Poverty Volunteer

[Brad Fox]

God speaking to Cain:  “Where is your brother?”

Cain’s reply:  “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Silence. 

 

Jesus’ question of the expert in the law after telling the story of the Good Samaritan: “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

 

My first intentional experiences with the homeless began in Ensenada, Mexico, while on a youth mission trip in 2005 with high school students from my church.  We had been visiting a tourist attraction on the coast where I encountered a homeless Mexican man asking for money.  I asked if I could buy him lunch instead, and he agreed to the offer.  Spontaneously, several of the youth arrived to observe the situation.  They were absorbed with knowing about this man’s situation as they had never encountered a homeless person before.  I translated for him, telling the students that he lived nearby and was homeless because he couldn’t find work and hadn’t been able to do so for quite some time.  We invited him to ride with us back to the field where he lived, and the students were eager to pray over him as he exited the van. 

 

This experience changed the entire focus of the mission trip.  Typically, we had presented a Vacation Bible School experience for the children in a small barrio surrounding a neighborhood church and performed construction jobs for that church and neighboring homes.  Now, the students themselves generated a brown-bag lunch program for the homeless and set up teams who each day would drive to the town center, search out homeless folks and gift them with lovingly prepared lunches. 

One evening, as we finished eating at one of the fish taco stands down by the water, we decided to stroll the tourist zone adjacent to the harbor looking for souvenirs and fire crackers, a taboo in the U.S. but an delightful pastime in Mexico.  Since it was Valentine’s Day weekend, one of the boys had decided to do something lovely for the girls, so he bought a long-stemmed red rose for each one.  The girls were thrilled and each one treasured her special flower.  As we walked, we encountered an older man (Eusebio) standing in one of the darkened vestibules of a closed shop.  The students encouraged me to engage him as they thought he might possibly be a homeless person.  Being the only Spanish speaker in the group, I asked his name and other basic questions about his background.  He too had been underemployed for many years, lost touch with his family and was a stranger in this town.  The students were intrigued.  They wanted me to ask him if he needed food and he replied that indeed he was hungry.  We agreed to feed him whatever he wanted at the local McDonald’s and we did.  Even though the students could not directly speak to him, he was able to “read” the expressions of love on their faces.  Escorting him back to the storefront where we had found him, one of the girls, Branche, offered him her rose as a token of love and support.  And she asked if she could hug him.

 

Understand, I was the only one able to translate between Eusebio and the kids.  He responded to me in his native Spanish that he would indeed welcome her gesture of touch because he hadn’t been touched by another person for 25 years! 

 

In the brief seconds it took me to formulate my translation, I realized the impact of her words on him, and the impact his words would have on them.  It was a sacred moment, to say the least.  I felt as if I was an electrical cable conducting 50,000 volts of love!

 

When I told them his response, it literally took the breath out of all of us, and we proceeded to melt into the sidewalk in a puddle mixed with sadness and joy!  Branche did in fact hug him in a way that I’m sure made up for those lost 25 years.  The other students joined in the hug fest as well.  We were all overwhelmed with the experience.  Later, we said our goodbyes as the hour was late, but the students pledged to never forget Eusebio and to work to help people like him when we returned home. 

 

Later that year (2005) I decided to investigate the possibility of leading church youth trips to the San Diego city downtown area in order to meet more homeless people and to learn more about their lives and struggles to survive.  I collaborated with the City of Refuge mission agency to arrange 24-hour weekend trips for this purpose.  Typically, I would meet students after school on a Friday and we would drive to the East Village or courthouse/jail districts to engage the homeless in conversation.  We had previously prepared 1-gallon bags of hygiene supplies to give away and use as a kind of introduction for ourselves as well as a conversation starter.  We learned much about the homelessness issue from our times on the streets. 

 

Talking to folks, we were able to associate a face, a name and a life with homelessness.  Sometimes we felt like we weren’t getting through; like we were just talking to the alcohol or substance coursing through their veins.  Other times we were regaled with wonderful life stories of struggle, fleeting victories and grinding defeats.  We learned that some of our new friends were homeless because of job losses, divorce or other relational difficulties, medical issues, finances, mental illness, learning disabilities and struggles with addiction.  At times we had to listen to contrived stories of fame, shame, fortune and destruction.  We never were able to get a word in edgewise and had to uncomfortably excuse ourselves.  We were preached to.  We had blessings conferred upon us.  We blessed them.  During the week of the Ferguson shooting, we had two young black men come up to us and ask for prayers.  They didn’t want to divulge why they needed the prayer, but they said that our words and kindness had drawn them to us.  As we talked and shared life with the homeless on San Diego’s streets, we marveled at so called “drive by” missionaries who faithfully passed out sandwiches and water each weekend, but never sat down to learn “from” and “with” them.  We also noticed the Friday night revelers transiting our area to get to the Gaslamp eateries and entertainment venues.  Those well-dressed patrons avoided our eyes and those of our homeless friends.  It gave us a feel for how ignored and forgotten a person can be in our society.

