The ground is the same.

This is a picture of a whiteboard drawing from a recent Housing Survival class. It illustrates the very basic principle that the life experience and trauma that people bring to public housing creates a type of “ground” wherein they will live. It is dark, rich, and fertile, like soil. Which means it can be used to plant seeds that can grow into a new life. Work must be done to protect and nourish such seeds.

It can also be used to dig a “grave” of sorts. We are talking about the same ground, but a different use. Experienced social workers recognize the distinction, but having this type of conceptual discussion with clients is imperative. Giving them visual symbols and an opportunity to respond opens up rich discussions about that fertile ground.

Housing First means they can take either approach. They are free to determine what their lives will look like. Those residents who view apartments as “unsafe” or “prison cells” will often follow through on those assumptions by living an unsafe life, and thereafter they may become prisoners of the decisions made by an unsafe person.

Feeding hope into traumatized people opens them up to the possibility of establishing an authentic home that must be kept and nourished like a garden box. This begins with a commitment to safety.

Safe space leads somewhere, doesn’t it? It leads to healing, and healing leads to thriving. This is why we teach our clients about healthy boundaries, so that they can transform the potential of their apartment into a superpower where they can always engage in the processes of healing.

Having one safe space on this earth is meaningful, because it only takes one such space to cause a person to begin to suspect that there are other safe spaces out there in the community. A network of safe spaces like health clinics, post offices, dental offices, and supermarkets. Then, as they become agents of safety, others in the community will begin to recognize that element of safety in their very person.

When a client begins to understand that their choice to be safe causes others around them to also feel safe, cultivating a nourishing home (where they can grow and bloom) can potentially become something that they hope is happening for everyone around them.