Fundamental Quiet

Poor people move in quiet ways that spotlights need, edgy hopelessness and resignation.

I've noticed it again and again.  The struggle to overcome the moment robs folks of voice, agency and hope.  Poverty poses an existential threat to those forced to battle it. 

Few choices emerge beyond daily struggle.  The struggle can seem crushing, sapping energy as well as voice from life after life. 

But poor folks walk on with rare exceptions in the quiet.  Loud voices represent a minority report.  Those determined to overcome, to persevere, save their energy by retreating into almost silent places.  The few boisterous voices signal at least the edges of mental illness and its extreme despair. 

Our large courtyard at the Opportunity Center serves as a laboratory for the study of quiet.  People sit and rest.  Or, they walk about without a sound.  Poverty produces voiceless life. 

Yet, I've noted  many times that when a person feels respected, the desire for conversation returns. Usually the words are found to tell a  personal story, as if even the appearance of appreciation unlocks a room for evaluating options and life once more. 

Still, the volume tends toward the lower settings, but voice can be rediscovered if others seek to hear and to learn out of basic respect for a fellow traveler. 

The silence can lead to deeper depression, unless someone comes seeking to hear the voices of others, extremely important voices. 

When respect interrupts the silence, hope returns. 

How do we take conversation to scale? 

Building spaces for cultivating respect inevitably leads to breaking the hard silence. 

I Fight!

[Michael Guinn works at CitySquare as a life coach to youth who age out of the Texas foster care system.  He is extremely effective at what he does.  What follows reveals just what's behind his fierce dedication to his work and to the young people he touches.]


I Fight!
                                                                                                                                                   
Do you know what it’s like to want and can’t have? To be so hungry that you eat dirt so you don’t feel  so…empty!  Do you know what it’s like to not have running water, to do homework by candlelight. To steal and lie and hustle to help out your family?

I do.                                                                            

And some nights skinny then reminds bigger now of the times when he brought home food found at the landfill, fished for compliments and crawdads, sold squirrel and black birds to pay for school clothes.                                                  

And yesterday I wondered! What good is my master’s degree if I can’t even master me?

See I fight …for the father who desperately wants to provide. But in shame he cries in the shadows of his own pride.                                                                                                                   

I fight… for the mother who stands in welfare lines, wanting more, defined by less knowing that this is not her best.

I fight.. . for the son whose hunger pangs are so loud that he can’t focus on his lesson so he sits embarrassed by his stomach’s angry confession.

I fight…for the daughter wearing hand me down smiles and borrowed blues forced to wear too tight shoes.

I fight ...for grandparents on fixed incomes feeding mama’s children when baby’s daddy runs.

I fight, I live and I learn to shape dreams from the fist of poverty’s grip as I fuse the light in their eyes with mine and pray to God to help them find hope inside.                  

And this ain’t easy! It is hard to lift self-esteem when dreams have been assaulted  and peppered  with despair so much so that they’ve forgotten to breathe freedom’s air.

And it’s not their fault that they were born verbs in past tense, unwilling subjects in sentences that kept on running. Fractured by the manner in which the wind whistled and blew down their future, I fight because I don’t want their existence to be another statistic on the back page of history.  I don’t want their lives to end up camouflaged chalk lines, lost in the shaded silhouette of a lonely bulls-eye searching for another target!

I didn’t choose this fight, this fight chose me. And I want my example to foster a deep desire for survival no matter how loudly suicide speaks of rivers. Because I believe that if they see my love and feel my soul reaching out to them that this simple act of kindness will change their lives forever.

And now that I’ve made peace with this section 8 hate, now that I’ve overcome the demons of then... I know that every time I find a new resource, service, home I am reconnecting the dots of frowns and turning them into smiles. People ask why do I fight poverty with so much energy and passion? And I tell them it’s because I know that I am still fighting for that little boy inside of me!

Michael Guinn

TRAC PSH Coach at CitySquare

May 17^th 2016

A radical word, now all but forgotten. . .

Poverty Is Not the Problem

For Jesus, it is clear, poverty is not the problem; it is the solution. Until human beings learn to live in naked contact and direct simplicity and equality with each other, sharing all resources, there can be no solution to the misery of the human condition and no establishment of God’s kingdom. Jesus’ radical and paradoxical sense of who could and who could not enter the Kingdom is even more clearly illustrated by his famous praise of children.

