Micro-housing can break the cycle of homelessness

Micro-housing in Fredericton will be great news for so many people, most of all for those who are in need of safe, healthy housing. Why is it then that there’s always that ‘someone’ who, straight out of the gate makes a pronouncement that it will fail, that it will draw the wrong crowd and that people really don’t want to get off welfare? How do they know? Do they possess a crystal ball that allows them to predict outcomes of people they don’t know? Those attitudinal barriers must be broken down if people in need of a hand up are going to appreciate any sort of peace and harmony in the lives they’re trying to establish for themselves.

One online comment about the story, as it appeared in this paper, was both surprising and sad —  “good concept if the people are quiet and behave. My bet and common sense says the cops will be visiting there every day. And they have better things to do.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s comments like these that serve only to diminish the positive/good aspects of initiatives that are geared to help those in need to better help themselves. 

Micro-houses by virtue of design are not meant to be permanent homes. They should be viewed as a stepping stone to permanent housing. That being so, the powers that be, the purse string holders, could make significant impact on the homelessness situation by rethinking the meaning of ‘family composition’ when it comes to adjusting monthly allotment of financial assistance. Why are unrelated persons in the same apartment, both receiving assistance, considered economic unit? Why can they not be viewed simply two people living under one roof who happen to be recipients of financial assistance, whether in the short- or long-term? In their unity is their emotional and physical survival, out of the reach of  homelessness. The system, thought to be unfeeling, sets the stage for the crash and burn as the financial bottom falls out of their world, when they’re essentially penalized for helping each other overcome or avert an emotional or physical crisis.

Landlords may be eligible for rental conversion programs which  provide financial assistance to owners/landlords to convert non-residential properties into affordable self-contained rental housing units and/or bed-units to be occupied by low income households. Yet another mechanism that contributes to breaking the cycle of homelessness. 

Many of us take housing for granted — a place to call our own, whether we rent it or own it, is often seen as a measure of a life on track; that we’re doing well since we have a roof over our heads.  Under the roof and behind the doors, are different stories of people and their challenges.  Lots of adults in Fredericton and around the country have never had a place of their own — circumstances of life tripped them up and they fell down. Some got back up but still struggle. So many others never got back up again. Some are living out years and decades behind bars because the challenges of life didn’t quite fit with their abilities to cope in societally acceptable ways. 

We are governed by laws — checks and balances. Initatives such as micro-housing, which is very much needed, contribute to creating a balance.

Melanie Laviolette and Emily Tingley, nursing students at UNB, addressed the issue of homelessness and its impact on health and wellness, reporting that people they see at clinic have issues that could be resolved were they to have a roof over their head; a shelter in the short term, but a place to call home in the long term is the ideal. It should be a goal that the powers that  that be more fully expand, particularly as a physical address is a requirement to access government financial supports.

The Out-of-the-Cold Shelter and other such housing accommodations provide a valuable service to the disenfranchised and every effort should be made to keep them open for the support of people in crisis. As those being helped get a solid footing in a new and healthier life, a fresh start, they invariably see it as their obligation to help others along that same path. The reality is, though, that mental health issues compromise success; for that reason it’s imperative that we  open minds and resist the urge to paint all with the same brush. 

Those of us who’ve never had to struggle day to day and who have always had enough of the necessities of life actually insult those who don’t by suggesting that they will abuse the system - that they don’t need to be homeless at all, that they abuse the shelters and that they don’t deserve subsidized housing such as the micro-housing schemes would provide.

To them I say - open your eyes. In a single moment, you could be where ‘they’ are.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca

We need a better culture of asking for help

Photo: Gavin Young, PostMedia Network

“Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself?” asked Thomas a Kempis, a copyist and writer who lived a monastic life in the 1400s.

Overcoming ourselves. What does that mean, exactly? In some lives, it may mean overcoming a toxic upbringing with parents who, for whatever reasons, were never able to meet your needs. In spite of that you decided that somewhere deep inside you was the stuff you needed to rise above the madness and confusion of that early start. You did it!

I came into this world as a person with disability and I will leave it the same way. Persons with challenges to daily living strive every waking moment to overcome that ‘thing’ which makes life exhausting. Parents of children with challenges go through every day wondering if they’re doing enough, striving to overcome their own fears about whether they’re doing it right. They and we are striving to overcome ourselves. We can create a better version of ourselves with hard work and a stick-to-itivness while being open to allowing others into our world. Everybody needs a little help sometimes. My age and changing abilities make asking for help essential to continued independent living.

Our province has many opportunities within the ranks of the 50-80 year old set to accomplish great things. Think about the vast resources of knowledge that could be tapped to benefit youngsters just starting out, particularly those about to enter the world of academia with their first day of school. It’s time for developing more inter-generational programs and services and ensuring they are sustained.

At the same time as our aging population is, well, aging, they could be enlisted to share their stores of experience, particularly with regard to their worklife and what attributes they see as critical to success. For me, reading and writing come to mind. While our aging population involves itself in providing service through volunteering their time and energies to youngsters and the community at large, the powers that be have a duty to support them in their healthy and safe aging. Aging in place, though the ideal, poses inherent challenges and is becoming more of a struggle for those who have had to let go of doing even the most routine of daily tasks. Things pile up, even important home maintenance requirements fall by the wayside. All some among us need is a hand up; it’s not always about a hand-out of the monetary kind, though that does help. 

Make no mistake about that — a hand out, an extended hand to help a neighbour who needs it is not just a nice thing to do, it’s a necessary thing to do. Necessary, given that in our own daily lives, we have family and friends who are aging in place but we can’t always meet their needs because we live in another province, perhaps, in another country. We help when and where we can and hope our old neighbours are picking up the slack, doing for our families what we cannot do. We’re doing it for someone else in that new place we call home.

The unfortunate nature of the beast is that the cost of living is so wrapped up in dollars and cents. What about the physical and emotional costs of living? Seniors still living in their own home are often overlooked when it comes to goods and services and taking a look at what they need to stay healthy, well and safe. Often, they’re overlooked because so many seniors don’t ‘sign up’ for services, fully convinced they can do it all on their own. Until the great fall!

In the broader sense, it costs far less for the overseers of programs subsidized by government funding to  be proactive in advance of full-time need of service. In expanding in-home services that are affordable, seniors would be better equipped to overcome themselves and their age-related deficiencies without feeling that they’re useless and totally helpless; self-defeating talk only makes the situations worse. As a consequence, the likelihood of extended period of independent living is made possible and care plans that include leaving the home and hearth of decades can be put on the back burner. 

Long nursing home wait lists and hospitals congested with waiting patients have been plaguing systems of care for years. What if the very space that will work is right under the roof of the person in need of extended care? Imagine that! Government entities responsible for overseeing budgets and placements can overcome themselves by more clearly seeing what’s right in front of them. and those seeking assistance can contribute to ovecoming their own worst impulses by asking for help. You don’t get if you don’t ask.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca