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Make Service A Priority In 2012!

This blog was written by VSH’s volunteer resources manager, Alison Jones-Nassar.

According to some recent surveys, nearly one out of every two Americans starts the New Year by making at least one resolution. Some common new year’s resolutions include losing weight, getting more exercise, quitting smoking, getting out of debt, saving more money, and going on a trip. It seems that many of us want to feel better about ourselves somehow, and exercising more control over our bodies, finances, and leisure time are three common starting points for trying to achieve that goal.

My new year started with a memorial service.

My deceased brother’s wife’s sister-in-law died of complications from lung & breast cancer at the end of December after battling her illness for more than two years, and so we gathered on January 2nd to celebrate her memory.

The service was very inspiring, as one friend after another stood before the assembly to give testimony concerning Debbe’s great enthusiasm for service to the community. “When our lives are over, how do we really want to be remembered by others?” asked the pastor. “Isn’t the impact that we have on those around us the only thing that truly matters?”  I found myself resolving, right then and there, to ask myself that question every day and make sure that my actions reflected my determination to make service a priority.

There is no shortage out there of people in need of our service, and we need not restrict our idea of service to big grand circumstances. Whether we are among family members or work colleagues, serving our congregations or our less fortunate neighbors, life presents us every day with endless opportunities for kind words, compassionate gestures, consoling embraces, and supportive acts both great and small. But especially the small ones.

Tom Allen, in last Saturday’s Faith & Values column, wrote about a woman “whose life had come to a very precarious place,” someone who was homeless, sick, penniless, and in search of a friend who could help her “begin the difficult process of trying to turn her life around.”  Someone, in other words, just like the people we serve at Virginia Supportive Housing.

The bad news is that this particular story didn’t end well, and the individual died of an apparent self-inflicted drug overdose. When hope and help come too late, that is often the result.

The good news is that VSH offers weekly, monthly, and episodic opportunities for volunteers to bring hope and help to the lives of our formerly homeless clients, so that their stories can have better endings. All you have to do is resolve to make service a priority and then put that resolution into practice one act of service at a time.

I assure you, it’s not as hard or scary as it might sound, and the reward far outweighs the commitment.

During the holidays I experienced a powerful affirmation of why service to our clients matters. A group of tenants and volunteers was hanging decorations at one of our properties, and Christmas music was playing on the little boombox. I noticed that the familiar carols, so comforting & festive for so many of us, seemed to be having a decidedly melancholy effect on one usually cheerful & talkative tenant.

As time went on, she grew quieter and her expression grew sadder. I reached over to lightly touch her shoulder and ask if she was okay, and she abruptly stood up and wrapped her arms around me in a fierce hug. We stood like that for a minute, both of us just breathing, before she whispered, “My daughter just hugged me through you, and I can’t thank you enough.” It turns out that her daughter had passed away three years ago at Christmas time under difficult circumstances, and the music was a painful reminder to her of that unbearable loss. As a mother of three daughters, I felt privileged to be able to serve her with such a simple yet profound gesture. And in a similar situation, I could not imagine a more valuable gift.

At the end of his column, Tom Allen concludes that “one of the reasons we’re here is to help each other. We’ve got to keep getting better at it.” I agree, and I’m sure Debbe would too. We can have an impact on the lives of others in 2012. We can be the face of compassion for those who need it most. And our own lives can be blessed in the process. All it takes is a resolution.

How Many More Have To Die?

As you celebrate the holidays in the warmth and comfort of your homes this season, consider this:

57-year-old Billy Clayton of Toms River, NJ was found dead of apparent hypothermia in his makeshift tent last week. 49-year-old Charles Tompkins of Seattle also froze to death. 56-year-old Robert Lester Bunch died of hypothermia in Santa Barbara and was the thirty-first homeless individual to die in that city this year.

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH):

“Seven hundred people experiencing or at risk of homelessness are killed from hypothermia annually in the United States. Forty-four percent of the nation’s homeless are unsheltered. From the urban streets of our populated cities to the remote back-country of rural America, hypothermia – or subnormal temperature in the body – remains a leading, critical and preventable cause of injury and death among those experiencing homelessness.”

