Yes, I am Canadian (sorry, eh?)
When all else fails in your attempts to make change in your community towards ending homelessness or increasing affordable housing, blame my nationality. Apparently this is a thing.
Summer. 2013. National Alliance to End Homelessness Conference. World-renowned expert (won’t mention names) says that I can’t possibly understand HUD requirements during a conference session because I am Canadian.
Spring. 2014. Oklahoma. Implementing the SPDAT is a bad idea (and not aligned with Gospel values) because…wait for it…I am Canadian.
Summer. 2014. Texas. I made an offer to help a shelter move forward with coordinated access and common assessment in that community. The Executive Director rejects the idea on FaceBook. Why? Because I am Canadian.
My mother came to Canada from Scotland. My father came to Canada from the Netherlands. My older brother – born in Canada – moved to and has become an American citizen. I am first generation Canadian, with a global perspective on ending homelessness.
I am Canadian.
That could be a bad beer commercial waiting to happen (for Canadian beer – we make fun of American beer because it is like making love in a canoe).
I could haul out Shane Koyczan’s awesome spoken word piece from the Vancouver Olympics, which does a good job explaining why we are more than stereotypes.
Or I could blare Classified’s alternate national anthem (Canadian rap…really awesome if you want to laugh and understand Canadians more…playing with stereotypes – “Oh Canada, we love our beaver.”).
Or I could talk about how being Canadian is being the little brother goalie in a game of road hockey (with Americans being the forwards taking slap shots at us).
I am proud to be a Canadian. That, however, does not make me unqualified to work or share ideas in the United States (or elsewhere for that matter), in the same way that Americans can share (and influence) Canadians.
First of all, I am proudly Nexus certified, allowing me Global Entry. I have been heavily vetted by both the Canadian and American governments to be able to be in that position and I am very happy to move across borders in this manner.
For US work, OrgCode files a W-8ECI. We are transparent when we have business dealings in the United States. We file taxes through Buffalo, New York.
I feel it is just as important to end homelessness in the US as Australia as the UK as Canada. Homelessness, in this sense, is more than a border. It is a condition that is happening because of so many common policies across borders.
I grew up in a border town (Sault Ste. Marie – which, coincidentally is the name of the city on BOTH sides of the border). I have been “speaking American” for a long time. The fact that I know the names of government programs, funding sources, benefits, etc. in two countries makes me additionally qualified, not under-qualified.
Allow me to make a very un-Canadian statement: I am good at what I do. That goodness transcends borders. I am grateful to have been to the White House with the Community Solutions group, and I am also grateful to have been honoured with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Best Practice in Affordable Housing earlier in my career.
Some of the people that pick my brain the most on how to end homelessness or increase affordable housing in a community are – you guessed it – not Canadians. There would not be a demand for my time in such a way if I was an idiot or if I had nothing to offer non-Canadians.
So the next times someone pulls out the “but he’s not from here” card, remember this: I am working my butt off to end homelessness and increase affordable housing throughout the developed world. Believing in my ideas and expertise is more important than my nationality. My passion to end homelessness knows no borders.
Oh. Canada.
The Power of a Tool
Before the conference in DC for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, I reached out to an HMIS administrator that I trust to ask him about the impact coordinated access and common assessment has had in his community. I am going to protect the identity of his community so that they are not bombarded with requests about what/when/how, but his response is overwhelming to me (and his email back to me makes up the rest of this blog):
For assessments, 183 staff from 14 different agencies in [NAME OF COMMUNITY] have screened more than 1,300 individuals since August 2013 with the VI-SPDAT, 100% of which have been recorded (from day one) in our HMIS. It’s worthy of note that the vast majority of the 14 agencies using this de-centralized “no wrong door” approach are not The [COC funded] or DHS-funded either. It’s not about a funding mandate, it’s about providers being energized by a tool that they repeatedly describe as empowering their staff to “finally know what to do” – meaning knowing what intervention to recommend, versus “this is what we have available, regardless of whether you need it, so do you want that? If not, you get nothing.”
