Category Archives: homelessness

Every homeless person has a story, updated

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I linked to this remarkable story yesterday. Today, there’s been a wonderful development.

Of course, most stories don’t end like this. Thanks to Karen Hipp who forwarded this link to me, and wrote:

My aunt’s ex-husband was a brilliant PhD who taught at several universities, including the Sorbonne. He was also an addict and was homeless on several occasions during his life. It is a reminder to show compassion for all of God’s children, because we all DO have a story.

What continues to shock me, after nearly eighteen months in Madison, is the number of people made homeless because of medical issues. And that includes veterans. I’ve met them being dropped off by cabs from the VA hospital; with catheters or breathing tubes, looking for shelter for the night.

An innovative approach to homelessness

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An article in today’s NY Times about a new approach to homelessness. Building on the “housing first” initiative that begin in the 1990s, it views homelessness more as a public health crisis than as a nuisance. Homeless people have access to emergency rooms; they do not have access to ongoing care. And this is expensive. In LA, 4800 chronically homeless people (10% of LA’s total homeless population) consume a half-billion dollars worth of services each year.

These are shocking statistics:

Another thing that Common Ground discovered was that the homeless were an amalgam of many subgroups. They have now surveyed almost 14,000 chronically homeless people and found that roughly 20 percent are veterans, 10 percent are over the age of 60, 4 percent have H.I.V. or AIDS, 47 percent have a mental illness and 5 percent remain homeless because they can’t find housing with their pets.

For more on the 100,000 homes project, go here.

Shelter Renovations

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Today, Grace and Porchlight invited the community to a “Transformation Celebration” at the Men’s Drop-In Shelter.

Here’s an article from the Capital Times on the renovation

Following are the remarks I made at the event:

On behalf of Grace Episcopal Church, Porchlight, Epic Software Systems, the contractors, and especially all of the volunteers who have helped with the Men’s Drop-In Shelter over the years, I would like to thank you for coming. It was some twenty-five years ago that Grace first opened its doors to a shelter. That decision was for a one-year trial in response to a growing need in the city of Madison and Dane County. No one involved in making that decision then could have imagined that we would be standing here today.

Over the years, thousands of men have sought shelter here, thousands of people have volunteered with meals and in other ways. Grace has provided space; Porchlight and its predecessors have been involved in the day-to-day operations of the shelter; and the County, City, and State governments have provided funds, both for ongoing operations and for major renovations.

There are many people to thank today; and many of us will thank them. Porchlight, the people and vestry of Grace Church, the contractors and other workers, but especially Epic Software Systems. There is someone else who deserves our gratitude, however. Last February, Joe Tarr wrote an article in Isthmus entitled “Bleak House: Grace Episcopal’s Homeless Shelter.” In it, he raised concerns about conditions in the shelter. It aroused anger at Grace, at Porchlight and among the many volunteers who support the efforts here. He got an earful from me. The press is much maligned, but at its best it can rouse the slumbering consciences of a community or a nation. Joe’s article did that. Thank you.

It was a few days after the appearance of that article that I received a phone call from Bern Tan, of Epic. He said they wanted to help. I immediately assumed that they wanted to volunteer in some way. But no, Bern replied that they wanted to design and fund renovations. I was stunned. The process has been long and involved many groups of people, but we at Grace are absolutely thrilled at the results. We know the guests of the shelter are as well. Words cannot express the depth of our gratitude to Bern Tan and Todd Sloan of Epic who have overseen this project from start to finish; to Epic who made this possible and to all of you who continue to support our efforts to provide shelter to those who need it.

We at Grace responded to a need twenty-five years ago. It was controversial then. It remains controversial. But our mission is the same now as it was then, to follow the command of Jesus Christ to love our neighbors as ourselves and to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless. Thank you to all who participate in these efforts.

 

Another article on homelessness in downtown Madison

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A discussion of what seems to be a significant problem on Capitol Square. I’ve been noticing it all summer, perhaps because the bus shelters aren’t being used due to the construction and re-routing. Every time I walk downtown, there are groups of homeless people sitting on the benches, camped out in the bus shelters, and the like. I’ve heard some complaints from local business people, and I’m sympathetic to them. It’s hard to attract customers to your business when they have to pass through a gauntlet of men and women to get there. The article seems to suggest that the police are lenient because they don’t want these people to move out into the neighborhoods or parks.

It’s one thing to walk around the square, it’s quite another to try to get into the public library. In all the time I spend on the square, I never see anyone, police or social services, engaging the men and women who sit around on the benches or on the library steps. Does anyone reach out to them, find out what’s going on, try to connect them with the services that might help them escape this life?

In my experience, the business women and men on the square are patient, understanding, and interested in helping to find solutions to homelessness that would provide shelter and services.

Beating the Heat

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There was an article in today’s paper about the challenges facing homeless people during heat waves. Of course, one of the issues raised was the fact that there is no air conditioning in the shelter at Grace. While I’ve never been homeless, I have lived in cities without AC. I know how hot it can get in third floor apartments. When I lived in Boston in the 80s, I quickly learned where to go to beat the heat. It wasn’t easy back then, because most of Harvard’s buildings lacked AC. Sure bets were movie theaters and super markets. For $2.50, you could get a double feature in the somewhat effective air-conditioned space at the Harvard Square theater. I saw lots of movies in the summer.

Yes, it would be expensive to put AC in the shelter at Grace. Even more expensive would be the bill from MGE. What people don’t know, even most members of Grace, is that while Porchlight does pay us rent for the space, we pay for utilities. We don’t know how much of our utility usage comes from the shelter, but it’s likely to be substantial. Our annual budget for utilities is a little less than 10% of our total operating budget. That’s a chunk of change.

