Housing

“It has to also be livable. And just because it’s affordable doesn’t mean that it’s livable. I wanna be in a place that’s safe. I wanna be in a place [that’s] well lit. I wanna be in a place that’s near public transportation… I wanna be in a place where I can go and buy some groceries…”

“And since the pandemic everything has just gone up sky high and so, [I’m] having to choose between getting medicine and repairing the hole in my roof.”

“If you don’t have the education, you don’t know what to do. You don’t know the resources, you don’t know any programs. Then you’re just stuck.”

“There’s not a commitment or a significant commitment to what I would call deeply affordable housing.”

“You got a lot of families. It breaks up families, especially like people on a month to month lease. They can at any time say, okay, we want you out. We need our house back. And then you’re like, you don’t have time. You’re scrambling. And you got to figure things out. It’s just not good for the family and the home now. It’s like, especially putting yourself on the curb, you know what I’m saying? Or everything is in the dumpster. And you got to go through the dumpster. When I went through that experience, I had to call somebody who had a big truck and we all in a dumpster grabbing my stuff. It was devastating and it was embarrassing. Not just embarrassing, but it was really bad for me because while I was moving my stuff, people were in there taking my things, stuff that I had for years.”

Mental Health

“Transportation can be an issue. If I’m not, if I don’t have reliable transportation, if I’m not near the public bus route and bus route is not consistent, you know, I don’t have relatives that have access to a car, then how am I supposed to access, you know, the care that I need?”

“I also think about the criminal justice system and just the lack of awareness there of mental health issues, right that our prisons and jails tend to become like de facto mental health facilities when really like, people should be in treatment. And just the criminalization sometimes of mental health issues, instead of looking at structural issues.”

“I am seeing an increase in support groups. And there’s more peer support. And I think that is very valuable, as people are coming through in their experiences and are able to share with others. And just having those spaces, kind of taking the care into their own hands a little bit, so to speak. I do think it’s a positive that, like we said, we’re seeing more awareness of it. I’m not sure if that’s coming specifically from the health systems’ actions. However, it is positive.”

“For some reason the city Detroit, they don’t understand what quality of life is, nor do they seem to care what quality life is. Years ago, we were dealing with the issue of closing parks, and I was trying to tell them, do you understand the importance and the value of a park in a community? They said we gotta balance the budget, and I’m saying you can do that but the first thing you always do is to take away things that are really helpful for people’s mental health. And you keep things that we don’t care about. So that was back in the eighties. And here it is in the in the 2024 – a different government and different mayor, but I still don’t think they get what quality of life means. If there’s an abandoned home, concern for quality of life says I don’t wanna walk by there every day, or have my children walk by. It’s not safe, so let’s deal with it.”

“I had to start all over from scratch… Well, I mean, I don’t know if the system was going through a phase that they were rotating or they were restructuring the inside structure of mental health, I don’t know if that’s what was at that time, it’s gotten better since then but I remember going through that phase where like Is ay, every 30 days, or every 45 days I had to start all over with a new therapist or a new social worker, or a new doctor to prescribe my medicine.”

Housing & Mental Health

“This is how housing and mental health come together. Because if your housing situation does not feel safe and secure, then anxiety builds, depression builds, fear builds. And those things are tied to your mental health. You don’t sleep well. You don’t eat well.”

“Because of everything in the housing or whatever, your mental start breaking down, you look for somebody to talk to. But then there’s nobody to talk to because everybody move ’cause the housing system and they gotta go so it’s… Then there’s nobody.”

“The landlord did nothing the whole time I was there, the piping leaking, it could’ve caused a house fire. I woke up every day depressed.”

“And then it turns into like, which way does the arrow go like? Are you having mental health issues because you don’t have a place to stay? Right, which is like a very human reaction… It just becomes this really complicated thing where they’re both impacting each other. Like if you don’t have a place to stay, of course you’re gonna feel… your mental health isn’t gonna be great, and if your mental health isn’t great, it’s also harder to navigate these systems, you know, to find a place to stay. You know something as basic as just housing… And what can get really frustrating is that people, you know, will blame people who are experiencing insecure housing rather than like seeing that there are systems issues that are preventing people from being able to find secure housing.”

“He should have been in jail for the way the house was. The conditions and sewage in the basement, stuff like that. Unhealthy housing, situations for the kids but it all ties in. If you don’t have the education you don’t know what to do. You don’t know the resources, you don’t know any programs. Then you’re just stuck. So I remember being depressed, crying and everything, having nothing to do, no options. When he hit me with the eviction letter. It’s like, “How dare you?” But I didn’t know any resources.”