HOME
Why We Need To Make Sure Everyone Has A Good One
Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz lamented, “there’s no place like home.” Those words still ring true today. We spend much of our lives taking our home for granted- until we don’t have one.
As 2020 ends, housing data tells a clear story — the pandemic could force up to 40 million people to lose their homes; 11 to 13 million renter households are at risk of being evicted in 2021; the number of foreclosures are predicted to rise in the next year from about a quarter to a half million, and homelessness increased by 45%. Millions of people are living doubled-up with others not because they want to but because they have to. There are those who are housed momentarily in shelters, living in their cars, in tents, or places unfit for human habitation. It’s easy for comfortably housed people to ignore the benefits that having stable housing provide. So here is a reminder.
Communities across the nation are scrambling to find a roof to put over the head of those with no home. Government leaders pat themselves on the back for finally proposing another stimulus package, but all estimates are that the benefits offered are merely bandages to slow, but not stop, the financial bleeding that millions of families suffer.
Just because you might have a roof over your head or a physical structure to stay in, that is NOT the same as having a home. A house is not a home. A home is fundamental to every aspect of our life. Having a home of your own empowers you to be healthier, happier, safer, smarter and more secure. When you have a stable home, you are better able to get and hold a job. It enables you to build and care for your family. It helps you to become part of a community where you belong, where you are invested in others and where others are invested in you. We are able to distribute our money to our local businesses to help them thrive, and the stronger they are, the more likely they are to care about us. It helps us to build a stable home and families that get along better with each other. Financial stress rips families apart. A stable home catapults students ability to study and become successful. Having a home is essential to building strong individual, family, and community lives.
If we don’t have a stable place that we call home where we feel we belong, we live in mental and physical chaos. We are always looking for that job, that place, that relationship or community where we feel we can be safe, loved, productive and happy. We know intuitively that having a home is good for us, and that not having one can kill us, both literally and figuratively. Poverty and housing distress are forms of adverse experiences, especially for children, and create traumas that are directly associated with substance abuse, physical illnesses, social problems, and early death.
Folk singer Woody Guthrie captured the despair that people feel when they don’t have a home in his songs about money-grubbing landlords and those who refused to provide housing due to people’s race, gender, ability, orientation, ethnicity or immigrant status. Government laws and regulations have long kept people into substandard housing. With the median cost of a house in the US being over $200,000, and the average rent being $1500, it’s very hard to make ends meet even if somebody works full-time, 40 hours a week. At the federal minimum wage amount of $7.25, this means that someone makes $58/day, $290/week, $1256/month — which means that you likely can’t afford rent, much less food, heat, transportation, a phone, or healthcare.
Affordable housing is essential for business and community well-being. As an economist pal once told me, “If we aren’t helping others to advance for moral and spiritual reasons, then we should do so anyway to protect our own self-interests”. The amount that it costs to prevent problems is minuscule compared to how much it costs to treat them after they occur.
And that’s only the financial piece of it. There are the community climate, psycho-social aspects as well. In an actual manner, having a home is a life or death issue. A home is essential for our total health and well-being. When we have a home, we have our own bathroom where we can get clean, we can cook nutritious food because we have a kitchen, stove, and fridge, and we can get a decent night’s sleep in our own bed where we can be safe. If you don’t have a home, you aren’t likely to be as healthy. Homes are essential for our mental health because we have a sense of security, routine and predictability. We can decide who we want to let in and who we want to keep out. Our ability to study, relax, read, invent, contemplate, provide assistance, and grow ourselves and others hinges on having a home. The Housing First model advocates that people can’t move forward until they are grounded; if they have a stable home the chances of them faring well dramatically increase.
When I visited a new mom and saw she didn’t have a refrigerator, I asked if she had any milk for the baby. She escorted me to her bathroom where she lifted off the tank of the toilet and pulled out the milk bottle. “It’s the only place I have to keep it cold,” she explained. Good people go to extraordinary, even heroic, measures to do the best they can to take care of their loved-ones. If they had more support and resources, they would surely do even better.
A home isn’t just a place. It encases our histories, our presents, and our futures. Grandpa Boss told his family that if they moved him out of his home to a residential facility “for his own good” because he was becoming frail that he would die. They did anyway. He died 48 hours later, not because of a physical ailment but because he lost his will to live. Having a home where we belong isn’t just an economic issue. It is a moral, soul-full one.
In 2021 a new opportunity awaits for leaders to decide how our nation will grow forward. The old way isn’t working. Let’s use a different paradigm. Put the horse before the cart — invest in stable, affordable housing with decent transportation systems so that people can get to work, school, and the doctor. It will result in communities that thrive.
