An imperative to provide housing first
Our public systems don’t operate in a vacuum. When they are stretched thin, it’s akin to our highway system being clogged, inefficient and slow. Homelessness comes at the end of a long path where many systems have broken down, and small business owners see this firsthand – the toxic stress families live in as a result of lack of access to healthy food and decent and affordable housing. They have a pulse on the community, keep tabs on its temperature, and are first to hear when a sense of malaise of fear starts settling in.