 

One of the most impactful statements I have ever heard about homelessness was delivered by an older San Diego woman by the name of Bernice.  Sitting on the sidewalk next to her, I tried to learn about her circumstances and understand another piece of the homeless puzzle.  As a standard opening line, I asked “How long have you been homeless?”  She responded that she wasn’t homeless; she was houseless!  She pointed out several of her friends resting nearby who are her “home.”  For her, people provide an essential sheltering of love, protection and support which surpassed anything a house can confer.  I have never forgotten that perspective and it informs everything I do in my work for the homeless.  

 

Fast forwarding 12 years, I became involved with the homelessness situation in my own hometown of Fallbrook.  Two of my fellow church members came to me with questions about how to help a particular homeless person or address the homelessness situation in general.  I didn’t have an answer for them, even though I was the resident homelessness “authority” on campus. 

 

Then came the Hepatitis A epidemic in the fall of 2017.  Wanting to do what I could for my community, and feeling the threat of contamination on my San Diego trips, I sought out help from County agencies on obtaining a porta-potty and handwashing station for an area of town which was home to a majority of our homeless folks.  The County was very eager to help and offered to install said equipment.  But when their engineers showed up to find a site for positioning the equipment, they were told by a community leader that “you need to pack up and leave because you didn’t consult us first about installing it!” 

 

Now as a biologist with cellular lab experience, I have an appreciation for and an intimate knowledge of viral infections, I couldn’t understand how a person in their right mind could consider rejecting physical help in the face of an epidemic.  So, I asked myself, “who speaks for Fallbrook?”  It has become an all-consuming quest for me as I moved on to the next part of my work with the homeless. 

 

In the winter of 2017 I convened a team of 8 people from my church who had expressed some interest in establishing a ministry to help the homeless.  We called ourselves the Fallbrook Homeless Advocacy.  We were “babes in the woods” except for the clarity of Scripture which made it obvious that we were commanded to love others.  As we transitioned into the spring of 2018, some of us joined the Alliance for Regional Solutions which is a consortium of 9 North County cities and agencies who are working to address homelessness issues.  We attended conferences and committee meetings.  We participated. We visited homeless food bank, feeding and shelter programs of churches and non-profits.  We visited a homeless shower trailer program and started raising money for our own.  We read and shared homelessness literature.  We participated in a homelessness simulation hosted by SD County which taught us about the frustrations and hopelessness of being homeless and poor.  We set up a social media account and started to engage the community in helping specific individuals in town who showed some willingness to rehabilitate their lives.  We set up educational tables at a community event.  We continued to meet and challenge each other with new ideas.  And we visited and talked with the homeless on their own turf.

 

In early 2018 we started a homeless outreach event held every third Friday of the month where we provide good, clean used clothing, hot food, hygiene packs, sleeping bags, and blankets and offer haircuts, prayer, counseling and case management through the McAlister Institute.  Just recently, we traveled to observe a successful transitional housing program in Riverside County.  There we learned about the material, regulatory, financial, programmatic and relational set-up of such a housing program.  Subsequent to that observation, one of our contacts offered to buy a house for us in Fallbrook that we could use to shelter our own homeless without assigning them to life away from their hometown.  We are currently in the process of furnishing that house and screening potential candidates for housing here.  Our first homeless male tenant just spent the night there yesterday.  One of our team members is considering opening up a women’s shelter with her own resources.  It is an exciting time!

 

The fundamental core of our program is spending time and sharing life with homeless folks to let them know that we care and are invested in their success.  Our work is mainly about establishing relationship so that we can build trust with homeless folks over time.  From there we can help them with the resources we have, plus help them navigate the County resources that are available and appropriate for them.  We have so far helped 3 people get off the streets and into rehab and/or transitional housing and are working with several others. 

 

Recently, I finished a college sociology class through Palomar College.  One distinctive concept about deviance has helped me to see the structural causes of homelessness and poverty versus the personal causes.  Part of my job is to work with community and County leaders to answer questions, educate about homeless issues and innovate programs and make repairs to existing programs that help the homeless.  In that capacity, I have found many course concepts to be illuminating and instructive.

 

For instance, in the chapter dealing with Deviance, I was astounded to find a 2 x 2 matrix of Merton’s Strain Theory (figure 8-1).  That matrix greatly helped me understand the motivations and goals of the variety of homeless people I know and serve. 

Figure 8–1 Merton’s Strain Theory of Deviance

Combining a person’s view of cultural goals and the conventional means to obtain them allowed Robert Merton to identify various types of deviance.

