“Here in Casablanca, the fortunate ones, through money, influence, or luck, obtain exit visas and scurry to Lisbon and from Lisbon to the Americas. But the others wait in Casablanca…and wait…and wait…”

In the 1940s, the pioneering psychologist Abraham Maslow created what came to be called the hierarchy of needs, which usually takes the form of a pyramid. (This was not by his design, as Maslow did not believe that the stages of self-actualization necessarily proceed in strict order for everyone, just as Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief can be experienced in any order.) At the base of the pyramid are listed the most basic physiological needs–the essential elements for a foundation to build a self-actualized life: clean air, food, drink, clothing, shelter, sleep, sex, excretion, and homeostasis. If any of these are missing from the foundation, it’s like removing a leg from a chair or table.

If you’re homeless, actually sleeping on the sidewalk, you’re missing safe and regular access to clean air, food, drink, clothing, shelter, sleep, sex, and excretion. Even if you’re in a shelter with access to clean air, food, drink, clothing, and sanitary toilet facilities, you’re still missing the intimacy of sex (unless you’re very lucky and very careful), and your shelter isn’t guaranteed. And as any shelter resident will tell you, sleep can be a real bitch to get as well–try sleeping in a roomful of people, say 50-100, where there is constantly snoring, moaning, groaning, people talking in whispers or loud voices. Even with sleep masks, earplugs, or noise-canceling headphones (if you can afford them), there are environmental issues: Is the AC working? Are the lights on or off? Will there be disruptions in the middle of the night: fire alarms, other residents “freaking out,” or your bunkmate’s restless body movements shaking the bed frame?

All that is leading to this: the reason that advocates are pushing housing for the homeless as a first step in ending homelessness–and this is what the microcephalics at Fake News don’t get and probably never will–is that without a solid base where the elements of a foundation can be gathered, the pyramid inevitably collapses. If you have independent housing, you can have all the base elements under one roof, giving you a solid foundation to build or rebuild your life towards self-actualization: purpose, meaning, fulfillment.

Once the physiological needs are satisfied, the next level on the pyramid is safety. Safety, not security. Maslow understood that the latter is never guaranteed in life, except on a very temporary basis. When he spoke of safety, it included job security (in this case, self-confidence in one’s ability to do a type or many types of work), grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, and disability accommodations. You can see the logic of having a foundation here: it makes it easier to gather all these elements if you are operating from a stable base of operations. Arguably, getting a home is one thing, and keeping it quite another. But once home stability is secured, one can focus on the other elements mentioned: creating a savings account, opening insurance policies (life, health, property), and disability supports (wheelchairs, walkers, canes, ramps, support animals) which help augment that stability.

So, if you’ve ever wondered why the unhoused can’t just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get a job and a place to live, that is the explanation. You can’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you don’t have boots to begin with or the straps are worn off.

That doesn’t mean we should give all unhoused people housing, wish them good luck, and head off into the sunset. It takes time for people’s foundations to erode to the point of becoming unhoused; it will take time and help to reestablish those foundations, which must be built from scratch on new ground. If you haven’t ridden a bicycle for a while, and someone gives you one, you will at least want to go around the block a few times to refamiliarize yourself with its operation. That’s why the housing programs currently being set up for the unhoused also include safeguards such as the availability of psychological and financial counseling, as well as assistance with activities of daily living (getting to and from work, home maintenance, etc.)

Further obstacles need to be explained at length and will be delineated in a subsequent column, but here are a couple of figures to chew on. In the 1950s post-war housing boom, you could buy a house for around $26,000–roughly two years’ salary for a middle-class wage earner. Last year, according to the Federal Reserve Economic Data System (FRED), the median house price across America was $479,500–nearly half a million dollars–while the median income was $41,000/year. That means it would cost 11½ years’ salary to buy outright a house, which, of course, few people can afford to do. And these aren’t the only figures that are startling. I’ll hit you with those next issue.

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