What you can do

Helping our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters find relief from the scourge of addiction will require hard work and working together. Here’s what you can do:

1) Encourage your City to Adopt a Resolution;

North America Recovers is working with communities across the continent to adopt a compassionate approach to drug addiction and homelessness—one that places an emphasis on dignity, treatment, and recovery. You can encourage your city council to adopt the draft resolution below. Please contact us if you want more help or have any questions. You can also download the resolution here.

WHEREAS, the _____ City Council has identified drugs, crime, and untreated mental illness, of which homeless encampments are a symptom, as top threats to the health, safety and flourishing of all of its residents;

WHEREAS, the Council believes in the dignity and worth of its residents, and the communal good that is achieved when residents are on a path toward the realization of their full potential;

WHEREAS, the Council acknowledges that 78% of those struggling with homelessness also contend with the complex diseases of mental illness and/or addiction, whether a precursor to or a result of homelessness;

WHEREAS, the U.S. Surgeon General specifically describes addiction as a brain disorder disease that results in reduced brain function, that inhibits an individual’s ability to make decisions and regulate his or her actions, emotions, and impulses, and furthermore, that changes in the brain persist long after substance use stops;

WHEREAS, the Council recognizes that housing alone cannot cure mental illness or addiction, and the nature of addiction and serious mental illness can make sufferers unable to recognize their own illnesses or seek help willingly;

WHEREAS, the Council agrees that open air drug scenes create violence that is incompatible with clean and vibrant public spaces, and make recovery from addiction more difficult;

WHEREAS, the Council believes that all people have a right to clean and vibrant public spaces, as well as safe emergency shelter when needed;

WHEREAS, the Council believes that for harm reduction services to be effective in saving lives, they must exist within a full continuum of compassionate care that includes prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery for those suffering addiction, with the expectation that most can and will recover;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF _______ that all efforts to address homelessness in which the Council and its employees engage must be concentrated on helping all residents participate in realizing their full human potential, by ensuring shelter and psychiatric and addiction care for all who need it, and by protecting public spaces for the use of the entire community.