ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy looks at the Excellence coins she was given as a gift from Christine Croteau, Medical Center Director of Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VAMC, during the City of Lynn’s Certification of “Functional Zero” for Homeless Veterans ceremony held at the Lynn Museum today.
“Functional zero certification” is the bureaucratic term federal officials used on Tuesday to describe a minor miracle in Lynn — the elimination of homelessness among local veterans.
Lynn Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development spearheaded the local battle to take veterans off the street by getting them one-on-one counseling; helping them to assess their financial situations and harnessing services provided by federal Veterans Affairs workers.
If housing can be found for veterans, then why not other Americans who are homeless? The answer to the question ultimately boils down to two concepts — a complicated one called “continuum of care” and a simple one commonly referred to as free will.
Continuum of care involves assembling the medical assistance, substance abuse treatment, job or financial assistance counseling and, lastly, the housing needed to keep a veteran or anyone who is homeless off the street.
LHAND and partner organizations have perfected continuum of care, but housing is often the last component in this assembly of support because a homeless individual can’t hold onto a room or an apartment without working or receiving some form of assistance. Earning an income to pay rent is impossible for someone who is bedeviled by medical problems, including alcohol and drug abuse and mental illness.
Homeless men, women and children are like the genies who escape from a bottle: Putting a roof over their heads can be the easiest part of ending homelessness. The more complicated parts involve ensuring that financial setbacks, health disasters and domestic violence do not disrupt their living situations.
That goal seems achievable on paper until free will is thrown into the equation. Ask Lynn Street Advocate Pat Byrne, who has worked to help homeless men or women in the grip of substance abuse or mental illness leave the streets. These individuals with heartbreaking defiance insist on their independence and sometimes revolt against efforts by others to exert control over their lives.
Providing continuum of care means ensuring services are paid for year in and year out, but the people probably best equipped to continue waging the war on homelessness are formerly homeless individuals who can shine the light of a bright future into the recesses of dark pasts.