Fulcrum was the word of the day from Word Genius in my email.  What Word Genius didn't mention is that Archimedes invented the fulcrum--a point on which a lever rests.  It inspired one of his most famous quotes, often translated as, "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth."  In the process of developing our nonprofit, one of our team suggested fulcrum as the name; we landed on A Place to Stand.  I was raised in Rhode Island.  Today's on-line Providence Journal Daily Briefing noted that about 70 people will be forced out of homeless encampments in Providence, but nobody knows where they will go.  About a month ago an article in the Providence Journal reported the sharp decrease in rooming houses, which had provided an affordable housing option.  These are, unfortunately, nationwide trends.  Recently Philadelphia and Ithaca were in the news for "cleaning up" homeless encampments; or destroying the makeshift homes they created.  With cities, districts, and states "cracking down" on homelessness, making extreme poverty illegal, criminalizing hunger and homelessness--the supreme court considered a case last month regarding criminal penalties for homelessness.  How did we get here?

There is good news.  Here in Rochester, the city decided to assist the homeless, by making improvements to their encampment.  I met one of the leaders of that effort this week, Nick Coulter.  Nick has been advocating for the homeless for years, and this Wednesday a nonprofit he co-founded, PCHO (Person Centered Housing Options) opened the doors to a new, beautiful permanent supportive housing facility.  Both of these solutions are more cost-effective than criminalization (though they don't line the pockets of executives/investors in the privately-owned prison industry).  In my opinion, they are also much more humane, ethical solutions.  Moral leadership has real impacts and effects on collective societal mental health--importantly the mental health of children.   For decades we have been punishing the poor and bailing out/subsidizing a lot of billion-dollar corporations and industries.  Many of those industries and corporations made poor decisions that resulted in the deaths of millions of Americans.  Shift the paradigm: criminalize profits over lives (toxic chemicals, predatory/deceptive marketing, negligence in power-line maintenance and airplane design, etc.), and help families and individuals who need help.

A Place to Stand prevented hundreds of families from becoming homeless by providing rent support--that's another solution.  Not one of those families needed support more than once.  Let me repeat that: a family would receive a notice of eviction because they struggled with bills for a couple of months, our nonprofit would cover the bill, and the family never came back to us for help again.  To get a family into housing once they become homeless costs about triple what it costs to prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place.  Rent support is another cost-effective, ethical solution. 

Per the housing-first model, which the PCHO organization follows, when you give people a place to live, they can begin to get a handle on other issues and problems, including mental health and employment.  Give people a place to stand and they will move the Earth.