There’s no AC in the shelter. We do have it in the offices, but we don’t have it in the church itself, the guild hall, and the kitchen. It gets hot in all of those places, too, unbearably so in the kitchen.

Corrie’s write-up of Monday night’s party/shelter meal

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WHAT A PARTY!

An elderly gentleman dancing with two little girls as Jim spontaneously conducted the band. Ginny giving a little TLC to a frightened, newly homeless 19 year-old. Neighbors from the Lorraine pitching in, as well as in and out-of-town family and friends (from as far away as Colorado and France!). A fury of egg deviling, tomato slicing and mac n’cheese engineering on one side of the kitchen. Later on the other, a NYC-trained chef, at least 3 Harvard PhDs, and an experienced shelter meal cook and painter extraordinaire trying to keep up with demand as the irrepressible Emma and others delivered plates to some 85 guests from the shelter and off the street. (Expecting around 65, we got “slammed” as they say in the culinary world. But we got everybody well fed in the end.) And, a vision of heaven: two long tables filled with the most exquisite-looking pies imaginable (and tasting even better).

Actually, the whole thing was a vision of heaven or at least, what the Kingdom of God should look like: people from all walks of life coming together to make this thing we call “church” (a free translation of ekklesia could be “party”) happen: feeding as we are fed by God and by the neighbors we serve and with whom we share more in common than we sometimes realize. This is how grace—and Grace—happen.

There are so many to thank. Somewhere around 45 Grace members and community volunteers who at one point or another (and many throughout) helped with set up, cooking, clean up, hosting and serving. And even more of you were present via your donations for the meal. That support not only made this meal possible, but it has helped give some relief our very meager Shelter Meal budget. (Did you know that Sarah and Sparky make the monthly meal—often feeding 150 guests—with a budget of less than $250/month?) There was the vivid presence of our Sunday School children who, with Carrie Scherpelz’s help, made banners of themselves welcoming our guests (see them still in Guild Hall). As always Russ was indispensable and Sheila and Janet kept communication and accounting flowing smoothly. Special thanks to Deb Barber for the extra help with Second Harvest and for providing (along with many of you) all that lemonade. And to Greg and Stephen—who brought heaven out of a “hotter than…” kitchen in a pie shape—well, the swoons and smacks of delight on Monday evening said it all.

And we are so grateful and honored by the help of the following local artists/artisan, farmers, and restaurateurs:

  • Smoky Jon’s Barbecue, especially manager Joel who came in on his day off after the busiest weekend of the year to do the meat for us. Joel wanted to do it because he was once a shelter guest.
  • Tony and Julie Hook of Hook’s Cheese in Mineral Point who gave us a generous discount on their award-winning cheeses. And their neighbors Mike and Marcia Bingham of Bingham Horticulture who did the same for their beefsteak tomatoes.
  • And our musicians, some of whom play regularly at the Contra Dances held in this room: Hollie Benton, Roger Diggle, Michael Kuharski, Carol Ormand, and Gregg Sanford, who put the group together. And all present were charmed and inspired by their children Callie and Nellie, who presented a quart jar full of donations they had collected for the Shelter Meal. Before we could even write to thank them, they volunteered to do it again.

The party isn’t over. We are called to make it happen every month. Perhaps we can’t always do it this elaborately. (Or can we?) But we must do it this collaboratively. …

The Spirit blows where it wills

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In February, The Isthmus published an article by Joe Tarr about the Men’s Drop-In Shelter at Grace Church. It was titled “Bleak House” and it aroused considerable anger among supporters of Porchlight and the shelter. It also raised issues about conditions in the shelter. There were already conversations taking place among churches and social service agencies about homelessness in Madison but the article galvanized interest. For example, we have probably had a half-dozen meetings at Grace about the shelter, homelessness, and what our role as a parish is.

Many people lashed out at The Isthmus. Complaints centered around the author’s unfairness and narrow perspective. Looking back, it’s clear to me that the wagons were circled in protection of Porchlight’s work.

The week after the article appeared, I received a call from someone at Epic Systems. They had read the article and wanted to help. I put them in touch with Steve Schooler, executive director of Porchlight. A few weeks later, a group of people from Epic toured the shelter at Grace, as well as other Porchlight facilities. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to a meeting with Porchlight management and Epic to go over their proposal. As The Isthmus reported this week, Epic is proposing to fund and oversee major renovations to the space at Grace.

Often, when things we love, have deep commitment to, and have worked hard for, come under criticism, our tendency is to react viscerally. We want to protect what we love and work for. But almost every project, every institution, every agency, can be improved. Criticism is not just destructive; it can open up new possibilities. Had Joe Tarr not written that article, Epic would not have become involved.

Thanks to him, to Epic, and to everyone who works so hard to help make the shelter a place of refuge for homeless men.

We never know what might emerge from things that on the surface seem negative. As Jesus said in John 3: “The [Spirit] blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”

A sermon on Proper 5 I preached in 2007

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I reread this sermon as I began work this week and thought it deserved posting, largely because in it I share some of my earlier experiences of ministry with the homeless, from the vantage point of a suburban parish.

Proper 5_YrC

St. James

June 10, 2007

When I was growing up, our rural Mennonite Church had as one of its outreach projects, providing a monthly service at the Cherry Street Mission in downtown Toledo, Ohio. I don’t remember now how many times our family went, but to the best of my recollections it must have been several times a year when I was a preteen. It was an old style mission, where those who wanted something to eat and a bed for the night, first had to sit through whatever kind of worship service we put on. It was of course a cultural conflict of enormous proportions. We were well-off, white, Mennonite, small town and rural folk; the people at the mission were urban, overwhelmingly African-American, predominantly alcoholic and homeless. We didn’t provide the meal, we didn’t help out with the soup kitchen; we simply gave our hour-long worship service, and got back in our cars and drove the forty-five miles home.

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