[homeles_ot-l] Housing First in the news

Mon Jan 11 09:52:59 EST 2010

FYI . . . a positive story to start our week; note Marion Wright is the
Chair of the Alliance to End Homelessness and Donna Petty is a member of
ATEH's Research and Evaluation Working Group -

Condos give homeless hope

 Mental health association comes to the rescue

 By Andrew Duffy, Citizen Special January 11, 2010

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Condos+give+homeless+hope/2427738/story.ht
ml

Things are looking up for Buzz Dixon, a mentally ill man and a former drug
user. Now, he's living in a condo at a reduced price as part of a program to
house chronically homeless people.

Photograph by: Photos by Wayne Cuddington, the Ottawa Citizen, Citizen
Special

In late November, Buzz Dixon was considering a return to the streets where
he had spent years as an injection drug user.

He felt it was his best option since his downtown apartment had become
infested with bed bugs that plagued him. He couldn't afford a better place
on his disability income. Yet Dixon, 50, knew a return to the street would
also mean a return to hard drugs. He relapsed -- and overdosed -- just
thinking about it.

"I haven't stuck a needle in my arm in over a year except for that
overdose," he says. "Living on the street, you have to do something to numb
the pain, I don't care what anybody says."

Luckily for Dixon, there was an alternative. The Ottawa branch of the
Canadian Mental Health Association (CHMA) offered him a rent-subsidized
condominium in a private building in Vanier. Dixon, diagnosed with
depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress, moved into a third-floor unit
in early December.

"This place is so different," he says. "I feel like a human being again.
It's nice, it's clean, it's quiet. I'm just a regular person. No one sticks
that label on you, 'Stay away from him.'"

Dixon is the latest beneficiary of an innovative program that delivers a
powerful sense of normalcy into often chaotic lives.

CHMA Ottawa owns 32 condo units across the city that it rents to formerly
homeless people with severe mental illness. Many also have drug or alcohol
addictions.

The units are usually offered to people involved in a treatment program, but
that is not a condition of the help. Those who drop out of treatment or
"graduate" from it are allowed to retain their unit.

"Housing should never be dependent upon taking your medication or agreeing
to see a social worker: housing is a basic human right," says Donna Pettey,
the CMHA's director of operations.

The condo program was launched eight years ago when the agency secured about
$2.2 million in federal money to purchase the first 22 units. The CMHA
considered building them, but ultimately found it more economical to buy
existing ones.

What's more, after canvassing homeless people about the kind of homes they
wanted, the agency discovered that most preferred to live

in regular neighbourhoods rather than in places designated for the mentally
ill.

The CMHA program is based on a 'housing first' philosophy, which holds that
drug addicts and alcoholics should not be denied housing -- and that people
in crisis should be given a permanent home rather than moved in stages
through shelters, treatment programs and group homes.

The idea took root in New York City about 20 years ago and its success there
has inspired imitators across North America.

Pettey says stable housing is the most important factor in an individual's
recovery from addiction or mental illness.

"It's not because they have social workers or psychiatrists: most people's
improvement is completely around whether they are housed," she says. "That's
the best medication you can give anyone."

CMHA Ottawa offers support to its clients living in the condos. Outreach
workers often help them buy furniture, connect with doctors and establish
bank accounts.

The agency's chief executive, Marion Wright, says the program has been
well-received by the community. "It has been overwhelmingly positive," she
says.

A few tenants have had to be evicted by the CMHA, she says, but the vast
majority have thrived as part of regular, healthy neighbourhoods. The
turnover rate for the units is miniscule.

There is no official waiting list, but at any one time, the mental health
agency has about 600 homeless clients. It means the demand for more such
housing is enormous.

"The biggest mental health issue we have in this province is a lack of safe,
affordable housing," says Wright. "It's a disgrace that a country as
affluent, as civilized as Canada doesn't have a national housing strategy."

CMHA Ottawa has been involved in housing the homeless for two decades. The
agency forged a partnership with the Ottawa housing authority in the late
'80s after outreach workers found the best way to engage homeless people in
discussions about harm reduction and treatment was to offer them something
meaningful in return.

"It didn't take us long to figure out that if you really wanted to be
meaningful in someone's life who is homeless, you talked about housing,"
says Pettey.

The agency at first acted as a referral agency and helped clients adjust to
living in social housing. It later sought out rental units from private
landlords. The CMHA now administers rent-supplements for 250 formerly
homeless people in public and private buildings across the city. More than
70 Ottawa landlords offer units to CMHA clients, who apply a portion of
their disability or welfare cheques to the cost of rent. The supplements
make up the difference between that and the market rate. Once-reluctant
landlords have come to value the program.

"We turn out to be a good client for the landlord," Wright says, "because if
he has a 25-year-old tenant who's kicking up trouble on a Saturday night,
what can he do? If he has one of our tenants in there, he calls us and we
take care of it."

Buzz Dixon's new home has brought him unprecedented stability. He had a
traumatic childhood in Montreal and left home at 15. Ever since, his life
has been marked by episodes of homelessness and hard drugs. Dixon has twice
conquered an addiction to heroin.

When he arrived in Ottawa several years ago, he was in bad shape since he
wasn't taking medication to control his hepatitis C and HIV. After being
treated in the special care unit of the Salvation Army Ottawa Booth Centre,
he moved to a rooming house, then a downtown apartment.

His new condo has allowed him to establish a routine that begins each day at
5 a.m.: he has coffee, takes his medication, eats breakfast, shaves -- "I
even use aftershave now," he says -- and goes downtown by bus. In the late
afternoon, or when "stuff gets to be too much," he walks away and returns
home.

"Once I get home, I see what I have. What I have now is real nice. It just
makes me want to keep going."

Dixon doesn't invite homeless friends back to his condo because experience
has taught him that only those ready to leave the street can respect rules.
"I feel bad for them," he says, "but I have to worry about me now."

His apartment boasts a couch, chair, table and TV, but he still needs a
mattress for his double bed. He likes the idea of one day not having to ask
anyone for anything.

"I'm looking forward to adding on to the things I do have. Every time I get
something new, it's a step up. I'm not going back down, I'm going up."

Dixon's building is home to many elderly people. He's careful to hold open
doors and offer 'good mornings,' and 'nice days'; he regularly volunteers to
carry groceries.

"You just feel like everybody else," he says. "It changes everything."

C Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Lynne Browne

Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH)

147 Besserer St., 2nd Floor, Ottawa, ON K1N 6A7

Office 613-241-7913, ext. 205

www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca <http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/> 

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