Housing First. . .and Human Rights (Part III)

As I noted last Friday, over the next several days I intend to share a message that I recently delivered to a group of people who wanted to talk about housing for our homeless neighbors.  I will break it down into bite-sized pieces.  And, as always, I invite conversation.  

Efforts to end homelessness in Dallas face a number of obstacles, most of which appear in the form of what I call "unsatisfying half measures."  Here's another of those:

In Dallas, and in a  number of other American cities, one may observe a growing, strident, mean-spirited legal bias working against the homeless poor.  This emerging, swelling bias makes the state of living without the benefits of a home illegal.  Many of the practical problems and choices facing homeless persons lead to "criminal acts," as defined by those with the bias problem.  Criminalizing homelessness and poverty is an aggressive half measure that gets us no where in terms of solving the housing crisis facing the poorest among us. 

Here is a list of typical "criminal infractions" committed by persons who live on the streets:

• Loitering
• Panhandling or begging
• Sleeping outside on public or private property
• Relieving oneself out doors
• Trespassing to access a place to sit down, lie down or simply rest
• Vagrancy
• Sitting on benches in front of or in proximity to private office buildings downtown. 

A friend of mine, who has been homeless for a long time, once told me that his life was like "an endless parade."  Up early, he hit the streets walking basically the same daily circuit.  Every day he had three fundamental objectives.  First, to find something to eat.  Second, to find somewhere to use a restroom. Third, locating a safe place to rest.  On a daily basis, these three objectives defined his life mission.  

It is very difficult from a "life platform" like his to find the traction needed to escape the "parade."  

Our bias is killing the poorest among us.  

Permanent, supportive housing reduces crime, saves public funds and responds to a huge problem with humanity and moral soundness. 

Could hell be any hotter, good news any sweeter?

Thursday, August 29, 2013
4:09 p.m.

Just left the Corner where the temperature on my Jeep read 111.

If hell is hotter, I don't want to go!

The crowd of neighbors at the Corner was the largest to date.

Everyone was hot and thirsty.

Wendy, my friend, rushed me as I got out of my car wanting to know if I had the papers needed to get a copy of her birth certificate. We've been working on this project for a while.  If you've lost all of the documents proving you are who you say you are, how to you move forward?

Without the papers I can see how I might begin to think that in fact I'm nobody.

I worked down the list on the papers that I received from the state that instructed her as to what she would need since she had no documents proving who she was.  It is complicated.  No one could do this alone, including me.  Reality for the poorest of the poor.

Attitudes out on the Corner amaze me.

A smiling white dude in a cowboy hat walked up, shook my hand and replied to my inquiry as to how he was doing saying, "If I was any better, I couldn't stand it!"

He then begin to talk about his faith and his walk with God.

I thought of the church folk who are so quick to ask me if any "ministry" takes place in our work.

I'd say it does.

Except it's the homeless poor ministering to me, every single time.

At one point as I looked across the red hot pavement of Malcolm X Boulevard, I spotted a homeless black man assisting a blind, Latino man to the bus stop.  Community defined by compassion.

Preaching broke out when Robert, a regular at the Corner, told the story of Jesus and the woman caught in the act of adultery.

"'Who among you is without sin?' is what Jesus asked," the street preacher said.  "And everybody started mumbling and finally said, 'I'll catch y'all tomorrow.'"

"Yep," I replied, "they all started dropping rocks!"

"My favorite story, my very, most favorite!" Robert said.

Ministry, indeed.

Ice cold water,

Gatorade.

Snacks.

Someone to simply pat my back, tell me that I matter and urge me to be careful. Sincere thank yous tossed back into your heart.

Good news, in a very limited way, but good news just the same to the poverty in all of us.

I know these people. . .

Homeless persons live all around us.

Unfortunately, they remain, for the most part, invisible people.

Spend just a few moments losing yourself in this gallery of photos. 

Warning:  be prepared for some emotions.

As you watch, do your very best to simply "see" them, as you imagine the outline of their lives. 

Such power resides in simple attention to others.

Street Stuff

My friend Roger once told me that his life on the street was like one, long, unending parade from morning until night.  I'll always remember how he described the "parade route." 

If in a night shelter, awakened at about 5-5:30 a.m. and rousted out of the facility. 

