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Health & Fitness

Expert Opinion on Moving Up and Out of Encampment Life

What advice is available to us all from psychologists and social workers with expertise in helping people find their way out of homelessness?    Do those with formal training and a record of success in this field have insights that might help Albany's campers make their way 'up and out' of their tents? 

The question seems timely in light of the disability claims that have been filed by a majority of the residents of the Bulb, asserting that they suffer from mental and physical illnesses that somehow entitle them to remain right where they are.  And least one advocate for "people experiencing houselessness in Albany" has characterized an implicit criticism of these claims as "uninformed armchair social work". 

So what do the experts have to say? 

The Berkeley Food & Housing Project (BF&HP) has the relevant expertise, having helped large numbers of  homeless people in and around Berkeley into housing.  Here is one element of BF&HP's original proposal to support Albany's campers in their efforts to secure sustainable housing: 

"A weekly group should be organized that can address a multitude of concepts:
o  An external locus of control
- the belief that they have no control or responsibility for their choices, actions or behaviors but they are the victim of circumstances
- the belief that the causes for good or bad events in your life are totally outside your control or responsibility
o  Sense of entitlement
- the belief that the world owes them something and they should be able to
collect immediately
- the belief that they should be taken care of by others, by the government or by social service agencies
- the belief that they should be given things they have not earned (i.e. free
housing, clothing, food, etc.)
- the belief that others should "help" them (i.e. by paying their unpaid bills or
appealing their housing denial)
o lmpulsivity
o Poor boundaries
o Emotional immaturity
o Need for instant gratification
o Dependency issues
o Predatory/antisocial behaviors
o Pathological relationships"

I doubt that these weekly groups have been organized.  If they have, I would expect to see more empty chairs than there are empty beds in Albany's temporary homeless shelter.  This is not a message that Albany's campers are in a mood to hear, attuned as they are to the profoundly different messages coming from their small army of lawyers. 

Still, it is expert advice that should be considered.  Because most of the  campers would surely benefit far more from this kind of assistance than they would from dragging out their tenure in the isolated encampments on the Bulb.  Let's hope that the legal piece is resolved successfully, and that the voice of experience from BF&HP is heard at last.          

      




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