Home?

I went to Mobile Loaves and Fishes earlier this week to hear the founder talk about his vision and the wisdom he has picked up along his life-long career path with this group. Although much of their work is bringing sustenance and basic necessities to people living on the streets, their core mission is to end the root causes of homelessness. And what are the root causes of homelessness?

I went to school for social work, so we talked about these kinds of things quite a bit. Unfair housing policies, racial discrimination, disability, lack of affordable housing, barriers to work, lack of a living wage... These have all been cited as causes of homelessness, and with good reason. But the perspective I heard this past week looks a little deeper and does what we don't want to do, which is stop pointing fingers at the external "them", and instead points a little closer to the self.

To think about homelessness, he says, we must first think about what a home is. More than a building, it is a place of belonging and purpose. He had a whole list of 7 characteristics of a home or something, but I can't remember them. But basically it comes down to Family, and the rapid dissmination of Family. In an ideal world, people take care of people, just like families do. If my brother were to suddenly lose his job and everything he had, neither I nor my parents would think twice about taking him and his wife into our homes, giving him what he needed, and helping him become more stable. Why is it, then, that there are hundreds of thousands of people and families who experience a similar situation but have nowhere to go but to the streets or to a crowded shelter?

When talking about welfare or poverty or homelessness, the word burden always seems to come up. We talk about not wanting to be a burden on our family, or people being a burden on the government/tax payers, and we don't take people into our homes because it would be such a burden to have to see to a stranger's needs in addition to our own. And why not? I know I wouldn't want to be a burden on my family if all of a sudden I was totally incapacitated, and I certainly wouldn't want a stranger to have to pay for my existence. I want to be independent, self-sufficient, and responsible for my own wellbeing or suffering. That's what I've been brought up to value.

But somewhere deep down beneath the rugged individualistic exterior of modern Americans lies the profound understanding that we are inevitably and intricately connected to our fellow human beings. We need each other.

Yeah, of course we need each other. Everyone knows we need family and we need community to have a shared sense of purpose, blah blah blah... We can all spout it off. But do we really believe it?

The women that come into the shelter I'm working at are there because they have nobody. Often times their families are still in Mexico or whichever other country they came from, and they find themselves isolated in a new and hostile place with nobody that will treat them like family should. When they're hungry, they had better work for the money to put food in their mouths. When they're lonely, they are given charity. What I love about Posada Esperanza is that we don't just give our residents a tangible shelter, we are really dedicated to promoting social support and empowerment. These ladies often become each other's family, and even though as far as most of us would see they have next to nothing, they have so much to give one another. We welcome them like a family would.

But we can only take so many. There are far more lonely people than there is shelter for in wonderful non-profits like Posada. The symptoms we're seeing at present will only continue to be exasterbated as long as we continue treating our brothers and sisters as if they were not family. I have this really shiny optimistic idea that in every community exists the perfect ratio of need to resource, and that it is just a matter of the pieces finding one another. If I am only looking at my need or at my resources, I will never know the missing piece that might be living right next door. Our community is our family.

This whole idea has shaken me up on so many levels -- more than I can really go into. What does this mean for the church? And for me, as a daughter/sister who has uprooted to a new city? To my immediate 'family' of friends here in Austin who are all transitory and unrooted? I know that I am afraid of making roots -- that choosing to settle in one place/on one thing means I am rejecting so many others. But I am more convinced than ever that roots are truly and really good.