Make A Wish
“Here, take this. I make these, and I call them wishes. I have made over a thousand of them. I hope yours comes true.” (Client hands two ROC members an origami bird.)
This special moment this week sparked the thought of:
What wishes would we as outreach workers have on behalf of our clients?
Of course we would wish for affordable, sustainable, preferred, and safe housing for all. This would eliminate the need for our jobs to exist. If this were not possible, we would wish for adequate shelter space for everyone to escape the elements if they wanted to. If this were not possible, we would wish to be able to supply everyone with all the supplies needed to survive the elements on the streets.
We would wish that those businesses and community members who oppose adequate shelter being created in our community would realize that their opposition puts real lives at risk. And that their fears that a shelter will attract more people experiencing homelessness to the downtown area are unfounded and based on fear. When the fact is we know those that are experiencing unsheltered homelessness elsewhere in Hamilton County would most often rather die than experience a moment of homelessness in Downtown Chattanooga, and so they do. We would wish that the business owners and community members who are upset about those experiencing homelessness attempting to sleep on their properties would realize the shelter they are opposing would work to alleviate those very concerns. The people who would stay at a low-barrier shelter off of 11th Street are the same people who are already surviving and sleeping on the streets, sidewalks, ditches, alleys, and parking lots off of 11th Street. The creation of this shelter would be a decades-long wish of the Chattanooga homeless services system (those who actually work and interact with those experiencing homelessness every day) becoming reality.
We would wish to have answers to the frequent question, “Where can we go to stay?”
We would wish that not a single person experiencing homelessness would pass away during these cold weather months, as some always do.
We would wish for more accessible and effective mental health services.
We would wish for everyone to have the privilege of eating nutritional foods on a regular basis.
We would wish for more service providers to mobilize their services. To shift the power dynamic from having people come to services to having services come to people.
We would wish for the life expectancy of those experiencing homelessness to no longer be 20 years less than those not experiencing homelessness.
We would wish that public transportation would be free and accessible throughout our community.
We would wish for a shared trauma-informed perspective and response to homelessness, especially when discussing substance misuse.
We would wish that each person who pursued employment would gain employment. And that opportunities existed for each to receive proper education and training for the job they desired.
We would wish for no misuse of power from law enforcement towards those without a physical address or lockable door.
We would wish for the absence of discrimination based on housing status.
We would wish for trust.
We would wish for everyone to know and believe that who they are and what they make and have to give is valuable enough to be received and respected.
Let’s be bold and creative. Let’s not settle for only having wishes, but let’s put in the work to make them! Grab hold of one and make it happen!
#ROCRetrospective
#ROCAndRoll
#MakeAWish
