This is a challenge to every person for whom housing, as well as all that goes with it, is something which easily gets taken for granted.

Each person for whom housing or being homeless is not a constant personal worry and struggle should consider repeating certain questions to themselves and act upon them until homelessness is finally ended in their own backyard as well as nationally and elsewhere around the world.

These include, have you offered to hug, or had a meaningful conversation with, a person who is homeless today? Yet, of course, it is never that easy or simple to end homelessness.

The fact is that funding and resources need to be directed toward developing the affordable, safe and decent housing that will be required to make up for the lack of available, accessible, safe, decent and affordable housing stock. This is especially important for those people with little money on which to survive.

What it, and most things like this, come down to is that we will only begin to realize the results and goals we say we are after when we recognize and act upon the fact that it is chiefly about a matter of will, priorities, and exercising power.

That is what guides who gets what funding, where that funding goes and how it is used. It certainly is not, and never has been, about having enough money available; those are just excuses. It is about having the will and using it meaningfully and powerfully in determining how priorities are set and who sets those priorities of course.

Without direct citizen oversight through active participation, there can never be the accountability that is always needed to keep power in check which helps keep people more honest than they otherwise would tend to be when given and exercising such power.

It is important to note that people who are homeless are not the problem and are not the enemy. The fact is that we are an essential partner in any real solution to ending homelessness. Each of us who have been homeless or are currently homeless usually knows what our own needs are. We know what works for us. We also know what does not work or help.

If there is to be real change, each person must ask themselves and, then act upon, the following: Are we really serious about ending homelessness where we live -- in our own backyard? Do we really believe housing is a right for all? Do we really believe in creating accessible, affordable, safe and decent housing for all?

If our answers to those questions are Yes and, we mean it, then each of us needs to follow it up by getting together with other like minded citizens in our area, including those who have been homeless or who are currently homeless, to help draft and adopt a ten year action plan which will meaningfully address ending homelessness in our own backyard.

The key word here is action. Recruit others to help implement the action plan. Get the action plan out to the media, government and elected officials and the general public. Make it available on a Web site as well. If each of us leads, then others will certainly follow.

That said, we cannot do that without the vigorous leadership, support, and resources from the federal government that can and would lead our nation to ultimately eliminate homelessness. Without that key partnership between federal, state and local government and area local organizations and citizens, our efforts will fail or at least come up very short.

We can do better.

To be successful, we each need to go into a long term campaign like this to cultivate, plant and build.

A positive focus tends to have a far better chance to yield a harvest with many more positive results. Anything within that yield which seems to be a negative factor or result can be used for future fertilizer to learn and grow from. A negative focus is sure to only continue the vicious cycle many have grown to accept as their or others fate.

Embrace a person who is homeless or on the edges of homelessness by embracing the challenge to end homelessness once and for all.

Let's get it done.
 
 

Morgan W. Brown, whom has lived homeless off and on over a period of several years in many of its various forms since his initial experience with homelessness, resides within Central Vermont.