Nothing Less Than A Home Will Do.

The temperature is steadily sinking. There’s a hint of snow in the air. A skating oval is being built on the Commons. All signs are pointing to that great Canadian inevitability; Winter. Things are about to get a whole lot colder, and no matter our race, colour, or creed; we’ll begin looking for ways to keep warm.

Some of us will complain through it, some of us will snuggle up with loved ones, some of us will sing barbershop Christmas carols in local shopping malls, and some of us will go charging outside with a toboggan and a thermos full of something hot. Sounds like fun, no? Provided you’re comfortable, and have somewhere safe to call home, winter can be many shades of joyousness. When you’re homeless, winter becomes an issue of life and death.

According to the 2010 Halifax Report Card on Homelessness, 1,718 people were homeless and stayed in a shelter in Halifax in 2009. These people are men, women, trans-gendered, gay, straight, young, old, single, in relationships, have children, or have none. They are you and me. They are you and me, and ask yourself; would you like to be homeless? No, of course you wouldn’t like to be homeless. At the end of the day, when the sun goes down and the wind starts to howl, I’d rather have somewhere safe and warm to go than be out on the streets. And I'm guessing you all feel the same.

Before you go romanticizing the whole notion of being footloose and fancy-free, have a peek at the Health and Homelessness survey, in which the Community Action on Homelessness interviewed 158 homeless people in 6 shelters and 4 other locations in downtown Halifax. Some statistics include:

• 33% of those interviewed got less than 5 hours of sleep a night.
• 43% were frequently hungry because they could not find enough food to eat.
• 45% had been physically assaulted in the last year.
• 33% reported being assaulted by police officers or corrections officers in the year before they were surveyed.
• 10% had been victims of sexual assault or rape in the past year.
• 40% rated their health as fair or poor compared to 12% of the general population in Halifax.

So can we all agree? Being homeless sucks.

As a society, we seem to acknowledge this, and understand it on some fundamental level, but we do not act upon the situation. Indeed, it is one of the areas where we demonstrate our collective immaturity and/or callousness. When one is homeless, one simply suffers from the lack of a home. If there were enough homes, there would be a lot less homelessness. It’s kind of a no-brainer.

When homeless people were asked what the reasons were that were preventing them from finding and maintaining housing:

• 67% cited economic reasons,
• 36% cited mental and physical health conditions,
• 24% cited a lack of suitable housing options,
• 21% cited discrimination,
• 17% cited a lack of adequate support.

Basically, it all comes down to a lack of affordable housing, understanding landlords, and varying levels of assistance for those who don’t necessarily fit the renter/tenant mould. Yet in 2009 only 44 affordable housing units were completed and rented. For you stone-cold, economically-minded, types, Community Action on Homelessness undertook a cost/benefit analysis in 2009 and found that the cost of operating shelters, providing health care to Halifax’s homeless, and seeing the homeless through the justice system, came to 27.3 million dollars. That’s pretty much the same price as creating affordable housing for every homeless person in the HRM. Give a person the opportunity for affordable housing and the need for shelters will be drastically reduced. Health issues will improve. Run-ins with the law will decrease. We are not thinking long-term on this. Which is sad, but not surprising, seeing how we're not thinking long-term on much these days. But you don’t have to take my word for it...

Jordan Roberts, volunteer co-ordinator of Out of the Cold, Halifax’s volunteer-run winter emergency shelter, knows the reality of the HRM’s homeless situation.

“The message that we try to get out is that the need is for more housing. Sadly there’s always going to be a need for shelters in the sense of people.” says Roberts. “The reason that shelters are consistently at capacity, and the need for more shelters is always there, is because there’s not enough housing. (The reason)...people get into shelters, is often that there’s few places for them to move into, and there can be a lot of barriers between them and getting into another space.”

Out of the Cold is a fifteen-bed shelter that operates throughout the winter out of the basement of St. Matthew’s church. Where other shelters in town can quickly institutionalize and apply numerous regulations to the simple act of seeking shelter for the night, Out of the Cold operates with an alternative structure. It is open to males, females, trans-gendered folks, youth, families, and people with pets. They also have harm reduction, meaning that people can be intoxicated and still access the shelter, provided they are not at a level that is at a risk to themselves or others.

“Each shelter is a box,” says Roberts, “and when you create a box there’s ultimately going to be someone that doesn’t fit into it. So we just try to create our box with as few barriers, as few limitations, as possible. So if somebody has no other place to stay in the city, they know that they can come to us.”

