No one truly prefers to be homeless. It is dangerous, life-threatening and humiliationg.
Certainly, the nearly 50 percent of homeless people who are women and children don’t choose to remain homeless over being housed. The number of homeless people who are reportedly veterans would presumably prefer to re-establish the lives that they had before their military service rather than choose to remain on the streets. The LGBTQ kids who make up approximately 40 percent of street-involved youth after getting thrown out of the family home would give anything to have a roof over their heads rather than be vulnerable to street predators. And the roughly 40 percent of people suffering from clinical mental health problems and addictions do not really have the mental capacity and ability to choose being housed over being homeless. The biggest barriers to housing are the lack of affordable housing and proper supports.
The myth that people choose to live on the street allows us to turn our backs on the most vulnerable in our society. With another bitter cold winter just around the corner, there is little doubt we will see people die from exposure and hunger. Homelessness also puts people at risk of violence, theft and assault.
Homelessness requires creative solutions, not condemnation or the perpetuation of stereotypes. The Housing First model, for example, has been highly successful in taking people with a wide range of mental health issues off the streets and housing them in rental units while providing ongoing and comprehensive support services. The vast majority of the clients have retained their housing, stayed off the streets and gotten help for their mental health challenges and addictions. In addition, the program has been proven to be more cost effective than the shelter system, hospitalization, and incarceration.
http://homelesshub.ca/solutions/housing-accommodation-and-supports/housing-first
Going further, we need to get to the root causes of homelessness and recognize the triggering factors. A high percentage of homeless people were in government care as children. People who have experienced neglect are also at a higher risk than the general population to experience homelessness, while physical or sexual abuse have also been shown to significantly increase the likelihood of homelessness. Those who have experienced more than one of those things are approximately 25 times more likely to experience homelessness in their lifetimes. If we want to help homeless people get off the street, we have to stop blaming them for their state of homelessness and instead, recognize the precipitating factors.