Do the rights thing? by Keith Bender

Do the right thing, I've heard people say this like some mantra that guarantee's the desired outcome. As if you can always know what that is? The right thing to do is based on what? Some spiritual connection threading its way through our reality helping those who ask? Or boring ethics we ignored in school? Maybe it’s a new form of wishing people good luck when we really don't know what else to say. More probably, I hope it's an indication that we are advocating for behavior that we all deem is acceptable. Like putting people and the planet first before profits and other things like that.

Doing the Human Rights thing takes a little more knowledge than the ever-pleasing but self-centered world renown sentence nearly everyone can blurt out..... that pursuit of happiness thing. The proper context allows us to reclaim and gather our strength away from the noise we live with in our heads, competing forces struggling for our attention. When was the last time you took time to review your rights and a little history surrounding their creation? A tour of Wikipedia may very well restore some hope in humanity if you are currently feeling disenfranchised or outcast by the Financial Racism this consumer oriented object addicted society has nurtured. You know the one I mean. The place where no place is okay if you don't have an address with legit sleeping quarters attached to it. Where you know something’s wrong but you just can't put your finger on it. The place where the Police enforce property rights as precedent over human needs.

"WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF EVIDENT. THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL,

THAT THEY ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS,

THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF SAFETY AND HAPPINESS."

George Mason in the Virginia Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1 uses "the pursuit of Safety and Happiness." Thomas Jefferson used the combined reference again in his Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence. Safety somehow gives way to Life and Liberty along the way and by the time it reaches Madison's desk we cover the uncovered expanse of human needs and rights in the line:

SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED TO DENY OR DISPARAGE OTHERS RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE.

The "Others" is rights not spelled out for reasons obvious once the context of enumeration is understood. We pride ourselves in response to everyday crisis. Begin to falter when major catastrophe like Katrina or 9/11 come along and Chronic problems of safety like Homelessness seem to somehow provide a negative payback we can use to feel more fortunate about as we play the consumer game described at the Story of Stuff.

The American Dream needs its counterpart, The American NightMare? NOT!!! As polite as I can be I admit to being one of those Financial Racists I complained about earlier. A denial mechanism? A way to allow or permit this behavior to continue while I went about my life unaffected by and disengaged from feelings that would have told me something is really wrong here. Too caught up in the CAPITALISM game to realize that falling off the playing board had no real way back.

If Ending Homelessness is really our goal then like a Gold miner knowing that you have to clear a route by blasting away rock, our last 10 feet that stand in the way of the gold, the Safety clarification, is that rock needing blasting. This clarification of safety as a right must be seen as a mandate. It really is time we did the right thing for our homeless.

Keith Bender lives in West Springfield, VA where he is a writer, blogger, advocate, and "new wave old hippy." He previously was a realtor and owner of a homestaging business. Keith was recently homeless for over a year.

History and Homelessness by Howard Zinn

Historian, teacher, author Howard Zinn died Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at the age of 87.  Mr. Zinn was a scholar advisor to Give US Your Poor for the planning process of the documentary film by the same name about homelessness in the United States.  Below is an excerpt of the statement he submitted to the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities in support of that project (we worked on sections together, any clunky stuff is clearly mine). We post now in remembrance and appreciation of his work and generosity. - JM

BY HOWARD ZINN:  ...I have always been interested in examining history from the perspective of the rank and file. Most history books give the perspective from the top: from elected officials, industrialists, people of power and importance. Indeed, the sources are much more available for this approach: journals kept by educated men and women, documents, official biographies.

But there are also sources, though more difficult to find, which represent the conditions of life, and even the thinking, of those at the bottom end of society. It is the history of these people which needs very much to be told. And while important decisions are made by the authorities in any culture, the momentum for these decisions usually comes from below, from the movements of oppressed people.

