We Heart Seattle’s Andrea Suarez: State-funded ‘Housing First’ warehouses fuel addiction and death

Mike Matzik was my friend and our neighbor here in Seattle. He’s no longer alive because of a broken housing system.

After being homeless, Mike was referred to a low barrier “Housing First” provider, Plymouth Housing. Plymouth Housing did not provide housing in the conventional sense of the word, which most people would assume means safe, clean, and secure. Rather Mike was warehoused in a so-called “housing” facility where drug addicted neighbors were the norm and drug dealers all too common.

In this state sponsored, Housing First environment, I believe Mike was preyed on and targeted for his disability income by drug addicts and drug dealers. Housing First policies put him directly within the reach of individuals who have been harming themselves in real and pernicious ways, in some cases for decades. Plymouth Housing operated this facility and knew or should have known that housing a mentally ill man in these conditions would create an unreasonable risk to the life, well-being, and safety of Mike.

Housing First kills

Federally mandated Housing First policies create a ready-made market for drug dealers by concentrating our most vulnerable citizens—mentally ill and drug addicted—in one location. Instead of taking basic, well-understood steps to protect Mike from the dangers of living among addicted neighbors and predatory dealers, the state made it worse. It handed drug dealers a taxpayer-funded advantage by supplying free paraphernalia that fueled their trade and deepened the addiction around Mike.

Mike’s story is not an isolated incident. Every day that housing first policies persist as the status quo, people are living and dying, like Mike lived and died. The tragic circumstances of his death, and others like him, are a direct reflection of a flawed policy. This is the grim reality behind the national record on Housing First.

This is not housing. It is state-sponsored euthanasia of our mentally ill and drug-addicted homeless through careless disregard.

A Pathway To Reaching Those Who Need Help

We Heart Seattle (WHS) members and volunteers are not armchair experts. We work in the field, boots on the ground, in the trenches, getting our hands dirty, and directly engaging with the people who need us most. Our approach is based on the belief that mundane trash collection is an effective gateway to the profound – identifying people who are ready to transform their lives, actively participating in that process, and become accountable for their treatment, recovery, and ultimately re-integration into civil society.

This simple philosophy of using the mundane task of trash clean up, has led We Heart Seattle to pick up nearly 2,000,000 pounds of evidence of our failure as a society to protect our most vulnerable from themselves and drug dealers: dirty needles, smoking foils, human waste, propane tanks, and more. Along the way, we have met thousands of people who are ready to recover their lives, but do not know where to start. They needed help, support, and care to make a huge commitment–a commitment towards self-sufficiency.

WHS is dedicated to putting ourselves on the front lines to encourage, empower, and help people manifest that commitment to recovering their lives. WHS’ approach is focused on making a real difference in people’s lives rather than being dedicated to any policy or ideology. We are happy to report, the tide is changing, and more importantly, we are not alone in a “Treatment and Personal Accountability First” approach to rehabilitating our homeless so that they become productive members of society living meaningful and purposeful lives.

Treatment and Personal Accountability First

A growing cohort of leaders in Seattle are proving that the Treatment and Personal Accountability First model works. The founders of these organizations are taking immense personal risks with their savings, personal safety, and putting themselves on the front lines because they know this approach saves the lives of the crisis population suffering from untreated mental illness, addiction and broken relationships.

At core, this approach treats people with dignity and respect because it acknowledges the role that each individual needs to play in their journey back to being self-sufficient, productive members of society. It does so by acknowledging that their autonomy and best interest are best served by expecting personal accountability and requiring a commitment to psychiatric care and addiction treatment, as necessary prerequisites to housing and recovery support.

Hope and Chance Integrated Health, Dr. Mercy Wainaina (Founder): “Hope and Chance Integrated Health provides state insurance covered comprehensive wraparound services for individuals facing addiction, mental health challenges, and homelessness. Their mission is to break down the barriers that prevent people from accessing care and reclaiming their lives.”

Battlefield Addiction, Art Dahlen (Founder): “The mission of private funded Battlefield Addiction is to eliminate the suffering of families, individuals, and communities impacted by addiction by empowering each individual to become healthy, functioning, self-sufficient, and contributing members of their families and communities.”

The More We Love, Kristine Moreland (Founder): “The More We Love (TMWL) is a movement of advocates, survivors, outreach workers, and public safety partners walking with individuals and families from crisis to stability, and from survival to self-sufficiency.”

A path toward social re-integration

An effective approach to chronic homelessness and addiction requires that we acknowledge the fundamental needs of the most vulnerable in our communities and actively work to ensure these key resources are well-funded, available, and proactively offered:

• Clinical Intervention. Many with serious mental illness suffer from anosognosia—a lack of insight into their condition—that prevents voluntary help-seeking. Programs must take a treatment-first approach, delivering clinical interventions (for mental illness and drug addiction) proactively rather than waiting for a self-referral that may never come.
• Demand Participation – Deliver Holistic Care. Our homeless population is unhealthy across a wide range of criteria. Tailored peer-led support and vocational training are essential components of the solution. These services are not merely important but essential. Demanding personal commitment and accountability is our responsibility if our goal is to facilitate lasting recovery.
• Provide Sober, Recovery-Consistent, Housing. Drug-free housing and requiring peers to be sober protects those trying to get well. We have a duty to ensure that when housing is provided that it is free from hazardous conditions such as open drug markets, permissive possession, or tolerance for drug use.

The effectiveness of this approach isn’t theoretical. This approach is working here and now in programs like Hope and Chance, Battlefield Addiction, TMWL, and in partnership with boots on the ground referrals from We Heart Seattle.

A Call to Action

The choice is clear, if our moral imperative is to care for the least of us, we must fund approaches that require addiction recovery, mental health treatment, and foster individual commitment and accountability, in that process. This is how we act in accordance with our shared value of helping people save their own lives and chart a path back to becoming valued members in their communities.

My friend and our neighbor Mike Matzik deserved better than to be warehoused in a drug-riddled environment. So does every person still living – and dying – as a direct result of mis-guided Housing First.

Fund what works. Our homeless neighbors and cities are worth saving.

Andrea Suarez is a community activist and founder of We Heart Seattle.