A few days ago I received an email from Karen Shafer, a woman who lives in suburban Dallas.
Over the past many months Ms. Shafer has developed a keen interest in the homeless population of Dallas. Beyond simple interest, she has made friends among the men, women and families who live on the streets of our city, making regular trips into their world.
Most recently, she has been instrumental in arranging for mayoral and city council candidates to join her on "night tours" of our streets to meet and to hear from this special part of our community.
But, back to her email message. She was forwarding to me an email she had received from a homeless woman, Tami. I thought it worth publishing. While my posting is not intended as an endorsement of all that she says, it is an honest effort to allow her to be heard, as she requests.
Here's what Tami said in response (slightly edited) to Ms. Shafer's question, "What do you need?"
Dear Ms. Shafer,
hi, it's me, Tami. we talked this past weekend about what the homeless
need/want. well here's what i would like to see happen for the homeless.
first, what we talked about, the city has five million dollars for the
homeless, and they are wasting it. they need to take that money, buy
up a lot of these empty houses and give them to the homeless.
Secondly, all these people that have all the power, the mayor, the
security guards, . . . need to stop treating us like trash. all we are to them is a reason to get up in the morning and get paid.
Thirdly, the rule of two sessions a day on the computers at the library should be changed. the homeless don't have anywhere to go all day (the ones that don't work) and if we aren't hurting anything by using the computers then we should get as many sessions as we want. Lets face it, the homeless make up the business at the library. The rich people don't hardly need to come to the library because they have personal computers at their homes.
back to the second item, we want to be heard, we all have voices and needs and no one is asking us what those needs are. i know that most of the homeless have given up, they go to work and then they smoke and or drink up their paychecks, but the rest of us just want to be heard, we want to belong.
the only reason i'm homeless is because i was a victim of the government. i was on hud in abilene, i had an apartment for almost a year. HUD send the landlords/owners of those apartments a small list of things that needed to be fixed, but the landlords/owners refused to fix what HUD told them to so they kicked me out of the apartment. i was going to move back to Plan, (where i grew up), but my husband and i ran out of money and we got stuck here.
I have never been treated so badly in my whole life as the way i've been treated here. anyway, that's what's going on on the streets. the homeless are being treated very, very badly and the points i outlined above need to addressed.
thank you for letting me tell you what's been going on. and i hope you can help. we are people, not animals, and not trash.
Thank you,
Tami
You may not agree completely with Tami's assessment of things on the streets of Dallas, but her opinion, based on her daily experience, should not be dismissed lightly.
Listening to one another is the first step to solving our problems. Dallas is a city accustomed to seeking out and paying attention to "expert opinion." Given that cherished community value, being willing and even eager to hear the homeless talk about homelessness seems like a no-brainer to me.
Community development 101: to solve a vexing community problem, consult the people who know most about the problem.
9 comments:
I think it's significant that this woman considers herself a victim of the government and also she wants the government to give her a house.
Larry,
I am thankful Tami has people like Karen Shafer and you and CDM in her life so that she will see a glimpse of hope and know she is not trash, she is a precious child of God who is loved more than she will ever know.
I think that what Karen is doing is very admirable. It is a step in the right direction to finding solutions. I am troubled that Tami feels so disrespected. Kindness and respect is something that EVERY human deserves. I am also trouble as Chris mentioned that Tami feels she is a victim of the government. Sometimes it is hard to understand how one finds themselves a victim in this sort of situation. I do not feel that GIVING someone a home solves any problem. Homes require maintence, utilities, to afford those things, one must have a job. I do understand that the homeless problem is deep and complex. I am eager to learn more about it. I am trying very hard to not be judgemental of what I do not even begin to understand.
