It is a perennial challenge within services who work with people experiencing homelessness: How do we ensure that the service users themselves have a say in the running of our service?  Many different models have been used, from having users on boards, to having advisory groups, to just crossing-fingers and hoping people participate.  Either way, there is a sense of ‘nothing for us, without us’ as being ideal.

The London Homeless Coalition serves as an information sharing body for homeless services in London, Ontario.  For the past number of years, there has been a striking lack of people with lived experiences of homelessness serving on the coalition.  This as not so surprising however, as experience shows us that within the ‘us/them’ dichotomy, unless we are strategic in thinking about inclusion, it will not happen.  The way we tend to do business simply fails to fit the reality of the lives of most people experiencing homelessness.  So, at recent Coalition meetings there has been discussion as to how to integrate more street-level voices.

Suggestions I had an issue with included:

1. Inviting people every month to come and tell their stories.  This smacks of exploitation.
2. Maybe we just need a different location for the meetings.  However, if people value them, and we are already meeting downtown, it’s not likely the location that is of issue.
3. Perhaps we need to provide food and bus tickets, or other incentives.  Although this would likely work, bribing people is not a great way to build meaningful participation.
4. We need to find permanent members to commit to the coalition.  Although this would be nice, it’s pretty ‘pie in the sky’.

In Canada, no one is born into homelessness (well, not absolutely, but I’ll blog about that later).  The moment of homelessness, regardless of what precipitates it, is about people running out of funds to support their housing.  For most, this means being on social assistance and being unable to afford rent.  At this point people are able to apply for subsidized housing, but has I have mentioned many times, the wait list for this in London is 8-9 years.

So, on social assistance a single adult receives a $350 housing allowance, and average market rent for a bachelor in London is $580.  This means that people tap into other resources for housing.  This can include staying at a motel, couch surfing, doubling up, sleeping rough, finding a single room in what is often a slum house, or whatever else people can come up with.  For many, they are able to maintain these resources until subsidized housing kicks in, or until they get off social assistance.  However, for others, these options run out.  It is once these options have been exhausted that people become homeless.

So, to become homeless is a process of being de-housed.  It is an experience of having a place to stay, and then no longer having a place to stay.  I reject the hypothesis that some people just can’t be housed, because (almost) everyone who is homeless has been housed at some point.  Instead, there are some people that are system cannot adequately support.