Homelessness and Housing, Part 2

Last winter in Sarasota, a woman approached me in Walmart.  She approached me because I was wearing one of those cheesy Christian sayings hoodies that I got from a random stranger, but that's another story entirely.  Anyway, she struck up a conversation with me and said she didn't understand how if Christians are going to worship side by side in heaven then why didn't we worship side by side on earth.  It reminded me of MLK Jr's saying that the most segregated hour in America is on Sunday morning.  

She had lost her job and lived in her car and said if she could just find some temporary housing it would help her get back on her feet.  My mind reeled with thoughts of if I should house her, whether my roommates would be okay with it, would she take advantage of it and stay longer than she thought she would, etc.  I ultimately decided against it, and have regretted that decision ever since.  I'm pretty sure I looked into the face of Christ that night and rejected Him.

Another time I saw a family begging by the side of the road as I was leaving Walmart so I turned around to talk to them.  They were Romanian and the dad had just lost his job.  I paid for 3 nights at their cheap hotel they were living in and paid maybe $50 for a Walmart gift card so they could buy some food.  I felt good about myself, but in the same breath realized it was just a bandaid at best.

Every time I tell friends stories of times where I've helped homeless people they always tell me to be careful.  Part of the problem with homelessness is a fear of the other, of that which is not normal in our everyday interactions.  Granted, I could get a knife drawn on me some day, but chances are if I just give them my wallet they'd let me go.

So, there are 5 houses for every homeless person, but I wonder how many bedrooms are unused in people's houses?  I know I had an extra bedroom in my house in Sarasota that I would use for couchsurfers or people on AirBnB.  Many of my friends don't have spare bedrooms because of children, but I'm sure there are many people whose children have long since moved out and as a result have empty bedrooms.

We get so insulated in our day to day living.  The beggar on the street becomes part of the background noise of our everyday lives.  We write off homelessness as something people deserve due to bad decisions and reason that some of them want to be homeless.  We drive past homeless people on the way home, get out of the car, close the garage door and forget about them.

Many homeless people, in particular veterans, struggle with mental illness; perhaps that's why I sympathize with them so easily.  Very early on I realized if I had not been raised in my family and given access to resources and modern medicine I'd be in a very scary place indeed.  Homelessness is an extremely difficult issue, if it was easy it would've already been solved by now.  What works in one city is not going to work in another.  

However, Utah has implemented an interesting program that seems to be working.  They give homeless people an apartment first and ask questions later.  They figured it was cheaper than ER visits and jail stays for the homeless.  I learned in Florida something very interesting about the homeless and jail.  Even in St. Pete, where it only gets to the freezing point a couple times a year, the crime rate goes up in cold snaps.  The homeless would rather get three meals and a bed in jail then be left out in the cold so they purposely try and get caught for crimes.  Can you really blame them?

Utah's homelessness program

The statistics are overwhelming, aren't they?  A lot of stats do that to us, they overwhelm us and then paralyze us.  We throw up our hands in defeat and say to ourselves, "There's nothing I can do about it.  It's too big of a problem."  At least that's how I feel in regard to a lot of situations.  

What I'm learning though and keep coming back to is an idea I've heard Mother Theresa quoted as saying.  Do small things with great love.  You may not be able to feed a hundred hungry people, then feed just one.  Similarly, you may not be able to house 100 people, then house just one.  Easier said than done, right?  Not something I've personally done in the past but I hope to in the future with Stef.

Homelessness is a systemic failure in my view, but it's also a failure on many other levels.  Country wide, state wide, city wide, neighborhood wide, and personally, it's a failure on every level.  It's not just in America either, it's in every country I think.  There are no easy solutions, but that mustn't keep us from trying.  Burnout is very common among missionaries and social justice workers and it's easy to see why.  What keeps you going?