Project Director,

We recently read about a non-profit in Alaska — Peer Properties, Inc. — that takes a unique approach to housing people who are diagnosed or diagnosable with serious mental illness and are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Peer Properties does not provide services but operates instead on the peer support principle, i.e., the belief that relationships are based on shared experiences and values and characterized by reciprocity, mutuality, and mutual acceptance and respect. It is believed that working for the recovery of others facilitates personal recovery. Peer Properties neither encourages nor discourages the use of psychiatric medications but instead supports its tenants’ choices in the matter.

If you have had any experience housing the mentally ill in this fashion, please tell us about it.

A recent article in the New York Times brings to life the challenges faced by some people who try to leave homelessness.  The article describes a man who lived for years beneath an abandoned train station in the Bronx.  A nonprofit group that provides housing and services to mentally ill homeless people arranged for him to move into an apartment.  One-third of his Supplemental Security Income check would go to pay rent and a Catholic nun who had looked after him, along with two case managers, would help him make the transition.  But the man found the transition too difficult and he returned to his cave underground.   He recently signaled a willingness to try life in an apartment again.

If you have had any experiences with challenging clients such as this one, please share them.

The Berkeley City Council voted recently to pass a plan to clear streets of aggressive and disruptive behavior.  Among the banned behaviors is drinking in public, possessing a shopping cart and shouting in public.  Homeless advocates have fought unsuccessfully to stop the initiative which will cost about $2 million a year — money they say would be better spent on housing.  The initiative is meant to force homeless people who have refused to participate in services into counseling through the criminal justice and social service systems.   How is street homelessness addressed in your community?  If your community has passed a plan similar to the one just passed by the Berkeley City Council, please share with readers what the results have been?

Concerns frequently raised in US communities to the siting of homeless shelters or safe havens in residential communities are felt elsewhere as well.  The Prince George Native Friendship Center in Prince George, BC has proposed to open a home there for 29 people who are homeless and who have mental health and substance abuse issues.  Even with this facility, the demand for housing for the mentally ill in the area will continue to be great.  As is commonly seen in residential communities, neighbors believe the people the facility will serve need to be housed, but don’t want them housed in their neighborhoods.   There are many communities in the US that need safe havens like the one being planned in BC and communities are often hampered from opening them by community opposition.  If you have successful strategies for addressing this kind of community reaction, please share them.