After years of serving disadvantaged populations, I have a personal kinship and affinity for those who are saddled with labels, written off, and/or just ignored. Maybe it's this kinship that keeps me so intrigued, inspired, and motivated with regards to the most misunderstood and mostly ignored population of men, women, and children around us.
Ginny and I attended a meeting last week that was intended to frame a productive debate about real solutions to our current chronic homeless situation. The meeting opened with typical pleasantries, highlighted by one policy wonk's valid point that we are dealing with a "moral imperative", which he promptly discounted with "but this is not about Faith", as we sat there in a Faith-based community center.
What jumped out to Ginny and me was who was not there to answer questions from neighbors about real chronic homelessness solutions. Where were those who personally deal with the homeless on the street, not from a corporate or government desk, everyday? Where were those who shuttle many of the same folks back and forth from jail to shelters? Where were those public servants who are forced to waste time and tax-dollars on housing, prescription drugs, and court expenses? Where were those who preach about how we should deal with the poor and suffering almost every Sunday?
After interviewing a dozen or so stakeholders and researching chronic and transient homelessness solutions, over the last few weeks, it became obvious to me that a strong, collective group of credible champions are a must to explain this moral and fiscal imperative. A productive movement discussion and debate demands replacing bureaucrats, academics, and developers with police chiefs, sheriffs, and taxpayer/neighborhood advocates who get the Housing First movement and can effectively communicate the "Math+Morals" stories per community. (More info linked here @ NPR.org)
Any productive movement must take on the valid concerns AND unfounded fears, alike, face-to-face with those who are concerned about to oppose homelessness solutions. No PR budget, nor ad campaign, nor faceless blogs can hit those fears head-on like real converts to the Housing First movement. Those who were won over, from the Not-In-My-BackYard side, are your finest first-responders to the rational and irrational fears of the unknown. Throw in a Sheriff that details the millions of tax-dollars already wasted every year and you have an ever stronger Housing First story. Our own Sheriff offers that the current jail time for the chronic homeless is "not fair to taxpayers and not fair to the homeless". He also offers valuable responses to the safety and security questions. Pretty simple messages and stories we have there and he delivers them well. Same for our DA, who can speak to the legal realities and cycle of failure, again, towards taxpayers and the chronic homeless. Lastly, what about our most effective and compelling moral influencers? The very ones who preach about "do unto others" are in the perfect position to lead the Golden Rule portion of the debate, when the audience and venue demand that position. In my particular corner of Faith, it would be nice to take "WWJD?" off the bumper stickers, bracelets, and other items of self-expression and put the challenging question towards really positive results. Maybe groups like Compassion Coalition and others join this challenge. Maybe, just maybe, one mega-church could invest their resources, congregational energies, and a portion of their acreage and build supportive housing on their property. Maybe, just maybe, we have a "community of care" rise up around the region, matching the moral rhetoric, and complementing the mental health service communities for real change, real homelessness solutions, and real long-term success.
The national "hands-up" model of Housing First is here for our chronic homeless. As we ramp up this effort, let's start downsizing our homeless corridors and lessen the sad dependency on homeless head-counts for our shelter's financial survival. A renewed, systematic approach to showing the very different homeless populations a better, hopeful, and proven way to a better life is here, while also showing the system abusers another path elsewhere, as well.
Now is the time for a real taxpayer solution, a chronic homelessness solution, and/ or WWJD? solution. Take or pick or pick them all, as you see fit.
Brad
