首页
登录
职称英语
The Street-Level Solution[A]When I was growing up, one o
The Street-Level Solution[A]When I was growing up, one o
游客
2023-08-24
51
管理
问题
The Street-Level Solution
[A]When I was growing up, one of my father’s favorite sayings(borrowed from the humorist Will Rogers)was: "It isn’t what we don’t know that causes the trouble; it’s what we think we know that just ain’t so. " One of the main insights to be taken from the 100,000 Homes Campaign and its strategy to end chronic homelessness is that, until recently, our society thought it understood the nature of homelessness, but it didn’t.
[B]That led to a series of mistaken assumptions about why people become homeless and what they need. Many of the errors in our homelessness policies have stemmed from the conception that the homeless are a homogeneous group. It’s only in the past 15 years that organizations like Common Ground, and others, have taken a street-level view of the problem—distinguishing the " episodically homeless" from the " chronically homeless" in order to understand their needs at an individual level. This is why we can now envisage a different approach—and get better results.
[C]Most readers expressed support for the effort, although a number were skeptical, and a few utterly dismissive, about the chances of long-term homeless people adapting well to housing. This is to be expected; it’s hard to imagine what we haven’t yet seen. As Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in The Prince, one of the major obstacles in any effort to advance systemic change is the "incredulity of men," which is to say that people "do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them. " Most of us have witnessed homeless people on the streets for decades. Few have seen formerly homeless people after they have been housed successfully. We don’t have reference points for that story. So we generalize from what we know—or think we know. [D]But that can be misleading, even to experts. When I asked Rosanne Haggerty, founder of Common Ground, which currently operates 2,310 units of supportive housing(with 552 more under construction), what had been her biggest surprise in this work, she replied:"Fifteen years ago, I would not have believed that people who had been so broken and stuck in homelessness could thrive to the degree that they do in our buildings. " And Becky Kanis, the campaign’s director, commented; "There is this sense in our minds that someone who’s on the streets is almost in their DNA different from someone who has a house. The campaign is creating a firsthand experience for many people that that is really not the case. "
[E]One of the startling realizations that I had while researching this column is that anybody could become like a homeless person—all it takes is a traumatic(创伤的)brain injury. A bicycle fall, a car accident, a slip on the ice, or if you’re a soldier, a head wound—and your life could become unrecognizable. James O’Connell, a doctor who has been treating the most vulnerable homeless people on the streets of Boston for 25 years, estimates that 40 percent of the long-term homeless people he’s met had such a brain injury. " For many it was a head injury prior to the time they became homeless," he said. "They became unpredictable. They’d have mood swings, fits of explosive behavior. They couldn’t hold onto their jobs. Drinking made them feel better. They’d end up on the streets. "
[F]Once homeless people return to housing, they’re in a much better position to rebuild their lives. But it’s important to note that housing alone is not enough. As with many complex social problems, when you get through the initial crisis, you have another problem to solve which is no less challenging. But it is a better problem.
[G]Over the past decade, O’Connell has seen this happen. "I spend half my time on the streets or in the hospital and the other half making house calls to people who lived for years on the streets," he said. "So from a doctor’s point of view it’s a delightful switch, but it’s not as if putting someone in housing is the answer to addressing all of their problems. It’s the first step. "
[H]Once in housing, formerly homeless people can become isolated and lonely. If they’ve lived on the streets for years, they may have acquired a certain standing as well as a sense of pride in their survival skills. Now indoors, those aspects of their identity may be stripped away. Many also experience a profound disorientation at the outset. " If you’re homeless for more than six months, you kind of lose your bearings," says Haggerty. " Existence becomes not about overcoming homelessness but about finding food, begging, looking for a job to survive another day. The whole process of how you define stability gets reordered. "
[I]Many need regular, if not continuous, support with mental health problems, addictions and illnesses—and, equally important, assistance in the day-to-day challenges of life, reacquainting with family, building relationships with neighbors, finding enjoyable activities or work, managing finances, and learning how to eat healthy food.
