There are numerous “levels” and definitions of homelessness. Rough sleeping, vehicle dwelling, shelter living, living precariously, etc.
I know three homeless people fairly well.
The first probably became homeless through a combination of mental illness and poverty. She apparently suffers from “Narcissist Victim Disorder” (I was surprised to see that was a thing, but I don’t know if it’s in the DSM or not) and essentially only likes men who abuse her, like my neighbor and her (former) landlord, whose house is very far from my place. Once she asked me to call the police if my neighbor attacked her when she went there, but a smarter move might have been to not go in there. She is on ODSP (Ontario disability welfare) and as she is not visibly disabled my mother despises her. She and my mother bond over my neighbor, who has a magical ability to create codependent relationships with women, and they have conversations that violate Bechdel’s Law. In Ontario, if you share a kitchen and bathroom with a “landlord” then you have no tenant rights, even if you are paying rent. The landlord kicked her out. She went to a woman’s shelter more than a year ago, and I only saw her two or three times when she came to visit the neighbor. I literally do not understand why she would do this, considering she is not dependent on him in any way (it must be the mental illness). She put her stuff in storage, which cost more than half her income, and recently paid them off. I don’t know how she did this, as she has (had?) no bank account.
The second is a family member who is precariously housed. She had mental illness concerns and is an alcoholic. She used to live in a “bedroom community” and got used to driving a car, which unfortunately plays a role. She lost her job dramatically two years ago, and has not worked since. Once the unemployment ran out she stopped paying rent and was eventually evicted. She spent time precariously housed with church friends, who would get sick and tired of her behavior. Finally after another incident which included drunk driving, she updated her meds and lost her car. Unfortunately the new meds are much more powerful and put her to sleep, probably due to her drinking at the same time. She would regularly spend two or three days unconscious, only able to get up to use the bathroom, so she stopped taking them. She refuses to get them updated, even when I and an advisor both told her three ways to get them updated (including going to a walk-in clinic) and she refuses to stop drinking because addicts “can’t stop”. I finally convinced her to go on welfare, which she resisted for a long time because she had “pride”. She found an abusive former family friend to live with, who beats her, but she won’t leave for long. She sometimes goes to a hotel but can only afford a few days, and she spent a night or two in a shelter (once taken there by the police) but hates them. Her abuser does not require cash rent, and indeed pays for her food and other such necessities, and even used to let her drive one of his cars and paid for the gas. When she was taken to a shelter when the police learned of the abuse, she was back within days, and the shelter gave her space to someone else. She calls me and complains about her abuser, but refuses to leave or even admit to the police what is happening. She refuses to get a transit card (only $20) or take transit so of course she can’t go anywhere now that the abuser took his car keys back. She can leave whenever he is not home (he works) and had bragged about walking everywhere earlier once she lost her car, but apparently she lost that ability.
Lastly another family member is living with my mom and me. She is nineteen and precariously housed. She does not pay rent and has no legal rights. My mother hates her and she is only here out of a vestigial sense of family. She works part-time and cannot live by herself in this expensive city. She once moved out and lived with a roommate but she has her own problems (and it seems she has no “good” friends anyway) so that didn’t work out. Neither of her parents are responsible or willing to take her in (her father is actually semi-responsible and keeps coming up with excuses not to take her in). In this case, the issue is mainly poverty, but there’s some mental illness and some problem with lack of social capital. Both of her parents are alive but she is effectively an orphan.
In Canada, welfare is fairly easy to get and hold onto. I suspect many people are homeless due to two reasons, spatial mismatch and addiction. In the first case, services are mainly available to people in larger, more expensive cities. While homeless people travel from afar to go there, many of the local homeless really are locals, and were evicted (or foreclosed) due to financial problems. Welfare pays the same regardless of where you live in the province. I found a three bedroom house for $850 a month in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, whereas my much smaller apartment in Toronto, Ontario, has a more expensive rent. Fortunately I’m working and living in the tiniest apartment possible. Alberta welfare rates are about the same as Ontario, and I could picture three people on welfare splitting that house.
Addiction is another concern, of course. Even calculating rates is controversial, with some homeless advocates swearing up and down that these people became addicts after they became homeless, which is just false. The majority of single homeless men are addicts, whereas a minority in other categories are as well, and they typically became homeless because their addiction caused problems with their workplace, finances, and relationships. I don’t know how many homeless people receive social assistance or old age benefits; they need to be capable of following instructions, have or be able to obtain knowledge, and retain their ID to do so.
British Columbia (province) tested giving homeless people lots of money.
The article isn’t very well-written. Was that $7,500 given to them as a lump sum? Certainly not per month!
Many homeless people who aren’t suffering from mental health or addiction issues are only suffering financially. Simply giving them money helps. However, this kind of assistance only helps the short-term homeless (eg people who are temporarily down on their luck). This would not help two of the three homeless people I know.
