The Crisis is Layered. The Solution Must Be Too. | Our Efforts Week 7
Before I jump into the final installment of this series on homelessness in America, one quick update:
On May 15th, nearly 200 friends gathered for our annual Celebration with a bold goal of raising $500,000 to support City Relief’s work. One week later, we’ve surpassed $474,000.
We’re incredibly close to the finish line, and I’d be deeply grateful if you’d consider helping us get there. If you weren’t able to join us in person, you can watch a short video that we shared that evening by clicking the button below.
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.
Housing First supporters are right that people need stable housing to rebuild their lives. Shelter First advocates are right that we need more immediate pathways indoors and safer, more dignified shelters. And even many of the people pushing Enforcement First are expressing something real too: communities want public spaces to feel safe and functional for everyone.
The problem is that each approach becomes incomplete when isolated from the others.
Housing without support can fail. Shelter without pathways to housing can stagnate. Enforcement without alternatives often becomes cruelty disguised as policy initiatives. So what would it take to actually address the systemic issue of homelessness in the United States?
I believe it looks less like one ideology “winning” and more like communities building empathetic systems that are coordinated instead of fragmented. A world where someone facing a housing crisis can access real support before they ever end up sleeping outside.
A world where outreach teams, shelters, healthcare providers, treatment centers, housing programs, churches, nonprofits, schools, employers, law enforcement, and local governments work together instead of operating in silos. A world where shelters are safe enough that people are willing to enter them…and housing is accessible enough that people can actually leave them.
A world where mental health care and addiction treatment are easier to access than a jail cell. A world where accountability still exists, but where enforcement is paired with meaningful alternatives instead of arbitrarily pushing suffering residents from one block to another.
Because if homelessness is an ocean fed by many rivers, then real progress means learning how to move upstream.
It means building more affordable housing. Expanding mental health care and addiction treatment. Strengthening families and communities. Improving economic mobility. Creating better early intervention systems. And investing in outreach and prevention before crises become catastrophes.
At City Relief, this is why our work has never been built around a single philosophy.
Some days we help someone access shelter. Other days we help someone move into permanent housing. Sometimes we connect guests to detox or mental health services. Sometimes we help replace identification documents or navigate benefits. Sometimes we simply sit with someone long enough for them to feel seen again.
Because people experiencing homelessness are not political talking points. They are human beings. Human beings with stories, wounds, potential, and dignity. And while I don’t believe homelessness is inevitable, I also don’t believe we’ll solve it through simplistic thinking or ideological extremes.
I think progress will require something harder. Patience. Nuance. Collaboration. Long-term investment. And communities willing to move toward the problem instead of away from it.
Because at the end of the day, the question isn’t simply how we manage homelessness. The question is what kind of community we want to become: one that merely reacts to visible suffering, or one that goes all in on helping people rebuild their lives.
With Gratitude,
Josiah Haken
City Relief, CEO