Each year as winter approaches and the temperatures begin to drop, our country’s homeless population faces the difficult choice of seeking temporary shelter or enduring the bitter cold. On the one hand, shelters lack space & resources during the cold months. Chronically homeless individuals may resist any arrangement that requires them to follow rules or sleep among large groups. Theft of personal belongings is a common complaint. People with mental illness or substance abuse disorders often have difficulty coping in shelter situations. And the underlying causes of their homelessness ultimately are not being adequately addressed.

On the other hand, the average winter temperature in New Jersey is 34 degrees with an average annual snowfall of 23 inches. In Washington State the average temperature in winter is 33 degrees. Although snowfall averages are low in Seattle, it rains an average of 158 days out of the year. And despite Santa Barbara’s relatively mild weather, the past two years have been unusually cold and rainy. When miserable weather conditions are compounded by inadequate clothing, malnutrition, chronic infections, and substance abuse, the susceptibility to hypothermia increases substantially.

Can you imagine being faced with the kinds of choices that homeless individuals have to make every day just to survive?  Virginia Supportive Housing offers a better way. The housing that VSH provides is neither temporary nor transitional. Our tenants sign leases, pay rent, and can stay as long as they wish. And their access to support services allows them to regain their independence and dignity. Don’t we all crave the warmth and comfort that comes from having our own home?

With the onset of winter, hundreds of unsheltered people will die preventable deaths this season. To find out what you can do, click here.

More Compassion, Less Fear

This blog was written by VSH’s volunteer resources manager, Alison Jones-Nassar.

Whether we admit it or not, homeless people can cause us to feel instinctively afraid. Not long ago, a VCU student wrote to me seeking permission to photograph some of our clients for a school assignment whose topic was fear.  “Unfortunately, everyone I know is afraid of homeless people… [This explains] the general…reaction of walking past the homeless without making eye contact…or just plain ignoring them all together….I can personally understand this ‘fear’, as I have possessed it too, until recently. It’s saddening…how people with homes will act as if the homeless are simply dogs. I am glad to have broken out of that shell of irrational fear.”

What is the source of this “irrational” fear? For many, I think it has to do with the belief that homelessness only happens to “other” people. It happens to people who somehow deserve it, people whose poor life choices and anti-social behaviors have resulted in understandable consequences, people who are not like us or anyone we know.

But what if your mother was homeless, or your brother or daughter? Would it change how you think about homelessness?

Would it change your perceptions about people who are homeless? Would it help you become more compassionate about them and less afraid?

There is a lady who lives in one of our properties (I’ll call her Shelley) who has a lot in common with my mom. Both grew up in impoverished households with abusive alcoholic fathers. The volatility and cruelty they experienced as children caused them to develop a mentality common among abuse victims, drawing them subconsciously toward abusive personalities most of their lives. They married young to escape their situations, only to realize their choices had actually perpetuated the cycle of alcohol and abuse. But because they lacked the skills and confidence necessary to support themselves, they tolerated the situation, even saw themselves as somehow deserving of the degradation and abuse. Chronic depression and anxiety disabled them even further. But at some point along the way, their stories diverged. Shelley became homeless and my mom did not.

A few weeks ago my mom handed me a stack of clothing that she wanted to donate. Nice sweaters and tops from L.L. Bean, slacks from Coldwater Creek, warm coats from Orvis. I immediately thought of Shelley because of their physical resemblance. Both are petite in height and weight, though Shelley, with her worn-out smile and deeply lined face, looks much rougher around the edges. That’s what homelessness will do to you. So the clothes made their way anonymously to Shelley, and the first time I saw her wearing them, I felt a stab of visceral recognition that caused the hair to stand up on the back of my neck.  I realized that, under slightly different circumstances that we can’t really understand or predict, my mom could have ended up homeless just like Shelley.

So.
Are you willing to confront your fear?
Are you willing to look into the face of a homeless person and recognize someone you know, maybe even someone you love?

To explore volunteer opportunities, click here.