Out of the Cold is kept alive through its volunteer staff, and, as Roberts mentions, they’re always looking for more volunteers. If you, busy readers, can’t offer your physical selves, Roberts will settle for your hearts and minds.

“What I believe is that one of the largest ways you can support the Out Of The Cold shelter,” says Roberts, “and more importantly the members of our community, is just by educating yourself around the issues of why people become homeless, how society is structured when that happens, and how there’s a lack of supports, and an increase of barriers for when somebody gets to that homeless position.  I think it’s really for people to educate themselves on these issues, and then to pass that knowledge on to their friends, their family, their coworkers, the members of their community. Ultimately, if there’s less stigma towards the people that access shelters, that’s already creating a better society for everyone to be in. I think that the stigma that our guests face is often one of the hardest parts of their day. First society lets you down, and then society rejects you, it’s one of the hardest things to see, and also to experience.”

For those of you out there who still believe in the social safety net of this country, first remember that Out of the Cold operates because of a lack of federally and provincially funded shelter space. Second, remember that shelter space exists because of a lack of affordable housing. There's not enough affordable housing, and barely enough shelter space available for those who can't afford non-affordable housing.

If you can’t work, you receive $514 a month in Income Assistance. If you are disabled, you receive $749 a month. Even if you can work, minimum wage is only 8.60$ an hour. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the average rent for a bachelor apartment in Halifax in 2009 was $638. Income Assistance will assist you with top-up money if your check does not cover rent (which is almost guaranteed), but at the end of the month, if you think our so-called social safety net will catch you when you fall, think again.

Canadians have this disposition for running away from things they don’t enjoy experiencing. That, or we put whatever it is we don’t want to see far, far, away. It is the myth of so much space; we think it’s gone because we can put it somewhere we are not.

Our strange sickness compels us to believe that once we’re away from it, it doesn’t exist because we can’t see it. When the problem doesn’t just go away, we grudgingly pay various levels of governments do just enough so as to not appear barbaric in our approach. Often we pay them just to say they're doing something, and then don't seem to care if they actually do it or not.

We bitch about the taxes, but we imagine (or maybe not) that we have solved the problem. Because we have a notion that Income Assistance exists, we imagine that we have addressed the issue. At this point, we think our job is done. If homelessness still exists, it must be homeless peoples’ faults. If homelessness still exists, then we blame and stigmatize homeless people. Then we calmly allow our government to spend 9 billion dollars on 65 airplanes, which we also pay for, but don’t bitch nearly as much about. We are sick. We are like a child peeking through our fingers at a disaster, and nobody’s going to fix it for us.

“I think that the diversity of people without housing is the same as the diversity as people with housing.” says Roberts. “It’s a huge diversity and the gamut runs wide in terms of the guests that we see at Out of the Cold, but also the guests that other shelters see around the city as well. And I think that part of dismantling the stigma is to recognize that.”

It could be you, and it could be me. And in most cases what we perceive as our own preparation against becoming homeless is a mixture of luck and blessings. Our support networks, our health, our ability to even deal with this demented mess that we need to navigate through just to pay the damn rent; these aren’t good fortunes that everyone shares. To cast off those who aren’t lucky or blessed enough to strive, when opportunity presents itself in seemingly limitless abundance to the fortunate, is among our greatest social shortcomings.

“I think it’s really important to locate ourselves.” says Roberts. “I think about the supports and things that I have in my life, that if I lost my job tomorrow, I could move back in with my parents. If I didn’t have that support in the city, and I lost my job what would happen? We all have a variety, or maybe a lack of, supports that are holding us into a place where we feel secure, or a place where we feel precarious. And it’s just about thinking if one or two of those blocks were taken away, how easily could the tower fall.”

“When we’re talking about housing issues,” says Roberts, “it’s important to locate ourselves within the housing struggle. How many issues have I had with landlords and apartment dwellings? It’s important to recognize that the way that society has let some individuals down, it could do the same to any of us at any moment. There’s nothing sure. We need to recognize folks that access shelters as members of our communities as the same as everyone else. Just as important, just as valid, just as compassionate and articulate and wonderful to be around. And that’s what I think is really wonderful about the Out of the Cold space, is that you get to work with other volunteers and staff and guests. It is a really wonderful community and a wonderful space that’s created. And some really fun times are had there.”

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth."
--Muhammad Ali