Homeless Children

Want something to think about as Christmas rolls nearer? How about this? There are more homeless children in America right now than at any time since the Great Depression.
by Charlie Leck

The current estimates are that 1.6 million children are homeless in America (that is, these are children who go to sleep every night somewhere other than their own home). They are often confused and they often grow up to be angry, feeling that they’ve been cheated somehow by the system. Let’s not quibble about how they got cheated. Let’s concentrate on the fact that they, by and large, become less than perfect and model citizens – unless, of course, there is some serious intervention along the way.

Here, in Minnesota, we’re doing better than many states. The estimate, by people deeply involved in the questions and the problems of homelessness here, is that only 15,000 children will be homeless tonight. We have emergency shelters enough for about ten percent of those children. This is according to estimates provided by homelesschildrenamerica.org. You can go to the organization’s web site and take a peek at how your state is doing. It is sad, of course, to think about the other 90 percent. The temperatures will be significantly below zero tonight throughout our state.

Let’s say the organization is off by a third or so and there are only a million homeless children in America right now! Does that make you feel better? Wow!

We, the United States of America, with a million homeless children! What the? I repeat that: What the? (I learned from a daughter of mine that the common, social media way to communicate the same question is with a simple abbreviation – WTF?

I mean, we boast that we are the greatest nation on earth, but we have problems of poverty that are absolutely shocking.

And the conservative political parties in our nation think we are spending too much money on what they like to sneeringly call entitlements. How, in good conscience, can conservatives stand by and not see that that the government needs to have a significant roll in making sure these children do not just get lost in the system and end up in an endless and enduring cycle of homelessness, poverty and crime.

Entitled to what?
These children have certain constitutional entitlements that cannot be denied. And citizens and legislative leaders should make sure these are delivered. To end the cycle, we must provide proper and comfortable shelter, nourishment, and clothing. And, we must then ensure a quality education that will help them become productive citizens in the future.

Such entitlements might sound expensive, but that is only if they are looked at as a cost – as an expense. When seen as an investment in the future, they will then be recognized in the true light of their wisdom; and we shall realize that the nation will benefit from the futures such children will have in our American society.

The New York Times is running a series of stories this week on The Invisible Children. It is a series profiling individual homeless children who are among the more than 22,000 homeless children in New York City. The writing and photographs are extraordinary.

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A Sea of Homeless Toddlers

Homelessness in Minnesota is at a terrible and worrisome high according to a recent story in MinnPost.
by Charlie Leck

“We’re pretty close to crisis mode right now,” MinnPost quotes Daniel Gumnit as saying. Gumnit is the Executive Director of People Serving People, a family homeless shelter. Right now that organization is housing more than 350 people per night. Many of them are children. Another homeless center, House of Charity, has a waiting list larger than the number of people they house.

You can read the story at http://www.minnpost.com/community-sketchbook/2012/10/area-homeless-shelters-swamped-and-worry-about-what-s-ahead

I won’t go on quoting the statistics from the story. If you are from Minnesota, I urge you to eventually read the story for yourself. I’m also going to urge you to dig deep and support one or more of these homeless shelters because…. (oh, I won’t insult you… it’s obvious why we must support them… Jesus Christ, man! I mean it!)

“It’s sort of like a swell of waves through the seasons,” said Mikkel Beckmen, the Executive Director of St. Stephen’s Human Services, “but the swells keep getting bigger each passing quarter. They don’t go down as much as they have in the past." Mikkel speaks of, “A swell of homeless toddlers!” That stirs me!

I swear to God (I really do!), there should be no homelessness in Minnesota. And, there should be no homelessness in America. This is not like sending a man to Mars, you know. These are problems that the mind of man could easily solve.

Why do we keep pretending that government should not be spending money here? What the hell is government for? Government is to do for people what they cannot do for themselves. For Christ’s sake (I mean it), do you think these parents want to haul their children to these homeless shelters. They do not!

Well, it is apparent that government is going to do no more than it is already doing even though there is so much more that needs to be done.

You’ll need to pitch in and help. You’re smart enough. Figure it out! Just do something for God’s sake (I mean it!).

Some other organizations providing help to the homeless in Minneapolis are…

Salvation Army Harbor Light (houses single adults)

First Covenant Church in Minneapolis (sets up mattresses and passes out pillows)

Simpson Housing Services

Sharing and Caring Hands

Do what you can!

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Forever Hip!

