Unity Project's approach to homelessness proves powerful 20 years on

Rick Hanson experienced homelessness for more than 15 years in London. He used the services of Unity Project, a unique shelter in the city, about 10 times during those years. 

Since last October, he's been living on his own, proving that Unity Project's innovative approach to homelessness is effective 20 years on, as they'll be celebrating their anniversary on Thursday. 

Hanson began experiencing homelessness after his 10 year old son was struck and killed by a van in 2002. He also lost his other children to Children's Aid and lost his ex-girlfriend, too. 

"I just became homeless," Hanson said. About three weeks later he went to Unity Project, where he credits a counsellor who helped him. 

"She got me into treatment. She got me housed. She got me to go to Thames Valley addictions." 

Unity Project began back in 2001 as a tent city protest in Campbell Memorial Park but they wanted to do things a little differently. 

"So Unity Project, what we were able to do, I think, was to create a new kind of vision of what emergency shelter could look like in a community," said executive director Chuck Lazenby. "We created a participatory shelter so that when people came to stay, they were able to participate in the day-to-day operations. That it was driven by their needs."

They didn't want to use the word "client" for those using their services, but rather "participants" or "residents." 

"That was really important for us to say," Lazenby said. "We're not selling you insurance. We want you to be a part of the plan of support that you need and to identify your own goals and issues that we can then support you with."

'The situation is not good'

Despite Hanson's success, Lazenby explained that the homeless situation in London "is not good." 

"What we don't have behind us is the resources to ensure that everyone who needs that support can access that support," Lazenby said. "And what we've never had in that two decades is a significant enough investment in things like housing or in things like, you know, increasing social assistance so that people can actually afford rent in the first place."

Lazenby says she's frustrated that in 20 years the solution hasn't changed — there just hasn't been an investment. 

Rick Odegaard sits on the Unity Project board as treasurer and believes that it's important to lobby all levels of government for the sort of affordable housing that residents at Unity Project need. 

"The city has to be lobbying the feds and the province to be providing the resources so that we can subsidize housing on the rent geared income basis," said Odegaard.

"People should understand that affordable housing by itself in the current model isn't enough," he said. "It's not working."