We’ve used that data to better target services: [our community] has completed three targeted 100 day initiatives. The first two were for veterans only, and our third (and current) 100 initiative is for all single individuals experiencing homelessness. In each of our three initiatives, we have ended homelessness for over 200 individuals:
207 veterans were housed (96 of which were experiencing chronic homelessness) from August 9, 2013 to November 30, 2013
202 veterans were housed (108 of which were experiencing chronic homelessness) from December 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014
202+ single individuals were housed from May 24, 2014 to now (including 121 veterans)
Also worthy of note, as of this last week, every person who scored 13 or higher has been assigned a housing navigator. Our providers meet every week and begin our meeting by pulling our universal registry of VI-SPDAT results publicly, and starting with the highest score moving downwards, we send referrals for every permanent supportive housing or rapid rehousing unit that becomes available within the city. 100% transparent, and really, really energizing.
Lastly, we’re using this data to advocate for increased resources. Using the strong foundation of evidence that VI-SPDAT and SPDAT provide, our community has advocated for funding to move people from our registry (and the streets) into permanent housing (either permanent supportive or rapid rehousing).
$900,000 in local rapid rehousing funding for non-veterans in FY2014
$4.7 million in local permanent supportive housing for veterans (we have a lot of rapid rehousing/SSVF but not enough PSH for veterans. VI-SPDAT gave us the data to say “this is how much we need” to funders.)
$1.5 million expansion in local rapid rehousing funding for non-veterans in FY2015, because the original $900K wasn’t enough.
Thank you for making this possible. I am deeply indebted to you for your amazing tools. They are making a difference for our community in ways I never dreamed would be actually possible.
Gone Fishing
Literally, I have gone fishing.
This is the blog each year where I tell you there will be no blog because I am not at work. I am doing my best to practice self-care. Which I suck at.
I will tell you a bit more about what I am doing if you are interested and want to read more.
I am in the middle of nowhere in Northern Ontario. There is no cell coverage where I am . I am NOT checking email on my phone. This is very hard for me but important to do.
I am spending time with my children. This is important and precious to me. They do not see me nearly enough throughout the year, beyond which FaceTime allows – and most Saturdays.
I am with my brother and my father, and an uncle as well. These are all men that I respect and admire, and all of whom are very different than I am. We are not a family of long-haired hippies. I am the black sheep.
I am fishing for Smallmouth Bass. I am not a good angler. I will not catch many. I don’t care.
Camping on an island in the middle of a lake, I am more interested in the call of a loon, the northern lights, the campfire, and feeding people camp chow and my kids being happy.
I will come back to work refreshed and ready to take the next step to end homelessness or improve affordable housing in your community. Until then, if your email can wait until next week, please hold off.
The 12 Most Frequently Asked Questions of Yours Truly
I have been doing some research since January of this year, and I am going to let you in on it – the most frequent questions I get asked over email, on the phone, and one on one in my travels. I have been keeping tabs of what I get asked about. Here are the 12 most frequent questions (paraphrasing in some instances) – in order of frequency – up until the end of July…
1. Do you really believe homelessness can be ended?
I believe that chronic and episodic homelessness can be ended. I do not believe that we can prevent all homelessness. Some people/families will always be homeless at all times. No one can stop family breakdown, job loss, and life decisions with terrible consequences from happening. But we can make homelessness rare and of a short duration.
2. How do you really make money with the SPDAT?
We don’t. People seem to think we must have some sort of hidden agenda/money making scheme for the SPDAT. We honestly lose boatloads of money on the SPDAT. We are okay with that. If we thought it was important to make money on the SPDAT we would:
charge a lot more for the training
have an annual licensing fee/user fee
not give the VI-SPDAT away for free
charge for technical assistance in the follow-up from using it
3. Is all that travel hard?
Yes and no. The travel itself is not hard. You get used to it. I wouldn’t do it if I was not okay with it. No one forces me to travel. I own the company. After a while every airport and hotel looks the same. Almost every flight I am on is just an office at 32,000 feet – I do work on almost all flights.
Being away from my family gets hard – sometimes more than others. That is the only part of the travel that stings sometimes. I have missed dance recitals and first days of school and Christmas concerts and kid birthdays. Thankfully my family supports what I do.
