Over the past few months, we have examined homelessness and how others have been able to address what remains a deeply pervasive issue for Canada, British Columbia and Nanaimo.
Why are other countries able to keep their homelessness numbers relatively low compared to Canada and Nanaimo? What are they doing and more particularly what do we need to do to achieve significantly lower homeless numbers and avoid the associated turmoil that comes with homelessness?
As noted previously, Switzerland, Finland and Japan have few people experiencing homelessness. Those countries have initiated forceful society supported interventions that have kept homelessness virtually non-existent.
What about other countries? Travelling in southeast Asia recently, I continued to see few people living on the streets compared to Nanaimo. There were only a few people visibly homeless in Seoul. Thailand revealed few, except in Bangkok where people experiencing homelessness congregate but in a way that is very different from Nanaimo. In Bangkok the people who are unhoused live communally along several streets obviously supporting each other (with assistance from government and non-governmental organizations) sheltering overnight under tarps, makeshift shelters and a few tents. During the day those temporary ‘accommodations’ disappear to be replaced by rows of people seeking temporary work (many people who are homeless in the big cities are migrant workers). Within these ‘designated’ homeless areas (which are safe to walk through in the day) there is no evidence of violence or drug use and there are small ‘pop-up’ kitchens. It seemed that people experiencing homelessness in Bangkok were not ostracized, not harassed and not creating mayhem.
In Vietnam, there were few living on the streets. Intergenerational living is the norm there, as it is in parts of Indonesia and Cambodia, where families remain a crucial support system, housing three and four generations in each household.
In Singapore, where 80 per cent of the population lives in social housing, homelessness is non-existent. The state has determined that all its citizens and temporary residents should be housed. To that end Singapore’s housing development board has built and maintains a variety of housing types across the city state. It is a remarkable story of political will and leadership, social compassion and economic foresight.
Upon reflection, countries as diverse as Cambodia, Finland, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand and Vietnam seem to be getting a few things right: their percentage of homelessness is much lower than Nanaimo’s. Unless homelessness is viewed as a societal issue requiring co-ordinated, integrated and thoughtful resolution, then we in Canada can expect to continue to experience the disturbing implications of allowing people who are unhoused to find their own way, ignored and abandoned, leading to a bleak, chaotic future.
We need to recognize we are making deliberate decisions to not address the root causes of homelessness. If others can keep homelessness to a minimum by implementing proven methods of housing first plus, the four pillars program and family-centred housing, why can’t we?
David Witty is senior fellow urban design, master of community planning, Vancouver Island University.
