Your Turn: Community should help homeless, not shun them
Today every single community in the United States that includes thousands of individuals has a “homeless problem.” Some in our community are advocating against raising the sales tax in Lawrence by five one-hundredths of a penny (that’s right, .05% is $0.0005 or 5/100 of a cent). I call them the Don’t Say Homeless group. I submit that not funding services to the unhoused will not make the problem go away.
I’m voting “Yes” on Question 2 in the current ballot. Homelessness is a personal problem and a social problem on a grand scale that we must face to solve it. Otherwise, it will never go away. Despite its complexity, there are solutions to homelessness for certain individuals. Also, there are steps toward solutions in our community that have not been realized. It starts with understanding its origin, the source of this social justice issue.
In short, the source is the family of origin — what the individual inherits from their family in learning, resources and genetics. In my weekly work with the homeless at the local nonprofit The Homeless Resource Center: Dare To Hope! drop-in support center, most of the persons I have interacted with there have no family of origin or extended family support — usually no contact at all. They did not grow up in a “normal, middle class, educated, working, law-abiding” family. And they are not connected with any healthy primary support group in any community.
Therefore, the most far-reaching and effective solutions are services to the nuclear families with children from prenatal to adulthood. Obviously, that will take another generation or more to reach the solution point and the type of services to be provided are multidisciplinary — from holistic health to education/training to housing, etc. However, this is a giant step in the right direction.
I often hear that people in our community are so afraid of the homeless. Granted, some of that may be based on personal experiences. I submit that by and large the unhoused in our community are not that different from the rest of us other than they have no source of resources to meet their daily needs. I believe that after living on the street for a month, even in good weather, I would be mentally ill. From that position of hurting from unmet basic needs, and subsequent anger buildup, I might do some screaming and cussing at others.
The other frequent comment heard states that the homeless are lazy and just need to get a job. In reality, it is extremely difficult to get hired if you don’t have a stable, continual work history, references, way to be contacted, high school education, or good grooming and attire. Any one of those will prevent being hired most places. Many of the unhoused do not have any of the above. Some have come from jail or prison and that certainly is a major barrier to getting a job.
The other “solution” I have heard repeatedly is for the city to buy a vacant school, office or apartment building and put all that are homeless there. That is not likely a manageable solution if it does not include comprehensive services to help them improve their functional abilities to move into permanent housing — and that will require funding above the cost of the building. Also it would have to only be a temporary stopping point as without comprehensive preventive services mentioned above the oncoming homeless with their multiple unmet needs will continue.
Furthermore, concentrated housing of those with multiple problems is not likely to be manageable. It would be a similar model to a return to the state mental hospitals that were closed three decades ago.
There is no grand solution to helping homeless individuals. However, I believe providing help to the needy is the Christian thing to do based on the teachings of Jesus. That will be steps in the right direction toward a solution in the long term.
We can work together to counter this pervasive issue by supporting and assisting with programs that are steps toward solving the problem. It is up to each individual to decide how to best help, whether on a face-to-face basis, contributing funds or time to a local nonprofit or church program, or supporting government interventions. Regardless, the need is great and we are each called to act out our good faith by participating in the steps necessary to reach the solution. I say, “Help the homeless, rather than shunning them.”
— Timothy Bonner is a retired clinical psychotherapist who has worked on the staffs of Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center and Valeo Behavioral Health Care in Topeka.