Letters: Shelter-based strategy has failed the homeless
The article "What the region's homeless need" (Wednesday) is representative of the thinking of the "homeless industry" but is the opposite view of most forward-thinking organizations. Most groups working to end homelessness today oppose the shelter-based system practiced by Philadelphia institutions. That strategy has failed.
The article "What the region's homeless need" (Wednesday) is representative of the thinking of the "homeless industry" but is the opposite view of most forward-thinking organizations. Most groups working to end homelessness today oppose the shelter-based system practiced by Philadelphia institutions. That strategy has failed.
Prevention doesn't happen in a shelter; it happens in the community. Ending homelessness doesn't happen in a shelter; it ends in a home in the community. The Housing First approach seeks to put people into real homes, rather than shelters. Employment, education, addiction treatment, and medical care are all wonderful ideals, but families, children, and individuals need a place to live first and foremost, and from there they can begin to build lives that can accommodate these wonderful ideals.
As long as this extensive (and grossly expensive) shelter-based industry requires funding that could be used to place people in real homes, Philadelphia will keep its 19th-century practice of, in effect, placing people in poorhouses.
Shelters are not homes; for most they are nightmares.
Marcus Pierce
Communications advocate
Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness
Philadelphia