Better way to help people leave life on streets
Re: There’s a whole life out in the city on the Streets; Death of homeless man at just 24 opens door into a caring if troubled community, by Anne Jarvis, May 9.
At Windsor Residence for Young Men, we have been deeply saddened by Anne Jarvis’s Windsor Star account of the tragic life and death of 23-year-old David Maclellan: ‘There’s a whole life out in the city on the streets’
We wish to add our voice to that of Tamara Kowalska of the Windsor Youth Centre, who was quoted in the article. The street is no place for a person with mental health or social challenges to recover, and we agree that although more agencies are beginning to work together there are barriers to help that the public doesn’t see. We do experience the results of “a system that doesn’t prioritize relationships,” and people working to end homelessness often feel their hands are tied.
Temporary emergency shelter is certainly a necessity, but it is not enough. Affordable housing, by itself, is also not enough. In 2018, one of the largest emergency shelters in North America reduced its chronically homeless population by 22 per cent. The Calgary Dropin Centre did this by effectively using co-ordinated data sharing and a case management team, both internally and with other community agencies, to help long-term shelter stayers find right-fit housing and integrate back into the community.
In addition, and more pertinent to a young person such as David, Calgary Drop-in Centre has a diversion team that focuses on new shelter stayers, determines what brought them in, matches them with appropriate programs and reconnects them to the community as quickly as possible.
The Windsor Star article quotes David’s aunt Mary Creamer as saying he felt faceless, judged and ashamed to get help: “But we couldn’t give him what he really needed — a mom and dad and a home.” There are many homeless young men in a similar position, which is why the Windsor Residence for Young Men was formed — to provide a functional faceto-face family atmosphere in which young men learn life skills, and connect with education, employment, extended family or independent living — and build new lives. Despite being almost entirely dependant on community donations, we assist about 45 young men 16-24 to get off the street each year. This is an average 90 per cent success rate. It works because we focus on personal relationships and our life skills strengths. We do not duplicate services and we work with other agencies, the community and volunteers who do the administrative work while staff focus on the residents.
We say all this not to boast but to point out that smaller agencies can in many cases better prioritize relationships and work with individuals than large agencies or any one-size-fits-all approach. How much better would our community support system work, then, if agencies large and small were to truly co-ordinate data sharing, case management and the early diversion, especially of young people, to transitional living programs? Some forthright sharing of resources would be helpful, as well. I suggest from experience that we certainly have our work cut out for us in Windsor and Essex County.