The "homeless" are among the most neglected of this underclass, those left out of traditional histories of the United States. We get rare glimpses of these people in history through a folk song or a biographer's description of George Washington passing the homeless on a trip through Philadelphia. The impression is left that there were no "homeless" until the Great Depression, that this temporary condition of widespread poverty was remedied by the New Deal, and that it only reappeared in the 1980s. That view would lead us away from understanding the structural base of homelessness, as a permanent phenomenon in the nation's life. The result would be complacency and inaction.

The Declaration of Independence says we are all created equal, that we all have rights that cannot be taken from us - the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But these rights have never been applied to the homeless, and this film should lead people to think about that. The right to pursue happiness is meaningless if people do not have the resources for a happy life: food, a home, health care, satisfying work.

The Bill of Rights operates differently for rich and poor. The right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure is different for a family living in a mansion than for a family living in a housing project, or out on the street. We should look beyond the Bill of Rights to the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that all people, everywhere in the world, are entitled to work and decent wages, to holidays and vacations, to food, clothing, housing and medical care, to education, to child care and maternal care.

There have been books, articles and films that examine homelessness. But they have not had a significant effect on the national consciousness. A film on homelessness in America would make an important contribution to the history of the underrepresented in American society.

My role as advisor is to help ensure that "Give Us Your Poor", as a historical work, presents the perspective of those Americans who have been struggling simply to have a place to live. My hope is that the film will raise consciousness about homelessness, thus leading viewers away from the notion that it is an acceptable part of American life. By looking at homelessness in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we may learn something about how to deal with it today.

This film is a humanities project because it is steeped in history. It is not simply the history of public policy, but the history of people struggling for a place to lay their head and fight for dignity. It is the history of the American people and their answers over time to the question: "How do we treat our fellow citizens when they are most vulnerable?" To answer this question is to get at the heart of a humanist approach to the problems of society.

For more information on Howard Zinn's career and life visit http://www.howardzinn.org.

Lynne Twist and the Opportunity within the Economic Crisis

Lynne Twist is the author of The Soul of Money and the co-founder of the global NGO, The Pachamama Alliance.  The Pachamama Alliance is a partnership between the indigenous Achuar Tribe of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest and people worldwide working to save the Ecuadorian rainforest and preserve the Achuar culture.

Lynne talks and writes often about the profound abundance in life that we often overlook as we instead focus on our scarcity. It is a monetary perspective as well as a spiritual one and impacts our actions and happiness.

She recently created a short video talking about this idea as it relates to the current global economic crisis. I encourage you to check it out (it's about 3 minutes long) by clicking on the link at the bottom of this blog entry. 

In the video, Lynne says, “If we can see that what's happening is a truing, is a recalibration, it helps us see how to deal with it on a personal basis.  It doesn't mean it's not going to be painful; it doesn't mean that there's not suffering; it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be paying close attention to how we use money."

“But if we look on a larger scale, if we step back from the personal trauma, the fear, that we're all caught in and that the media's caught in, and see that we're living at a time of enormous excess that has created financial structures and systems that are inappropriate and completely unsustainable and now they're falling apart, we’ll know that, at the end of this, we're all going to be better for it, because we're going to be in a truthful, more accurate, more integrous relationship with ourself, with money and with the resources on this planet.  We can get through this.”

This has great implications for addressing epidemic homelessness, which has been for decades now the carnage of an unsustainable system.  Click here to view the video

Lynne has been a great friend to Give US Your Poor.

The Gift of Music & Oneself at Christmas: Michael Severens at PIP Shelter

The week before Christmas 2009, Give US Your Poor organized a performance by classical cellist Michael Severens of the l`Orquesta Sinfonica de la Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico at the PIP Shelter in Worcester, MA. Michael grew up in Worcester down the street from PIP and was home visiting from Mexico for the holidays. Attendance was sparse, the weather was bone chilling outside, but Severens was in fine form. He had played the night before at Worcester's Longest Night service and was moved to tears hearing about the people who lost their lives in 2009 due to homelessness, proof that homelessness is not only a moral tragedy for US all but a death sentence for too many. A number of PIP guests that evening thanked Severens for taking the time to come and perform and for thinking of them. Many talked of their own musical talent. They walked him to the door, thanking him again and again, and wishing him Merry Christmas. I was with him and struck deeply again that I was off to a warm home and these new friends were off to a crowded emergency shelter for the night, for the week, for the year.