Andrew Harvey
Source: Son of Man

Building stuff

Building stuff is hard.

We've been through the process several times now.  It never gets easier.

Thursday we are set to open our new Opportunity Center.  We really aren't ready to open, but we decided two months ago that this Thursday would be the day.  Two of our three partners are operational.  We need to get moved in, and we will make it.  But, it's not been easy. 

The project itself has been a challenge. 

Thanks to so many private donors, we've been able to construct a very funky, urban cool structure at one of the major gateways to South Dallas-Fair Park.  From the beginning we were committed to developing a first class community center that would gather resources and partners to deliver a collective impact on one of the poorest areas of Dallas. 

When you work among "the poor," folks who possess limited material resources, you have to make peace with changes in vision even in mid-stream!  I've signed off on multiple change orders, all of which seemed justifiable at the time, given the circumstances. 

But who really knows?

What I do know for certain is that we care for people consigned to lives in "the surround" of poverty.  In fact, it's not too much to say that we love them.  They are our friends, our neighbors, people who are worth our highest and best efforts and resources.  The "poor" are our very best partners and they are experts on the subject of poverty.

And, I know our new center will make a huge, transformative difference in the lives of the people who enter its doors. 

That certainty makes all the uncertainty and difficulty seem very, very small indeed. 

Managed chaos

Earl Shorris speaks of "the surround" of life experienced by persons who live in low-income families, communities and realities (see Riches for the Poor:  The Clement Course in the Humanities).  In "the surround" of poverty, people scratch and struggle and fight to survive in ways that the majority of the non-poor population cannot begin to understand. In such a social and personal context, space for calm thought comes at a premium and is exceptional, if it comes at all. 


People in "the surround" of poverty spend most of their energy, effort and strength managing the chaos that fills their lives.


Not long ago, I sat in a circle of a dozen men.  The group was part of a workforce training program designed to train and employ under-skilled, unemployed, ex-incarcerated men.  As part of the Monday morning "wake up" exercise, the leader asked each person share what kind of weekend they had enjoyed. 


Going around the circle, we heard how things had been since Friday.  As I listened, a couple of things struck me. 


First, every man who spoke told us what they had had to eat over the weekend.  Some went into great detail in describing how well or how poorly they had eaten.  Clearly, this was a group of men who had known hunger and want.  Their appreciation for a good meal pressed me hard, as I realized how thoughtless I am about how freely I eat and how I seldom miss a meal. 


Second, a few of the men described really traumatic situations that they had been in or near over their weekend.  One told of gang type fights he had observed and escaped as quickly as possible.  Another man after telling us of his meal, reported that his brother had been shot and seriously wounded.  He feared that his brother might be paralyzed due to the injury.  After sharing this troubling news, he pivoted quickly to talk about a football game he had enjoyed watching.  The juxtaposition of delight and agony and his ability to slide from one side of life to the other made me think of Shorris's notion of life in an unmanageable "surround" thrust on people by poverty. 


Working among, living near and loving "the poor" calls for new wisdom that must involve a new commitment to listening carefully, speaking less and displaying an honest, unknowing humility.  

Poverty mounts. . .

More evidence: Dallas must wake up!

Battling poverty--the complexity

Policy makers find it very hard, if not impossible to talk to one another across the widening socio-political chasm.  This appears especially the case when it comes to poverty and its alleviation. This inability to talk in light of largely unrecognized complexities makes the following compelling for me. 

So, how do we explain and understand why people are poor in the United States?  How about this as a starting point in answering this important question?

"Despite the conflicting nature of these left and right analyses, there is a strong case to be made that they are, in fact, complementary and that they reinforce each other. What if we put it together this way? Automation, foreign competition and outsourcing lead to a decline in well-paying manufacturing jobs, which, in turn, leads to higher levels of unemployment and diminished upward mobility, which then leads to fewer marriages, a rise in the proportion of nonmarital births, increased withdrawal from the labor force, impermanent cohabitation and a consequent increase in dependence on government support."

Read Thomas B. Edsall's opinion in his complete essay, "What Makes People Poor?"

