People are choosing pets over safe housing. How do we help them?
It was the kind of press release we would normally kick over to our news department: A breezy, brief rundown of factors that make Orlando “one of the most dog-friendly cities” in the state. We have the third-largest number of veterinarians per capita, for example. More than 250 green spaces where puppies can run out their zoomies. Plenty of pet groomers and sitters available to pamper and play.
It’s a sweet, happy picture. Here’s what it leaves out: The people across Central Florida who are being forced out of housing that allowed pets, and now can’t find comparable accommodation at a price they can afford. Parents who are forced to explain their sobbing children the family dog won’t be making the move to the smaller apartment. Animal shelters that are filling up, across Central Florida, as people surrender their pets so they won’t become homeless.
And people who are becoming homeless because they won’t surrender their pets.
“I know that it happens, because I have talked to people who cannot get shelter unless they leave their pets and they won’t do that,” says Kate Santich, director of communications at Homeless Services Network of Central Florida (and, in the interest of full disclosure, longtime reporter on social issues for the Orlando Sentinel before switching jobs this year).
This may seem like a foolish choice to make, and a low priority in light of this area’s bigger problems. That includes the undeniably desperate struggle for many low-income Central Floridians to find any living space at all they can afford, a problem that could get worse and is increasingly reaching past the low-income bracket to undermine previously “safe” middle-class workers like police officers and teachers.
A question of health
But the pet-people connection is not a minor issue. Here’s why.
Anyone who’s ever loved a pet — in other words, pretty much everyone — instinctively understands the emotional value of caring for something that returns unquestioning love. They may not realize, however, how much research supports the critical role that pets can play in emotional, mental and physical health.
Yes, physical. Repeated studies document benefits of animal interaction, starting with a reduction in stress-related hormones linked to cardiac and endocrine functions. Children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and autism often do better if there are pets in their household. On the other side, the loss of a pet can be devastating, especially for someone forced to surrender their animals due to something they count as a personal failure, such as an inability to afford housing or veterinary care. The unquestioning love of an animal is particularly important for people who have experienced trauma — which is why a few area family-violence shelters, including Harbor House and, (soon), Safe House in Seminole County are working to shelter pets for their clients. Martha Are, executive director of the Homeless Services Network, says victims of family violence will sometimes refuse to leave dangerous situations unless they can keep their pets safe.
“There are a lot of aspects to this,” Are says. “We know that for a lot of people who have experienced a history of abuse or trauma, pets are an important part of their coping strategy…. Even if they are not official therapy animals, they are therapy animals.” That’s why her agency is working to identify solutions and plans to launch a campaign soon.
Shaping a challenge
It’s good to know that local agencies are aware of the problem. But awareness clearly isn’t enough, especially when there’s so little money to address situations that could be relatively simple to solve. For example, the Homeless Services Network has placed some families with pets in hotels, and paid the upcharge to do that. That funding is running out fast, Are says, and she’s hoping that donors will come forward to supplement the shortfall. (If you want to help with that effort, there’s a “donate now” button on the organization’s website at hsncfl.org and donations can be earmarked to helping homeless people with pets).
It’s a start, but we think this community could do more. Central Florida could become a community that’s not just “pet friendly” — but pet-aware, to the health and emotional benefits of pet-people bonds, and pet-forward, exploring community wide solutions that minimize harrowing decisions. There’s precedent: Orange County is already one of several communities that ban retail sales of pets, a position that encourages adoption from shelters and reduces the number of health-compromised products of puppy mills.
The next step is to figure out how big this problem really is. Explore whether people are enduring longer commutes or living with their parents because they can’t find a place to call home for themselves and their animals. Include a question about pet ownership in the coming point-in-time survey that provides an annual count of homelessness in Central Florida counties.
Some solutions might require waivers of federal, state or local regulations. In the runup to November’s general election, it’s worth asking elected officials how they could help.
That includes tackling problems that are already well-known. Across Central Florida there are thousands of units of public housing. Some allow pets; many don’t. Is there a way for local housing authorities to open doors for residents with feathers or fur? Are there ways to offer private landlords who take Section 8 vouchers a reassurance that if pets damage their property, they will be compensated? Can some homeless shelters — particularly those focusing on elderly or health-compromised clients — be reconfigured to allow vulnerable people to keep beloved animals with them?
It should be clear, at this point, that we have a lot more questions than answers. But we see benefits to exploring this problem — and a potential to develop solutions here in Central Florida that translate to communities nationwide. So let’s start asking the questions, and finding the answers. In a region where the mayor of the area’s largest city — Orlando’s Buddy Dyer — still famously brings his dog to City Hall, this seems like a problem we’re custom-built to solve.