By Megan Perram (she/her) - PhD Candidate in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta
Congress 2021 has taken off with full force. On Thursday morning, opening keynote speaker Dr. Peter Mackie gave an inspiring talk highlighting how people and relations are key to ending homelessness. Dr. Mackie, Reader at Cardiff University in the School of Geography and Planning, called on his audience to consider how although homelessness may seem like an unsolvable social injustice, that there is in fact hope.
Dr. Mackie weaved his audience through three major factors that may contribute to solving the issue around homelessness. First, we must embrace diverse knowledge and abilities from Indigenous Elders and community leaders, youth, lived experience, local and national government, academics and even celebrities. Although first line approaches may value increasing temporary forms of accommodation, these programs have the potential to do harm. A collective gut instinct to address homelessness has been, understandably, to put roofs over heads, but as Dr. Mackie argues, we need to turn to sustainable solutions: “to end homelessness, we need homes, not just a roof.”
In an anecdote about his research work in Somaliland, Dr. Mackie discusses the significance of Elders and community leaders in the quest for peace. The independent state has gone through peaceful transitions in government for decades despite previously experiencing a difficult civil war. Dr. Mackie notes that it was the efforts of Elders, women and mothers that aided in seizing violence, as they pushed for sustainable peace. These are the kinds of voices we should be turning to in the effort to end homelessness.
In Dr. Mackie’s second point, he stresses that effective change comes from networks and relations between different peoples. Here, our keynote cautions against “solutions” that aim to take an individualized approach. Dr. Mackie argues: “nothing has ever been achieved in terms of ending homelessness...by individuals. It is always in collaboration.” International collaborative approaches where solutions are tested, refined, and reflected on together, will be the most successful forms of research.
Dr. Mackie’s final point is that whilst people and relations are part of the solution, we are also often a major barrier to policy and practice change. In the context of the COVID-19 international pandemic, our governments have shown us what is possible when you have a political commitment to change. What we have seen across many countries over the course of the last year is that, because of alarming transmission rates of the virus in close-contact situations, homelessness suddenly became a national emergency. However, Dr. Mackie notes, it should not take a global pandemic to address the injustice of the homelessness crisis. He reminds the audience that for those experiencing homelessness: “it was always an emergency. It was always a crisis.” Dr. Mackie ends his keynote by asking the audience to hold those with the most influential ties to power accountable: our governments.
Dr. Peter Mackie is a Reader at Cardiff University in the School of Geography and Planning, Wales. “People and Relations: The Key to Ending Homelessness” was supported by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences International Keynote Speaker Support Fund and hosted by the Association for Nonprofit and Social Economy Research (ANSER).