Poverty in Dallas: an Urgent Matter

[What follows is the text of my opening statement last week before a briefing session of the Dallas City Council and Mayor Mike Rawlings.  During the almost 3-hour conversation, we presented the initial findings of the Mayor's Task Force on Poverty.  It feels like we are making progress.]

`About six months ago, Mayor Rawlings invited me to chair a task force on poverty for Dallas.  The objective was to identify 5-6 steps that could be taken quickly to create catalytic impact relative to the problem of poverty in Dallas. 

The mayor reminded us all that the short-term future of Dallas was bright for the next 5 years or so.  Beyond that line of sight, things didn’t look so certain; in fact, the outlook for the longer term appeared troubling.  The mayor understood that the surprising growth of poverty in Dallas posed a very real threat to our entire community, and that we had to find ways to pull together as one for the sake of all. 

Poverty affects and magnifies every other challenge we face as a city.  Public education, higher education, community health/wellness, employment skills matching available jobs, public safety, transportation, quality of life issues in neighborhoods, food deserts—you name the challenge, poverty intensifies the surrounding problems.

What you are about to hear is the product of the task force’s hard work.  Much of what you will hear should be unsettling to you.  It is to us.  In my view, Dallas is not only the “tale of two cities,” it is also the untold tale of one city—a city within a city defined by poverty, limited opportunity and an uncertain future; a city well acquainted with unrelenting “toxic stress.”  It is not acceptable for a city as full of wealth and opportunity as Dallas to be ranked as the 4^th poorest urban center in the United States just behind Detroit, Memphis and Philadelphia. 

Clearly the time has come to go to work with new vigor. 

Amazing growth in poverty. . .will we wake up?

This is amazing and disturbing.

Our current trajectory as a nation and an economy is not sustainable socially, economically, or morally.    

Simple fact:  Poverty must be reduced. 

Life without "Welfare"

What Happens If You Have No Welfare and No Job?

A new report from The Atlantic  looks at the devastating lengths single moms go to when they have neither employment nor cash assistance.

Olga Khazan

Jun 13 2014, 8:00 AM ET

 

                                          

A few weeks ago I wrote about how the welfare reform of the 1990s led to many poor mothers being kicked off welfare rolls. While some poor adults could still receive help from food stamps and disability insurance, the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act" dramatically cut how much cash aid they could collect. The hope was that they would find work, but many didn’t.

Meanwhile, spending on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, the only cash assistance program that non-disabled, non-elderly, poor single mothers are eligible for, has dropped precipitously: It was lower in 2007 than it had been in 1970.

That left me wondering—what happened to the moms who had neither jobs nor cash assistance through TANF, which comes with strict time limits?

Read the entire report here.

Lest we forget. . .

FACTS:

1 in 4 Dallas residents live in poverty.

1 in 3 Dallas children live in poverty.

Over 1 in 4 Dallas residents is "food insecure" (euphemism for "hungry").

Almost no one in Dallas receives "welfare" benefits (7,611 persons receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families or TANF).

Almost 90% of DISD students take are eligible for the free and reduced lunch program in school.

Almost 73% of students in the various Dallas County ISDs are eligible for the free and reduced lunch benefit.

Dallas ranks 4th in poverty behind Detroit, Memphis and Philadelphia.

27% of Dallas adults have no high school diploma.

Dallas residents more likely to be in poverty than in the United States' other 20 largest cities.

In 3 zip code areas 60% of the population lives in poverty.

33.3% of residents in my zip code area live in poverty.

The federal poverty level for a family of 4 is $23,550 or $64 a day.

10% of Dallas residents (1 in 10) live below 50% of the federal poverty line.

OBSERVATIONS:

Dallas is the richest poor city in the U. S.

People aren't poor because they are lazy, stupid or "sorry." 

People are poor due to gaps in skill sets, education/training; health issues, families of origin issues, life skills deficiencies, business reversals, human mistakes, and the accident of birth.  The zip code area in which one lives is a determinant of health outcomes.

To construct workable solutions and helpful approaches, we must learn to consult the people closest to the problems of poverty:  those who are poor themselves. 