4. What is your favorite city/place?
I don’t have just one. There are bits and pieces of several. I really love Brisbane, Australia. I could live in Providence, RI or Edmonton, AB if I was staying in one place for any length of time. Ann Arbor, MI has some amazing qualities. About one month a year I would love to live in LA. My favorite food experience is pretty much anywhere in Louisiana, though BBQ in Kansas City rocks my world. One of the best drives I have had in my life is from Denver to Grand Junction in Colorado, though the beauty of West Virginia is a close second. My favourite place to run when on the road is Traverse City, MI. I have great friends in several places…across Alberta especially.
5. Who (where) is really doing a good job?
Nowhere has completely figured it out. I would love to take a bit from here and add it to a bit from there and put together a super awesome hybrid. The truth is, there are lots of places making great progress.
6. Are you a HUD TA provider?
No. Black out period does not impact us. We sometimes accept work from other TA providers.
7. Has your hair always been long?
I have been growing my hair since before high school. I joke that my father is still waiting for me to get a hair cut and a real job.
8. Do you ever find some people are turned off/tune out your message of (Housing First, SPDAT, prioritization, harm reduction, etc.)
Yes. But I will keep delivering it. I will keep trying to convert people to the value of evidence.
9. Have you ever been homeless?
I do not talk about anything like this in my life publicly.
10. What do you teach?
For more than a decade I have been teaching a graduate course on Community Planning and Housing. I also sometimes teach courses on Public Involvement and/or Social Policy and Planning. I teach at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, where I also did my graduate work. The program is near and dear to my heart. Barbara Rahder, who teaches there and is the former dean, has had an amazing impact on my life. So did Gerry Daly (now retired) who wrote a very impactful book on homelessness.
11.How many people work for OrgCode?
Me, Tracy Flaherty-Willmott, Ali Ryder, and Jeff Standell.
12. Are you presenting at (insert name of conference)?
My schedule gets filled up months in advance. I love presenting at just about any conference. But other than Alliance conferences that are booked into my calendar a year in advance, please let me know well in advance if you want me to speak.
Time is a Thief
Look into the eyes of any person hurt, broken, suffering, homeless, marginalized.
Are they wasting time?
No. Time is wasting them.
Time is a thief. Without precious resources to turn dreams into a vision of the future they exist in the in-between.
Fight too long and lose all the time, and you lose the will to fight. Though maybe we should ask why people ever had to fight in the first place to find a shred of dignity.
Each second ticking by is another indictment of our complacency in watching injustice occur before our eyes.
If Necessity is the mother of all invention, then I think Sorrow is the father. Answer the call to steal back from time what is taken away from those amongst us that deserve our time and we distance ourselves from Sorrow – even if that means having a one-parent family.
What does it mean to answer the call to steal back time?
It is not our charity. Not our sympathy. Not our pity.
It is our intellect. Our compassion. Our steadfast commitment to right the wrongs within our purview to influence. Our time.
Lately, I have taken to getting my own way in forgoing widespread agreement that something needs to be done sooner rather than later. I refuse to determine who is worthy or unworthy. I accept the challenge to help without judgment. I accept the struggle to find the goodness in every single person.
Lately, I will call to task those that vote against their own self-interest. I will challenge anyone that thinks it possible to pay less and get more. I will rally against indifference in the discourse of politics that suggests the mother-state knows what’s best for people with moral prerogatives that smack of doom if they knew the people they claim to serve. I will figuratively throat-punch anyone suggesting that the free market rights all wrongs and creates equal opportunities for success.
Or the seconds will become minutes. The minutes will become hours. The hours will become days. And I will be left – hopefully like you – bewildered and more frustrated than before. We could have done something. And did not.
Or at least done more.
I don’t feel the pain I once did…once upon a time. That bothers me. I don’t feel the shock I once did…once upon a time. That bothers me too. I don’t feel the outrage that I once did…once upon a time. Someone hit fast-forward and time blew by and I was paralyzed to watch it go. Shameful. People have died as time stole their worth. People have died as we have debated the value of indignity or the currency of want.
“There was a dream
I had it too
You could see it coming true
It would travel in the air
You could make it if you dared
But now the sun goes down”
– The Milk Carton Kids
I know that time is a thief. This has been my career. I see pauses in the spinning wheels of time with little victories here and there. But if each second is a moment of regret that more could have been done, then I feel an avalanche of overwhelming guilt.
