Homelessness as Culture

The argument that homelessness is a cultural identity is not a new concept, with much written on the subject since the early 90's as peer-review submissions as well as thesis submissions for requirements. While I can't give full proper citations because I don't have subscriptions to academic journals, I can offer the following papers in no particular order which discussed the matter according to their abstracts:

• Ravenhill, Megan Honor. A Culture of Homelessness: An Ethnographic Study. Dissertation. London School of Economics. UMI 615614
• Davis, Ruth E. "Tapping into the Culture of Homelessness." Journal of Professional Nursing, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1996, pp. 176-83
• Phillips, Kaitlyn. Homelessness: Causes, Culture and Community Development as a Solution. Thesis. Salve Regina University. 2012

While those papers don't fully discuss the implications of homelessness as a culture, nor do they - as far as I can tell based on abstracts - argue that homelessness should be considered a cultural identity, I think it's important that the argument is recognized. Homeless persons communicate with each other differently than how they communicate with non-homeless persons. There is a segregationary aspect surrounding homeless persons where non-homeless persons are more likely to associate with each other rather than non-homeless persons and as such, community, relationships, shared experiences and a common shared identity arise. This is in part due to the nature of how class and social position work, however, government failings and policies have accelerated this to the point where the concept of homelessness as a cultural identity can no longer be ignored.

Speaking anecdotally, I had been on and off the streets for about 9 years. I have been enjoying my current apartment for over a year. But I still identify as homeless. It's part of my cultural identity and even still, despite being housed, part of my community. This isn't entirely unique to me. Efforts to "integrate" homeless persons into broader society result in many guest management issues as people try to maintain their communities in the face of disbursement. Some residents sleep on the floor in their own homes despite owning a bed because homelessness is ingrained in who they are. For many who had experienced some of the longest periods spent in the shelters or on the streets, almost every decision they make is influenced by the time they spent there. The oppression, segregation, human rights abuses, criminalization, and lack of adequate services we experience frames our worldview and what we feel we need to feel safe and secure.

Of course there is intersectionalism. Homelessness isn't the only identity we can carry. Just like it's possible for someone to identify as both black and gay, or as a woman and trans, cultural identity within homelessness is intersectional and compounds on many other ways minorities are already marginalized. A person who is indigenous and homeless then find themselves assaulted by discrimination on two fronts: being indigenous and being homeless. They may face some discrimination for being indigenous without homeless discrimination, or vice-versa, but more often face discrimination for being both simultaneously.

So if "homelessness" is not simply a state of not having a home, but is an identity and culture, there are serious implications that go with this. Firstly, it means in Calgary we have a minority group of 3500 individuals with no human rights protections currently facing voter suppression, segregation, and criminalization. Homelessness needs to be included in Human Rights Legislation, as well a change in societal attitudes towards the homeless communities and culture. I stated in a classroom recently "Personally, I think it's wonderful that we're starting to accept than people can use the bathrooms that match their gender identity, but we're still arguing over whether homeless persons should use a bathroom at all!"

Secondly, and this is equally important but a harder pill for some people to swallow: current efforts to "end homelessness" is cultural genocide. Organizations are ignoring the concept of homeless persons having a unique identity and needs and forcing integration into the mainstream of society on them. Furthermore, housing efforts do not make any attempt to preserve homeless culture and preserve homeless communities and the relationships formed among those who lived on the streets. They make no efforts to guarantee services for people who identify as homeless exist in their communities. Because the standard for acceptable living and rules governing how must one behave in their own home are not created with homeless as identity in mind, it is also setting up homeless persons for failure to which they lose their housing. Strategies to "end homelessness" removes the right of self determination from homeless persons, self determination in how to obtain adequate housing and self determination to preserve their culture in their own home.

Furthermore, it displaces and breaks up communities, scattering homeless persons all over the city (or in some cases, ships them to another city or province), destroying the bonds, relationships, and social supports that create a feeling of comfort and security for the homeless community.

The right to cultural preservation doesn't have to conflict with the right to adequate housing. We do need a complete overhaul in how we address this. Firstly, recognition of homeless persons as a minority group is imperative. Furthermore, homeless persons need to be consulted as to our definition of adequate housing. Efforts must be made to ensure homeless communities and relationships are not broken up when housing the homeless and that services unique to the needs of homeless persons are available in the areas they are moved to. Also recognizing the right to self-determination means that homeless persons should not be forced to move or relocate anywhere if they feel their current situation is adequate without penalty and those who do opt to move into housing must have a say in where they move to without fear of penalty and must be allowed to decline offers if they feel housing offered does not meet their needs.

Cultural sensitivity must be written into tenancy law. Clearly we don't want fire hazards from overcrowded accommodations, but guest management is an issue with homeless persons because it's how we preserve our culture and maintain our relationships and communities, and must be taken into account when housing homeless persons.

