Reviving Hope for Homeless

There once was a little girl from a very wealthy family who was assigned the task of writing a story about a very poor family. Her story began, “Once upon a time there was a very poor family. The daddy was poor. The mommy was poor. The daughter was poor. The butler was poor. The chauffeur was poor. The . . . “

The truth is that we often have very little empathy for people who are in situations that we have not experienced ourselves.

We see people living lives that are different than ours. We try to guess what led them to that place and then try to create solutions for what we think are their problems.

For the past seven years, the state of California has made the National Guard armories available for use as emergency shelters in the winter. With great reluctance, Gov. Pete Wilson last week signed legislation making the armories available for another year, perhaps two.

As he signed the bills he indicated that it is time for local governments to provide “a permanent solution to the homeless shelter problem.”

What would such a solution look like?

Would it be an armory-like building where homeless people could be warehoused until spring?

Or would it be a solution that treated homeless people with dignity and respect?

The causes of homelessness among single people are many and varied. They include mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, lack of job and social skills, and lack of discipline. These causes exist in every community and in every age.

Providing winter shelter is but a necessary first step to putting back together the lives of individuals who are considered expendable by our society. But providing shelter is the beginning, not the end, of what is needed. What is needed next is a collaborative effort among nonprofit agencies, local government and individuals to provide the many services needed to overcome the underlying causes of homelessness.

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In Ventura County, we saw such a collaborative effort nearly three years ago when the Ventura River flooded and scores of homeless people were washed from what homes they had. The emergency created a crisis that brought out the best many had to offer. Government and nonprofit agencies offered jobs and job training, emergency and transitional shelter, and mental health and drug and alcohol treatment.

We can do it again. We must do it again. But we must also understand that there is no “once and for all” solution to homelessness. It will take constant and ongoing efforts.

When we plan our educational efforts, we do not assume that if we can get this generation of students educated we will have solved the problems of ignorance and illiteracy for all future generations.

Similarly, if we succeeded in the seemingly impossible task of assisting all currently homeless people to find permanent housing and to lead productive and meaningful lives, the root causes of homelessness would continue to threaten people’s lives.

Our solution must not be sought in a building but within ourselves. It lies in our dedication and in our collaboration and in our commitment to seeing homeless people with empathy rather than sympathy, as people with problems to be overcome and strengths to be celebrated.