My mission is to live more courageously with outrageous compassion and fierce intellect in an effort to stop time. Because those we serve are not wasting time. Time is wasting them.
Time-out.
2014 National Alliance to End Homelessness Conference: 10 Take Aways
For the 10th year in a row, I have been a speaker at the National Alliance to End Homelessness Conference on Ending Homelessness. Here are my major takeaways from this year:
1. This is Still the Best Conference on Ending Homelessness.
The talent the Alliance can assemble for the conference is unparalleled and for that the Alliance deserves a major high five. The diversity of information and types of presentations appeals to a variety of learners. That said, there was a lot of youth and family content at this summer conference, which historically has been reserved for the winter conference. Is the Alliance moving towards one conference instead of two? (Well, not in the near term with the Youth and Family Conference in San Diego in early 2015)
2. Cory Booker and Michelle Obama and Jennifer Ho and Ann Oliva and Laura Zeillinger Rock
No one has ever moved me in a speech the way Senator Booker did.
No one has ever demonstrated the conviction of an administration on ending homelessness the way Michelle Obama has.
No one has shown me the commitment of HUD the way that Jennifer Ho and Ann Oliva have. They are not stogy disconnected bureaucrats with their heads up their butts.
No one has demonstrated the passion of making government agencies work together the way that Laura Zeillinger has.
3. 100K Homes Draws to a Close and Becky Signs Off as Campaign Director
The 100K Homes Campaign reached its goal through bucking trends, pushing forward, being relentless in putting action ahead of attempts at perfect planning, and the relentless pursuit of getting things done. At a special celebration at the White House and the Conference, the campaign communities got the direction that was well deserved. High five to Becky who moves on to other major social change now. The Zero 2016 movement is going to be worth watching and participating in.
4. Rescue Missions are Ready to Change
I was really amazed to learn about the major transformations that Rescue Missions have and are making to end homelessness. 81% no longer require people to pray/attend chapel in order to receive services. Many are embracing housing as a solution to homelessness. While I want to see this matched in my first hand experience in travels, I welcome this major change.
5. Showcasing Awesomeness Works
I had the great pleasure and honour (honor) of delivering a pre-conference session on Becoming Awesome with three organizations I have worked with and admire – Partners Ending Homelessness, West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, and Crossroads Rhode Island. Darryl, Zach and Karen – along with yours truly – kept a full house (standing room only) for three hours, eagerly engaged in the materials.
6. Moment of Doubt
I had a moment mid-conference where I realized that I have been speaking there for 10 years and homelessness had not ended. I wondered if it was all worth the effort (I do NOT get paid to appear at these conferences) and because there are only so many things I can say about ending homelessness. BUT, I was convinced by many that I should keep at it – for as long as the Alliance will have me.
7. Transformational Speeches are Great, But Require Better Content
The Alliance tried something new this year with three transformational speeches as part of a large plenary. Generally, I love the idea. The commentary by the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions was interesting (though need better PPT presentation). The examples by LA were impressive. The contributions from Multonomah County were downright dangerous and misinformed, suggesting that they never invest another cent in case management and put all money into assertive engagement – which proved to just about everyone not the value of bureaucracy but how misinformed they are about effective housing-based case management and what assertive engagement really is (and isn’t). Why the Alliance selected this speaker without vetting the message at a conference of this magnitude with a speaking spot of such prestige is out of character.
8. Prioritization and Coordinated Access are Uber Important
This is not so much a new idea or concept – or even conference topic – BUT, the number of sessions related to this was really, really impressive. The speakers – by and large – trumpeted the same messages and approaches. You’d have to live under a rock to not know that this is a really important (and difficult) thing to achieve.
9. The VI-SPDAT, and to a lesser degree SPDAT, are Growing in Popularity
I heard an overwhelming number of positive statements and claims about the VI-SPDAT, including commentary that the local results matched what I predicted the pretty much would in the breakdown of the typology of homelessness and effectiveness of matching people to interventions. It is NOT a perfect instrument, but it is well-researched and tested, and proving to be impactful.
10. There is Inspiration to be Found
I said in a tweet before the conference that this is like summer camp for those interested in ending homelessness. People learned. They were challenged. They had fun. But what I really loved was seeing and hearing about people feeling inspired and reinvigorated to go back home and implement what they had learned.