The 10 Steps

Every one of us has walked by someone who is experiencing homelessness at one time or another and looked away.  Why?  Because the problem of homelessness is so big and complicated.  We don’t know what to do or how to help.

So we keep walking.  But the problem of homelessness in our communities isn’t going away.  In fact, it’s getting worse.

Ending homelessness won’t be easy.  It will take all of us—as well as courage, passion, and a well thought-out plan. The following is our 10-Step plan to end homelessness as we know it today:

1. Change the way we think and talk about people experiencing homelessness.

Too often we describe or label people as the homeless or addicts or transients. These are precious people, made in the image of God, who are currently experiencing homelessness.

People should never be defined or labeled exclusively by their current condition. They are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters. When we label people, we don’t see their potential and the possibilities within them. When we look the other way and ignore people, we de-humanize them and diminish their value. We need to look into our own hearts, change our thinking, and learn to say, “But by God’s grace, there go I,” then ask, “What can I do?” Only then can we make a difference.

Action Steps:

  • Take time to get to know men, women, and children who are experiencing homelessness. Hear their stories, understand their struggles, and put a human face on this issue.
  • Train yourself to think and speak differently about people who are homeless.
  • Engage others in this discussion. Language shapes our thinking and when we change our language, we begin to see things from a different perspective.
  • Read books like Same Kind of Different as Me, A Heart For The City, When Helping Hurts, and other great books that help to open your eyes and heart to the needs of people experiencing homelessness.

2. Stop making excuses and get involved.

Some people refrain from helping men and women experiencing homelessness by quoting Jesus, who said: “The poor you will always have with you.” Yet this ignores Jesus’ entire ministry, which centered around reaching out to those who are living in poverty and teaching his disciples to help them. Jesus is actually quoting from Deuteronomy 15, where God tells His people: “If you’re obedient, there will be no poor in the land. But since there is disobedience, both personally and corporately, there will always be poor in the land. So open your hand to your brother and sister. Lift your brother and sister out of poverty.” Jesus’ words are not an excuse for inaction, but a Call to Action!

Action steps:

  • Have a holy discontent in regards to precious human beings living on our streets and take action!
  • Volunteer. Learn how to address homelessness with wisdom, compassion, and acts of kindness.
  • Give to agencies making a difference and providing effective solutions to homelessness.
  • Speak up and advocate for those who have no voice or power!

3. Ensure that no one is ever evicted to the streets.

Homelessness is bad for individuals, families, and communities. It is never a legitimate lifestyle choice. The longer people remain homeless, the more damage they suffer — often leading to an early death. No matter how difficult the circumstances, we must make every effort to ensure that no individual or family ever experiences the devastation of homelessness.

Refer families with significant challenges, and on the verge of homelessness, to a structured, transitional housing program, like Union Rescue Mission’s (URM) Hope Gardens Family Center, where they can gain the skills they need to maintain housing. Connect families with less serious challenges to Rapid Re-housing programs.

Individuals facing homelessness should be referred to agencies like URM. Even when there are difficult circumstances, never put precious people out on the street with no other option.

Action Steps:

  • Advocate for more structured, transitional housing programs.
  • Encourage faith communities to connect people experiencing homelessness with available resources and consider establishing a structured transitional housing program.
  • No one solution is best for all. Educate yourself about the causes and appropriate solutions for various groups of people experiencing homelessness.

4. Localize solutions to homelessness.

We must end the policy of dumping, corralling, and containing people who are struggling and experiencing homelessness.

Each city area should provide local services to their own neighbors who find themselves without a home. When invited, Union Rescue Mission and partnering agencies will consult, collaborate, and help develop regional satellites to local communities committed to seeking solutions to homelessness.

Action Steps:

  • Begin a movement to meet the need. Encourage your neighborhood or city council to address the need in your own community. This is everyone’s challenge and opportunity.
  • Encourage your community to open a winter or year-round shelter.
  • Encourage your city or faith community to provide assistance and affordable housing for low-income families and individuals.

5. Become a mentor to individuals and families who are out of experiencing homelessness.

Most successful people can point back to one or more mentors who modeled positive attitudes and behaviors, believed in them, and encouraged them along the way. But the majority of men and women experiencing homelessness never had mentors like these. One of the keys to restoring them is to connect them with mentors who can help them rebuild their lives.

