Embrace

Get close to the issue of homelessness. Get approximate to it. Make yourself available to it. Be open to it to the point where it becomes personal. Bring it in close, and let it wrap around you.

Homelessness exists due to gaps in our society. The gaps can only close through moving closer to the people that the issue affects.

We at the ROC strive daily to embrace homelessness in all of its complexity, because we understand that it can only be understood by being in proximity to those actually experiencing it.

Today we were wrapping up an interaction with this client who is currently living in their car with their husband. They started living in their car after their husband was no longer able to work after having a stroke.

We asked if there was anything else we could help with before we left? She was a bit teary-eyed and said:

“No, I don’t think so. We are going to be alright. We are going to make it. We have to make it.”

After a brief moment of silence and her staring at us with now obvious tears in her eyes, an ROC Member asked:

“Do you need a hug?”

They immediately said yes, and they embraced for several sweet minutes in the middle of a parking lot.

So to the nearly 150 million people experiencing homelessness in our world today, we not only stand with you, but we also embrace you in your struggle!

#ROCAndRoll

#Embrace

#BringItInClose

#WorldHomelessDay