Homeless to Housing Success Story: Meet Donny in His Apartment

This past March, I was in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, speaking at a homeless conference. Whenever I can, I ask to be taken out with an outreach team to meet new people. I have to be honest, there is a reason I moved from upstate New York to sunny Southern California -- I hate cold! It was so cold, I thought my face was going to fall off. I was close to asking them to take me back to the warm car when we saw a man in a doorway.

Donny has been homeless over twenty years. Watch the original video I taped that night here. He had nothing but a blanket and the heating vent from a local business to stay warm. I honestly don't know how he survived.

Thanks to the wonderful people at Calgary Homeless Foundation, Donny now has a home. After Donny's video was posted, the Calgary Homeless Foundation went out and found him to get Donny into housing! This is a near-textbook model of why the Housing First model works. It's nearly impossible to get sober while living on the streets. People need dignity and self-worth. Once Donny was in an apartment, he decided to change his life. He has stopped using drugs and is even looking for a job.

I was honored to spend some time with Donny this week. CTV News also covered the story with a powerful video you can watch here.

 

 

 

Follow Mark Horvath on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hardlynormal

Comments

[Elijah A Alexander Jr]

09:21 PM on 07/19/2011

It appears you find the correct people because of your concern for the homeless/houseless. Thank you for being who you are doing what you are doing, if the governments had just a few like you the services fo the homeless would be drastically altered benefiting them.

[DexterityCon]

06:32 PM on 07/18/2011

Hi Mark;
Thank you for sharing this article.
Calgary has developed a 10 year plan to end homelessness. We are about 1/2 way through this plan, and while some of this has worked and some hasn't, what I have noticed is that the organizations that are dealing with this issue are at least talking to each other.

One of the biggest challenges facing this complex problem is the fact that organizations feel compelled to "defend" their stake in the ground. This is in part due to the perception of donors jumping ship to another organization dealing in a similar space, to the way that government grants are given and managed, to the general perception that community has around this issue.

Thank you for taking the time to share Donny's story and maybe now we will start looking at whole community planning (health care, addiction support, self-esteem counselling, job training, education, nutrition, housing, etc.) so that someone isn't living on the street for 20 years.

~ Gena

[ConsultantRC]

06:26 PM on 07/18/2011

Mark,

What a great story! Congrats on achieving something many of us would like to achieve helping many of those really in need!