I slashed around in bed last night and had a terrible time sleeping!
by Charlie Leck

It wasn’t that 18 inch putt Tiger Woods missed on the number 11 green yesterday in the Masters that was keeping me awake, but it was ugly enough that it might have done so several years ago. I remember when Woods could knock down putts just with his sheer force of will. That was, of course, before that Thanksgiving weekend a year and a half ago. Woods doesn’t have that will power and dominating control over a golf ball anymore. People speculate about what might be wrong with Tiger’s swing. Believe me, it isn’t his swing. It’s his mind. Unless he figures out a way to get his head clear again and his mind in control on the golf course, we’ll never again see the old Tiger. And, that saddens me.

But, no, it was the hip that kept me awake last night. The pain throbbed and pounded away in there as I struggled to find a position in bed that would give it and me some comfort. Only four more nights like this and then the surgery.

I tried doing the relaxation thing they had tried to show us at the hospital in pre-surgery instruction class. The Penny George Institute for Heath and Healing (one of those holistic health and medicine organizations) had sent someone into the classroom to lead us in a relaxation exercise. Amazingly it had worked for me as I sat there in a chair, behind a table.

“Relax your head and your eyes and the skin of your face and the muscles in your neck!” The instructor led us, with these commands, down our entire body – right through relaxing our little tootsies. And, it had worked and the pain had just seeped out of me.”

It didn’t work last night. Perhaps it’s because I kept challenging myself.

“Ga-dammit, relax!”

At one point in the middle of the night, as thunder clashed and lightening streaked across the sky, I rose up on an elbow and looked up into the dark space at the top of the room and cried out in frustration.

“All right, all ready! How ‘bout giving me a little peace!”

“Huh?” My wife stirred but didn’t really awaken.

I let my head crash back down into the pillow and something strange happened. Something washed over my body and the pain receded and disappeared.

I was a bit shaken and I thought a bit about what had happened.

I had uttered a plea to heaven. Had it been answered?

“I’m not that easy,” I said into the darkness. “You’re not winning me over with a little thing like that.”

Again my wife stirred.

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing! I’m just having a private conversation over here. Go back to sleep.”

“You’re crazy,” she uttered, even as she drifted off to sleep again.

I waited patiently and thought. The pain had not returned. My hip was quiet and at peace. This time I whispered into the darkness.

“I wouldn’t give a dime for a god who would do a cheap trick like that!”

I waited. There wasn’t any answer.

“Why aren’t you downtown on a night like this? I’m here in a comfortable bed, next to someone who loves me," I said. "Why aren’t you tending to those homeless people who live beneath the freeway bridge? Imagine how they must feel on a night like this, when you’re spouting all that booming and crashing and sparks are flying. That’s where you should be!”

Again, there was no reply. There was also no pain. I felt my face breaking out into a sweat.

“It worked,” I whispered.

“What worked?” My wife mumbled the question at me, rather than to me.

“Oh, that relaxation bit they showed us the other day at the hospital. I tried it and it worked.”

“Good,” she said, “now sleep.”

I couldn’t sleep. It was too odd – feeling no pain was strange. I tried to close my eyes, but they were drawn to the little window near my face. I could see the lightening slashing across the sky. Thunder continued to rumble.

I thought about those people who slept out on the streets. What were they cramming their bodies into on a night like this? Where could they find shelter?

I whispered again into the darkness.

“If human beings are so danged smart, why can’t they figure out a way to rid the word of homelessness? How tough can it be to make sure everyone has a comfortable place to sleep at night and a good, healthy breakfast in the morning? How tough?”

No answer again – only the slashing lightening and rumbling thunder!

“And Jesus answered, saying: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”

I drifted off into a painless sleep.

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An End to Homelessness

If we took on the task, community by community, congregation by congregation, wouldn’t it be possible to end homelessness?
by Charlie Leck

The mail arrived yesterday with its usual mountain of absolute twaddle. [Please note that, in regard to my use of the word twaddle, I searched a thesaurus for nearly 15 minutes in an effort to find a better word than 'crap' because a couple of readers have objected to my use of that word in past blogs.]

My first task when I face this jumble of mail is to sort through it, creating 4 piles. They are labeled: him, her, recycle and kerchink (meaning bills). When I get to the monthly newsletter from our church, I find myself physically stuttering, as my hand, holding the piece, jerks from pile to pile wondering where to drop it among the four stacks. You might be thinking I oughtn’t include the bill pile in this tough decision making process, but, then, you don’t know my church.

