Bulletin Board
The place where you can stay up to date with the latest events, stories, news, and opportunities for our City Relief community.
The Crisis is Layered. The Solution Must Be Too. | Our Efforts Week 7
Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about Housing First, Shelter First, and Enforcement First. And if there’s one thing I hope this series has made clear, it’s this: Homelessness is not a simple problem with a single “one size fits all” solution.
It’s an ocean fed by many rivers: rising housing costs, trauma, mental illness, addiction, disability, economic instability, family breakdown, and systems that are often too complicated to navigate while in crisis.
Which means no single solution can carry the full weight of the problem on its own.
What "Enforcement First" Actually Looks Like | Our Efforts Week 6
And to be fair, those frustrations are real. No one wants neighborhoods to feel unsafe. No one wants people living in crisis on sidewalks or public transit systems. Communities deserve solutions too.
But here’s the question we have to wrestle with honestly: What happens when enforcement becomes the primary strategy before viable alternatives actually exist? Because for someone like James, enforcement doesn’t resolve homelessness. It simply makes homelessness harder to survive.