Sacramento: Putting ideas into action
|The launch of the Cities Ending Homelessness (CEH) project was one of the highlights of the symposium held during last year’s Homeless World Cup in Sacramento. Image: Anita Milas
By Peter Barr
Lessons from the first Cities Ending Homelessness conference in Sacramento, 2023.
The launch of the Cities Ending Homelessness (CEH) project was one of the highlights of the symposium held during last year’s Homeless World Cup in Sacramento, California (July 8-15, 2023). The ground-breaking initiative is a partnership between the Homeless World Cup Foundation and Catalyst 2030, bringing global cities together to share their ideas and solutions. The launch was attended by representatives from countries all around the world, including many national partners of the Homeless World Cup.
Player stories
|Ed Kiwa addressed the audience at the Cities Ending Homelessness Conference in Sacramento. Image: Anita Milas
A major part of the CEH project is to give a platform to people who have experienced homelessness. During the event two current players and two former players described how playing football and getting involved in the Homeless World Cup has helped them turn their lives around.
One former player, Ed Kiwa, now a referee who brings his first-hand knowledge to the tournament, shared the story of his personal experience when he turned his life around 2012. Born in Uganda, Ed became a child soldier when he was just 14 years old, and later went to Canada. But life in his new homeland did not turn out as Ed had hoped, despite becoming a father and getting a job, and he suffered a series of setbacks in life, including separation from his family and the death of his mother, which drove him into serious depression.
‘I was scared and angry with myself,’ said Ed, still suffering from PTSD and living in a homelessness shelter. ‘My untreated trauma came with me. I’d hit rock-bottom and probably wouldn’t be here now if it hadn’t been for Street Soccer Canada, who’ve become like a family for me.’
Ed may have come within four days of suicide, but football saved his life: ‘I’d been planning to end my life when a couple of guys from Street Soccer Canada came up to me and asked me if I wanted to kick a ball around with them and a few of their friends. But I told them I didn’t have boots,’ Ed explained.
‘Don’t worry, we can get you boots,’ the two guys replied. ‘But what about a place to change?’ Ed then asked, reeling off a string of excuses which received the same response. And when he ‘ran out of excuses,’ Ed went along for a game, and soon afterwards was selected to play for Canada at the Homeless World Cup in Mexico City in 2012, returning six years later as a referee, a new person hungry for life, inspired by the late Hary Milas and his Whistle of Hope.
‘Football is a celebration of the small things in life which add up to much bigger things,’ said Ed. ‘And I learned that I could give something back to the Homeless World Cup by becoming a ref, in the footsteps of Hary.’
|Ed Kiwa was inspired by former Homeless World Cup referee Hary Milas. Image: Anita Milas
We often say that football is the ‘universal language’ but sometimes people understand each other without words of any description. This was illustrated when a young man from the Indonesia team spoke through a translator to express how he came on his personal journey to the Homeless World Cup, when playing football helped him ‘set free a lot of emotions.’
He then broke down in tears as he struggled to speak about his difficult childhood but the reaction in the room became infectious as the audience spontaneously applauded his courage, as if they understood exactly how he felt and what he had been through. Comforted by former player turned coach Lisa Wrightsman, who founded the street soccer programme in Sacramento, his words struck home because he spoke another type of universal language, and also illustrated the Homeless World Cup family in action – providing a platform for voices which often go unheard.
Another speaker was Vanessa Ibis from Romania, who grew up in an orphanage and found hope in football: ‘Sometimes, when I have a bad day, playing football helps to run it off,’ she explained. ‘Soccer is part of my life now and now I want to help other people get the same opportunity.’
Another speaker during the discussion was the former US soccer star Hope Solo, who was the goalkeeper in the national team which won the World Cup in 2015 and two Olympic gold medals. Hope revealed that she had also experienced what homelessness means – her father was homeless for several years in Seattle while she was growing up.
‘Struggle builds strength as long as you have the courage to face it,’ she said, describing how her father brought joy to her life despite all the problems he had as a Vietnam War veteran who ‘didn’t fit in’ to conventional life and experienced poor mental health. But when Hope was starting to build her career as a player, her father proudly came along to see her perform. ‘He wasn’t great at coping,’ Hope explained. ‘He may not have washed for a month and he wasn’t around all the time, but he could still show me what beauty was.’
