Housing saves lives, Canadian mental health activist says

From The Star in Toronto:

Phillip Dufresne has a degree in anthropology but all he could ever get were low-paying unskilled jobs. When his frustration turned to anger, he found himself diagnosed with a nervous breakdown and committed to a psychiatric ward.

Released, he still couldn't find work, was evicted from his apartment and became homeless.

"Nobody ever thinks they will end up on the street," he tells students and community groups August 15. "Housing saves lives."

As a member of a group of activists called the Dream Team, Dufresne tells his story to anyone wise enough to listen. Slowly but surely, there's a growing body of evidence to support what he was forced to learn the hard way: Stable, affordable housing is one of the crucial building blocks for both physical and mental health. It is the very foundation of thriving neighbourhoods and communities.

Otherwise intelligent citizens who shun people with mental health issues, going to great lengths to exclude them from society in general and the housing market in particular, are in fact undermining the healthy, vibrant communities they profess to espouse. Behind the anecdotal evidence is a body of research in what researchers call "housing first" policies. A project initiated by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (mentalhealthcommission.ca) is testing "housing first" in five cities across the country, including Toronto. Of the 2,225 homeless participants living with a mental illness, 1,325 have been given a place to live in addition to the regular services available.

By the end of the test period in 2013, the commission says it hopes to have "a body of evidence to help Canada become a world leader in providing services to homeless people living with a mental illness."

Phil Upshall, president of the Mood Disorders Society of Canada, is among those counting on such evidence to help quash the "not in my back yard" approach of too many individuals and government policy-makers.

Like the majority of the population, most people with mental health issues "stick to themselves and are very good citizens," Upshall says. "Yet they are treated cruelly, like mosquitoes or gnats."

That's certainly what the evidence showed in a "discrimination audit" of the Toronto rental market released last month by the not-for-profit Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (equalityrights.org). Among minority groups in the audit, representatives of prospective tenants disclosing a mental disability experienced by far the greatest unwarranted rejection factor.

Researchers calling landlords on behalf of a man with mental health issues were rejected unfairly 35 per cent of the time, compared with 14 per cent for a single parent, 26 per cent for a black single parent and 24 per cent for a woman receiving social assistance.

"Without a place to live, you can't do anything with your life," says Dufresne. "You can't get a job, go to school or take proper care of your health. You become very isolated."

Changing ignorant attitudes is what it's all about for members of the Dream Team (thedreamteam.ca) and the HomeComing Community Choice Coalition (homecomingcoalition.com), another group dedicated to dismantling housing barriers. In their efforts to promote affordable, quality housing for people with mental health issues, they point out, among other things that "there is no evidence of greater criminality among the homeless than in the rest of the population."

Twelve years ago on a Toronto bus, Edmond Yu, a former medical student coping with mental illness, was shot to death by police officers.

At the inquest into the shooting, testimony showed that "a pivotal part of the crisis that brought him into contact with the police was that no one would give him a place to live," says Jennifer Chambers of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

"It would be nice if all the people who have ever had contact with the mental health system would 'come out' to all their neighbours and landlords so they realize that they have been living with us all along."