As you may be aware, May 6 is National Homeless Awareness Day. This issue is important to me as a community member who believes that assisting those in need ultimately benefits society, and who believes those benefits work along both ethical and financial lines. It’s also an issue that I am keenly aware of via my work as a case manager at Charter House Coalition in Middlebury, and as part of the Addison County Homeless Outreach Team.

There aren’t many who’d argue that housing and homelessness aren’t an issue in Vermont, nationally, or worldwide. And yet, in America, there’s little being done at the highest levels to combat the issues. We spend our resources posturing and politicizing rather than identifying and committing ourselves to logical, compassionate, and financially advantageous solutions, many of which we already have at our disposal.

I’m speaking of things like Housing First, which has an excellent track record virtually everywhere it’s been prioritized, and has been proven vastly cheaper than motel vouchers, hospital stays, mental institutions, incarceration, rehab beds, and other options that amount to no more than overpriced Band-Aids.

In my eyes, there’s never a good time to cut benefits and social services, yet I see us doing it more and more frequently — nationally and locally — often in the name of lowering taxes. There is far too little conversation about how our tax money can be used for positive investment in our communities and future, and we don’t talk enough about the hidden costs of saving on taxes, either.

For example, things like the extra burden we put on social workers, medical staff, first responders, schools, businesses, and public institutions, all of which we already know are frequently pressed well beyond their current capabilities.

And this is to say nothing about the human cost involved for those in need. Not only are unsheltered individuals dehumanized by our general lack of attention to their lives and burdens, but we also literally create more crime and suffering through enacting certain encampment policies and laws that do not also create positive solutions and opportunities for outreach and engagement.

Any policy which merely discourages the presence of the unhoused only serves to alienate them further, pushes them further into the shadows, and should be avoided. These problems will not disappear via migration; rather they will grow and manifest anew in places that may be less prepared and where it will be more difficult, and more expensive, to lend assistance.

Furthermore, if we want to lower crime, as we all say we do, it makes sense to be doing whatever we can to lower poverty rates in general, not to be exacerbating them by cutting social services — something that will only put more and more people in precarious positions where committing crimes can become a necessary and reasonable option for survival.

There are many overwhelming and factually inaccurate stigmas attached to the homeless, especially in the idea that they’re mentally ill, drug or alcohol addicted, or in some way dangerous or violent. While it may be true that some fall into those categories, it’s also true that none of these issues are limited to any class or population, and the statistics show that the unhoused are vastly more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators of them.

It’s too easy to make people into scapegoats and chalk their problems up to moral failures or personal insufficiencies. We have massive systemic problems, and this kind of victim blaming is merely a distraction that won’t help them get solved.

The people I serve are overwhelmingly good, solid, hardworking folks, each of whom has been dealt a bad hand of some kind. They’ve been allowed to fall through so many cracks and have been failed or blatantly ignored by so many people in so many positions over so many years that I’m frequently astounded they can continue to show up and fight for themselves. And yet they do show up for themselves, time and again. Even when not giving up means having to navigate a system so splintered and inefficient that it feels dismissive to the point of being draconian.

I say draconian, not to be dramatic, but because that’s what it feels like for me, simply in going through the process of being an advocate. I don’t have to deal with the added stress and trauma of being on the streets, and don’t realistically have to worry if I’ll be accosted at any moment, either by bad actors or by local officials seemingly more concerned about appearances than by solutions.

I urge everyone not to look the other way. Most of us are precariously close to becoming unhoused if things break the wrong way. Should that happen, we’d all wish we’d done more when we had the chance. Please ask your representatives, local and national, to make fixing the housing and homeless crisis a priority.

Please investigate models like Housing First for yourselves, as well. If you do, I think you’ll see the success Housing First has shown in other parts of the world and ask, Why can’t we do more of this here? Why aren’t we doing more of this here when it’s so much more effective, compassionate, and financially advantageous, particularly as we find ourselves so concerned with efficiency in the national discourse? The model is good for our hearts and for our wallets.

I also urge you to remember that the unsheltered people you may encounter are every bit as human and valid as you or anyone else. They are someone’s child, someone’s loved one, perhaps someone’s sibling or parent, and they have hopes and dreams, too.

They deserve to live in peace and in shelter, regardless of any challenges they may have. They deserve dignity and respect; a smile, a wave, a hello — at the very least. They are not the problem or the burden that so many would have you think they are, and a little kindness can go a long way.

If you take the time to get to know these individuals, you may even, like me, find yourself delighted and continually inspired by their courage, their perseverance, their resilience, and even, sometimes, their joy in the face of it all. May we all be so strong.

Mat Clouser

Brandon