about denying charity to those in need, but what is the point? It is clear from their actions that the institution that has put on this pancake breakfast for the needy over the past years has become an institution about religion and not about spirituality.

Be clear I have no quarrel with them wanting to reach out to another group of people in need. But my spirituality cries out that this should have been done by adding another pancake breakfast, not denying an established relationship with another group of people, undeniably in need of showers, haircuts, clean presentable clothing and a hearty pancake breakfast.

Anyone in need is “the right sort” to deliver charity to.

Addiction

Just an addict.

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He/she is “just an addict” is an attitude far to prevalent in our society because so often underneath the addict lies a whole other world or person.

Based on my experiences and observations I have come to the conclusion that if we want to be efficient and effective in dealing with addiction and homelessness we need to move away from current practices and towards the best practices in the field of mental health. This will require adopting a much longer view of treatment and recovery; in many ways adopting a much more holistic view of what constituted recovery and being healthy.

I knew someone while he was in his addiction, saw him off to treatment, back from treatment and as he struggled with sobriety and dealing with his mental illness sober and without the use of illegal drugs. It is and was an incredibly painful struggle for him, and in some ways for me.

I know just what a mess his head is in because my head was in just such a mess not that many years ago and I have to admire his tenacity in staying sober and not using drugs to escape what is going on in his mind. I am thankful that the way my head works would not permit me to seek escape through mind-altering substances. Perhaps even more thankful that experiences in my youth had taught me that for me, unlike most, there was no escape into oblivion via drugs.

This is the struggle almost all of the homeless and addicts face in getting their lives back on track and why we need to begin using a long term mental health recovery model to be effective and efficient.

Experience had lead me to the conclusion that we had to change the way we think about, plan and deliver services to the homeless. Still I was blown away by the personal store told by a new friend, who when I asked if I could relate her story in my writing said if it would help someone I was welcome to post it on billboards around the lower mainland.

She was a heroin addict, one of those viewed as “just an addict”. The first time she cleaned up she fell back into addiction. The second time she cleaned up she stayed clean and thus had to face her inner demons sober and without heroin.

Obsessive/compulsive disorder and agoraphobia, can I ever relate. Maybe it was hearing in her story of the struggle we shared with these mental illnesses that struck such a cord with me. Once again I could only be thankful that mind-altering drugs was not a route that promised me escape from my mental demons and so I had avoided addiction.

Listening to her story was wrenching, illuminating and life affirming. But it left me more convinced than ever that we need to change our way of thinking, planning and focusing on addiction recovery. It was supporting to find in conversation that she too felt that we needed a much longer term, more mental illness recovery model in haw we approach and deal with addiction.

Perhaps the most telling and thought provoking statement she made in reference to addiction was “…its less painful”. Heroin addiction, being a heroin addict was less painful than dealing with her mental illness. I wonder how many of those who would have judged her “just an addict” would have the intestinal fortitude to deal with those mental demons that come with mental illness without escaping into addiction?

We need to change. We know our old and current approaches are not resulting in attaining effective and efficient outcomes for the homeless, the addicted. To just mindlessly continue doing what we have done in the past is insane behaviour, even more insane is to do more of what is not working.

It is time for leadership willing to embrace change, risk and new ideas to be applied to helping those suffering the blight of homelessness and/or addiction.

Uncategorized

Be as a drop of rain…

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I am getting to old for homelessness or perhaps having a bed to sleep in spoiled me. Either way my new living arrangements have me stiffer than the proverbial board, feeling over 100 years old and moving very sloooooooooooow.

I admit I was definitely remiss in not focusing on making sure I got a station wagon or van during my sojourn indoors – and a laptop computer. I suppose I should have kept my priorities focused on the car and computer and not let things like classes, earning certifications, working, volunteering and pursuing mental health distract me from preparations for being on the street again.

With our out of balance housing market and economy it is a fact of life that more and more people, many of them working poor, are going to experience homelessness for at least some period(s) of time.

In fact we are now and have been for a while seeing even people with full time jobs who do not earn enough to pay all their bills because increasing housing costs have consumed a larger and larger portion of their disposable income. The working poor have the additional burden that their jobs prevent them from getting to the food bank to be able to save on food costs and therefore have more money available for housing.

As a society we can behave in our normal manner ignoring the problem, letting it worsen into crisis, having politicians and pundits make political footballs out of the matter etc. OR we could try a new approach – rational behaviour. Personally I am solidly in favour of acknowledging reality and behaving rationally as I have no wish to inflict on or share homelessness with anyone.

I admit I do not have a nice neat solution, probably because there isn’t one. From the Tao of James: always be suspicious of anyone who claims nice neat solutions to complex problems that involve people – they are lying or delusional.

Affordable housing is just such a complex problem. But by starting to work on it sooner rather than later, by being open-minded and flexible we can avoid having more and more citizens thrown onto the streets.

So as you prepare to sit down to eat or are going to bed or are listening to the rain pound down – ask yourself what you can do or better yet will do about addressing this question of affordable housing. There are lots of little actions that can be taken to help, remember little actions all add up. And a good idea shared or put into action will spread.

We all know rain/water can wear away mountains. It does not do this in a massive wall of water but through countless little drops falling over time in different places. For affordable housing and other “too big” problems if many of us choose to be as that single drop of rain, we can and will wear away the “mountains” our inaction has made many issues into.