Caring for homeless starts with them
We note with sadness, the passing of Thomas Wayne Williamson, a homeless man outside of a local Starbucks, and we appreciate the outpouring of concern and support for addressing the long-standing needs of our homeless and near-homeless population in Santa Fe (“‘He was just trying to live,’ ” Jan. 17). The editorial is a case in point (“Our neighbors need help where they sleep,” Our View, Jan. 17), and we applaud its content, and that Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber has made addressing this subject one of his priorities.
We at One Door Campus, an advocacy group for a comprehensive, integrated approach to homelessness, have just completed a series of focus groups with a variety of families and individuals who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and the providers who serve them. Our project was supported by a generous grant from the Con Alma Health Foundation and matching funds from a private donor.
It is our belief that for a system to be truly effective in Santa Fe, it needs active participation from the bottom up. The lessons from our focus groups indicate that “one size fits all” will not work. The needs for youth vary drastically from those of the elderly, and the needs of families and children differ still. Then there is a small but distinct percentage who have chosen independent lifestyles and do not wish to be pushed into a housing model.
The most common response we received from the focus groups was the need for better coordination of services. Almost all had complaints about how difficult it is to move from one provider to another, and the need to drastically improve service integration.
Housing certainly is a major concern given the state of availability and cost in the Santa Fe market. The not-in-mybackyard factor is a significant barrier to any project that tends to have a higher proportion of the homeless. However, the dispersal to smaller sites has the issue of needing additional tools to address service integration and coordination, which is vital to make any housing initiative successful. The county, with its navigator program, is having a notable positive effect in addressing these coordination issues among service agencies but needs more resources to address the unmet need that still prevails.
It is the position of One Door Campus that a centralized site with supportive housing and needed service providers offers an efficient, humane approach to dealing with these issues. It has the advantage of mitigating transportation needs and facilitates the coordination of services. Other options are certainly possible as well, but all require more collaboration than is currently the practice.
We at One Door Campus are committed to raising the issues that need to be addressed to assist these vulnerable populations. Our general orientation is that support for the homeless must deal with the whole person, and from that individual’s perspective. Too often those most affected are inadvertently excluded from this process. We urge that the mayor’s various task forces looking to develop solutions find ways at the beginning of this process that are inclusive rather than “top down” by the experts.
Dan Nickelson, now retired, worked in Washington, D.C., for 50 years for five different federal agencies and served as director of government affairs for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, a not-forprofit integrated health care provider. He is a member of the board of One Door Campus and lives in Santa Fe.