our housing system is so broken

and i am so frustrated

This month, I have seen 4 people I know almost get housed after chronic homelessness, but not a single one was able to. Each one followed all the steps the system says will lead to housing: go to shelter or housing agency, do a housing assessment, provide required paperwork, get on the wait list, then wait and wait and wait, and then FINALLY get word that they have a referral. A referral means that the system matched them to a potential housing opportunity. This is always very exciting, but there is a lot that needs to happen from the referral to someone moving in to a place. It requires appointments, paperwork, vital documents, and a lot of systems navigation. For many it’s impossible, and I have watched it play out many times. This month has been more of the same.

For these four, their best chance to get housed any time soon has come and gone, and now they’re stuck waiting again for a spot to open up somewhere else. Most have been on waitlists since the summer of 2024.

Those of us who help people navigate housing systems will not be surprised by this- people trying to transition from living outside to being housed often aren’t able to access housing opportunities because those opportunities require having a phone, being able to stay in a consistent spot so providers can find you, knowing the date and time, and feeling stable enough mentally to keep track of phone numbers and appointments. It also requires that the city does not repeatedly destroy and throw away your planner or notebook, and your documents like your ID and social security card. On top of the logistics, it is almost impossible to complete any task when you haven’t slept or eaten a meal in days. Brains aren’t built to function under so much stress and pain, but that is what our system asks of people. These are the roadblocks our unhoused neighbors face every day, and many have been experiencing it for years.

What’s even more disheartening is that many of the people I am talking about have support from professionals like me! Some of them have literal TEAMS of people hired to support them. We can make calls for them, make appointments, reschedule, advocate, fight, and it STILL isn’t enough. There is no reason for it to be this hard.

None of this even counts those who haven’t been able to access these assessments and waitlists at all, who are spending every ounce of energy they have trying to keep themselves alive. People who are chronically ill, deep in the throes of grief, without any close family, battling mental health diagnoses, stuck in domestic violence, being trafficked, who don’t speak english, who never learned to read, or who are barely hanging on to their will to stay alive.

I’m saying all of this for two reasons: one, I am angry and sad and tired and putting those feelings out into the world helps relieve some of that for me. Two, I need everyone to try to grasp how impossible and inhumane this all is.

Just recently the mayor of Minneapolis (my arch nemesis) went on record saying that, since no more large encampments exist in Minneapolis, he estimates that there are only 27 homeless people left in the city. He claims that the destruction of camps made it possible for residents to “move forward” and finally get housing. Obviously that is not true, that is maybe the stupidest thing I have ever heard. But people are going to believe it is, and it will lead to more hate, blame, and harm towards our unhoused neighbors who are trying to do the impossible- get housed. If those with power to change the broken system aren’t willing to do it, where does that leave us?

I get asked a lot about the work I do and if I feel like I am “enabling” people to live outside and do drugs and “live off of welfare”. I hate this question because I hate the concept of enabling, but I understand what people are asking me. Of course, I always tell them no. The fact of the matter is, there isn’t anything I can do to immediately change the way the system has been built. I can vote for representatives to help make things better, but that change is slow. The only thing I can do is help people do the best with what we have right now, and what we have really sucks.

Sometimes the best we can do is fighting to survive until tomorrow so we can try again, and if that means giving someone tools to use drugs I am going to do it. I will continue to try to make people’s lives survivable in hopes that we can make it to a better place. I’ll keep trying because I believe it can be better, and each time we try is another time something might work.

No one should have to live outside. No one should have to fight so much to stay alive. It doesn’t have to be this hard.

This topic is very nuanced and I have so much more to say, but I am going to save it for a later date.

This week I am trying to help people who live outside get watches so they can keep track of the time and am going to buy more cigarettes to hand out to try to make things more tolerable.

next week I will come here to say some things about joy, but for today I am sad and angry and I want to give those feelings space to breathe.