Terry and Tulley are two chronically alcoholic men who were some of the first people I got to know on the streets here in Fallbrook.  Merton’s theory helped me see these two as Retreatists who have largely given up on society (and themselves) by rejecting both the conventional means of citizenship and its cultural goals.  They are polite to a degree, but very rejecting of help and encouragement, preferring instead to criticize others and society.  Cody, our “poster lady” for homeless, is a cooperative, thoughtful, helpful, happy person who has given up on achieving the goals of participation in society but strains daily to pursue the means to success.  She is a Ritualist.  She keeps herself fastidiously clean, participates in our committee and makes valuable contributions, exercises and keeps to herself.  She maintains a very prim and proper appearance and maintains her pickup truck home with care.  She is a delightful homeless person who happens to be bipolar and knows it, but cannot get on track for employment or housing.  Still, she tries.  Rich, Nick, Seth, and Bobby are young men (2 of them are former students of mine!) who are living large and enjoying the vagabond life.  They get beaten down by the weather at times, but usually are very energetic and idealistic about their existence.  Every day is a day of drama, socializing and sometimes, drug use and sales.  They camp out in the outlying areas of town and have a variety of equipment and entertainment devices to make their lives sufficiently pleasurable.  They are Innovators according to Merton; they reject conventional societal means to success but seem to envision achieving societal goals, nonetheless.  They appear to be constructing their own society that is parallel to the larger society.  Lastly, there is Dave.  Dave was the very first homeless person I met in town.  I helped him by buying food for him at various stores and restaurants as he had been banned from those establishments due to his septic appearance and condition.  I helped him get to the hospital during those times when his health declined precipitously and even advocated for him with the Veteran’s Administration, getting him admitted to the V.A. hospital for treatment of his alcoholism and brain damaged behavior.  Dave is in jail now (probably the best place for him to be under current conditions) but through Merton’s theory I was able to see him as a “Rebel” who has thoroughly rejected society’s means and goals for participation, success and happiness.  He blazes his own cultural path, and people need to get out of his way.  Dave’s favorite saying when confronted with adversity or correction is “I don’t give a F@#*.”  Merton’s idea that sometimes too much deviance can be a bad thing reminds me of Dave.

 

Some of the course's readings on poverty and homelessness were valuable and provocative for me.  Reading in chapter 9 about the research of Oscar Lewis “blaming the individual,” I can relate to this view in that I hear it a lot from uninformed, prejudiced people.  As an educator who has worked with children and youth from grades K-12, I know that some students are lacking in social and learning skills which would enable them to get good jobs.  Simply put, they lack brains that can enable them to seek and hold onto a well-paying work.  Or they are undergoing extreme stress from parents at home or have very poor adult role models, if any.  I do understand and support the notion that we can’t always blame the individual for their poverty or homelessness.  But I also know students and homeless folk who are very resourceful at creating a “victim” narrative for themselves and hiding behind it.  Then again, what are we to do with the 1/3 of homeless estimated to be disabled, another 1/3 severely addicted to substances or the 1% of people who just can’t cope with a complex, competitive society?  Or the 35% of homeless comprised of families?  I often want to ask homeless “haters” which homeless they hate!  Do they hate homeless children who make up the greatest number of that group?

 

On the other hand, when I read William Julius Wilson’s research holding “society primarily responsible” for homelessness, I resonate with that reasoning too.  As one who conservatively consumes media, culture and material goods, I am astounded at the narcissism and materialism of many in our society.  The lack of compassion and understanding of some is almost incomprehensible.  I chalk it up to ignorance, sometimes incidental but often intentional.  I see the wastefulness in government programs (Fallbrook is considering funding private guards in our historic business district to keep the area clear of homeless) and often wonder if such money could be more effectively spent for rehabbing the homeless.  Our textbook author took the viewpoint that it’s a matter of jobs and housing availability, and while I do see these as vital components for the restoration of homeless and poor people, I don’t think that they are sufficient.  Perhaps his comments about relative and absolute poverty are significant here.  I have traveled many countries in Asia and Africa and I have seen a level of poverty in those places that is far removed from what I see here.  One of the big surprises I got when I first started working with the poor here in America is that food is relatively easy to get when living on the streets.  Most of the people I work with Have EBT cards (electronic benefit transfer) and can buy about $200 worth of food per month.  There are also many food banks available which can be used to supplement any food that is purchased.  But what I see is that many homeless prefer to buy fast food rather than eat packaged room temperature food.  So the relative poverty I see here is nothing like the absolute poverty I see in Third world countries.  Still, I feel that one should try to erase poverty wherever it is encountered.

 

The feature of poverty and homelessness that I didn’t see discussed in Macionis’ book was the relational aspect.  I know that some of the homeless I deal with can’t imagine returning to a life of work or a home until someone believes in them.  Here, perhaps, the “blame” of homelessness and poverty lies not with its victims or the society that keeps them victimized, but with us who fail to come alongside and encourage them.  We can stand with our arms folded and criticize the homeless for not jumping through the hoop of respectability or we can stand back and insist that “somebody else” take charge and do something about homelessness and poverty.  Or we can roll up our sleeves, get personally involved, and start talking and networking with each other to reclaim lost lives.  It’s difficult, confusing, frustrating, and exhausting to work with the homeless.  Often it seems we have been defeated in our best efforts only to find out that good people have come through for us or situations have miraculously changed for the better.  Sometimes it’s the opposite.  But we always keep trying, because people are worth it. 

 

After all, they are our “brothers” and neighbors.  But we’re definitely not their “keepers.”