Editorial: How do we deal with root causes of homelessness?

YORKTON - In recent weeks there has been a lot of local chatter going on regarding what many see as the problem of homeless people in the city.

Of course the real problem is not exactly the homeless.

The problems actually lie hidden in the backstory of each person that finds themselves in a position of sleeping on the couches of family and friends, or taking up residence wherever they park their car for the night, or those pitching a tent or making a wood pallet shelter against the chill of the night.

The first question we should be asking when we see a tent pitched in a local park, or someone asking for change on the street is not who we can call to have them moved, but rather how is it in an affluent society like the one we have in Canada are there homeless?

The next question should be what can be done to help these people find a permanent roof over their heads?

But those are the difficult questions to ask as one drives down the street in a car headed to the lake for the weekend, or to unlock the door on a business one owns, or when headed to lunch where the tab is likely more than some homeless see in a week.

That doesn’t mean we should be ashamed of our own successes in life, but we do need to remember to have compassion for those far less fortunate at the moment.

Of course answers to the difficult questions are in part understood, but that doesn’t mean they are easily dealt with.

Are there drug users among the homeless?

Of course there are and that is part of the problem.

But, then comes the associated problem of how we as a society deal with root causes of addiction, and that opens up a whole new line of uneasy questions, and not easily defined answers.

And what of those on the street with mental health issues? How have they fallen through the cracks of the medical care system? How do cracks in the system even exist?

Then there are those running from the traumas of abuse. What do we do to create better safety needs for them?

And, perhaps most scary is those on the street, or in their cars at night, with a job they manage to hold down, but that doesn’t generate enough to keep all the bills paid. How is that possible even in a province with a traditionally lower than average minimum wage?

Now some will suggest this shouldn’t be happening here noting many of the homeless are not local but have gravitated to Yorkton, and that is true.

But our city can’t on one hand puff out its chest in stating we are the hub of the third largest trading area in the province, and then call for a new regional hospital because we serve a huge region, and then wonder why the homeless gravitate here in search of something many hope will be better.

To his credit Yorkton Fire Chief Trevor Morrissey is spearheading a process to ask some of the difficult questions in hopes of finding out just where the supports to help those in the streets are in the city. That of course must be job one – address the needs of the homeless today.

Winter is coming, and tents and cars just won’t suffice and as a community we need to find a way to help.

It’s a huge undertaking and Morrissey is going to find hurdles a plenty, but as a community we should be ready to help if we can and maybe he can pull off something very special in terms of helping find options to living without a permanent home.