Wellness Centres Not Homeless Shelters
John Rook
I have worked in the homeless serving sector for over 20 years and in that time, I have been privileged to meet some incredible, resilient, and interesting people. My experience has taught me that no two people are exactly alike. I have learned that each person’s journey to homelessness is unique and using a “one size fits all” approach is ineffective. Whether I am providing front line services, directing programs, or working as a CEO, I have tried to stay grounded in the life of people who are suffering from the effects of poverty and homelessness. I love the phrase people use, “Nothing about us without us” and I have tried to build lived experience into program strategies. It has been a privilege to work in this field. I know I am a visionary, and I have worked with some incredible teams with common purpose: to see vulnerable citizens succeed in their life journey. If I was asked for a personal Mission Statement, it would be this: “Our product is hope, and our business is relationships.” Being a small part of someone’s life journey to wellbeing is a high calling. And in this work, knowing that someone is on the path of success is reward enough.
When I entered my first homeless shelter at the age of 18, I quickly noticed that it was a place focused on survival. The shelter was a place to seek refuge from the cold and to get a warm meal. There was no effort to empower clients to move out and up in the world. I was a student at the time and didn’t know anything about homelessness so when I heard about a homeless shelter I was intrigued. I rode the bus downtown with a friend and found the address. It was a storefront operation and the building seemed old an uninviting. People were going inside and the smell of alcohol was strong. We went in and a friendly face said, “Welcome! Please sit over to the left.” I said beside a man who asked me if it was my first time at the shelter. I nodded. He said, “If you want to eat first, do what I do.” I smiled. The man who welcomed us went to the front of the room and welcomed everyone. Then he opened a bible and read a scripture. They sang a song. Badly. Then he spoke. It was something about God’s love for homeless people. Then he invited people forward to pray. “Come on!” said the guy beside me. My friend and I followed him to the front and knelt for prayer. When it was over, we followed my new friend to another room. “If you go for prayer, you are first in line for dinner!” he exclaimed! I knew something was seriously wrong with this but I couldn’t process it. I vowed never to go back to a homeless shelter ever again.
Years later, when I talked with my co-workers, they all entered the work wanting to help people move forward. We talked often about limited resources, stopping conflicts between clients, handing out hygiene items and bus tickets, and rationing food. The societal thinking that these people needed “fixing” was prevalent. That was how people in the shelter were treated: as though they were somehow flawed human beings in need of correction.
Throughout my career, I have been pleased to witness a drastic change in the homeless shelter as an institution. There has been a shift in thinking away from simply providing people with the basic necessities. We have begun to understand that a hand up is more effective than a hand out. We have begun to understand that offering integrated services on top of emergency shelter is crucial to help clients exit homelessness. This model, which I plan to use in the story below, took a long time to develop. There has been a shift from seeing people as broken to seeing the system as broken. As we have moved to a coordinated system of care, we have seen significant numbers move from homeless to housed; from unhealthy to wellness.
While there may always be a need for emergency shelters, there must also always be support services available to assist clients in moving out and forward with their lives. As I think about the future of the homeless shelter, I am encouraged and hopeful that the progress we have made will continue. Where I have worked in Calgary, and at a few shelters across the country, we are attempting to ensure that emergency shelters are just that: for an emergency. We have people who have been in our shelters for years and there are people who spend as many as 20 years in a shelter. This is unacceptable and should not be tolerated. An emergency shelter should never be “home” and we have failed if that is what shelters become. I believe that shelters are a reaction to homelessness and not a solution. I believe, and we have the evidence to show, that an integrated service model can move people quickly in a dignified and respectful way to a more fulfilled existence. If we reframe the phrase, “Homeless people are in shelters” to “People are in homeless shelters,” then we will see our guests not as less than us, but just like us. Then we can see people with a life crisis or a homeless crisis, and shelter can function as a triage point to find the solution to home. It is my hope that the fictional story of JT will shed some light on the direction that wee must take are heading as a homeless serving sector.