What we get wrong about homelessness

If you’re like many in Albuquerque who feel helpless and frustrated when passing by someone experiencing homelessness, author Kevin F. Adler wants you to know you’re not alone. The California-based advocate and author of When We Walk By said he’s found antidotes to the despair and solutions in Golden State cities that would be useful in Albuquerque and could inspire and motivate its elected officials.

Adler is the founder and CEO of Miracle Messages — a nonprofit that helps those experiencing homelessness rebuild social support and financial security through family reunification, a phone buddy program and a basic income pilot project backed by Google. He says his decade-long focus on homelessness and relational poverty was influenced by the relationship he had with his late uncle who lived on the streets for 30 years.

Adler says quickly tagging those experiencing homelessness as “problems to be solved” instead of “people to be loved” has kept lasting solutions out of reach. City Desk ABQ asked Adler about reframing the issue and potential solutions. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

City Desk ABQ: Why are so many experiencing homelessness?

Adler: It’s an important conversation to have, but an equally important one that’s never initiated is — with one out of every two Americans a paycheck away from not being able to pay rent and 47% saying they don’t know where they would get $400 for an unexpected emergency — why isn’t half the country experiencing homelessness? We don’t have that conversation, and if we did, we’d realize how much needs to be focused on prevention, because people are just barely getting by. This problem could get a lot worse before it gets a lot better. Secondly, social capital is so important — social support is keeping tens of millions of people from falling over the edge into homelessness. The importance of being able to double up or triple up with a friend or get an informal loan in a time of need — this is what’s keeping half the country from potentially falling into homelessness: the relationships, family, friends, community, church, synagogue and mosque.

You say the typical talk about “the homeless” needs reexamination.

I kind of just put it simply: When we talk about homelessness, we tend to have most, if not all of the conversation focused on the people experiencing homelessness. That’s very important, but what we don’t talk about is us — the housed people. If we overlook our role in the homelessness crisis, I believe we’ll never actually solve it. That’s because a large part of it is from not having invested in the kinds of housing at all different levels needed to meet the current demand. 

There’s also a presumption that the people who are experiencing homelessness in a community are either not from the community or only have severe mental health issues or substance use disorders. We try to find some culpability, whether it’s an action on their part or something they can’t really control. We try to come up with some explanation when more often than not it has little or nothing to do with individual failings, it has to do with societal failings. Instead of seeing homelessness as a community matter, we treat it as a criminal matter.

What situations do you see in your outreach?

It’s very different to work with a mother and a child escaping domestic violence, or youth who’s aged out of the foster care system, someone released from incarceration, someone who’s lost a job, has a health issue, a severe mental health issue, substance abuse issue, or who has had a falling out with a loved one. If we don’t get relational, we will never solve this crisis. It’ll be one size fits all, and that will not fit most.

When you have 100 people experiencing homelessness, you have 100 stories, contexts, situations and circumstances.

We should see people experiencing homelessness not as deserving of their situation or having done something or having some attribute — but as someone’s mom or dad, brother or sister, son or daughter — as people who for the most part were once our housed neighbors. About 90% of unhoused people in California were once housed in California. If we see them not as a community member, a family member or friend, but as problems to be solved, then it narrows what we can do and what we can offer and we end up with an anti-homeless architecture. 

What kind of housing have you seen work?

Modular housing, tiny homes, interim housing and transitional housing, safe parking sites, containers, or SROs (single-room occupancy). Not just permanent supportive housing or shelters.

Safe parking sites are similar to Safe Outdoor Spaces?

Yes, an example that comes to mind is SOS (Safe Organized Spaces) Richmond (California). I just visited a few days ago and it’s under an overpass and it’s dignified, well-organized, clean and functioning well. It’s not an eyesore; you wouldn’t even know it was there if you weren’t looking for it. Another one is Safe Parking LA (Los Angeles), which is a designated parking area where people can sleep in their cars. 

What’s your advice to city leaders working on the issue?

Sometimes you have to do hard things that aren’t going to win you widespread accolades and support from your constituents. All too often, elected officials put their finger in their mouth and put it in the air and see which way the winds are blowing and kind of follow course. Homelessness is one of those issues that can’t be solved in one election cycle and one administration. It’s too big, it’s too complicated. Making investments today and committing to them for years, you may not see massive decreases in homelessness right away, but it doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do. 

Any city projects that give you hope?

I think (former) Stockton (California) Mayor Michael Tubbs did a very important basic income pilot in the Stockton SEED initiative — giving money directly to people not just experiencing homelessness, but to low-income individuals. Doing innovative things like direct cash transfers to people, building housing, allowing for Safe Outdoor Spaces and public-private partnerships. In my hometown of Livermore (California) there’s the Goodness Village —  a tiny home community at the back of a church parking lot that was underutilized. They partnered with the church and the city.

I think we also need to have some humility to say we don’t know all the answers and we can’t do this alone. We can’t expect one government official, one elected official, one administration to solve this crisis. Part of the value is to say: we have a major crisis and we need everyone to be involved and here’s how everyday people can get involved as volunteers, leaders, advocates, organizers, or just as neighbors — getting to know your unhoused neighbors as neighbors and connecting.