Kelly Blankenship was asked to be a guest columnist as part of our ongoing Unhoused series. She was given the following writing prompt:
“When it comes to homelessness in Mansfield and Richland County, what is oversimplified about this issue?”
“Why should we help them?”
“They did that to themselves.”
“We don’t want them in our neighborhood.”
“You just want to dump them on us!”
“They are all druggies and all they want is money to do more drugs.”
“If they can afford cigarettes, they don’t need any help!”
That’s what I hear. That’s public perception in general. Sure, there are those who sincerely want to help those who are less fortunate regardless of the cause of said misfortune — we call them angels.
The rest simply have misunderstood the problem.
There are as many causes of homelessness as there are people experiencing homelessness. It is a very complex problem that requires multi-faceted solutions.
For instance, let’s talk about Mr. T. He came to the shelter with his mother from out of the city. She met some guy online who lived nearby. She was relocating to be with him, but since she didn’t have any other connections in the area, she opted for shelter. Once she hooked up with her online lover, she left the shelter and her son.
You see, Mr. T. was 19 years old and legally responsible for himself.
Pause and consider what kind of upbringing he might have had during those years. I can tell you he wasn’t raised in a loving home with parents who took their responsibility of nurturing and preparing him for his adulthood seriously.
Mr. T. has some difficulty learning, but that didn’t stop him from getting a job. He was very conscientious about it, too. Up and ready for work early, he was always waiting for his ride before his ride was due. He didn’t miss a day of work either.
We helped him understand finances and budgeting. He never had a bank account before. When he received his paycheck, he brought his money to us to keep in our safe, so that he could be sure to save it instead of spending it right away. That right there made him remarkable!
Often, people in crisis focus on their immediate needs. And living in a shelter in a 10×12 room with two sets of bunk beds, two chests of drawers, and up to three other people and their belongings that doesn’t lend itself well to tending to one’s mental well-being. They aren’t planning for tomorrow. Mr. T. was. And he eventually found a place to rent, moved out, and kept bringing us his paycheck until he was finally ready to tackle banking.
Who was there to encourage him and celebrate his successes? Harmony House staff.
Then we have Ms. C., who came to the shelter as a 19-year-old senior in high school. She was going to graduate in a few months. She chose shelter because her mother was trafficking her for drugs.
All she wanted was some peace so she could concentrate on finishing her senior year and graduate.
Can you imagine how long her mother had been trafficking her? What do you think that did to her mental health? What about her physical health? She is a real hero!
Let’s learn about Ms. S. She battled drug addiction and won. She was sober. She was in treatment to make sure she remained sober. When she entered the shelter, she had the best attitude.
Imagine the shame that accompanies having to live in a shelter. How humble and downtrodden one must be to seek shelter.
Ms. S. eventually brought her children into shelter to be with her. The bus picked them up for school every day. And every other kid on that bus could read the sign out front and knew that those kids were living in a homeless shelter. Ms. S. found employment. She found an apartment.
What is truly amazing is how happy and grateful and upbeat she was the entire time she was in shelter. Her children followed her example with their positive attitude. They were friendly and polite. They were all helpful and warm. Our community is better for having them in it.
Recently, we visited a client who moved out of shelter last May. Ms. M. came to us right out of prison. She was the driver of the getaway car and lost eight years of her life for it. She was sent to the shelter by the Volunteers of America because they thought she would have a better chance of being re-acclimated to the community with us.
Ms. M. already had a job working for McDonald’s when she arrived. Fantastic! That’s a huge step toward regaining independence.
Ms. M. worked with our housing coordinator to find an apartment that she could afford and a landlord who would accept her with her compromised background. She was living happily until she had an accident at work; she was badly burned by the grease and had to take a leave.
We continued to supplement her rent so she didn’t lose her apartment. Eventually, her sister came to move in with her and help care for her and contribute to the rent. So, Ms. M was removed from our caseload, but not our hearts. She kept in touch with us and updated us on her condition.
A couple months ago, she came into the shelter to speak with Diane, our Housing Coordinator. She confided to Diane that she was feeling suicidal. Her injury was not healing properly and she was depressed about not being able to work and make a living.
Diane convinced her to seek treatment for her suicidal thoughts at the hospital and assured her that we would walk with her through this trial in her life.
When we visited her at her apartment, I was taken aback at the way she was living. Her apartment was well-kept. She had freshly painted walls and new carpet … and not much else.
Her windows were covered with sheets and blankets. She was living in her bedroom. Her meager twin bed doubled as her couch and her dining room table. She had a chest of drawers that was insufficient for her belongings, and because the apartment had no closets, her belongings were stacked in neat piles along the wall.
Her sister occupied the other room living in a recliner that also doubled as her bed. Her belongings were also neatly stacked.
I was moved to tears as we left. These two women were living in conditions that would have been unacceptable to most of us. And they were ecstatic!
When asked if she was happy to be living there, Ms. M. beamed with gratitude! Her sister is also happy to be reconnected with her sibling and to be able to help her with cooking and rent.
Ms. M. is applying for disability as it’s unlikely she will be able to work again.
These are the stories of the unhoused. They are people in crisis. Each one is different from the other. Each with a unique set of circumstances and back stories that led them to lose their home. Each one has a unique set of needs to be met in order to become independent and stable in the community again.
There is no simple answer.
HUD believes in the housing first approach to ending homelessness. Housing first is a philosophy that makes finding housing the main priority over other issues that are less critical.
Once a person is housed, he/she should be able to choose to seek assistance from other providers for the surrounding issues that need to be addressed.
Other philosophies compel clients to obtain behavioral health services or graduate a particular program prior to being housed in the community.
Neither option is perfect, but housing first supports an individual’s dignity and right to choose his own course of action.
Many times clients are housed in the community with financial assistance and they transition to full responsibility with no issues. Other times, clients are ill-prepared to take on the responsibility of maintaining a standard of living on their own. Some clients never learned how to properly clean their surroundings.
Often, forward planning doesn’t flow naturally in a person who has had crisis thinking and impulse acting ingrained in his/her behavior. Many of our clients are battling substance use disorders and mental health issues, whether or not they have been professionally diagnosed.
The barriers to independence are many and varied and at times insurmountable for some clients. Do we have clients who come back to shelter?
Yes.
Should we turn them away?
Absolutely not!
You never know when that time will come that everything clicks and aligns for that individual. Most of them have been told in one way or another that they won’t amount to anything.
But I have personally seen the transformation that can take place when someone tells them that there is goodness inside them and that we believe in them!
Sometimes the answer is simple. Most often it’s so complex that it’s indescribable.
