Keeping the Grit in Grit City

Growing up, we were always economically poor. My mother taught us from a very early age to not judge a book by its cover and to always have respect as a default, no matter what someone looked like or how much money someone made. Her grandmother, Betty, was the one who instilled that in her and because Betty was my only other caregiver other than my parents until she died- just shy of two weeks before I turned 10- I learned that lesson twice over. I have met some really inspiring people because of that mindset. For instance, I used to know a man named John when we lived in Florida who would have whole conversations with me on the bus ride home about electrogravitics and the possibility of an anti-gravity machine. People would shun him and ignore him, not knowing he was full of life and intelligence. I am blessed to be full of stories like this one. 

Housing First is not just handing people without houses a house. That will not work. There are reasons (many different reasons, not just drugs and mental illness like most people are led to believe) that people cannot pass the means tests that society throws at them to stay housed. With Housing First each individual is given the necessary resources they need to become successful at retaining a home. Nobody- and I really mean nobody- wants to live in a tent in the winter or in an unsafe shelter or tiny home village. Maslow was on to something with that hierarchy of needs thing. Even my grandfather, who would decide to live in his car or his sister's closet sometimes, would have rather had his own place to shower and contemplate the universe. 

City Council is not trying to figure out how to eliminate homelessness. Even though a decade ago they made a plan, just to do that, and we are nowhere near what the timeline of that plan says; even without the COVID epidemic. They are just trying to find places to keep our houseless neighbors out of sight and out of mind. Places that do not inconvenience the loud NIMBY's on the more affluent sides of our city. Places that they themselves have stated have room to "grow" to accommodate their projections of a growing number of houseless individuals. 

I want to make sure we are upholding the promise made a decade ago. I want to get our houseless neighbors STABLE AND HOUSED. No matter how you feel about our homeless, the end result you want is for them to be off the street; and I assure you that is how they feel also. Your street is safer when the housless are housed. Their lives are safer when they are housed and supported. It is a win/win situation. 

This is not just a political talking point to me. I am not just saying this because it is "trendy". About a year and a half ago, my daughter felt compelled to stand up in front of Tacoma City Council at the tender age of 6 because they were vilifying the homeless in People's Park, saying that people felt unsafe to take their children there, and forcing them to leave for the sake of the "grass". She asked them to give the houseless Housing First. The statistics show that Housing First WORKS. 

As your council member, I will fight for Housing First and for the betterment of all of our lives. 

If you want to look into ways Housing First has been implemented in other places go ahead and click this link:

https://housingfirsteurope.eu/...