Many thanks to the staff and guests at PIP shelter for welcoming Michael and his cello that cold night in Worcester, and many thanks to Mr. Severens for reminding me of the meaning of giving at Christmas. May we all carry that forth throughout the year! Peace out.

PIP Shelter is part of the South Middlesex Opportunity Council (S.M.O.C.)

My Name Is Sam McClain

Hello Everybody,

My name is Sam McClain and I was born to a family of thirteen brothers and sisters (I’m, the fifth in line) in 1943 in Winnsboro, LA.

I am very humbled that I was asked to speak a little on this subject that has been with mankind since the beginning of time. The subject is HOMELESSNESS, but I think it is more than just homelessness. I think it is also about the whole person or family – the whole body, mind and spirit.

Before I get too deep into this, let me first say that I also believe that in some strange, painful and wonderful way, it all works together for Good. We must someday come to understand that we are all Human/Spiritual beings, made in the image of a Mighty, Mighty, Powerful and Loving God. He said two simple (well, it seems simple to me now :o) things. He said to love Him first, to love each other and everything else would be OK. If we just did these two, we would see a change in the world – like no other time in history. I believe that with all that I am or ever will be. I won’t preach, but just pause and think!!

As I am thinking on this I realize that there were thirteen children and that was the age I was (13) when I left that home. I had a step father whom I love (and still do) even though he was abusive. You see, I never knew my natural father and I was in need of a father so I picked him, but he didn’t, and couldn’t, know how to love me. I understand, looking back, that he did what he knew to do. Hi hit me a lot with his walking stick (he walked with a limp and used a cane) and plucked me in the head with his hammer if I wasn’t nailing right when I was working with him. He was a hard man, but the beautiful part of this story happened when I went to visit him before he died. That was a great moment for both of us. I could see in his eyes that he was glad to see me – I knew that he was seeing that in my eyes, too. I was no longer angry and I love this old man now more than then. :o) That’s why I love God.

Forgive me if I jump all over the place in my writing this. But, you know, my life has been quite painful from time to time and I still hurt from the pain and I’m sorry for what people go through today. I still have Great Hope. We have a Great God and we are a great people.

I found that when I was homeless, one of the most painful things was the way people treated me. One of the most uplifting things would be when someone would just speak to me.

Ladies, Gents, Boys and Girls, we have to learn how to love one another. We must help each other along he way, as we all know, we can’t depend on the government. So we must “Look in the mirror” and ask, “What can I do”?

Thank you and God Bless You,

Sam McClain

Mass. State Senator, Jamie Eldridge on Homelessness

For me, homelessness is one of those issues that I’ve been aware of since before high school, but never really got into my head until the spring of 2001. That spring, I was working as a Legal Aid lawyer for Merrimack Valley Legal Services in Lowell. Most of my work as a lawyer was focused on representing poor people being evicted from their apartments. It was generally a satisfying job, as I was able to delay evictions so that the tenants had enough time to move to another apartment or move in with members of their families living elsewhere.

In April 2001, I received a call from the city of Lowell, indicating that a sewer pipe had broken in the middle of the night in the basement of an apartment complex, forcing the city to evacuate the entire building. The tenants were scattered all over the city, but many of them had been put up by the landlord at a nearby Motel 6. For the most part, the belongings of these families, mostly poor, were irretrievable due to the damage made by the broken sewer pipe. Given this overnight reality, these families needed legal assistance to determine what damages they might be owed.

