Loss; and Homelessness

Today’s Missive has two unrelated parts. 

Part One: 

This has been an incredibly difficult week for some of you and for many of our Orange County neighbors. The news of the helicopter crash that took the lives of Alyssa, Keri, and John Altobelli, Giana and Kobe Bryant, Sarah and Payton Chester, Christina Mauser, and Ara Zobayan came as an abrupt shock and continues to be hard to believe. While Kobe Bryant’s global popularity has brought heightened attention to the accident, I have found it deeply moving to see how various pockets of community here and in L.A. have reached out to each other offering solace or simply crying together. The philosopher Richard Rorty once said that even in an age that focuses on the differences that divide us, one unifying question is always, “How have you suffered?” There is something about our capacity to hurt, grieve, and mourn that is both terrible and indicative of our fundamental human decency.  

If this tragedy has a personal dimension for you, I am very sorry and hope you are able to find your way through your loss. If your response to this tragedy has been more indirect than personal, it is still a deep loss and often a trigger for activating previous losses in our lives. I hope that you, too, can find ways to breathe our collective hope that “in life and in death we belong to God.” 

Part Two:

In my work with the Orange County Alliance for Just Change and United to End Homelessness, I’ve been getting constantly re-educated about how a community as large and complex as Orange County can address the challenges that face homeless neighbors. We are a collective of 34 cities, many of which cooperate often but which also have competing interests quite often. As a result there are layers of organizational structures in place, but it’s not always clear whose role it is to coordinate the work and ensure that we’re all moving in the right direction – what our friend Tom Cramer often calls “the pointy end of the ship.” 

At the risk of sounding Pollyannaish, might I share what I think is some good news about this topic? I feel like many of our cities, and many of the communities within our cities, have turned a corner of sorts. There is fairly widespread agreement on a “housing first” approach to the challenge, which recognizes that whatever other physical, psychological, or spiritual needs a person who is homeless may have, those needs are more likely to be met well if they have some kind of stable living environment. There is growing awareness that in order for temporary and transitional housing to remain temporary and transitional, there must be a dedication to making permanent supportive housing available. And while there is still plenty of vitriol that raises its ugly head too often, there is also a quieter stead hum of serious activity and small accomplishments that are happening. 

One thing that I see developing is that the challenges of homelessness are being segmented, little by little. It is a process that is often driven by funding and I have some concerns that we are leaning toward a false dichotomy between the ‘deserving poor’ and the ‘undeserving poor,’ but there are some upsides to this segmentation as well. By specifying the needs of Veteran’s Homelessness and Youth Homelessness for example, we can not only gather a larger group of sympathetic support, but we can also give better attention to the unique challenges that veterans or young people have when trying to move from homelessness to being housed. And when we are able to effectively address one kind of homelessness, we free up resources, energy, and good will to address other forms of homelessness. In the end, I think this more specific approach to finding permanent housing for Veterans and Youth will have a great effect on our overall efforts. 

That’s just a glimpse into where my head is these days. I am heartened by the quiet good will that is often drowned out by the noise, and the small steps toward effective compassion that is often hidden behind the disarray. 

And I cannot end this note without pointing you toward United to End Homelessness’ current fundraising challenge. We have a $31,000 matching fund goal that ends today, to enable youth who have aged out of foster care to find permanent housing. You can read more about it here. I cannot tell you how powerful it is to see so many St. Mark folks listed among the contributors. Blessings to you.

Mark of St. Mark