Union Rescue Mission is partnering with local churches and faith communities, and other agencies to connect families experiencing homelessness with mentors who will walk with them as they transition out of homelessness. We also encourage faith communities to reach out to one local family on the edge of homelessness every year and help restore them to health and stability before they lose their home. We must focus on prevention and recovery simultaneously.

Action Steps:

  • Encourage your faith community to embrace this idea.
  • Arrange a meeting with your faith community and local homeless agency
  • Reach out to neighbors/families in need and help connect them with your faith community.
  • Faith communities can offer marriage counseling, financial counseling, parenting classes, and fatherhood initiatives to strengthen families, prevent family disintegration, and address the root causes of homelessness.

6. Adopt best practices regarding policing and other public services that directly affect homelessness.

Every municipality must take responsibility to address homelessness in their communities intelligently, effectively, and compassionately. A comprehensive approach would involve helping individuals and families access services, advocating for more local services when they are lacking, maintaining reasonable community standards, dealing effectively with the drugs and crime that often accompany homelessness, and investing in the training of police officers and other community officials.

Action Steps:

  • Volunteer with your local police department to walk or ride with them while they police the community.
  • Help your local homeless agency reach out to people on the streets before your local police carries out a maximum enforcement.
  • Learn how local police in your community interact with people experiencing homelessness. If necessary, challenge them to become more proactive, compassionate, and effective in their community policing.

7. Expand seasonal winter shelters to operate year-round.

Winter Shelter Programs are a critical safety net that provides emergency overnight shelter to thousands of individuals experiencing homelessness during cold, damp winter months.

Yet many of these emergency shelters close after the winter season is over, and many individuals are left with few other safe alternatives. We ask that the city and county funding of these shelters be expanded so that there is year-round assistance so that anyone who becomes homeless can have a roof over their head and a place to sleep in safety.

Action Steps:

  • Write to your Governor requesting to keep the National Guard Armories open year-round for people who need emergency shelter.
  • Ask City and County officials to increase the funding so that the shelters can not only be open year round but also have sufficient case management and support services to assist people experiencing homelessness into more permanent solutions.

8. Provide more permanent supportive housing for people who need it most.

The best solution for many who have been devastated by long-term homelessness is permanent supportive housing.
SRO (Single Room Occupancy) Housing is already providing permanent supportive housing, strong management, and crucial services that address underlying issues faced by those who are devastated by the long term effects of homelessness. There are organizations that have provided permanent supportive housing, including comprehensive services, for the most chronic, most devastated men and women. But we need more to focus on this initiative.

Action Steps:

  • Encourage County Supervisors and City Council members to provide more permanent supportive housing, along with supportive services.
  • Join Union Rescue Mission or your local agency serving people experiencing homelessness to reach out to men and women on the streets and help connect them to services and housing.
  • Mobilize your business, civic group, or faith community to engage and offer acts of kindness to men and women struggling with chronic homelessness.

9. Increase investment in more life-transforming programs.

Men and women who become trapped in homelessness often have significant barriers to overcome before they can return to a productive life. Barriers such as devastating emotional damage, addictions, criminal records, and inadequate job skills or life skills are all conditions that can trap people in homelessness and poverty. And the longer they remain homeless, these conditions become more difficult to overcome.

Agencies like Union Rescue Mission offer structured, long-term recovery programs that have helped thousands of individuals and families address and overcome their obstacles and return to the community as productive citizens.

Action Steps:

  • Financially support effective life-transformation programs. These programs offer a great return on investment, altering the future for individuals and families for generations to come.
  • Attend a graduation event at an agency like Union Rescue Mission and see for yourself how lives are being transformed.
  • Mentor a man or woman who has graduated from a life-transformation program. A mentor’s friendship, support, and encouragement are crucial to the success of graduates transitioning from a program back to the community.

10. Provide everyone with the skills to work.

When men and women graduate from a life-transformation program, one of the most critical challenges they face is employment.

Union Rescue Mission plans to invest more in employment training, job-skill development, and connections to career opportunities. One of our partners, Chrysalis, models this kind of effective program and deserves wider recognition and support.

Action Steps:

  • Teach a class and share your job skills, as well as your insights regarding employment readiness.
  • Encourage employers to hire people who have successfully graduated from a job-preparation and skills-training program.
  • Provide financial support for Chrysalis and others who are doing this vital work.