If We Want to End Homelessness, We Have to Change

Everyone keeps arguing about how to solve homelessness. Housing First. Treatment First. More shelters. More police. But what if we're asking the wrong question? In this conversation with Iain De Jong, his eighth on Invisible People, something shifts. We get real about what's actually happening right now in the homelessness sector. Why the Housing First versus Treatment First debate completely misses the point. Why organizations under pressure keep reaching backward toward approaches that felt like they worked, what Iain calls the nostalgia loop. And why, for the first time in a long time, people are finally starting to say the quiet parts out loud. We're entering a reckoning. Not the kind that makes people comfortable. The kind that forces you to admit what's not working, and why we've been so slow to say it out loud. The homelessness sector has spent years protecting narratives instead of fixing systems. That's changing. And if we're honest about that…Then we have to ask a much harder question: What are we going to build that's completely different? Stay to the end, because that's where this conversation lands. Reckoning. Renewal. Rebirth. A framework that emerged organically from this discussion that we think is worth sitting with, worth sharing, and maybe worth building on. Here's Iain's Substack https://iaindejong.substack.com/ Playlist of all Homeless Unfiltered episodes with Iain https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL51CPD51hq2RnsaSDVNP8DfVv8TZnowfj&si=p2aj2gOV2AExjITC 01:19 Iain De Jong Returns to Homeless Unfiltered 03:44 Why the Podcast Is Resonating Across the Sector 07:01 Why the Podcast Format Is Changing 08:09 The Homeless Sector Is Finally Talking About Failure 10:17 Housing First vs Treatment First Misses the Point 11:53 Why Choice Matters in Homeless Services 16:08 Policy Shifts, Finland, and the Global Housing Debate 17:54 Manage the Decline or Pragmatically Persevere 21:24 The Nostalgia Loop in Homeless Services 24:31 Ending Homelessness Is a Moral Compass, Not an Operating System 26:52 New Success Metrics and the Airplane Analogy 29:30 Short-Term Pain, Hard Choices, and What Is Essential 32:43 Faith-Based Services, Choice, and Coercion 35:41 Informed Consent and Exploiting Vulnerability 37:32 When Faith-Based Organizations Actually Help 39:31 Insight Vancouver and What Real Acceptance Looks Like 44:08 Organizational Silence, Transparency, and the Reckoning 47:59 Rebirth: Build Something Completely Different 52:04 Donna’s RV Story: Listening Ended Homelessness 54:17 Bureaucracy and the “Zoo of Elephants” 55:56 Closing Thoughts, Writing Again, and Where to Find Iain More: Homeless Hunger Games: Shelters, Soundbites, and a Sector at Breaking Point https://youtu.be/W3CJ8odlh8g?si=-3_Y28ky3YF5ZSyu From Encampments to Homes: How Dallas Is Solving Homelessness https://youtu.be/iG4afD_ycLk?si=GBcCpVf7iFBrmDMY This Woman's Final Day of Homelessness Will Move You https://youtu.be/sZQLMnF_y8k?si=eh4z4pryf-fnbolz Executive producer: Mark Horvath Producer/editor/cinematographer: Alex Gasaway https://www.youtube.com/alexgasaway Associate producer: Erin McGinnis Created by: Alex Gasaway and Erin McGinnis YouTube Podcast https://shorturl.at/XciIu Apple Podcast https://apple.co/4cckQ86 Spotify https://spoti.fi/3XyM98c ================================== Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/c/invisiblepeople?sub_confirmation=1 Invisible People’s website: http://invisiblepeople.tv Support Invisible People: https://invisiblepeople.tv/donate Sign up for our newsletter: https://invisiblepeople.tv/email Invisible People’s Social Media: https://www.youtube.com/invisiblepeople https://twitter.com/invisiblepeople https://www.instagram.com/invisiblepeople https://www.facebook.com/invisiblepeopletv https://www.tiktok.com/@invisiblepeopletv About Invisible People There is a direct correlation between what the general public perceives about homelessness and how it affects policy change. Most people blame homelessness on the person experiencing it instead of the increasing shortage of affordable housing, lack of employment, childhood trauma, lack of a living wage, or the countless reasons that put a person at risk. This lack of understanding creates a dangerous cycle of misperception that leads to the inability to effectively address the root causes of homelessness. We imagine a world where everyone has a place to call home. Each day, we work to fight homelessness by giving it a face while educating individuals about the systemic issues that contribute to its existence. Through storytelling, education, news, and activism, we are changing the narrative on homelessness.