THE HUMAN CONDITION
At 5 am on a cold rainy Thursday, I'm out at a labor pool with my partner, getting ready to start the St Johns County homeless count. It's pretty quiet in the building: people sign in as they enter, then sit and wait for work. Signs on the wall counsel that "Work boots get you better and more jobs" and “walking off a job” means you won't get any more work. The floors are cement and cold; there are benches and picnic tables for people to sit, wait and hope. My partner starts interviewing people for the survey. Somebody makes generic coffee from cooler water in a rickety urn and someone delivers some frozen Jimmy Dean sausage biscuits. Everyone makes sure there's some left for the next guy. When the manager takes a van full out to a job site, he locks the building and my partner and I have to leave and check out other spots. At the main library, a long male body is wrapped in about 6 blankets and we decide to wait until he wakes up. When a deputy drives up we panic and leap out of the warm dry car to interview our sleeper before he gets rousted. Someone else's story, similar yet different from the ones before. My partner goes off to work and I continue over to Vilano: under bridges, up and down A1A, finding vestiges of camps in the rain, empty food containers, blankets hanging over branches to stay off the muddy ground. It's still cold, it's still raining and a lot of the homeless have gone. It's hard to imagine 24 hours of this; I'm beat after 5.
This article holds two premises as true: that all human beings have worth and that it is uniquely human to care for another human. At one end of the spectrum there are humans on the ground, feeding, clothing, sheltering, counseling and healing other humans either as part of a job, a career, volunteerism or personal moral code. At the other end of the spectrum, there are humans removed from these actual acts of caring but still participating, willingly or unwillingly, without any control or say in the matter. They pay taxes.
Orlando, St Petersburg and Miami have been in the news lately struggling with homeless tent cities, public feeding ordinances, panhandling arrests and even murder. As of this writing, St Johns County’s homeless count for January 25, 2007 has surpassed Key West’s and the numbers are still coming in. What’s next for St Johns County and its flagship city of St Augustine?
The homeless are already here. But so are the resources. The Emergency Shelter Homeless Coalition is here. They are the state recognized lead agency on the issue. They seek grant money, conduct surveys, generate reports, run programs and manage transitional housing. The Salvation Army is here. They manage a food distribution center, collect and distribute clothing, accept and manage distribution of donations, have national support and own land in St Johns County. St Francis House is here. They have been holding back the tide with 28 beds, daily food servings, peripheral supports and collection of data. Catholic Charities is here. They accept and distribute food and clothing and provide linkage to other services. St Johns County Mental Health is here. St Gerard House, Alpha Omega Miracle Home, Good Samaritan Health Center, Project Special Care, numerous labor pools and over ninety churches, a large percentage of which either provide food, clothing, or cash assistance, all are already here.
At a recent city commissioners meeting it was recorded that the mayor feels St Augustine only comprises 10% of St Johns County and shouldn’t have to shoulder the financial burden of a shelter for the entire county. Fine. The chairman of the county commissioners has stated publicly that he doesn’t feel his job is to manage taxpayer dollars in support of a shelter. Fine.
I submit to all parties that businesses and taxpayers are already shouldering the burden of caring for our homeless. Estimates from other cities for an individual who is homeless and who enters local emergency rooms for treatment can cost up to $100,000.00 per year. Law enforcement figures are almost as high per individual coming in at $30,000.00 to $50,000.00 per year. For more statistics on costs of homelessness to communities see the National Alliance to End Homelessness website: www.naeh.org
So the homeless are here and the resources are here. What do we need to do as a community?
The HUD publication “Strategies for Reducing Chronic Street Homelessness” (2004) lists 5 major elements:
1. A Paradigm shift. The old paradigm is the traditional approach of charities, churches, emergency shelters and sobriety based programs. The new paradigm emphasizes ending chronic street homelessness by mainstream public agencies through an integrated community wide approach.
2. A clear goal of ending street homelessness.
3. A community wide level of organization
4. Strong leadership and an effective organizational structure
5. Significant resources from mainstream public agencies.
On top of all this, we need resources from the private sector, commitment and support from our elected officials, evaluation and assessments for program support and improvement, strategies to minimize negative neighborhood reactions and openness to new services approaches.
We have some of these elements now and the potential for gathering the rest. Local citizens have formed an exploratory group and are researching some of these elements. They are determined, compassionate and smart. They have formed committees and are reaching out to the community agencies, churches and government. They are committed to the premise that all humans have worth and that it is uniquely human to care for other humans.
Notice to our local leadership: The homeless are not going away and neither are they.
Labels: homeless, leadership, st johns county
