CANADIANS are used to Americans coming to Canada to preach the ‘good news.’ But such preachers are not usually high-ranking members of the U.S. government.

Philip Mangano is executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. At the invitation of local governments and other agencies, including City in Focus, he came to B.C. May 10 – 11 to make three presentations – preaching the good news that the problem of homelessness can be solved.

Mangano said the push to end homelessness arises out of moral, spiritual and humanitarian concern: “We have a moral and spiritual responsibility to act . . . Some of our neighbours don’t have a place to live. We have become anaesthetized to the incredible simplicity of that fact.”

He called for commitment to “the simple affirmation that you will be tolerant of your homeless neighbours, but intolerant of the social and moral disgrace of homelessness.”

Mangano then stated moral and spiritual concern are not enough.

Describing his experience working on a breadline, he said: “We thought a bowl of soup and a blanket were the best we could do . . . We felt great, but people were still homeless.” He added,  “If good intentions, well-meaning programs and police sweeps could do it, it would be done.”

Therefore, he said, it was necessary to “disturb the status quo,” to get beyond the assumption that nothing can be done. In particular, he said it is important to move from a social service focus (on serving and “managing” the homeless) to a business (common sense or dollars and cents) model which is “performance-based and results-oriented.”

Since the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different result,” Mangano said, a key factor is research – to understand homelessness, find out what works and what doesn’t, and “steal” whatever good ideas can be found.

Research in the last few years has helped overcome a number of stereotypes.

For instance, contrary to the assumption that the homeless have come from somewhere else, research has shown that a larger percentage of the homeless come from the local area, compared to the general population. In other words, homelessness isn’t ‘someone else’s problem’; and the homeless may have “a greater claim to local resources” than the general population.

As well, research has shown that only about 10 percent of the homeless are chronically homeless – and dealing with problems such as addiction, mental illness and disabilities.

The rest are low income people who drift in and out of homelessness and “can get out with only a little help,” Mangano said.

He cited one study, which found the average length of homelessness to be 47 days over two years.

Mangano said the key to resolving the problem of homelessness is partnership, and overcoming partisanship: “No one level of government or sector can get the job done alone.”

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Sonya Salter, operations manager for the Correctional Service of Canada (Corcan) at Mission/Mountain Institution, congratulates inmate Ron McCann for a job well done. The children’s playhouse on display was built as part of one of the projects Corcan has completed in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. The structure, built with donated materials, was raffled off to raise funds for Habitat. vancouverhabitat.bc.ca

The US effort began with bringing 20 US government departments together. The government then made agreements with 49 of its 50 states.

This coalition then made agreements with more than 300 cities to develop 10-year plans – which require broad partnerships involving health care providers, parks departments, police, academics, business leaders, developers, faith communities and homeless people themselves.

The 10-year plans in many cities have shown remarkable results, such as a 70 percent decrease in chronic homelessness in Portland, Oregon, in just two years.

Mangano said there is no place in Canada or the U.S. where moral and spiritual concern alone could “drive enough political will to remedy homelessness.”

It was assumed the homeless didn’t cost society anything, but that providing social housing would be very expensive. However, he said, research has shown that “managing homeless people is very expensive.”

An individual homeless person can incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in social, medical and policing/court costs every year. Now that it is clear that providing housing is actually cheaper, he said, “the economic argument is driving the political will to solutions.”

Tom Cooper, executive director of City in Focus  –  which co-sponsored one of Mangano’s presentations – said the Christian community, “has been very active in this issue for years – because our faith compels us.”

Cooper said Mangano had shared with him privately that he is “a very committed Christian,” and is a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Like good sermons, he observed, Mangano’s presentations were polished and passionate – sprinkled with subtle references to prayer, Bible citations, and church.          

– Jim Coggins

June 2007