We Have To Do Something

 A couple days ago a woman came into the office seeking assistance from us.  She and a friend of hers had been at Sunday services a couple of days before seeking help, but we generally don’t do that on Sunday mornings due to the other responsibilities that we have as a ministerial staff.  We will work with an emergency situation, but this wasn’t an emergency.  We asked them to come in during the week and we’d visit with them about their need.

It seems the woman has been having a rather tough year.  Her 17 year old son was killed while in juvenile detention and her mother passed away in August.  She lost her place to live and was staying in her car.  She had a line on a place to stay but needed money for the rent and deposit.

We don’t do rent or deposits.  We don’t have the resources to do that, and there are a host of both governmental as well as non-profits that handle those kinds of things.  We told her we couldn’t help her with that, but as we talked further, it became apparent that she had no place to go that night or the next several nights and seemed to not have much information on who to contact to obtain the help she needed.  It was also fairly apparent that she was depressed.

We decided to violate one of our benevolence guidelines and put her up in a motel for a few days.  And we did.  We provided a week of rent for a room at the local Motel 6 and I gave her an extensive listing of various government and non-profit places to check with to find help.  I also pulled her aside at the motel out of the presence of her friend, who was a man, and asked if she was being treated OK and that he was not abusing her in any way.  She assured me she was OK.  I know that often women will not honestly answer that question, but I had to ask, letting her know that I was aware of her situation and could help her get out of a situation she may not have wanted to be in.  The motel man let her know with certainty that she was not to entertain visitors or have others in her room under penalty of having to leave the motel.

So we left the situation at that, and I went on about my daily business.  I had, however, a continual nagging feeling about things…not that we gave her a room…not that she had a man friend who I wasn’t sure about…not that she was depressed…but rather I had, and still have, the feeling that we really didn’t accomplish much.  We really didn’t alleviate her situation.  We only postponed some of it for a time.

It's kind of like the example you may have already heard.  Your bathtub is overflowing in your house.  But rather than shutting off the water and opening the drain in the tub, you begin to mop up the mess on the floor, leaving the water running and the drain plugged.  You never fix the root of the issue…you just mitigate the symptoms for a time.

I don’t know what the answer is to homelessness, mental illness, and poverty.  As I’ve said often before, I don’t even know what questions to ask.  But somehow, somewhere, some way, there have to be people who not only know what questions to ask, but some of whom can offer answers that make sense.

One answer I’ve heard that seems to make sense to me is a one-stop shop type of place…a physical space…a place…where those who are homeless can go and right then and there access a wide range of services.  Services like mental health care, prescription drug care, housing services, transportation services, services to help someone find a job or obtain an ID, and whatever other services may prove helpful.  Similar to something we already have like that in Sedgwick County…the Child Advocacy Center…a one-stop place where children who have been abused or trafficked along with their families can obtain a wide range of services.  It is working, and working well.  It is supported by both Sedgwick County and the City of Wichita.  It was sorely needed and is a godsend for many.

As it is, homeless services are available, but are scattered all over the county.  The homeless are shuffled from one place to another, given addresses and phone numbers, and sent on their way.  Many don’t bother to run the incredibly complex gauntlet of social services as it exists now.  Many have no transportation except their feet.  Many have non-working phones or no phone at all.  Adequate access to the Internet is a dream.  They have no mailing address, no money, no place to safely store what few belongings they have, and no sense of time or even of day.  A “Homeless Advocacy Center” would be a huge step in the right direction.

For now, however, that nagging feeling of mopping the floor instead of turning off the faucet will remain, specifically with this woman’s story.  It is my hope that instead of repeatedly saying, “We have to do something,” by those in the seat of power and leadership locally, but never get around to what that “something” is, that someone will say, “This is what we need to work toward and this is how we can do that.”

 

Until then, may God bless us, every one.