The forces that pull us apart are real, but so is the opportunity to pull together to make progress 

A recent column in a national newspaper about encampments really stuck with me. It said all the usual things about clearing encampments and social rot. While it recognized that shelters are full and people have no place to go, it still called for eviction.

But, in a baffling turn, the author points a finger at housing advocates for trying to protect people living in encampments and implies that advocates want encampments to exist. 

Unhelpful, to say the least.

Our public conversations have become so polarized that we see ourselves as opponents, rather than as a community of people with differing views on how to solve our big problems. While we’re all entitled to express those differing views, media, with its wide reach and influence, should think hard about how they fuel the polarization that distracts us from the real problems and what we could do about them. 

Homelessness is rooted in public systems that fail to ensure that everyone has an adequate place to call home.  Governments at all levels have a responsibility to protect every person from homelessness. As a country, we have recognized, in law, that housing is a fundamental human right.  

With that recognition comes real responsibilities. We have a duty to provide emergency responses to homelessness, such as shelters and rent banks; temporary supports that bridge people to longer-term solutions that help them stabilize their lives and move forward. 

We also have a duty to provide longer-term, systemic responses that aim to prevent homelessness. We need income supports that provide enough for people to afford a decent home. We need communities with enough affordable and supportive housing. A labour market that pays people a living wage. A physical and mental health care system that’s there for people when they need it. A child welfare system that supports young people in care to transition to adulthood. A legal system that supports people who have been incarcerated to re-enter a community that is ready to help them make a new start. 

In short, we need our public systems to be designed to prevent people from being trapped in poverty and pushed into homelessness in the first place. 

It’s frustrating when we see our work go out into a public that seems so focused on ranting at each other that they miss the point entirely. The bigger problem is that this growing polarization risks letting decision-makers off the hook. It keeps us from working with each other to find and implement solutions. It also feeds into a dangerous downward turn that normalizes dehumanizing each other.

I don’t want to fall into the trap of adding to an unproductive conversation. Instead, I see the urgent need to build a new narrative that is founded on human rights principles and moves us forward to the kind of society where we want to live. 

Everything we do must begin and end with people – each with their own stories and histories and needs and dreams. Whether we object, advocate, or live in encampments, none of us are the one-dimensional caricatures that dominate the public debate. 

I believe the great majority of us share common values about our human dignity. No one wants others to be homeless, or to be homeless ourselves. We believe in treating others with respect. We believe in human rights, even if we don’t call it that. And we believe that the most effective way to solve a problem is to address the cause. 

This is the foundation of the narrative we need now. 

None of this is easy work. As I look ahead to the new year, my focus is on how Maytree will contribute to this narrative by grounding our work in human dignity, pushing forward with solutions, and strengthening our sense of shared purpose. The forces that pull us apart are very real, but so is our commitment and our potential to make progress.