We need to from robust, smart working groups and commissions on attacking poverty with a view to ROI for the entire community and a willingness to learn from other communities.

We need to noodle on ideas that allow Dallas' trade reps and corporate recruiters to bring deals home that serve, employ and empower folks who are currently battling poverty.

We must face the fact that real progress will involve "over investment" or remedial strategies to really leverage change.

We need to realize that investments made at the bottom of our socio-economic structure are dollars that swirl quickly to benefit everyone in the city.

Attention needs to be given to micro industries and entrepreneurial options for low income persons with big, good ideas about work and business.

A goal for Dallas County:  that every child born here leaves the hospital with a savings accouint and a path to the establishment of an Individual Development Account (IDA).

We need to find ways to provide low-income, working neighbors access to capital/credit on reasonable terms.

We must address state and city mental health funding gaps.

We must insist that Texas expand Medicaid.

I don't care! Really?

Wendy

I met Wendy on "the Corner" over a year ago. 

At the time, she "lived" in the old, abandoned house behind the Merandino brothers service station at Louise and Malcolm X Boulevard. 

For several months I tried to engage her in conversation, but she was extremely non-responsive.  She avoided me no matter what I did. 

On more than one occasion, I observed her talking to herself--later I realized that she was discussing how to deal with me and what to make of my presence, my bottled water, and my afternoon snacks.

My preliminary judgment was that she was dealing with some sort of fairly severe mental illness and/or possibly alcohol or substance abuse. 

As the months wore on, Wendy became more and more approachable.  I finally figured out that Wendy wasn't severely mentally ill at all, and she wasn't addicted to anything, except food and laundry money, neither of which she had as often as needed! 

She appeared to be alone on the streets (hold onto this idea and keep reading!).

Estranged from her mother and family, she had some fairly deeply rooted "trust issues" when it came to people, especially men.

She resisted shelters, mainly because submitting to their rules and routine would have meant surrendering the last vestige of dignity and self-respect that remained in her life.  She was grateful for the place to sleep, even though it had no benefit of functioning utilities.  At least, on most nights, she was sheltered, dry and protected from the harshest parts of street life. 

To be frank, my connection to Wendy opened up for the first time after I overheard her ask a guy on the street if she could "borrow" a cigarette.  After hearing the request, I walked over to the service station and purchased a pack of Kools.  When I handed them to Wendy, I thought she was going to faint.  The fact that I gave her what she asked for without conditions or judgment seemed to blow her away, especially coming from me. 

As I got better acquainted with her, I began to provide small gifts of cash and food to help her survive.  She can stretch $20 farther than anyone I think I've ever met. 

Wendy now has an apartment very near my house in Old East Dallas.  She's off "the Corner."  Well, sort of. 

On most Thursdays, when I go to "the Corner," I see Wendy.  In talking with her about her new home, she always makes it clear to me that she comes back to her old neighborhood because that is where her friends remain.  I've experienced this time and again.  Homeless persons who work out housing, often simply cannot just walk away from their friends no matter how good their personal fortunes may have turned. 

Community trumps personal progress on the streets. 

Wendy is a hoot! 

She is a friend. 

I'm glad I know her. 

I expect we'll see even more of her once CitySquare's new Opportunity Center opens later this year. 

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings speaks to poverty's threat/challenge

Here's a very interesting interview with Dallas Mayor, Mike Rawlings.

What he says about the challenge and threat of poverty to our community is worth your  time.

Serious words to ponder.

Go here to listen.

Understanding the decisions "poor people" make--or, moving into another's world

Want to "get inside" the mind, soul and life of a chronically low-income person?  Here's how her story/essay aims to help us understand that which can only be truly understood from her position:

There's no way to structure this coherently. They are random observations that might help explain the mental processes. But often, I think that we look at the academic problems of poverty and have no idea of the why. We know the what and the how, and we can see systemic problems, but it's rare to have a poor person actually explain it on their own behalf. So this is me doing that, sort of.

To read more click here.

Publishers Weekly Review. . .

[The following review appeared recently in Publishers Weekly.]