If agencies and governments adopt a homelessness as culture approach to addressing the lack of adequate housing for homeless persons, we can save lives, save resources, preserve a culture, and create dynamic and vibrant communities, as well as ensure human rights and dignity for 3500 Calgarians, 10,000 Albertans, and almost 300,000 Canadians.

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Fixing Housing First

Housing First is not working in Calgary. And by all rights it should, after all it's the simplest concept in the world: Put homeless people in homes. Yet, since 2009 Calgary has housed over 6,000 persons from the shelter system, with the number of homeless individuals only going down 2,000 in that same time, (based on the last homeless count in Calgary).

So what's not working?

First, the only argument used in ending homelessness is the economic argument: Putting people in homes reduces cost to taxpayers in the form of healthcare and maintaining shelter services, services which are subsidised heavily by the Provincial government.

But really, the only motivation that should suffice is "It's the right thing to do."

While working with the Calgary Homeless Foundation on their Charter of Rights for the Homeless, a constant source of frustration for me was that anything we came up with was unenforceable. Shelters of course posted the documents on their walls, but in no way were obligated to grant any of these rights or facilitate these rights for anyone. And the Calgary Homeless Foundation lacks the teeth to make shelters submit to the charter because they only control housing programs, so a client is not subject to these rights until in a CHF-funded program, and even then, the rights still only apply to that program, not to the shelters an individual may reside at while going through the process of applying for housing.

We cannot afford to keep shelters and housing programs separate. Most, if not all of Calgary's shelters that serve the homeless have some form of housing program, but keep the operations of the shelter divorced from the operations of housing. This leads to a variety of problems from the perspective of clients, notably:

• information regarding housing programs is miscommunicated by different front line workers as the workers themselves are not given accurate information because of the divide.
• clients are encouraged to use the shelter's affiliated housing program when better options may be available
• shelters continue to abuse clients or implement policies that set the clients up for failure rather than foster an environment in the shelter that allows room for dignity and personal growth because the shelter is not funded by any body that holds human rights for the homeless as a standard.

The best solution that I can think of is to end the divide between shelters and housing programs. Shelters must be considered part of the housing process. This encourages shelters to foster a safe and dignified environment with more of a case management focus rather than mass micromanagement.

In one particular shelter, some of the changes that have occurred include lockdowns upon arrival to segregate the homeless community from the rest of the community, removal of plugs from the walls so clients with cell phones and laptops cannot use them if they wish to, and instituting a policy where guests cannot leave the mat areas between certain times. Each time, there was a couple of complaints and then after a few days, we all went "Okay. This is my life now."

While there are reasons for these policies - some that are acceptable, some that are not - I'd be scared to have that kind of power over someone. To be able to control someone to the point where they just accept anything I do that impacts them negatively. That's how adapted we've become to being controlled. We don't know the same freedom experienced by the mainstream of society, so we don't know how to handle any freedom once we've moved out. And if we don't know that freedom, we'll just end up being back in the shelter again. If the shelters are not divorced from housing programs, shelters will be more likely to be dignity focused, and also accountable for ensuring a minimum standards of human rights at the shelter level.

Housing First should work. But dignity should never wait until someone owns a set of keys. You send someone who feels like a human being worthy of housing into a house, they'll make it a home. You send an empty shell of a man into house (or apartment), and the apartment will be an empty shell no more meaningful than the shelter itself is.

Fix housing first. Guarantee dignity and respect for persons experiencing homelessness.

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Some Afterthoughts and Looking Forward

It was a wild ride. I joined the campaign late, but when I did, I immediately felt like a fit in. Like I belonged. Volunteering for Greg Clark and the Alberta Party has been absolutely amazing, with experiences I could never replace. From getting the motivation to write a seven page paper on how to make engagement more democratic to helping an elderly gentleman - confined to home and his wheelchair for some time now - get into a vehicle so his family could take him for a drive for the first time in years. Repairing damaged signs - even those of our rivals - to the fun and sometimes hostile social media wars.

Everyone, I thank you. Every volunteer for every candidate of every party, you have all made me feel special this past week and a half. It has been an absolute delight to work on this campaign for Greg Clark and the Alberta Party.

So, the question is "what now?"

My Alberta Party membership expires in 2019, so obviously, I intend to get involved in the next general election. I also am eager to get involved with my constituency association (I live in Calgary Currie). But I also have a normal life to get back to. I need to look for a part-time job, I need to get involved with my Community Association, I also need to get back to my true passion: poverty reduction and homeless human rights.

I fully plan in getting back to being involved with Calgary Action Committee on Housing and Homelessness. I missed a meeting with the Calgary Homeless Foundation this past week so I could work on the campaign. This also grants me some free time to work with CHF and Poverty Talks! on getting a "Longest Night of the Year" memorial for homeless persons who passed away. I'm going to be busy.

So, looking forwards, I have a lot of work to do. We can end poverty in Calgary. We can guarantee the homeless still get to live with a basic standard of dignity and end discrimination. Together, we can make a better world for everyone - but everyone has to be at the table.

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