Should We Give Homeless People Homes?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2016
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It is a surprisingly simple idea - to end long-term homelessness, give every person living on the streets a home. It can also be surprisingly effective. Medicine Hat, a city in Canada, recently became the first city to end homelessness in this way. The approach is known as Housing First, and – unlike many other homelessness initiatives – it does not require homeless people to make steps towards solving other issues like alcoholism, mental health problems or drug addiction before they get a home. But is this approach solving the problem, or simply moving it off the streets?
(Image: A homeless man with his dog outside a building. Credit to Getty)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the BBC World Service. This is Helena Merriman with the |
| 0:07.6 | inquiry. This week, should we give homeless people homes? |
| 0:15.0 | In March this year, a video went viral. |
| 0:21.0 | In March this year, a video went viral. In just a few weeks over 20 million people watched it. |
| 0:27.0 | It told the story of how a city in Canada had ended homelessness. |
| 0:32.0 | I didn't believe it could be done |
| 0:34.0 | that you could solve the housing problem and when you when you do solve it |
| 0:38.0 | everybody's across the entire continent is interested in this and it's also proof that it can be done. |
| 0:44.0 | So, how did they do it? |
| 0:49.0 | Well, it wasn't by treating addictions or improving shelters or finding people jobs. |
| 0:55.0 | It was more simple than that. |
| 0:57.0 | They gave the people living on their streets somewhere to live. |
| 1:00.0 | A home. |
| 1:02.0 | And if it worked in that city, we wanted to know whether it could work in others. |
| 1:07.0 | So this week we brought together four people who've devoted their careers to trying to end homelessness. |
| 1:15.1 | As we ask, should we give homeless people homes? Part 1, Housing First. |
| 1:28.0 | Housing First. In the |
| 1:35.0 | 1980s I was working at Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, which is on the east side of Manhattan, |
| 1:40.0 | and I walked to work was just about 20 or 30 blocks. |
| 1:45.0 | This is Sam Berris, a psychiatrist. |
| 1:48.0 | He remembers well the moment when homeless people began to appear on American streets. |
| 1:53.6 | The economy had tanked. Housing was becoming less affordable and state hospitals had released |
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