Transatlantic Practice Exchange Day Four: A Tale of Two Cities

For the next two weeks I’m in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as part of the Transatlantic Practice Exchange, find me on twitter @ruthfranciszka and follow #homelesslearning

 When Grand Rapids, Michigan was given to me as my Transatlantic Practice Exchange location I didn’t know what to expect. But within hours of arriving I’d fallen in love with the city. It’s a vibrant, unbelievably friendly, growing community; there are micro-breweries, restaurants, boutique bars and hotels popping up on every corner. There is a thriving art scene, amazing record stores, the streets are clean, the sun is shining, every morning joggers fill the public parks dotted along the river. The people are warm and kind and generous. To a visitor it feels like real life Downtown Disney.

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Stoke has been my home for almost my entire life, I was born and raised there. I pronounce ‘look’ with an ‘oo’, it doesn’t feel like a Sunday without an oatcake, I check under plates to see where they were made and I spent my childhood scrambling up the roaches and meeting my friends by the blue clock. But for as long as I’ve loved Stoke I’ve known that it has a reputation for being a deprived area, one with high levels of unemployment and poverty; low levels of literacy it has been affectionately dubbed one of Britain’s 20 most “crap” towns by the Telegraph (thanks guys). The recent By-election bought the media to Stoke and they largely painted the picture of a city filled with tired, apathetic people an image that did not reflect the creative, strong, hard working people I know Stoke to be filled with.

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Despite and because of its sudden growth Grand Rapids is facing a housing crisis, affordable housing is hard to come by as young professionals who are used to paying high rents elsewhere flood back to the buzzing city, landlords are in a fortunate position. The African American population are highly over represented in the homeless system here, making up only 10% of the population but 68% of the homeless population.

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Stoke is facing a housing crisis too, there is an insufficient amount of social housing to meet demand. Compared to much of the country rents are low in Stoke; they still often exceed the Local Housing Allowance rate, and with renting on the rise landlords can routinely make the choice to exclude people who claim benefits from renting their properties excluding some of the most vulnerable people from accessing the Private Rented Sector.

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I have spent my time here with Community Rebuilders. They are a progressive, committed organisation whose Strength’s Based philosophy runs through every aspect of the service and despite the difficulties they are facing they are making Housing First work here.

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They do this by employing a team of Housing Resource Specialists (HRS) working over 17 difference projects, using their Strength’s based approach to build strong, lasting relationships with landlords and consumers. I was struck by their desire to include landlord’s strengths and ensure that they understand the vital role they play in the mission to end homelessness in Grand Rapids.

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The HRS’s also place a huge emphasis on building the autonomy of the relationship between tenant and landlord. Sitting in on a recertification (a yearly process where Client’s and HSR’s review the progress made in the last 12 months) it was as much about the tenant’s rights as it was his responsibilities. The tenant was offered support to draft a letter to his landlord about repairs and alterations, a conscious, strengths based decision by the HSR to “do with” instead of “do for.”

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Despite the differences in Stoke and Grand Rapids, we have a very important strength in common: The dedication of the people who live in these two inspiring places. I have no doubt that we could extend the Housing First model to help us end homelessness in Stoke

We just need to rely on our strengths.

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*Speaking of strengths the photos of Stoke were taken by my talented best friend Alice Thatcher. She’s an artist. You’d like her @alicethatch

The photos of Grand Rapids were taken yesterday on a walk I took!