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Patricia Turnbull and successful routes out of homelessness

By Nicole Zummach
August 27, 2007

RED DEER, AB // Time and time again, Canada is touted as one of the best countries in the world in which to live. People from across the globe are willing to wait years in some cases just for a shot at living in this country. Yet, at the same time, it is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of Canadians who don't even have a place to call home. Although there isn't a lot in the way of hard numbers, few Canadians - particularly those in urban areas - would deny that homelessness is a growing problem. There are more shelters, food banks, and homeless outreach programs than ever, and still the situation is not improving.

Luckily, people like Patricia Turnbull, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association - Central Alberta Region, are investigating alternative methods of addressing this escalating situation. In fact, Turnbull was awarded a Muttart Fellowship in 2005 to research successful routes out of homelessness. CharityVillage spoke with her about the current realities and some of the innovative approaches that are turning conventional 'solutions' to homelessness on their head.

CharityVillage: Through your research, what did you identify as some of the successful routes out of homelessness?

Patricia Turnbull: I think that a lot of the successful routes out of homelessness have to do with the approaches that are taken. A lot of things that I certainly believed in were substantiated when I did my research. Often, people want to see [homeless] people go on a continuum of services. First you go to a shelter, you stay sober, then you are entitled to use transitional housing, and then you can move into permanent housing. You have to do a number of things to earn you that entitlement for the next step. What I saw in a lot of the research that I looked at, is to move people into permanent, secure housing first and then deal with some of those issues.

CV: So it's almost the complete opposite of the common model we see today. Do you think it's possible to shift things that dramatically?

PT: Yes. There are a number of things we have done. We hosted a "Housing First" conference in Alberta this past June. The CMHA took the lead to do that, and we brought some exceptional speakers from Ottawa, Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco, and New York that are using these kinds of approaches. I think people being exposed to new ideas is really important. The other thing in Alberta, and it would be similar in Vancouver and other cities as well, is that we are so concerned about the number of people who are sleeping on our streets, and that have no place to go all day long. We can look around and say that what we are doing isn't working very effectively. And no matter how much new housing we create, all of the attempts we're putting in place to make change aren't working. So we have to come up with other ideas. And I think two things, for us, will begin to help create change. Those two things being the provincial forum and exposing people to new ideas.

CV: By all accounts, Alberta's economy is booming right now. Are you seeing a rise in homelessness at the same time?

PT: Yes, and a lot of it has to do with our vacancy rates. In October, Red Deer - about 85,000 people - had a vacancy rate of 0.5%, and I would say most of the province was between zero and 0.5%. And in our city, between 2005 and 2007, rent has gone up 15%. The issue when you get to the point of a 0.5% vacancy rate is that people have no choice in the community at all.

CV: So what is the first crucial step in addressing this homelessness crisis if space isn't even available to provide permanent housing?

PT: We have to create the housing. We are working with a private businessman in Red Deer and with this individual we have helped create 185 housing units, and we have piloted two programs with an approach to have on-site staffing support. And we are going to be looking, in this upcoming year, at creating a 38-unit building that is going to focus on using this 'housing first' approach.

CV: What will the on-site staff provide for people living in these units?

PT: It gives them security in terms of knowing there is someone there who can help address issues or needs they might have. It can give support to help people develop a plan. A lot of the people we support who are living on the street do want to return and have some sort of employment. But when you are living on the street and your health is poor and you haven't had a place to sleep, those are things that are almost impossible for people to look at.

CV: Looking at the bigger picture, what do you think needs to change in our society to properly address the homelessness crisis?

PT: The one thing I would truly support is to really try and end our reliance on shelters. I personally feel that communities sometimes believe that because they have a shelter or an overnight mat program that that is how they are assisting people. I know we went through a long period of time when we had a small shelter open in Red Deer and we had many people discharged directly from a psychiatric hospital right to the shelter. They were given the address for the shelter and that's where they would go. We've been able to correct that over time, but that's how a lot of people feel: "We have a shelter; we don't need anything else." So it moves some of the attention away from looking at permanent housing for people.

I think for me, one of the reasons I even chose this as a topic - and I have a lot of passion about the issue - [is that] I worked in services for about 25 years and the difference I found over time is that we actually now accept that we have people who sleep outside. Even for us, we come to work and we have people sleeping outside in our vestibule, or sleeping out by our garbage cans. We would never have accepted that years ago; we wouldn't have as a society.

CV: What's the difference today?

PT: I think that we still have a value system that says people need to pull up their socks and get out there and look after themselves. On a small scale, even, it's about educating business people in the downtown community and giving them some sense of understanding about who is living out on our streets, and the fact that there aren't services or supports that are available. For a lot of people living on our streets, we have to come up with flexible approaches. We can't say that a condition to receive services is complete sobriety because that isn't going to happen. And as soon as we set people up like that we never see a change take place. I also think that people are a bit more empathetic when they recognize how may people with mental illness are on the street. We are really concerned now about a growing population of older individuals and older women who are living on the street. I think it's about having a message that is compassionate and increasing people's level of understanding.

The other thing is getting good research and accurate information. That is one of the things I did throughout my fellowship year. I looked at programs that had demonstrated outcomes. For example, in Seattle, in their downtown core they set up a housing first program and moved people directly off the street and into housing and provided support. Over a six-year period, calls to police in that particular area dropped by 70%. That is really critical in this area; that it's not just the passion that we have, but that we also have facts and information.

CV: How did your fellowship year impact you personally and professionally?

PT: It was a very effective break because I had worked for about 24 years before taking that break. I had been the executive director here for 17 years before I had a break. I think the one thing that I truly appreciated was you don't realize what a fast pace you work in all the time and how many hours you work. I was able to do a lot of things just for my self, like I walked for two hours every day. I had so much flexibility in my planning. I've been back a whole year now, as of August 1st, and it has been an extremely busy year.

I came back with so many new ideas and a desire to host a provincial housing conference and work with other CMHAs to make that happen. I also brought back a greater focus. Everything we are looking at now, or partnering with, or talking about is about finding solutions to support people who are in the greatest need. I brought back the focus to those people who are on our streets who have the greatest needs. There are a lot of very positive things occurring in our own country and for other people that are working in the not-for-profit or housing sector, we have a responsibility to try to keep up to date and look at the cutting edge, and at effective solutions that people are using in other areas and try to incorporate those.

Patricia Turnbull is executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association - Central Alberta Region. Her research report on successful routes out of homelessness has just gone through the first stage of editing.

To learn more about the Muttart Fellowship program, visit: ww.muttart.org.

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