First of all ,ONE old house that noone wants and needs work on would be perfect for Tami.Possibly one that is for sale for only a few thousand, say $2000 or $3000, or one that someone would be nice enough to donate to Tami and her husband.I know this couple personally and they are good people.They go to church every week.He is a carpenter, so working on a OLD house noone else wants would be no problem.I mean ,even if they don't have the money to buy furniture or turn on their bills yet, at least they have a place they can call home where they can get in out of the rain or keep from being robbed or beaten up!As anonymous said, he or she doesnt understand.Take their home away and see what problems that causes.Then , give it back and see if their problem is then solved.My name is John S. and I am proud to know that Tami is trying to do something about her situation!!!John
Thanks, Johnny! Spoken as someone who understands what is actually happening on our streets today.
Thanks to Lynn and Johnny for their comments, and I understand the concerns of Chris and Anonymous (post of 12:11 P.M.) regarding Tami’s statements of feeling victimized by the government (and she and I talked about this a little bit last Friday night.) After all, until we take responsibility for our part in how our lives are going, it’s very hard to progress. But that journey is different for everyone.
However, I have not heard most of the homeless people I know express a philosophy of entitlement. Many blame themselves for their situation, most want to work (or do work) and get off the street, yet are under burdens of various kinds with disabilities or life histories which are so crushing as to make that a very daunting challenge.
Add to that being spit upon, cursed at, yelled at and called names by average citizens while you’re simply going about the gritty business of survival -- not to mention policies by the city that appear to be designed to make things harder rather than easier -- and you may begin to understand the scope of the challenge.
A wise and kind young man, Ryan Leppert, was downtown helping us feed the homeless last Friday night with his father, Tom Leppert (mayoral candidate), and said to me as he was handing out dishes of food to our homeless friends, “This [situation with the homeless] is something that you couldn’t possibly understand until you see it for yourself. You just can’t imagine it by hearing it described by someone else.” Astute, compassionate and absolutely true.
I think it is hard if not impossible for most of us to imagine the difficulties the homeless citizens in Dallas are up against until we go out, meet them, and see it for ourselves. I often ask myself where I’d be without the love and safety net of my family, both past and present. I constantly rely on my daughters for advice and support and my grandchildren for inspiration, not to mention the love of my parents throughout my life. A majority of our homeless citizens have no such safety net.
What I think is that it’s easy to get hung up on the victimization part of Tami’s email and miss the important message: that every single human being, constitutionally and morally in our society, is as important as every other: rich, poor, dirty, clean, employed, unemployed, homeless or living in luxury.
To me, the post by Anonymous strikes a good balance between personal responsibility and compassion when he or she writes:
“I do understand that the homeless problem is deep and complex. I am eager to learn more about it. I am trying very hard to not be judgemental of what I do not even begin to understand.”
That open-minded, open-hearted attitude is all I could ask of anyone. And if you really want to understand and decide for yourself, come downtown to the Day Resource Center some Friday night and meet some of our homeless citizens for yourselves.
I don’t see any reason whatsoever why Dallas cannot be both compassionate towards it’s most impoverished citizens and a leader in development as well. It takes BOTH to make a great city. And it takes BOTH to be whole.
The new Dallas HAC is a planned area of concentration for the homeless. This will keep the homeless out of sight and out of mind of the Downtowners. Attempts to provide low income housing for the homeless continues to be blocked at every turn by NIMBY groups because no one wants the homeless in their neighborhood. That includes the Downtown residents, businesses and developers. The plan for permanent housing is lacking and not being followed through with. The center will be ready, but the housing will not be there for the long term needs.
Affordable housing should be at the center of this plan or the HAC will never accomplish what they say they intend to do. It is not right to concentrate all of the homeless in one area for short term or long term planning. They have a right and deserve the opportunity to live in all areas of Dallas. Until the NIMBY groups realize that all of us must share in this shameful blight in our city, the HAC will not stand a chance at success.
Will the HAC be the answer for all homeless citizens of Dallas? That will never be possible. All programs, whether secular or faith based, have their procedures and rules. Some individuals will not fit within the guidelines of some programs or in the case of the chronic homeless, time limitations will prevail. That is true with every program in Dallas and all around the country. Who is going to pick up the slack? The faith based groups are always there to do that and always will. There is no single program that can or will provide all of the needs.