On the sidewalk now the day's journey begins. 

You walk in circles often.  Your mission simple:  find a place to eat, find something to eat, find the money needed to do both of those activities. 

Find a place to stop and rest--try walking all day long he told me.  Find a place to rest where you won't be targeted as a nuisance by the police or business owners.

Find a place to take care of the necessities of the day--toilet, sink, mirror, etc.  Find such a place where you won't get into trouble with anyone. Find even a moment or two of privacy, a scarce commodity on the street.

Keep walking and time the parade so that you find lunch and dinner before retreating into a shelter at an appointed time, The Bridge or an alley, often the night lodging of choice by homeless persons really weary of being told what to do about everything.

Through it all, keep up with your possessions.  Stolen possessions is a major problem on the street before, during and after the parade. 

"Larry, people just don't know," he told me as he concluded a much more graphic description of his daily "parade." 

Of course, he's right. 

We don't know.

Good reason to listen, I'd say.

When ya gotta go, ya gotta go, okay?

Please forgive me for being less than delicate in this post, but there is just no other way to tell this one. 

Last Monday as I pulled into my parking slot in the under-building parking garage at CityWalk@ Akard where CitySquare has its administrative offices, I noticed a man exiting the garage from the corner nearest my assigned parking spot. 

Strange, I thought.  What was he up to?

He was nicely dressed in black slacks and a pressed white shirt.  He carried a package of some sort in this hands, possibly an attache or a portfolio.  He avoided all eye contact as I pulled in.  I noted that he left in a bit of a rush. 

After parking my car I discovered why he had been in the parking garage and, more particularly, why he had been in such a hurry, as well as what he had been doing. 

The evidence consisted of a pool of expanding liquid!  In short, this respectable Downtown business man had relieved himself  in our parking garage.  To be really clear he urinated in the corner. 

I feel compelled to report what I saw because my homeless brothers get tagged daily as the despicable people who urinate on the sidewalks and the storefront entrances of our downtown buildings. For the record I'm here to tell you it's not just the homeless people!  It's some of the rest of us as well. 

You figure out what that means inside your own worldview.  I just needed to let you know that we're all more alike than we care to admit far too often. 

One of the things I'm wondering now is whether or not our uninvited guest has made or could make a connection between his own "situation of necessity" and one of the most pressing, daily, fundamental challenges of residing on the streets of our city?  Likely he got caught in a real pinch.  My homeless friends spend a good bit of time every day searching for public restrooms or places of seclusion like our garage.  I hope the realization will come to him, if it hasn't already. 

What's really sad is that this gent rushed out, no doubt embarrassed, when he could have come inside and taken advantage of our facilities, along with the formerly homeless persons who call CityWalk "home."

I guess it didn't occur to him or, more likely, he doesn't know us.

Stigma

As I paid for my hot cup of coffee at the 7-11 located on the first floor of our CityWalk @Akard building, I noticed one of the checkout clerks eyeing a homeless man who had just exited the store.  The clerk's expression could have cut steel. 

The homeless man left the store and took a seat on the edge of the fountain wall just outside the door to rest a moment and drink his coffee. 

I heard the clerk tell his partner at the cash register, "Call the police." 

At some point during the engagement between that clerk and the homeless gentleman, the latter held up proof of payment or the other clerk informed his suspicious partner that the coffee had been paid for.  I didn't understand that was what had happened until I left the store and talked to the man.  He assured me that he had paid for the coffee. 

I noted as we spoke that he was shivering uncontrollably in the sub-freezing weather. 

I'm sure the clerk had experience to back up his concern about the man, the coffee and the business of buying and selling and not paying. 

But there was more going on in those few moments. 

I know disdain when I see it.  I can feel disgust when it is focused so clearly on another. 

The entire incident made me sad.

What would it be like to be so poor, so broken, so abandoned that others could immediately judge you as not worthy of common human decency or respect? 

What would living beneath that ever-present stigma be like? 

10 things you need to know to live on the streets. . .

Here is one of The Nation magazine's famous or infamous "Ten Things" columns.  Thanks to my friend, Don Williams for directing me to it. 

If you care about homelessness and homeless persons, you must read this one!  Just click here to do so.

As always, I'd love to hear your reactions.