EAHMF (Too complicated to be an acronym.)
DISCLAIMER and RECOGNITION
I’ve been involved in projects and organizations dealing with housing, homelessness, and poverty for fifteen years, but that is very little compared to the many people in Edmonton who spend every day providing shelter, food, counseling, housing, and support for those suffering from poverty and lack of adequate housing. Those needing the help, and those providing the help, are the ones deserving recognition and respect.
This post is about an endowment fund established with the Edmonton Community Foundation to support affordable housing, but to get there, we need to take a few stops.
- A Basic Premise and a Word introduces the concept of deservingness.
- That Damn Duality talks about the split vision with which we look at homelessness and poverty.
- Acronymisms brings us to a discussion of why the fund was created.
- A Q & A to answer the most obvious question.
A Basic Premise and a Word
The photo to the left was taken in downtown Edmonton at a food bank lineup. We offered people standing in line an opportunity to share a thought with the world. This same sentiment can be stated in many different ways, and a common one is "Housing is a human right" (1).
However, some of the debate always seems to revolve around the word "deserve" used in the sign.
Academic studies (2) have demonstrated that a notion of deservingness - whether or not specific individuals deserve to have the state provide them with support, shelter, or income - plays heavily into the public's perceptions of, and support for, social programs.
But what does it mean? I'm sure you think you deserve a safe place to sleep at night, and, if you do, doesn't everybody? Or is it just a matter of circumstance - you're all right, you've worked hard, you deserve a safe place to sleep - but others perhaps don't because of the choices they've made.
That Damn Duality
Some people think homelessness and poverty are individual problems, caused by individual circumstances or personal challenges or choices, while other people think homelessness and poverty are systemic problems, caused by the unequal distribution of wealth and advantages and the ongoing injustice of colonization and expropriation. As with most either/or situations, it seems likely that the truth is somewhere in the middle: personal circumstances play a significant role in how an individual is able to deal with systemic inequities.
ACRONYMISMS
NIMBY, "Not In My Back Yard," is a wonderful little acronym to express the feelings of many people who don't want affordable housing or supportive housing built in their neighbourhoods. I'd like to propose another acronym, NIMFOV, "Not In My Field Of Vision." We don't like to witness poverty or homelessness in public spaces. I'm guilty of that as well. I don't like to see people suffering, and in fact the sight of people suffering troubles me deeply, especially when I see so much societal wealth at the same time.
Q & A
Q: Isn’t the government supposed to be looking after this?
A: Every level of government (municipal, provincial, and federal) has different levels of control and responsibility over housing. Every level of government is subject to changing priorities because they’re trying to compete for the votes of people like you and me, and we don’t always agree on what government should be doing in the area of housing for lower-income people.
Remember that duality thing, and the concept of deservingness we talked about earlier?
AA: We can’t really rely on governments to always make the best decisions.
Where do all these considerations leave the person who wants to help, who desperately wants to make their neighbourhood, town, or city a better place to live for everyone?
It should, one would hope, lead that person to action of some kind.
And that's what led me to establish the EAHMF - or phonetically, the eeeaaahhhmmmfff.
A generous family member kept giving me cash with the only directions being “this is for the homeless,” so I spent many weekends walking through Old Strathcona and downtown Edmonton giving out five-dollar bills to whoever asked. That didn’t seem to help the problem. I interviewed service providers, and they told me most charity went to people who were already homeless, and in many cases this charity was too late to prevent the emotional, mental, and physical trauma of living in homelessness. Housing seemed to be the solution, but municipal, provincial, or federal money for housing is always at the mercy of competing priorities. After more discussions with people who worked in the area, I took the money from that generous family member, “for the homeless,” and established this endowment fund. My goals are: - to help create a stable, ongoing source of funding for the maintenance and repair of low-income housing in Edmonton that is not subject to the vagaries of political funding, and - to provide people who want to support solutions for homelessness another option.
HOW IT WORKS:
- Once the fund hits $10,000, every year a small percentage will be made available to low-income housing providers in Edmonton.
- They can apply for this funding from the Edmonton Community Foundation, and use it to keep low-income housing (a lot of which was built years ago and is badly in need of repair and upgrading), available for use.
WHAT I’M ASKING OF YOU:
- Maybe you could help out a little bit? Donations are tax deductible, and who knows, if enough people care about this even a little bit then maybe we can all together make a big difference.
- Just a thought.
- You can contact the Edmonton Community Foundation by phone at 1-780-426-0015, or you can go to the fund page at Edmonton Affordable Housing Maintenance Fund and donate there.
Footnotes and Links
- https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/en/node/717
Doberstein, C., & Smith, A. (2019). When political values and perceptions of deservingness collide: Evaluating public support for homelessness investments in Canada. International Journal of Social Welfare, 28: 282–292