[J]For some people, the best solution is to live in a communal(集体)residence, with special services. This isn’t available everywhere, however. In Boston, for example, homeless people tend to be scattered in apartments throughout the city.
[K]Common Ground’s large residences in New York offer insight into the possibilities for change when homeless people have a rich array of supports. In addition to more traditional social services, residents also make use of communal gardens, classes in things like cooking, yoga, theatre and photography, and job placement. Last year, 188 formerly homeless tenants in four of Common Ground’s residences, found jobs.
[L]Because the properties have many services and are well-managed, Haggerty has found posthousing problems to be surprisingly rare. In the past 10 years, there have been only a handful of incidents of quarrels between tenants. There is very little graffiti(涂鸦)or vandalism(破坏). And the turnover is almost negligible. In the Prince George Hotel in New York, which is home to 208 formerly homeless people and 208 low-income tenants, the average length of tenancy is close to seven years.(All residents pay 30 percent of their income for rent; for the formerly homeless, this comes out of their government benefits.)When people move on, it is usually because they’ve found a preferable apartment.
[M]"Tenants also want to participate in shaping the public areas of the buildings," said Haggerty. "They formed a gardening committee. They want a terrace on the roof. Those are things I didn’t count on. " The most common tenant demand? " People always want more storage space—but that’s true of every New Yorker," she adds. "In many ways, we’re a lot like a normal apartment building. Our tenants look like anyone else. "
[N]As I mentioned, homelessness is a catch-all for a variety of problems. A number of readers asked whether the campaign will address family homelessness, which has different causes and requires a different solution. I’ve been following some of the promising ideas emerging to address and prevent family homelessness. Later in 2011, I’ll explore these ideas in a column. For now, I’ll conclude with an update on the 100,000 Homes Campaign. Since Tuesday, New Orleans and a few other communities have reported new results. The current count of people housed is 7,043. [br] Housing the homeless is only the first step to solving all their problems.
选项
答案
G
解析
转载请注明原文地址:http://tihaiku.com/zcyy/2954411.html
相关试题推荐
HowtoKeepYourNewYear’sResolutionsAbouthalfofallAm
HowtoKeepYourNewYear’sResolutionsAbouthalfofallAm
HowtoKeepYourNewYear’sResolutionsAbouthalfofallAm
HowtoKeepYourNewYear’sResolutionsAbouthalfofallAm
HowtoKeepYourNewYear’sResolutionsAbouthalfofallAm
HowtoKeepYourNewYear’sResolutionsAbouthalfofallAm
HowtoKeepYourNewYear’sResolutions[A]Abouthalfofal
HowtoKeepYourNewYear’sResolutions[A]Abouthalfofal
HowtoKeepYourNewYear’sResolutions[A]Abouthalfofal
HowtoKeepYourNewYear’sResolutions[A]Abouthalfofal
随机试题
SanDiegoStateUniversity(SDSU)isanidealplacetobeginyourinternation
Byandlarge,marriedpeopleappeartohavebetterhealththantheirsingle
[originaltext]YoucouldsaythatJosephCornellbecameanartistbecauseof
甲公司与乙公司重组后,甲公司存续,乙公司全部资产并入甲公司,并注销乙公司法人资格
患者,女性,72岁。不慎摔伤右髋部,查体:右下肢短缩,外旋50。畸形,右髋肿胀不
支撑式母线中以下哪些缺陷是一般缺陷?(____)(A)连接螺栓松动、脱落,可能导
防高温管理中,运维人员应在巡视中重点检查设备的油温、油位、压力及软母线弯曲变化和
与上年同期相比,2012年中秋、国庆黄金周期间游客人均消费上升的有几个城市?(
下列评价指标中,可直接用于互斥型方案比选的有()。A.净现值 B.净年值
悬浮式二灰粒料的特点是()。A.石灰粉煤灰与粒料之比为15:85~20:8
最新回复
(
0
)