I have struggled over the years regarding the question of whether motivation matters in accomplishing social progress. The classic example was McDonalds changing its packaging to be more environmentally friendly. The company’s motivation was obviously marketing to an emerging environmentally conscious demographic.
Still, it got the job done. Wrong reason, right result.
It always seemed sad to me that so often we have to appeal to people’s greed to get them to do the right thing rather than by evidence-based, rational persuasion.
When the City of Medicine Hat, Alberta decided it was going to end homelessness in five years, then-councillor, now-mayor, Ted Clugston said he was skeptical it would work. He was really more ideologically opposed to the idea because he didn’t believe people should get a “free ride.”
“I’m a bit of a fiscal conservative and the old school you pay your way, if you want a place to live you can get a job,” Clugston told the Calgary Herald in November.
He said he became a champion of the idea when he finally realized it made financial sense.
It does, in fact. According to a research paper by The Homeless Hub published in 2013, homelessness costs Canadians $7 billion a year in law enforcement, courts and prisons, emergency health care, shelters and hospital visits.
Traditionally, the response to homelessness has been requiring potential clients to clean up their acts before they became eligible for housing. That has been an utter failure because it is upside down; it is the proverbial catch-22.
“Housing is not contingent upon readiness, or on ‘compliance’ (for instance, sobriety),” states the eBook Housing First in Canada: Supporting Communities to End Homelessness. “Rather, it is a rights-based intervention rooted in the philosophy that all people deserve housing, and that adequate housing is a precondition for recovery.”
The “housing first” strategy dates to at least the 1990s in places such as Toronto and New York, but is becoming much more widespread as cities such as Medicine Hat are proving its potential to end an seemingly endless problem.
“The basic underlying principle of Housing First is that people are better able to move forward with their lives if they are first housed,” states The Housing Hub’s website. “This is as true for people experiencing homelessness and those with mental health and addictions issues as it is for anyone.”
Now, as Medicine Hat prepares to become the first city in Canada to succeed in ending homelessness, Clugston, to his credit, has come around not only the economic benefits, but the philosophical underpinnings as well.
“I used to think you look after yourself first and you take responsibility for your problems and now I’ve come to realize that sometimes the best way is to help these people help themselves,” he said.
And I used to think motivation matters a lot more than it probably does. I have been making the economic argument for years that it is cheaper to take care of the least of our brothers than to incarcerate, hospitalize and/or bury them.
Nobody wants to be homeless. They get there over time for myriad reasons. They have families and stories, hopes and dreams. First and foremost, they are people.
With programs like Medicine Hat’s, many will extricate themselves from the cycle of poverty, addictions and mental illness. Some won’t, but at least they will be safe and warm.
What this small Alberta city has done is something we would all do well to emulate.
