EDITORIAL: Aspiring to end homelessness

AN end to homelessness means that every community will have a comprehensive response in place that ensures homelessness is prevented whenever possible, or if it can’t be prevented, it is a rare, brief and one-time experience.

This is according to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. That Council suggests that to really tackle homelessness, work must be done to quickly identify and engage people at risk of and experiencing homelessness, intervene to prevent people from losing their housing and divert people from entering the homelessness services system. Also, individuals must be provided with immediate access to shelter and crisis services, without barriers to entry if homelessness does occur and people experiencing homelessness must be quickly connected to housing assistance and services, tailored to their unique needs and strengths, to help them achieve and maintain stable housing.

Now this issue of homelessness indeed, can be a complex one. If we look at the different types or classifications of homelessness, we will see that there is one, situational or transitional/short-term homelessness, which sees a person forced into homelessness due to a life event such as a loss of a job, disaster, losing a family member who is the breadwinner, domestic violence, etc. Then there is episodic or cyclical homelessness, which occurs when a person falls in and out of being homeless, many times due to mental illness or addiction. There is also chronic/long-term homelessness, the term used for a person who is homeless for long periods of time, usually because he or she does not have the resources to change their living situation. These too are often people experiencing ongoing mental health or addiction issues.

Whatever the case, the issue of homelessness is one most countries, even at the international level, battle with. Some international countries even have what we call “a homelessness crisis”. Here in Barbados, we have heard that homelessness has increased, given the economic woes of the last decade. Indeed, the Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society, now the Barbados Alliance To End Homelessness, has been doing its part, valiantly, to fight homelessness and also vagrancy (which is another topic all by itself), in Barbados.

Some may wonder whether homelessness is a challenge we can truly conquer. But if we look to some of the international countries, Finland for example that embraced a Housing First programme that others are now trying to replicate, we will see that there is hope down the road, though we know at this present stage, we do not have the adequate resources to truly make a dent where it counts, in ending homelessness.

Nevertheless, the Barbados Alliance To End Homelessness must be recognised and lauded for taking the bold step that it has, in trying to reduce the number of homeless persons on our streets. Truly, we cannot tackle the problem unless we give support to such agencies that are doing groundbreaking work. Thus, the recent opening of the organisation’s three-storey new Homeless Shelter and Rescue Mission in Bridgetown, is a step in the right direction. This Homeless Shelter can accommodate a maximum of 80 persons, with a maximum of 20 of them being women and children. Indeed, that’s a great start in the fight to end homelessness or even tackle it. This agency however cannot do it alone, and so, Barbadians in general and even Government, must partner to ensure that the requisite support that is needed is given.

Barbados Advocate

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