Experts have determined there is a 5-level process a homeless person takes to move from being in crisis (totally dependent on others) to thriving (self-sufficient). At the crisis level the participant needs a hand-out (they have no resources to take care of him/herself), but moving forward the participant needs a hand-up by education, motivation, and inspiration to develop the skills to become self-sufficient.

One day a wise director of a local foundation told us we were not in the housing business, but in the business of changing lives. Our supportive services program with five levels and steps to follow in each level was our “secret sauce.”

There is an old saying: “Feed a person a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”

A successful homeless program will not exist to warehouse the homeless, but to move them forward to self-sufficiency. This means they are leaving a subsidized life behind with all the hand-outs. To stay in poverty and be dependent on subsidies takes the heart out of people and traps their future.

Years ago when we first started working to serve the homeless we had three basic beliefs.

We believed:

1. We serve the needs of the community by assisting the homeless get a hand up on their journey from homelessness to stability. …

There are five major myths about homelessness

1. The homeless have caused their own situation and deserve to live in it.
2. The homeless are basically lazy and don’t want to change.
3. The homeless are all criminals and scary. …

There is a movement in society to change the term homeless to houseless. Reasoning moves along the line of removing the stigma the word homeless may cast on those who are experiencing the dilemma of not having a house to live in.

We’ve had the unique opportunity to work with these communities and talk to their un-housed, community leaders, and service providers to identify where the gaps in services are and to help them create a roadmap to follow forward.

Homelessness is like falling into a well. It doesn’t matter how one falls into a well. It could be due to their own bad choices, it can be someone pushed them in, it may be from an economical landslide or a health catastrophe. Alan Graham of Mobile Loaves and Fishes calls homelessness is the result of a “profound, catastrophic loss of family.”