The End
It’s been amazing being able to learn all of this information regarding the health of individuals experiencing homelessness and teaching everyone reading this blog. It’s great that we’re slowly creating changes to help improve the lives of those facing homelessness, however it is still not enough. In fact, it will never be enough, until there are no longer people experiencing homelessness. The only way to change this problem is by creating affordable housing for EVERYONE to be able to afford a home.
Unfortunately, many people have adopted the not-in-my-backyard (NIMBYism) argument, where they want to support affordable housing, but they don’t want it anywhere near them. The City of Toronto is currently looking into creating supported housing however there needs to be more research done before it is put into effect. Wolff (2008) partnered up with the Dream Team to understand what it would be like to have supportive housing in local communities. The results were that supportive housing would be beneficial in neighbourhoods both economically and socially. It would also reduce issues surrounding crime, tidiness and noise.
(source: Wolff A. (2008). We are neighbours. Wellesley Institute. pp. 1-33)
Check out the story Million Dollar Murray at http://gladwell.com/million-dollar-murray/. In my opinion there are two morals to this story. The first is that those experiencing homelessness are PEOPLE. They deserve to be treated fairly despite their lived experiences. The second moral of this story, which is entirely applicable to the city of Toronto is that it costs us MORE to keep people living in a homeless state rather than fix the situation and improve their quality of life.
Please, please, please keep doing research on this topic, and strive to make a difference in your community. These people have been through enough and it needs to come to an end. They are people too.