Henry Grabar writes in Slate Magazine that the wheels are coming off the housing first wagon. As Grabar and others have written, housing first1 is giving way to a new formula of mandatory treatment and encampment clearances. Housing first works, but Grabar contends that people are accepting the new formula because housing first takes too long. Housing first could go much faster, he says, but there’s no willingness to add to the housing supply and the support services to make it successful.
Digging into this behaviour a little in the interests of international fairness, let’s take an opportunity to point the finger at how homelessness is being managed in other places. The government in Ontario, Canada tabled legislation to make municipalities ‘safer’. The legislation contained elements of the formula that is blooming across the United States: mandatory treatment and clearing encampments. The legislation has been withdrawn, pending the results of a provincial election, but it’s ready to go, if electors vote to return the current government to power2.
And now, let’s go to Japan, where CNN is reporting on elderly homeless women who are in prison. The prison guards aren’t the toughs you’ve seen in shows. Indeed, they spend a considerable amount of their time supporting the needs of inmates who can no longer look after themselves.
Under these circumstances it’s hardly surprising that homeless women in Japan are committing crimes in order to get to a place where they can actually get care. One wonders why the women who are homeless can’t get good care like this in a less punitive space. Read more from CNN: Meet the elderly Japanese women who keep committing crimes to stay in jail
Let’s circle back to Henry Grabar’s article, which laments the willingness in the U.S. to adopt a new formula for treating homelessness. The new formula runs contrary to the measures that prevented homelessness during the pandemic and the widespread success of Housing First. Grabar asks why Americans are willing to turn their collective backs on what works? Read more in Slate Magazine: A Harsh New Era for America’s Homeless People
Footnotes
- Try: Housing First – What Is It And How Does It Help To End Homelessness?
- In the context of the election, this policy brief from the Maytree Foundation calls attention to the downward trend in the provincial government’s spending record: Provincial Spending On Housing And Homelessness In Ontario
