Over the past month, we’ve explored the many barriers our unhoused neighbors face when working to move from homelessness into stable housing. Each obstacle we’ve discussed, from a lack of affordable housing to application fees to credit histories to social stigma of being unhoused, represents not just a policy problem or an economic challenge, but the daily reality for many of Nest’s guests. Today, we want to step back and look at this landscape and what it means to help someone cross the bridge from unhoused to stable housing.
The path to housing is rarely straightforward. When someone is ready to take that step forward, they often encounter a system that seems designed for people who’ve never experienced a housing gap. Our community, like many across the United States, has a significant and devastating lack of affordable housing, which means that when an affordable rental unit does become available, the competition can be fierce to rent. Often, rentals classified as affordable are substandard in terms of safety, stability, and quality, or are not actually affordable.
For those coming out of an unhoused situation, the upfront costs alone, first month’s rent, last month’s rent, security deposits, and application fees, can total thousands of dollars before someone even gets the keys. While we know that between 40-60% of unhoused individuals have a job, saving this amount of money is incredibly challenging.
Even after funds are saved, the challenges are far from over. Credit scores that plummeted during a medical crisis years ago. An eviction resulted from an unplanned vehicle repair that had unintended consequences for their financial health. These records follow people long after they’ve done the hard work of recovery and stabilization. They become permanent markers of someone’s worst moments rather than measures of their current readiness and determination. Even when someone has overcome these hurdles, many landlords carry deeply ingrained assumptions about people experiencing homelessness.
This is where organizations like ours can provide support for our guests, not to solve homelessness for people, but to walk alongside them as they solve it for themselves. This is one of the ways in which we live our mission to reconnect our guests back to their community. We provide the practical support that makes the difference: help with financial management and setting realistic budgets, advocacy with landlords, connections to additional support services that can help with housing, and, perhaps most importantly, the affirmation that someone’s past does not define their future.
We see every day what happens when people are given a real chance. When barriers are removed and support is available, individuals who have survived the trauma of being unhoused prove themselves to be resilient, resourceful, and ready.
The barriers to housing are real and many. But they are not insurmountable. With community support, compassionate policies, and organizations willing to bridge gaps in our community and beyond, we can ensure that everyone ready to come home has the opportunity to do so. We hope this month-long series on the challenges our unhoused neighbors face in securing safe, stable housing has provided some insight into the complicated, complex landscape. We encourage you to learn more about affordable housing and the impact of its lack on our entire community.
