At a meeting, something came up that I think shows one of the areas where our homeless response could get better. There are a lot of different ways this could be approached, but the idea I want to explain is fairly simple: understanding the difference between short-term and long-term homelessness.
Short-term homelessness includes people who have recently become homeless, as well as people who may be at high risk of becoming homeless because of a job loss, medical issues, or something else that delays the money they were expecting from their paycheck. For many people in this situation, the focus is very much on getting out of homelessness as quickly as possible.
In the short term, safety is closely connected to survival and to the goal of getting out. As time goes on, however, that relationship can change. The experience of surviving homelessness can begin to separate the immediate needs of survival from the goal of getting out of homelessness.
Long-term homelessness can create a different situation because the ideas of shelter and survival become more separated. When you have to meet all of your basic needs yourself, even short-term shelter can require a lot of work. You may need to find a tarp or tent, get food and water, find somewhere to meet your bathroom needs, and maintain some level of cleanliness. All of these things take time and energy.
When you have very little to work with, meeting basic needs can require even more time and energy. That difference is important when we think about how someone experiences homelessness over time.
The real difference can come down to how much energy and focus someone has to spend simply surviving.
When everything you need is within arm’s reach, it takes relatively little energy to take care of it. But when you have to walk several blocks to get food, carry everything back, make sure you are somewhere safe, prepare an area for a camp stove, make sure everything is safe, cook your food, take care of your supplies, and then clean everything up, the amount of energy required becomes much greater.
When you have so little energy to begin with, trying to conserve that energy can create its own problems. You may choose food that is easier to prepare but less healthy. You may put off cleaning because it takes too much effort. Without refrigeration, keeping food safe becomes more difficult. Even something as simple as cooking can create additional risks, including the possibility of a brush fire.
These differences matter when we talk about responding to homelessness. Someone who has recently become homeless may need a very different kind of support from someone who has spent years having to organize their entire life around survival.
If we want people to move out of homelessness, we need to understand not only what they need, but also how much time and energy they have available to meet those needs. Sometimes the barrier is not a lack of motivation. It is that surviving takes so much energy that there is very little left to work toward something better.
Leave a comment