Fear
Community Member: “Yes! I have known and have built relationships with some homeless people. These people don’t want to change! They won’t change!”
Client: “We are really hoping this housing stuff will work out soon, because after it does, I am going to be trying to get my 3-year-old back!”
Community Member: “You can’t provide a place for these people to come, because once you have one, then you have ten, then it continues until you have 50!”
Client: “Do you possibly have a bus pass we can have? We are really wanting to get jobs and get our old lives back!”
Community Member: “These people are choosing to be homeless!”
Client: “Hey! How do I find out anything about housing? I filled out the housing assessment about a month ago, and I haven’t heard anything.” (ROC Members are asked this question multiple times a day!)
Community Member: “We have kids all over this place. There are children here all the time. We have to think about protecting them. They would be in danger if we started letting these homeless people come here. So I am against this plan.”
Client: “Do you think you could take me downtown tomorrow so I can take a shower and do some laundry? I got up this morning to a puddle that had gathered under my bed. All my bedding is wet now. I don’t have any other way of getting to a shower or doing laundry. All this hopelessness sure tires a man out.”
Community Member: “This wassome years ago now, but we got a neighbor who had some people set up on his property and left behind a huge mess, and he can’t afford to have it cleaned up. That’s what these people do!”
Client: “Hey, you all wouldn’t happen to have any trash bags, would you? The people at this business across from us have been real nice, but we know if we don’t stay on top of this trash and keep it clean, that won’t last.”
Community Member: “See, this is why most people don’t speak up like this, because they get made out to be the bad guy! Now I am not saying that every one of these homeless people is bad or dangerous, but it just takes one. One person doing something bad to a child is more than unacceptable. I have seen police have to drag them out of the Wendy’s for acting wild. I have seen one stand completely naked and take the hose off of the back of the ice machine and start spraying themselves with the water, and the police having to arrest them.”
Client: “Hey so good news. I’m signing my lease Monday for my apartment. You must know the good news, and I love you for sticking by me like the whole way through. I’m telling you thank you, and without you I couldn’t have done this.”
ROC Member: “I love you too! I can't even tell you how happy, proud, and grateful I am to know you, and to know where you were, and to hear and see where you are now! Your success fuels and strengthens me. There have been so many times when people try to tell me that people who experience homelessness don't want to see their lives changed. And each time someone starts talking like that, you and your determination and your strength and your resilience come to my mind to dispel those misconceptions!”
The ROC is making a concerted effort this year to attempt to create what we are calling “satellite service opportunities” (we have to come up with a cooler name than that at some point) within each of the areas that we conduct outreach in. This has become a focus at the ROC after constantly hearing time and time again people experiencing homelessness say that they could use and want the services that are being offered elsewhere in Chattanooga, but they either lack the means to get there or fear for their safety and have had negative experiences in the areas where these needed and wanted services are currently being offered.
The first of these satellite service opportunities has already been started in the Hixson area with partnerships with Abba's House and ShowerUp Chattanooga. Currently every other Thursday morning between the hours of 9am and 12pm ShowerUp’s mobile shower unit is on ABBA’s House property and is operated by a group of trained volunteers from the congregation there. They also have available breakfast, coffee, clothing, and hygiene items. This time aligns with the same time frame in which ROC outreach is being done in the Hixson area. Some weeks they have 12 people come through, and other weeks they have 3. The key to the long-term success of this endeavor is to remain consistent despite how many people come. As the consistency progresses, so will the opportunities to build more needed services such as medical care, laundry, trash collection, haircuts, signing up for cellphones, employment coaching, signing up for food stamps, signing up for housing, having the access to order one’s ID and birth certificate, onsite HIV and Hep. C testing, etc…. We are super thrilled with how this first pilot satellite service opportunity is going in Hixson, and even more so for where we see it headed!
This past week began the exciting process of building the beginning of a second satellite service opportunity in the Lookout Valley area. The idea here would be to start by having ShowerUp bring their mobile shower unit to the John A. Patten Community Center one Monday each month from the hours of 9am to 12pm. This would align with the same time frame in which ROC outreach is being conducted in this area. The shower unit would then be staffed and operated by volunteers from the various local churches in the area. The step that had to be taken this week in order to establish this was getting a majority vote of approval from the Lookout Valley Neighborhood Association (LVNA) at their monthly meeting this past Thursday evening. With most of the ROC members either presenting about the ROC at the National Conference on Ending Homelessness in San Francisco or otherwise preoccupied, that left Joe Brackett, from Homeless Healthcare, as the remaining option to be invited to come present this proposal before the LVNA. He welcomed this challenge as an ironic one since when he was in high school, he did weightlifting training in this very building for 2 years. So he saw this challenge as yet another opportunity to move a heavy obstacle in this space!
After delivering the proposal, time was made for the around 40 people there to openly discuss and make comments in response. Immediately there were comments coming from six or seven people in the room whose comments were in disapproval of the idea. Most of their comments are listed above. After several minutes it seemed these types of fear-based, stereotypical misconceptions were not going to end from those who opposed. Eventually Joe had to interrupt someone in the middle of their extensive comment and say:
“I’m sorry, but could I ask two questions?”
#1: “How many here would say by raising their hands that they care about those currently experiencing homelessness?”
*All 40 People Raise Their Hands*
#2: “Ok. Now how many here would say by raising their hands that they currently know the name of and have some form of relationship with someone currently experiencing homelessness?”
*Only 7 People Raise Their Hands*
“Ok, see, that’s all I needed to know. You absolutely are allowed to have an opinion, but that doesn’t mean your opinion is a well-informed one. Without being well informed and personally connected to a subject, many times all you are left to form your opinion with is stereotypes, misconceptions, and fear. I will tell you that right now people experiencing homelessness in this area do not have safe access to getting to where showers are currently being offered. They either have to walk the interstate or walk around the mountain on Cummings Highway, both of which are extremely dangerous. And I personally know people who have died trying. Also, I will tell you that the vast majority of people experiencing homelessness are so isolated and disconnected that they are a bigger danger to themselves than they ever would be to anyone else. What I am here to tell you about is this opportunity for people in this community to have an avenue to become informed and directly connected with your neighbors in this community who do not have housing. I believe there is power and potential within an opportunity like this that can work wonders to propel people out of homelessness. I can’t promise you that this will be the easiest thing to do, but I can promise you that it is absolutely a worthwhile thing to do. Nobody has ever built anything great with bricks that they got for free. The bricks to build something like this will cost you something, and the cost is for you to allow yourselves to be vulnerable. You all here may decide through your vote that the cost is too high, and I am prepared for that. But that won’t ultimately stop the hearts that are set on seeing a reality here in Lookout Valley—that there be a place that will say yes to providing a space where people can come once a month for three hours on a Monday morning to get access to a hot, safe shower and receive love and acceptance! So if there is anyone else who would like to speak, absolutely go for it, but as for me, I think it is time to vote on this.”
The vote was then held a few moments later, and the proposal received enough votes to be approved. The heavy obstacle had moved in the ROC’s favor! As for the few loud voices who opposed, it is understood that they are not bad people, but instead they are scared, fearful people. Fearful people have a greater tendency to make bad judgments.
#ROCAndRoll
#ROCRetrospective
#FEAR
#ROCOn
