The 1%

Written by Season Bieronski, Manager of Housing Services, London Cares Homeless Response Services

The way to exit homelessness is through housing. For those most marginalized in our community, that pathway out isn’t so simple – it is riddled with complexities, just like chronic homelessness is.

It is so much more than just the basic definition of “being without a home”.

There is a group of individuals within the homeless community that has been ostracized and not supported by any other social safety nets, that need support beyond what traditional models are currently operating – this is the 1%.

There are no simple solutions or housing opportunities for them. They require (and deserve!) a complex and comprehensive housing strategy to meet their unique and complex needs, which currently does not exist within the London system. 

The system has created situations where certain marginalized folks in our community cannot succeed in improving their holistic health without a radical departure from the normative response. Without access to supportive housing with 24-hour staffing on site, this group will continue to be forced to suffer living on the streets, with their needs becoming increasingly complex with their health rapidly. People need a home. 

In an emergency, there is an emergency response.

Think about a burning building. Do you wait for the entire building to burn down before you start to evacuate? Do you allocate your resources to those who may need extra support getting out safely? Or do you watch the building burn, and only when it becomes apparent that some won’t make it out alive, do you then try and offer an emergency response to help them out?

For the 1% - their lives are at risk. They are in a state of emergency and if we don’t act soon that building is going to burn down and we’re going to lose them.

For some individuals, resources and support have been allocated to them and they've gotten out of that burning building. What about the 1%? Not prioritizing them affects the entire community. It puts pressure on an already strained system that is bursting at the seams.

The support needed to bring the 1% home needs to come from ALL levels of government - because we can’t put out this fire with a few buckets of water. We need something more robust. 

We know that housing is not a one size fits all model. We must create a housing continuum that expands past traditional housing options, and includes permanent supportive housing designed specifically for the 1%. It needs to incorporate a multidisciplinary team with intensive wrap-around support, using a trauma-informed, low-barrier model. We have to meet people where they’re at by providing customized levels of support to address complex and interconnected challenges.

This community needs to commit to bringing the 1% home. They are living in a state of emergency and we need to leverage and engage all levels of government and our community to foster real and meaningful change – by creating the type of housing the 1% so desperately needs.  

If we don’t, that 1% is going to turn into 2, 3, or even 5%.

This is how we put out the fire.