Yesterday, I was so indecisive about this matter that I began reading one of the front page articles as my hand jerked from pile to pile. To relieve my jerking, I ended up sitting down on a stool at the kitchen counter so I could read the article and then decide what to do with the document.

“Hmm! Our pastor is dreaming again,” I thought to myself. “Now he wants to end homelessness.”

After shaking my head a bit and reading down a few lines, I thought to myself again.

“Hmm! I guess this issue will go in the bill pile!”

I really love this church. I don’t attend very often and I don’t want to be involved, but I love what the congregation does and how it does it, so I am willing to remain attached via its mailing list and I’m willing to send an amount of money to it every month. The church has a big, versatile and creative staff. About the most common trait of the staff is that they’re all big dreamers. I don’t mean that negatively. I know it can sometimes create problems, but it can also produce some nearly altitudinous goals for a church community.

“Like, come on, dude! You want to end homelessness in our entire State? This is what I’m trying to tell you here, you know, about dreamers! I can see we take on a few blocks or something, Reverend, but to put an end to cold and hungry nights on the streets for thousands of people! It’s so shocking to comprehend that I lose my ability to construct grammatical sentences. Come on!”

Recently the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition gave the head honcho among our pastoral team a big award over there in Saint Paul, in the State Capitol building. They call it the Lawrence D. Gibson Interfaith Social Justice Award. Mr. Gibson, himself, presented the honor.

“He has made it his calling,” Mr. Gibson said of our Senior Pastor, “to end homelessness in Minnesota. He has led local and statewide efforts to this end, motivated congregants to advocate with their elected officials, fostered collaboration among downtown Minneapolis congregations of all faiths and inspired the construction of hundreds of affordable homes.”

Well, I think that’s right nice; but I do not think it manifests an end to homelessness or even approaches such a goal. I sat quietly, in the very early morning hours, thinking about this business.

“Could homeless really be ended within a whole state?”

I tried to contemplate the question. I hoped an answer would seep through my incredulity.

In exasperation, I turned from the front page of the newsletter to the pastor’s message on the second page. There, he wrote:

“...the Currie Avenue Partnership, a collaboration of the faith and business communities of Minneapolis, is approaching its goal of raising $350,000 to hire housing case workers who will help scores of eligible individuals to move out of overcrowded downtown shelters and into adequate housing. Already, seven case workers are on the job and people are leaving the shelters for their own apartments. This includes one man who has been in shelters for five years and a woman who, though she has breast cancer, has been sleeping on the floor at a Salvation Army shelter for three years. In the coming months, more and more shelter users will be set up in their own housing and they’ll have the support of the case workers as they build more independent lives… Our congregation has provided $61,000 toward this effort, setting the pace for other congregations and businesses as well.”

It grew even more peaceful. I could hear some lovely and unidentifiable bird songs breaking into the quiet, quiet morning.

“You want to end homelessness in the state, huh? Hmm!”

“Can you believe it?”

“What if congregations in churches and synagogues and mosques and temples all over the metropolitan region started thinking like this Currie Avenue Partnership? Hmm! What if they found business-people within their congregations to partner up with them? Hmm!”

“What if?”

Over there in the state capitol building, when they gave our Pastor his award, he made a few remarks to the assembled folks. He told his congregation what he tried to say in expressing his thanks for the honor.

“…I shared my belief that it’s congregations, not individuals, who are the true ‘prophets’ of our times. [Ours] is becoming one of those prophetic congregations, and it is my happy circumstance to be serving in your midst as this work emerges. We have much more to learn, more challenges to meet, more risks to take, more visions to embody to fully live out our prophetic calling… but we are on the way toward its fulfillment together.”

“You know," I thought, there in the quiet and peaceful morning, “it is possible to end homelessness. It would only take a small army of us who believe it can be done. What kind of crazy place is this anyway? Last week the paper told us about some local captain of industry who made over 100 million dollars in compensation from his company for just the year 2009. Then that loudmouth, Glen Beck, is out there telling his listeners that they ought to leave any church that teaches social justice.

What’s wrong with this picture? A woman with cancer sleeps on the floor of a shelter for over two years? Some guy makes 100 million bucks in a year?

The quiet morning makes me crazy with thoughts. Hmm! That's all!

If you want to look into the work my wonderful church is doing in the fight for social justice, click here to browse around.

If you’d like to read the joint plan of Minneapolis and Hennepin County to end homelessness within the next 10 years, click here