If the rights of the homeless are not put in the forefront, they will never be given the services they really need. As long as special interests come first the HAC will only be a band-aid approach to a major blight to the city. Hiding the homeless will not cure the cause. Affordable housing and livable wages must be addressed before we can expect real results from any plan to eliminate homelessness in this city or anywhere in this country.
The HAC is putting the cart before the horse. As much as I hope and would love to see the plan of the HAC prove to be a success, I will have to see it before I will believe it. Come downtown and take a look at the City run Day Resource Center for an example of how the City of Dallas cares for the homeless and you will see what I mean. There would be no need to hide them if they had a home to go to.
Goof for you Joe!!!
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OPINION
Joseph Clifford: Panhandling ordinance is a travesty
Let us treat our homeless with compassion, not fear
Dallas Morning News 10:56 AM CDT on Friday, June 1, 2007
Six months ago, I moved to Dallas to be the pastor of First Presbyterian Church. One draw for me was the Stewpot, a ministry to the homeless operated by the church and funded by the amazing generosity of this community.
Upon arrival, I learned of the new Homeless Assistance Center under construction, a compassionate response by the city to the challenges of homelessness. If a society's greatness is measured by its treatment of the least, than Dallas is surely a great city.
This is why last week's City Council vote making Dallas' anti-panhandling ordinance even more restrictive was such a shock. That decision is tragic.
It is not that this ordinance will lead to harsher treatment of the homeless by the police. Thankfully, the police understand these issues better than most because they deal with the homeless on a human level, not a political one. Their response to the homeless is often far more compassionate than the laws they are called to enforce.
It is not that this ordinance will be effective in any way. According to The Dallas Morning News, from April 2003 through November 2005, 2,652 tickets were written for begging.
During that period, only eight people paid their fines. More than 500 citations ended with the recipients serving jail time. Those recipients will have an even harder time finding work, as they now have a record. In this way, the ordinance does not alleviate but perpetuates homelessness, a tragedy in and of itself.
The greatest tragedy of this ordinance is its contribution to the myth that the presence of the poor equals a threat to our safety. This is simply not true.
Our safety is threatened not by the poor, but by evil. Evil is present along the entire spectrum of society. It is present in middle-class neighborhoods in Carrollton, where a man recently shot his family and himself. It is present in University Park, where drugs and alcohol continue to claim the lives of students at SMU. It is present in southeast Dallas, where a 15-year-old was killed in a gang-related shooting last week. It is present in too many churches, where a blind eye is turned to abuse.
It is indeed present among the homeless population, but no more there than the rest of society. It is also present in us when we see another human being as a threat simply because that person is poor.
Ordinances against begging contribute nothing to the safety of the affluent but certainly take away from the safety of the poor, who are scapegoats for the challenges facing downtown Dallas. Perpetuation of the myth of a threat posed by the homeless puts the poor – and all who serve them – in jeopardy. Once we name them as a threat to our safety, we can justify any activity to oppress them in the name of security. That is a tragedy.
The presence of the homeless calls us not to be afraid, but compassionate. Every major world religion calls its adherents to give alms to the poor. Our city just effectively outlawed the practice. Dallas is filled with generous people working hard to extend compassion, as evidenced by the support of Stewpot and the many ministries serving the poor of Dallas, as well as the evolution of the Homeless Assistance Center.
Last week's City Council meeting serves as a reminder that compassion is not the only force at work with regard to our homeless neighbors. What force will prevail in Dallas, compassion or fear?
The Rev. Joseph J. Clifford is pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Dallas.
What a wonderful opportunity you created for thoughtful discussion, Larry, when you posted Tami's email! God Bless you, and every single person who takes the time to write, read, think, care, act and, most of all, LOVE.
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