Hope may have found a different path in life but she still respects her father and understands the issues he faced in his life. As someone who had fought for years for equal pay for women in professional soccer, Hope also said that ‘social change starts with a little idea and takes patience and hard work’ to get a result. Everyone who has played at the Homeless World Cup has a story to tell, surviving poverty and homelessness, addiction and social exclusion to become a part of the annual event – and an example to others. And now they are winners. They have won back their pride, self-respect and their health. They have won back their lives.
Focus on football, housing and health
|Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick of Heriot-Watt University in Scotland spoke on the panel about football, housing and health. Image: Anita Milas
In another session, several speakers shared their thoughts on football, housing and health, including insights into the homelessness crisis in California and Sacramento itself – hosting the Homeless World Cup for the first time in the US.
Chet Hewitt, the President and CEO of Sierra Health Foundation, kicked off the discussion saying, ‘Everyone is entitled to their opinions on housing and health, but not the facts,’ referring to the increase in homelessness shelters from about 100 to 1,100 beds and a 67 per cent increase in homelessness in Sacramento since 2019. Poverty, morbidity and mortality together with inadequate housing, combined with the opioid crisis, add up to a major challenge facing the city, including the need to ‘rebuild the public health infrastructure.’ In addition, even though California accounts for only 12 per cent of the US population, it is also a magnet for 30 per cent of homeless people nationwide.
A self-confessed ‘soccer mom,’ California- based paediatrician Dr Shannon Thyne opened her remarks by saying that football had been a source of strength for her and many other people during the pandemic. ‘Football is life,’ she declared, but a lack of exposure to nature and sport can have dramatic, long-term effects on the brain’s architecture as we grow up, leading to multiple chances of illness and toxic stress. Childhood trauma also often leads to homelessness in later life but Dr Thyne believes that ‘football can help tackle homelessness, lower lifetime incidence of mental health issues and support resilience, especially when it involved being part of a team as well as outdoor activity.’
Dr Thyne then detailed not just the physical and psychological effects of childhood trauma on later life but the huge financial costs of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – traumatic experiences that can have lasting effects into adulthood and may be much more challenging the more you experience. Dr Tyne said that the costs of ACEs could be as high as $1.3 trillion for the USA alone. ‘Screening is important,’ she said, ‘but action is needed. Research gives lots of data, but it doesn’t always take account of reality.’
Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick of Heriot-Watt University in Scotland talked about ‘what works and what doesn’t work’ in trying to address the global homelessness problem, based on research carried out in cities all around the world. As well as pointing out the need for more resources including the provision of housing and wraparound support, Professor Fitzpatrick said, ‘You can make a different political choice. We know the scale of homelessness and also how to deal with it, but we need a collective effort, learning from each other, and we need the political will, recognising the importance of lead agencies coordinating services.’
She added: ‘There is too much reliance on shelters and faith groups, and not enough attention paid to prison release and people leaving hospitals. We need a collective effort and need to learn from each other. Housing policy should be a greater priority and we need to measure homelessness better, including migration from south to north and rural to urban centres.’
During the discussion, Lawrence Cann, co-founder and CEO of Street Soccer USA, described the challenges faced in many North American cities and how we have to learn from our errors. ‘As we get wealthier,’ he said, ‘we make homelessness worse. But ironically, in a recession, conditions can sometimes improve.’ Mel Young, the co-founder of the Homeless World Cup and member of Catalyst 2030, talked about the power of the tournament, and how it helped destroy the stereotypes of homeless people by showing them as football stars, changing homeless people’s lives as well as changing views of homelessness. ‘We wanted to create an event that was a platform for change,’ he explained.
Mel then asked: ‘Is homelessness a housing problem? Houselessness is different to homelessness, which is not just the loss of bricks of mortar but an emotional disconnection.’ He then concluded by announcing the Cities Ending Homelessness project: ‘We want to build on this to give a voice to homeless people and take steps to positive action. Please join our movement and let’s work together to create a world where homelessness no longer exists.’