I raced over to the Motel 6 with a colleague of mine, and we began interviewing each of the families, one by one. Each family had a small hotel room, and while the children considered the stay at the hotel quite an adventure, you could see the stress already rising on the faces of the mothers and fathers, thinking about their next steps.

Unfortunately, the landlord of the building was already thinking of his next step. While I began preparing the housing court cases for the families in order to compensate them for losing everything in the apartment accident, the landlord sent his associates to the different motels and hotels where his former tenants were staying, and offered to pay them anywhere between $1-3,000 to sign a disclaimer waiving their rights to go to court over their lost property. Half of the families, scared about where they would live once their hotel stays ended, took the payoffs, which would barely pay for a month’s rent in most apartments available in Lowell.

Focusing my energies on the families that held out for a fairer settlement, I began calculating the true losses of these families, to be ready for the trial. I thought we had a good case, and it was a real pleasure working with these families, all of them hard-working and just wanting to get a fair shake from a raw deal. Because the landlord rebuffed my initial offer of a settlement, after consulting with my clients, we went to trial.

The Lowell Housing Court, located inside the Lowell Superior Court, a tall, grey forbidding building, is always chaotic as attorneys, tenants and landlords meet to discuss their cases. Most housing cases go first to a Housing Mediator, to see if a settlement can be reached and avoid a potentially costly trial before a housing judge. Unfortunately, this often means that both landlords and tenants are pressured into giving up their day in court in exchange for a settlement.

That day was no different, and what it meant was my bringing an offer to the families that was less than my estimate of their actual losses. After all, these families had lost all of their belongings in just a few chaotic hours, had no apartment to return to, and were still dealing with how their lives had changed in just one week. I pulled up a chair to one of the long tables in the courthouse, explaining to one man, an immigrant from Central America, about what the offer was on the table.

The offer, while substantial, would not make up for the families’ losses, and the husband began to cry. The pressure was too much, as I envisioned him calculating how far he and his family could go with the money being offered. His children, still treating the past week as an adventure, suddenly grew quiet as they observed their father, so strong, trembling with uncertainty about his next steps.

That, for me, was when I finally realized what it meant to be homeless. No control over your life, with inadequate resources, and the unbearable trauma of thinking where your family would sleep that night. When I think about the different resources, programs, and budgets that Massachusetts provides to prevent homelessness throughout the Commonwealth, I think of that one family struggling to maintain their dignity in that courthouse, not knowing where they were going to live.  -- Jamie Eldridge

Social Entrepeneurship and U.S. Homelessness

There is a fast growing movement called social entrepeneurship taking place in the world today. Simply put, social entrepeneurship means applying business models to social problems and organizations that make a social impact. So, instead of getting a government grant to fund activities to, say, bring light to extremely poor people in Cambodia, they create a business plan to do it. The plan answers questions like, What is the need of poor people in Cambodia for light? What are the residual benefits of having that light? What are the costs to provide that light? Are there innovative technologies, or, innvoative uses of old technologies that can help provide light? What will the market bear (what can poor people afford to pay)? Sometimes the answers are surprising. The collective purchasing power of poor people collectively can be a substantial amount of money. If a business markets to them they can make a lot of money collectively while offering a very affordable product--in this example, light. Social entrepeneurs are often not in the business of making money--that is not their end goal, to maximize profit--rather to help people. They use a business model to make money to make their service sustainable.

There are different versions of the above model among social entrepeneurs. Some are purely a business models, some rely on subsidizing some part of the costs from either government or foundations.

Most of the models I have seen in this field address people living in extreme poverty, or if not extreme (living on $1 US a day or less) then in very poor countries in the developing world. Why hasn't this model been applied to homelessness in the United States to a wide degree? [It has been applied but on rare occasions.] Is it because in developing world the difference between the consumer (extremely poor peopel) and the entrepeneur is so great, that the differnence in scope makes applying the business model more easily doable? In the U.S. it is the descrepency is not as great. Housing doesn't cost $500 it costs more like $30,000 for very low income housing.