Occupy Wall Street: Unintended Consequences

The movement known as Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing protest that began September 17, 2011 and has inspired more than 100 cities across the U.S. to join. At first glance, it may seem that the concerns of the movement and the protesters reflect many issues that impact individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Indeed, there is a substantial overlap among the two groups with respect to affordable housing, health care, and educational opportunities, employment, wages, and the general high cost of living for low-income Americans, to name just a few. Unfortunately and perhaps unintentionally, the protests have resulted in some negative consequences for people who are homeless, causing some to wonder just how representative this movement really is.

Ironically, many protest encampments occupy sites already frequented by homeless individuals, thereby displacing these individuals from the only “home” they have. Richmond’s Kanawha Plaza provides a perfect example. In early August, volunteers with the 1,000 Homes For 1,000 Virginians Richmond Campaign counted more than 50 homeless individuals sleeping on the benches at Kanawha Plaza, in the shadows of the Federal Reserve. Two months later, protesters usurped the space and installed tarps, tents, and camping equipment. Similar problematic displacements occurred in cities across the country.

The resulting backlash has been even more problematic.

Cities have spent millions of dollars to evict protestors from parks, plazas, and other public spaces and have subsequently implemented laws to enforce these evictions that prohibit homeless individuals from sleeping in these very same spaces. According to Heather Maria Johnson, a civil rights attorney at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, their organization has noticed a nationwide increase in laws that criminalize homelessness, including laws that prohibit sleeping, sitting or storing belongings in public spaces, even when there is insufficient shelter space. For example, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock recently supported new legislation that would ban homeless people from sleeping in public places overnight. In another statement he added that he “didn’t want to allow protestors to set the precedent for sleeping in tents in the public parks.”

Another disturbing trend has been the increase in assaults and miscellaneous misdemeanor crimes in which homeless individuals are either the victims or unjustly presumed to be the perpetrators. Again, the search for an example takes us no further than Richmond’s Kanawha Plaza where, on October 21, a homeless woman claimed she was sexually assaulted during the downtown protest at 11 p.m. She claimed, “…that while sleeping she was attacked by a man she identified as one of the dozens of protestors sleeping inside the park.” A representative of Occupy Richmond insisted that the attacker was not a protestor even though he slept in the plaza.

No matter how hard life is for “the 99%”, their hardships can’t compare to the true hardship of homelessness. The irony is that this movement, however genuine its original intentions, has made life even more difficult for our own community’s most vulnerable citizens. Sadly, protestors are putting a bad taste into the mouths of politicians and homeless people are paying the price for it.

We at Virginia Supportive Housing know that sleeping in public spaces is not an acceptable option for anyone. Long-term homelessness compromises physical, mental, and emotional health, creates barriers to employment, health care, and other services, and over time leads to premature death. It should not be trivialized through empty protest, nor should it be criminalized. So what is the right response? Instead of symbolic demonstrations, we encourage community members to join our efforts to end the tragedy of homelessness once and for all and we offer opportunities to take real action right now. To learn more about how you can be a part of our mission to end homelessness, click here.

Petersburg Woman Sacrifices Everything For New Home

Virginia Supportive Housing is proud to share the story of Michelle Christian…in her own words!

Counselor Aisha Quarles (left) and Homeowner Michelle Christian (right)

In 2009, my daughter and I were living in a house that was contaminated with lead. Due to the inadequate living conditions I was in, I made the decision to focus completely on doing what was necessary to buy my own home. I didn’t know if I could really become a homeowner, but I wanted to try.

My daughter heard about a housing class in Hopewell, and we attended. In the class, we learned about VIDA, a savings match program designed to help low-income families move toward home ownership. I made an appointment with Virginia Supportive Housing, found I was eligible, and joined.

With help from my VSH counselor, the financial literacy classes, and the homebuyer education class, I learned what I needed to do.

My counselor held me accountable for my actions, and kept me on track with saving money and getting debts paid off quickly. I wanted this goal so badly, I chose to sacrifice and I could have sought out housing, but I chose to live in my car for 13 months to accelerate the process.

I saved $2000 in the VIDA program, they matched my money and gave me an additional $4000. Then I learned about another program that provided an additional $23,000. The additional money from these programs made it possible for me to purchase my first home!

What do I want for my future? I would like to open my own bake shop and teach others the skill and art of cake decorating.

Michelle officially closed on her new home on September 30. Congratulations!