What’s the Hold Up?

Something that can be very difficult for people outside the homeless-serving sector (and sometimes in it) to understand is why someone experiencing homelessness might turn down help or why you might see the same unhoused person over and over again in your neighbourhood over an extended period of time. They might decline a meal, refuse a shelter space, or dismiss services that could seemingly improve their circumstances. Critics of progressive policies like Housing First or Income Assistance often use this fact to tell us, “See they don’t want help – they’re the problem.” Or they’ll be mad about funding going towards places like Alpha House and say, “trying to help them is a waste of money” or else “where does your funding even go – people are still homeless.”. As usual, the reality of why homeless-serving agencies have not solved homelessness is much more complex. In this blog post, we wanted to provide more information and hopefully answer questions you might have about why things are the way they are.

Before Connecting with Social Services

Even prior to the trauma accumulated from living on the street, many people experiencing homelessness have suffered significant trauma in their lives. It is not uncommon for our population to feel judged, dismissed, or discriminated against because of their circumstances or behaviour presentation. When this rejection becomes a daily experience, we frequently see individuals declining services because they’re distrustful towards people and systems even when they are supports intended to help them.

We are strong believers in meeting people where they’re at and a big part of outreach is understanding that building trust and relationships takes time and consistency. Our staff first need to demonstrate that we are trustworthy and genuinely want to walk with someone on their journey before we’re able to provide needed supports. We respect a client’s agency and right to make their own decisions when they are ready, which means outreach workers often have many repeat interactions before there is enough trust and rapport built for the client to feel comfortable accepting a ride to a shelter or an offer of housing information.

Once Connected with Social Services

Even once connected to a social service agency, there are often barriers to housing, detox, or other similar supports.

First, many of our clients do not have access to a mobile phone, particularly a phone with calling and texting capabilities. Without a phone, you not only lose the ability to consistently connect with a caseworker for check-ins and updates, but also have difficulties making appointments with doctors, treatment centres, or income assistance. Even when we are finally connected to a client and supporting them with a long-term plan, this is still a major barrier our staff navigates daily, making appointments with clients to update paperwork or transport them to follow-up services and having to hope they will be able to keep track of the date and time well enough to meet us.

Something else to consider is that many of our clients do not have IDs, Birth Certificates, Social Insurance Number, or Banking Information, and the process to obtain even a Birth Certificate can take months. Not having access to these documents or accounts can significantly delay a client’s ability to sign a lease or apply for income supports like AISH. The majority of clients do not have a home mailing address so we allow them to use Alpha House’s Shelter to receive their mail but that also requires getting in contact with the client to let them know they need to pickup their mail, which is a further delay for the next steps in their case.

Finally, the supportive and affordable housing waitlists in Calgary are long. The sector is working with a limited supply of housing for vulnerable people, and there are far more applicants for housing than there are units available. It can take months, or even years, before an individual successfully obtains a housing unit. It’s also important to talk about the different needs someone might have when it comes to their housing. Even if we had 3,300 (the rough estimate of unhoused Calgarians) housing units vacant in the city – we couldn’t house the homeless population in Calgary. Because people have different housing needs – location, accessibility, amenities…etc. – if you want them to find stability and be successful in their housing. Other considerations people often forget is clients who have dependents, romantic partners, and/or pets- and may be looking for specific accommodations as a result.

For those who need specialized supports i.e. they cannot live independently, there is an even smaller volume of available housing units. Street-level services like emergency shelters and outreach teams are valuable in this respect as they provide ongoing connection and support for clients who are still living on the street and are awaiting acceptance into a housing program. But they aren’t a long-term solution to homelessness or street-involved circumstances.

The answer to the question posed at the start of the blog- “What’s the Hold Up?” can’t be neatly wrapped up into one answer. It is any combination of difficult or time-consuming situations that need to be navigated to make attaining housing a real possibility.