The state can negotiate and allocate funds for housing. Some nonprofit organizations develop
their own creative housing solutions. Social workers can help individuals with the enormous
transition from being unhoused to being housed. This challenge is often
underestimated, forgetting that being housed means living in a community with rules and
regulations. Moving from a tent or street environment to an indoor setting can be jolting, an
unanticipated loss of friends and freedom. I have known folks unable to handle this abrupt
change without support, and sadly, return to the streets.
Moreover, with the need to find food, get medical attention or locate a place to urinate,
defecate and bathe, now formerly unsheltered homeless folks are left wondering what to do with this pandemic? Flying a sign for funds, gearing up bad weather, and carrying their home on their back each day was their work. Now what? This dilemma needs deliberation, too.

Governments and agencies play an important role in setting goals and policies to reduce the number of unsheltered homeless people.
This is the work of faith communities. And holy everyday people, saints and sinners just trying to follow the commandment — “Love one another as I have loved you.”

And what is that love? It is loving humbly in action, not word, loving completely, unconditionally, relentlessly.
There is a glaring absence of funding to support current homelessness services in Governor Lamont’s Recommendation for the spending of the American Rescue Plan Act dollars. We need funding to keep our most vulnerable neighbors in housing and out of emergency shelter. If you leave homelessness out of the ARPA funding allocations or funding plan we will lose the progress our system has made and will continue to see increases in the number of individuals and families experiencing homelessness.

The consequences will be tangible, resulting in increased street homelessness, longer shelter stays, potential spikes in COVID-19 transmission rates, and chaos at the front door of the homeless system as more people face eviction. The pandemic highlighted and exacerbated a deeply inequitable economy, in which Black, Indigenous and people of color experience the trauma of homelessness and eviction at disproportionately high rates. These same communities also face higher rates of COVID-19 illness and death.

The faith community is calling on our legislators and the Governor to prioritize funding for programs and prevent people from experiencing homelessness and for people who are currently homeless. Homelessness is an unacceptable condition and with 1% of the ARPA funds we can prevent a drastic increase in people experiencing homelessness and continue our efforts to prevent homelessness.