This morning I am supposed to be working on my theology homework. It is about the doctrine of election. Yesterday I cared about this topic. Today I don’t. I want to. I know it is important, and I need to get my homework done, but there is something more important on my mind. This morning I read an article in the LA Times about Sacramento’s tent city. If you haven’t heard about this, read the article here. This is front page news and because of that the city has decided to shut the tent city down. It has been open for about a year and the living conditions are terrible. The article was striking to me because this tent city is reminiscent of the hoovervilles of the depression. The people here are not all the stereotypical homeless.
Many are recession victims, people who wouldn’t normally be homeless, but are now homeless because of the economic situation. The city has ignored this problem for a year as far as I know, and now they are set to close the tent city by the end of April. Some might say this is a feasible solution. I’m not sure. Won’t shutting down the area simply relocate the homeless? I don’t have all the answers, but I know that the recent rise in homelessness is a symptom of a much greater problem. I am at a loss as to what the right response is, but I realized today that relocation can’t be it.
I came to this realization because of a bus stop bench.
This morning I went to Starbucks to get my aforementioned homework done and I passed by the same bus stop bench that I always pass by. On most days this bench is occupied by a particular homeless man. I will admit that I do not know his name, and have not spoken to him much. We have only shared a passing hello, but he always seems to be there. This morning he was not there, but I still took particular notice of the bench. I noticed it because for a while it has had a clothing advertisement on the side that shows a woman who is barely clothed. Now this is a pet peeve of mine for reasons that are completely unrelated to this story, but come on it’s a clothing advertisement, she should probably be clothed. So I passed by the empty bench and found myself annoyed with the sign. I worked in Starbucks for several hours, but as I took a break I read the article in the LA Times about Sacramento’s tent city. My heart burned and I was completely distracted from my work.
On a side note, is God speaking to me supposed to feel like ADHD?
I don’t know, but I do think God has been speaking to me today. I walk out of Starbucks and the bench is GONE. It’s as if it were never there. I look around in disbelief and I see the usual homeless resident of the bench across the street at another bench. He has several friends with him who also look homeless. Everything suddenly falls into place for me. I don’t know this man’s name or why he is homeless. I don’t know if he needs help, because that is not an easy thing to ask a stranger. But I do know he is not going anywhere. I don’t know why the city of Pasadena would remove a bus stop bench, but I know that the result was the simple relocation of a man, and he didn’t go far. It’s almost impressive how quickly this bench was removed. It was there at nine, and was gone at eleven-thirty. If Sacramento removes this tent city, it must have an answer for how it will help these people. Otherwise upwards of two hundred people will simply relocate, and they won’t go far.
I doubt very many people will read this post as it is kind of long, but if you are reading this… yes I am aware of my failure to understand or handle this situation. I don’t have any answers for the homeless recession victims whom I am sure God loves. While I live the American dream, they live the American nightmare. I don’t know what the city of Sacramento should do with the people of the tent city anymore than I know what LA should do for the people in Skid Row, but something must be done. I know that I cannot say that someone else will do it. If God is speaking to me about this, it’s for a reason. I still probably need to be able to understand theological concepts like election if I ever want to graduate, but I would rather know people whom God loves. I also know that as I write this it is glaringly obvious that I do not know the name of the man that I see several times a week in the same place. I should probably remedy that. There are as many as 80,000 homeless people in LA County. What do I do with that? I don’t know, but I know where one of them will be.
4 comments:
Great thoughts. A similar situation happened in Ontario, Ca about a year ago. As the recession gets deeper, these tent cities will become more and more of a reality. You're right when you write about the "right response." At the end of the day, I think many people look to the government to solve the homeless issue, but I think the hope is found in the church
Hi Daren, I'm not quite sure how I wound up reading your blog today. No offense intended, of course, but I don't check people's blogs regularly.
With that said, I really appreciate your honest reflection. This issue is something I've struggled with since my days at Fuller, and something I struggle with every time I exit the freeway, pull up beside a homeless man or woman, and awkwardly try to avoid eye contact because I don't know what to do. We spent several days in my social ethics class at Fuller discussing this very issue, and at the end of it, no one could come up with any concrete answers.
I guess I felt moved to respond to this post because of an experience I had yesterday. I was leaving Starbucks, and I saw a homeless man approaching. Of course I started feeling anxious: "Oh no, what am I going to do? Should I give him money? Clearly I have money. I'm leaving Starbucks with a 90-cent banana and a $3 coffee." But he didn't ask me for anything--he didn't even look at me. He just slowly walked by with downcast eyes. And when I got in my car, I felt such acute pain for this man and his situation, and I felt so sad because I didn't know what to do about it.
As I read your post, I thought of a documentary that came out a few years ago. It's called "Dark Days," and it's about a group of homeless people who lived in the abandoned train tunnels in New York City. During the filming, Amtrak announced that they would be evicting everyone from the tunnels. I haven't seen it myself, but I've heard it's very powerful.
Thanks again for your thoughts, Daren!
You're not always supposed to have a solution. Part of the solution is being aware in the first place. Awareness is an unusual thing in the world we live in. Personal conviction on another s situation is even more rare.
So how do you (we) respond? Not to the the ENTIRE problem, because we can't. But to the one homeless man you know is going to be a block and a half away from our complex every day.
There is a lady who for almost the last 2 weeks has stood at the Allen off-ramp. She looks a little raged, but not your stereo type. Mid 30's. Newly homeless maybe. Every time I pass I give her $2. My daily trip to Pete's. I don't care what she uses it for. The thought has never crossed my mind but for some reason God has put this woman in my life. There is a reason that for 8 days in a row I have hit that light. I NEVER hit that light.
We exchange a few words as the light goes from red to green and I drive off. I don't do this for any other reason then I feel I'm supposed to. I feel like I'm developing a relationship with her over $2 she knows she'll get every time I drive by.
One day though I think I'll walk over there and just say hi. I have a feeling that now she'll talk to me. She used to look away when I gave her money... in shame. Now she smiles when she sees me. $2 is really not a reason to smile. There has to be more.
Daren,
Has anyone ever told you that you are really good at expressing yourself through writing? Well, you are. I took the time to read the whole article and appreciated your perspective on life and school, God speaking to you about something, and "getting the stuff done". Sometimes the stuff totally makes us swerve away from the path God has for us in a particular moment. That's crazy about the bench! I only have one question about the man who is homeless...what is his name? I know it can seem hopeless when you look at that staggering number (80,000), but what would happen if 80,000 households each knew the name and story of one homeless person? And that, right there, is the struggle. Where are you going to find that many people who actually care like that? Anyway, Daren, don't forget the story of the boy on the beach throwing stranded starfish back into the ocean..."It made a difference for that one."
Tim
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