Category Archives: homelessness

No room at the inn, Madison style

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As we were leaving church this evening after the early service, we encountered a homeless man, lying in a fetal position, on the sidewalk in front of the church. Released from the hospital a couple of hours earlier, cops had dropped him off here because of the men’s shelter. Unfortunately, he couldn’t walk the twenty yards to the shelter entrance and shelter staff were not going to come out to help him. We called 911 and EMT’s transported him back to the hospital but as they left, they told me that he would probably be back on the street in an hour or so.

He’s not the first person discharged from a hospital to end up at the shelter later the same day. It happens regularly.

The fault in this does not lie with the hospital, or the police, or the shelter staff. The fault lies with all of us, with a society that turns its back on the most vulnerable.

First Monday, December 5, 2011

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Tonight was First Monday. As tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day, we had a visit from St. Nick himself. He distributed winter socks to our guests, who were treated to a hearty meal of ham, macaroni and cheese, carrots, and cake. We fed more than 150 people and along with our regular group of volunteers, we had several first-timers who enjoyed themselves and said they would be back to help again.

The music was provided by the children of Grace Church, and by our adult choir, who sang a variety of holiday music, Christmas carols and holiday favorites like Frosty the Snowman.

One of our volunteers remarked to me at the end of the evening that the guests were incredibly appreciative of the food and our hospitality. It’s an incredible amount of work, especially the preparation, but it’s also very rewarding. It’s also eye-opening to be reminded of the diversity of homelessness, even among our overwhelming male population.

A couple of pictures:

There will be a day shelter in Madison!–at least for this winter

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Thanks to the hard work of Steve Schooler, executive director of Porchlight, and many others, there will be a place for homeless people to escape the elements during the winter months. The City of Madison has agreed to make space available in a former auto dealership on E. Washington Ave. More on the story here and here.

As important as this development is, and as welcome it will be for those who need it, it will not be open until December 14 at the earliest, and it doesn’t solve the long-term problem of providing adequate facilities for homeless people in Madison.

Encounters with homelessness

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Working at Grace Church means that homelessness is always at the forefront of my consciousness and my ministry. When I arrive in the morning, whenever I leave, during the day or at the end of the day, I encounter homeless people lingering on the streets around the church. It’s fairly easy to pass them by with a nod or a “Good Morning” but it’s just as likely that we will engage in a conversation or that I will be asked for help.

I was asked this week about whether that constant presence and the repeated requests for assistance have made me more callous to the reality of the need I encounter each day. I don’t know. I have heard many stories of distress and hardship and I often jokingly say, “and some of what I’ve heard is true.” We do put up barriers to the depth of the pain and suffering, and as individuals and as agencies, we also set limits to what we can do. Survival requires such measures.

Still, an encounter or a series of encounters can be profoundly unsettling. The desire to help can overwhelm and the reality that whatever we can do–a meal–will not solve the problems.

In the past few days, I’ve read two powerful essays written by people who work with homeless people. Amy Scheer shares her experience working in a women’s shelter, dealing with the needs of women and the necessity of rules to maintain order. How can she offer what little food they have to a pregnant woman without causing conflict with the other women who might be as hungry as she?

James Lang reflects in America on his experience volunteering through his parish with the Interfaith Hospitality Network:

To me, homelessness would mean one more faceless man asking for change on a street corner were it not for those nights I spent (not) sleeping in the parish center; it would mean an article on page four of the daily newspaper; it would mean a pleasant argument about politics with my friends, sitting at a party over drinks and appetizers. As a result of those nights, however, homelessness now means a 5-year-old girl with a ponytail and missing front teeth, knocking on my door at 6:30 a.m. and pulling a fairy wand out of a box of toys someone had donated. Because of those nights, homelessness has a face; homelessness has entered my life.

 

Red tape in the way of a day shelter in Madison

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I’ve been blogging about the impact of the library and Capitol closures on the homeless in Madison (previous entries here, here, here, and here). We’ve been working on solutions. One of the most promising was to use a vacant car dealership, now owned by the city, as a temporary space through March. Pat Schneider reports on this development, and on the red tape the city has thrown up around it. She’s been doing a great job keeping on this story.

As Schneider observes:

Winter is bearing down, and I’ve got to wonder what sense requiring a landscaping plan makes for a property in Wisconsin that will be used November through March. Not much grows here then. Should planning for a temporary use like this really require restriping the parking lot? A public hearing makes sense, but is there a way to expedite the process to accommodate some of the city’s most vulnerable residents?

Hmmm.

Hmm, indeed!
One piece of good news. At least Savory Sunday has been given a permit to serve lunch in the Capitol on Sunday afternoons.

We’ll protest Wall Street, but we won’t feed the homeless

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I came across this little nugget. The makeshift, apparently gourmet, kitchen at Zucotti Park closed for several days because the workers thought they were serving too many “professional” homeless people alongside the protestors.

Our experience in Madison over the last months seems to indicate that homeless people found food as well as shelter during the protests here. Numbers at the men’s shelter were quite low for several months, and our monthly meal saw lower numbers than usual, as well. My guess is that Ian’s Pizza and the unions with their free brats were filling lots of empty stomachs, and not trying to distinguish between the deserving and undeserving.

Developments on the library closure

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Pat Schneider blogs about the possibility of using a vacant business as a day shelter for the homeless this winter with the closure of the Central Library and the Capitol.

I’ve been participating in these meetings and it’s clear that there are no good options (although there might be some other things in the works).

What fascinates me is the way this conversation emerged and is developing. It’s a response to a crisis, but there’s been no mention of the fact that in the best of times, neither the library or the capitol is adequate to provide for the needs of homeless people during the day, no matter what the weather. Perhaps we will be able to have that conversation as well.

Barbara Ehrenreich on Homelessness and #OWS

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Why Homelessness Is Becoming an Occupy Wall Street Issue | The Nation.

What occupiers from all walks of life are discovering, at least every time they contemplate taking a leak, is that to be homeless in America is to live like a fugitive. The destitute are our own native-born “illegals,” facing prohibitions on the most basic activities of survival. They are not supposed to soil public space with their urine, their feces, or their exhausted bodies. Nor are they supposed to spoil the landscape with their unusual wardrobe choices or body odors. They are, in fact, supposed to die, and preferably to do so without leaving a corpse for the dwindling public sector to transport, process, and burn.