Hello Mayor, Deputy Mayor and council members, my name is Suzanne LeBoeuf. I live in Wilburton. I have worked as a Mental Health Clinician, University Instructor teaching human services courses, and a chemical dependency counselor. My comments are about homelessness and drug addiction.
I agree that providing less expensive forms of sheltering initially for the unhoused, such as safe parking programs or high-grade tents in a designated area, for example, could be the start of a long process of truly helping people who are chronically homeless. Recovery takes time.
I suggest possibly creating an initial staging site, where people are allowed to park their cars and live in high-quality tents. Providing showers, laundry and toilet facilities would meet the basic hygienic needs of human beings. These initial staging sites could provide intensive medical and case management services, for example, as well as working with residents on their goals. They could be in a graduated step program, with inducements of better housing toward the end of their signed agreements.
Initially, getting off drugs is challenging, so I envision harm reduction as being an initial step in treatment, but not used over a limited amount of time under a doctor's supervision. Harm reduction by itself continues the addictive process so that people become even MORE addicted over time. Continued harm reduction is the path of a slow and painful suicide. Harm reduction does not help addicted people; addictions do not go away by the continued use of drugs. I'm an advocate of longer and more intensive drug treatment programs. A more informed leadership should know that addictions increase the longer that drugs are used.
"Housing first" is a problematic policy. Low-barrier housing should be reserved as a REWARD for people who have graduated from participation in long, informed, well-supported, individual processes, utilizing treatment and care agreements. They should be able to look forward to better housing as a reward for their work, and should not have to fend off the influence of drug use in their dwellings.
Let's take care of people and their chronic homeless problems; otherwise we aren't solving the problem, we are housing people in a chaotic and low barrier hotel where drug use and chronic mental illness continues and is not properly treated. Don't give people a choice to keep using and stay untreated. They should be designated as "gravely disabled" and treated as such. Low-barrier sheltering will only enable the chronically ill lifestyles and associated crimes to continue that resulted in their chronic homelessness in the first place.
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