The Wealth of the Poor: How Valuing Every Neighbor Restores Hope in Our Cities

Larry M. James

Abilene Christian University Press

$24.99 trade paper (288p)

ISBN 978-0-89112-380-4

 

        

 

When most people think of Dallas, they don't think poverty. This captivating memoir by first-time author James, a Church of Christ minister before heading up CitySquare (formerly Central Dallas Ministries) reveals what the Big D's 28 percent inner-city poverty rate looks like at home. James and CitySquare approach economically poor neighborhoods by first identifying their critical assets—social capital, survival skills, indigenous knowledge, and capacity for change—in a process James calls "re-neighboring." Skillfully blending social entrepreneurism, an adroit acquaintance with urban planning policies, and a profound love for his neighbors, James and CitySquare are not only lifting individuals out of poverty, but economically revitalizing neighborhoods by incubating for-profit microenterprises, including landscaping, a used-car lot, and even solar power. Readers move seamlessly through James' hard-won lessons, biblical insights, and engaging community profiles to a deeper theological point about hope and the gospel. While some of James' examples may not translate well beyond Dallas, his fresh engagement with the practicalities of "loving one's neighbor" in an era of austerity will inspire readers everywhere. (May)

Reviewed on: 06/17/2013

Poverty pictured. . .

Poverty--understanding scale

The following appeared in Blacklisted News.  Lots to think about here!

100 Million Poor People In America And 39 Other Facts About Poverty That Will Blow Your Mind
July 25, 2012

Source: Michael Snyder, BLN Contributing Writer

Every single day more Americans fall into poverty. This should deeply alarm you no matter what political party you belong to and no matter what your personal economic philosophy is. Right now, approximately 100 million Americans are either “poor” or “near poor.”  For a lot of people “poverty” can be a nebulous concept, so let’s define it. 

The poverty level as defined by the federal government in 2010 was $11,139 for an individual and $22,314 for a family of four. Could you take care of a family of four on less than $2000 a month? Millions upon millions of families are experiencing a tremendous amount of pain in this economy, and no matter what “solutions” we think are correct, the reality is that we all should have compassion on them. Sadly, things are about to get even worse. . . .

The following are 40 facts about poverty in America that will blow your mind….

#1 In the United States today, somewhere around 100 million Americans are considered to be either “poor” or “near poor”.

#2 It is being projected that when the final numbers come out later this year that the U.S. poverty rate will be the highest that it has been in almost 50 years.

#3 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be either “low income” or impoverished.

#4 Today, one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the poverty level.

#5 According to the Wall Street Journal, 49.1 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives financial benefits from the government. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#6 It is projected that about half of all American adults will spend at least some time living below the poverty line before they turn 65.

#7 Today, there are approximately 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.

#8 During 2010, 2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

#9 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of “very poor” rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.

#10 Since Barack Obama became president, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by 6 million and the number of Americans on food stamps has risen by 14 million.

#11 Right now, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#12 It is projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age.

#13 The poverty rate for children living in the United States is 22 percent, although when the new numbers are released in the fall that number is expected to go even higher.

#14 One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars a year.

#15 Households that are led by a single mother have a 31.6% poverty rate.

Continue reading here.

Poverty. . .

I’ve lived in the inner city for almost 14 years.  As a result, poverty is no longer an abstraction for me. 

Poverty feels like a crushing weight. 

Poverty inspires fear. 

Poverty gets personal real fast. 

Poverty sucks the life out of a person one day, one hour, one block at a time. 

Poverty is contagious. 

Like a cancer, poverty can grow wildly, quickly. 

Poverty leads to death, death of hope and spirit. 

Poverty is anti-family. 

Poverty humiliates. 

Poverty breeds hopelessness.

Poverty is unjust—you’ll find no fairness underneath the surface of poverty. 

Poverty inflicts cruelty. 

Poverty is inhumane. 

Poverty wrecks lives here and now. 

Poverty leads the way to generations of suffering and defeat. 

My faith tells me. . .

. . . my experience tells me,

. . . my friendships tell me,

. . . my abundance tells me,

. . . my heart tells me that poverty must not go unchallenged. 

If I am a human being made in God’s image, I must respond to the terrible reality of poverty and the suffering it inflicts. 

Working among the poor is a war. 

Not everyone can be here. 

We are. 

We need your help in the battle that rages around us every day. 

It’s real simple. 

Will you help us today?