As a social worker for many years working to connect folks with housing, or seeing the indirect effects of not having adequate and affordable housing, I certainly qualify! It is a theory that human needs start with the most basic on the bottom and one is able to have little ability to focus on higher needs until the ones below are at least majorly satisfied.
It basically states that physiological needs are the most essential for all human beings. If these are unmet or not met adequately, there is little foundation to hope to accomplish or achieve anything further up the chart, that each level is built on the ones below. Physiological needs include housing. If someone is not adequately and safely housed, there is little hope they will have much ability or opportunity to work on relationships including parenting appropriately or educational needs, or obtaining satisfying employment and furthering their careers, or self-esteem needs.
Housing is indeed a very basic need. Over the years, it has been documented that unfortunately affordable housing is increasingly becoming more and more scarce and increasingly unattainable for many. Those that I have often worked with through my career are the chronically mentally ill.
Thus, the increased need for workforce housing, or affordable housing for those with moderate incomes, which CATCH is so good at creating. In the various jobs I have had over the years, housing has often been a central part. From assisting folks that are ready for discharge from a psychiatric hospital in obtaining housing in the community, to assisting folks in maintaining their housing so they are not in jeopardy of losing it, to finding ways to establish subsidized and affordable supportive housing resources through my last position as the executive director of Fellowship Housing Opportunities, the position that I held when Rosemary asked if I would consider being a board member for CATCH.
So I guess I come to this position of being a board member of CATCH from a career-long place of passion and enthusiasm to try and support those that are working to fulfill an essential need as much as possible. I am always very impressed by the work the staff do, and the commitment and expertise the other board members lend towards this mission.
