I read the piece “Increase In Homeless Shines LIght On Lack Of Investment In Mental Health Treatment” this morning and wanted to write something in response to that.

The homeless population need what no amount of money can buy … drive, determination and desire. They also need what no local agencies or groups are truly willing or capable of providing … accountability and follow-up. The age-old saying, “if you build it, they will come” is very true. There are a lot of those struggling with mental health on the streets now with a lack of local mental health care. However, there will be even more if a new facility or two is built. They will get shipped here, and then just stay like they are now. The majority of folks on the streets in Jamestown, are not even from New York state.

Those that are here now could get a bus ticket to Buffalo if they really wanted to, they just simply do not want to. Ask any recovering addict and they will tell you, they used to have the drive and determination to find drugs and alcohol each day, but the tasks that seemed the most logical and simple were the ones not chosen to be acted on because they didn’t have the desire. If you add up all of the beds currently available for the homeless right now (that do not include hotels), even during code blue season, you will be hard pressed to find 80 beds that even exist in the entire county.

Then there is the issue of first providing quality safety and security staff, not just elderly security guards to act as a body count. There are men that have lived at one homeless shelter only to work at another in years past. Then these places need staff on the clock and physically present 24/7. There is a never ending need for trained, reliable, compassionate, empathetic, honest and willing people to provide accountability to give a hand up versus enabling even more free handouts. This is very difficult for agencies that value the “perception” of helping and programming over truly helping by enforcing consequences and follow through to provide actual accountability. If you give a homeless person “housing”, they will move into an empty shell of a space with four walls, a roof and more importantly the same mind between their ears that provided their thinking that got them into that situation in the first place. This leads to the imperative need for transitional housing and those willing to teach life skills and provide detailed aftercare to help stop the ongoing cycle of those that reach this stage of life because of their unchanged habitual thinking.

Let’s just say that all of the above was provided and available and explore that for a minute. What is the end result in the thinking of the majority of people without an address if they choose to accept help, get sober and seek mental health care? They think their “reward”, or rather punishment, will be to have to get a job and work many hours that doesn’t pay well in order to pay bills they can’t afford and didn’t used to have, buy overpriced food, clean their place to live (or not), and struggle to save any money all on top of trying to stay clean and sober and get to their mental health and recovery appointments.

It sounds overwhelming to them, because it is overwhelming! People who have current roofs over their heads deal with the same challenges and are only one missed paycheck or poor choice away from losing everything as well. However, there is great news for anyone and everyone in all walks of life that find themselves coming to the point of realizing that there will never be enough money, a good enough job, a big enough house, enough help from others to advocate for you, or enough of any substance to quench your addiction. This Good News is provided and preached in your local Bible teaching churches for free every Sunday morning! If you have tried everything else, why not get up Sunday and go seek God first. Instead of thinking all you can do now lastly is pray, make praying the first thing you do and remain in prayer. There is no lasting change without the transformative power of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Aaron Wadin is a Jamestown resident.