Dehumanizing folks doesn’t remedy homelessness.
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You won’t understand it from the tenor of the dialog this week in Bradford, however it’s value emphasizing that folks experiencing homelessness are extra probably to be victims of a violent crime quite than perpetrators.
As many Bradford residents clamored towards an early proposal to create a kind of homeless commune of their city, an unlucky and unhelpful narrative about unhoused folks appeared to take maintain of their reported objections. These objections, in some circumstances, appeared to solid homeless folks as some kind of menace to the neighborhood requiring elevated legislation enforcement presence — and perhaps even the motion of native gun homeowners.
People who find themselves experiencing homelessness usually are not a monolith and they don’t seem to be some kind of outdoors menace to our communities. They’re a part of our communities, they usually have distinctive causes for his or her circumstances. Sure, they’re usually dealing with challenges involving psychological well being and substance use. However we as fellow neighborhood members, in all communities, want to assist meet these challenges with providers and assist, not scorn.
Are you able to think about if communities throughout the state harnessed all of the power spent on opposing particular person tasks and as an alternative devoted it to addressing underlying issues collectively? Much more good would in all probability get executed. This isn’t nearly entry to housing; it’s additionally about entry to issues like restoration providers, equivalent to people who sadly met opposition in Dover-Foxcroft final yr.
The interconnected challenges of homelessness usually are not for bigger cities like Bangor or Portland to resolve alone, simply as homeless people in these cities usually are not all from there initially. These are folks from all around the state, and the challenges require statewide — and artistic — options. And it requires particular person communities not dashing to say no every time there’s a possibility to assist.
That isn’t to say this specific mission, a comparatively undefined proposal to show 35 acres in Bradford right into a kind of RV or tiny residence commune, is an efficient one. Now we have extra questions than solutions proper now, at what appears to be a really early strategy planning stage. And feedback from the person main the hassle actually don’t encourage confidence that he’s adequately thought by way of necessary concerns like transportation for potential residents. We are able to perceive why native residents have questions and considerations.
Nonetheless, that’s not a purpose for neighborhood members, or professionals who work carefully with unhoused folks, to right away dismiss this or different out-of-the-box concepts. And it actually shouldn’t be a purpose to speak about a few of Maine’s most weak folks as in the event that they’re a dehumanized entity being shuttled from one place to a different.
As earlier BDN reporting has highlighted, unhoused folks discover themselves and not using a residence by way of varied circumstances. A few of them have been evicted and may’t discover someplace else to dwell amid an ongoing housing disaster. A few of them go to work daily. Their experiences and tales are “all the above,” and the potential options to tackling the converging crises of housing and homelessness have to be “all the above” too.
Past neighborhood opposition and skepticism from consultants, right here’s the angle we wish to hear extra of: Do folks dealing with some kind of housing insecurity need this commune concept to be a possible possibility? May it assist them discover extra stability? Is the gap from providers present in a bigger metropolis like Bangor a priority?
Once we take a look at the best way Bangor’s homelessness disaster has mounted, requiring the help of a federal catastrophe reduction workforce, it’s not laborious to succeed in the conclusion that what we’ve been doing as a area and as a state has not been working. A few of that’s in regards to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few of that’s about accessible funding, together with the native failure to deploy extra accessible assets extra shortly. A few of that’s about gaps in information, a scenario which is hopefully bettering. And a few of it’s about needing to strive new and artistic approaches, like the concept of shelter villages proposed right here in Bangor and elsewhere.
Collectively, we’re not going to resolve the advanced issues concerned in homelessness by simply sending folks to Bangor, or to Bradford. And we’re not going to resolve the issues by pondering and speaking about unhoused folks as some kind of monolithic, faceless, even harmful, group. These are folks, with totally different tales, totally different wants, and totally different paths to stability. And the remainder of us must assume otherwise about how we welcome and assist them.
