inventing a non-homeless future

A Book Review

Presented to

Dr. Dean Helland, Graduate School of Theology and Missions

Oral Roberts University

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Course

PRM 519, Missionary Basics

By

LaVerne Chambers

December 6, 2002

Stoner, Madeline R. Inventing a Non-Homeless Future: A Public Policy Agenda for Preventing     Homelessness. New York: Lang, 1989.

Précis

            In Inventing a Non-Homeless Future: a Public Policy Agenda for Homelessness, Madeline R. Stoner presents the following three causes for homelessness in America: economics, lack of low-income housing and mental illness.  Specifically, Stoner explores the role of government as well as religious and non-profit organizations in helping the homeless. Stoner concludes that America will emerge as a non-homeless society when employment and income opportunities are equally available for all individuals and when family/friend support structures between all individuals are developed and maintained.

            Before addressing the economic issues concerning the homeless, Stoner lists four types of homeless persons:

      Type 1:  This individual is homeless after losing a job, getting evicted, or not able to pay bills. S/he is connected to family and/or friends and is still functional within society.

      Type 2:  This individual is recently dislocated but is less functional than the type 1 individual.  He/She has weak family and social ties and is not likely to find a stable job.

      Type 3:  This individual wanders the streets and is isolated and disoriented. S/he has severe mental and physical handicaps and is no longer looking for work.

      Type 4:  This individual has no family relationships and is considered as an outsider. He/she has adapted to harsh street life and finds support among the homeless population. 

President Ronald Reagan said, “[t]he Sunday newspapers list thousands of jobs for which there is no taker, and some homeless people are sleeping on grates by choice.”    This supports the popular sentiment concerning the homeless as lazy, selfish, isolate and inept concerning managing personal issues.  Consequently, there is a distinction made between the “deserving” poor and the “undeserving” poor: the “deserving” poor include the elderly, two parent families and those who work and the “undeserving” poor are the street people, the winos, criminals, unemployed men and women who stay on welfare.  Thus there are some homeless people who are blamed for their situation.  However, there is a direct correlation between deindustrialization, the cuts in various state and federal social programs and the increase of homeless persons. This suggests that there are societal factors that could affect an individual’s homeless condition.

Macroeconomics affects the income distribution and poverty levels of many individuals in America. There are many economic problems that plague the homeless community.  Many who are homeless are either unemployed, underemployed, working poor and/or affiliated with some federal income security program. The minimum wage is also a factor that effects the homeless population.  Although lowering the minimum will cause companies to higher more people and thus produce more jobs, the low income level will prevent many homeless from finding adequate funding.  Thus the working poor who earn minimum wage will need help from federal income security programs.   The major federal income security programs include: Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), disability benefits, food stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and unemployment compensation.   In addition to these programs, earned-income credit is a tax credit that is given to the poor in America.  With all of these programs in place, there are “deficiencies in the structures available to meet people’s basic needs.”

Religious and non-profit organizations are available to fortify the deficient structures within governmental programs that help the homeless.  For example, individuals who buy old houses and remodel them to accommodate boarders help to provide affordable housing to those who could be homeless.  Habitat for humanity works with the working poor to help individuals build and obtain their first house.  The Nehemiah program is a church sponsored program which covers most of the down payment and closing costs for buying a house to poor individuals.  These programs are necessary because, within the private sector, housing costs are soaring.  America’s capitalistic society produces a climate for unaffordable housing. Sweden and Cuba are two countries that have systems in place that make housing affordable for nearly all individuals because of their socialist social policy (which includes that everyone has a right to decent housing).    

 In addition to economics and housing issues, mental illness is also an issue that plagues the homeless community.  Approximately one in three homeless people are mentally ill.  The mentally ill live with families, in sheltered living facilities, board-and-care homes, single room occupancies (SRO’s) and/or move in and out of psychiatric hospitals.  Many who are mentally ill usually loose there housing through one crisis or another.  Because the emotional and financial resources of the mentally ill have been exhausted, they are less able to cope with challenging situations.  Even healthy people can become mentally disabled because of the stresses of homelessness.  As the mental trauma progresses, the homeless can loose time orientation, reality perception and family and social connections. 

Many of these homeless who are mentally ill have no contact with the mental heath system, but are in and out shelters.

Nor is it surprising that shelters are poorly equipped to solve even the basic problems of the homeless mentally ill.  This is no indictment of the shelter system because shelters are not designed for mentally ill people.  They offer what they claim: food clothing and a bed—“three hots and a cot.”

Thus, there must be another alternative to shelters when treating the mentally ill. Religious and non-for-profit organizations that do an effective job of meeting the needs of the homeless who are mentally ill include: the Pine Street Inn in Boston, the Downtown Women’s Center in Los Angeles, and Saint Francis Residences. They use techniques of individual case management to meet the specific needs of each homeless person who is mentally ill.  The Pew Memorial Trust and the Robert Wood Johnson foundation has selected 18 American cities to begin integrating general and mental health clinics within existing homeless shelter facilities.

            There are many people who want to help the homeless community. Coming from the point of view of the homeless person, Stoner reveals the sort of resources a program would need in order to adequately meet the needs of the homeless.  These resources would include: job placement, shelter, educational opportunities, help with getting identification, food, clothing, medical care, individual counseling, family counseling, legal help, drug/alcohol recovery programs, information on sexually transmitted diseases and protection from danger. Many governmental programs or not-for-profit organizations provide these programs and services to empower the homeless with financial power to provide for their own housing.

“Others see the more traditional opportunity to do God’s work among the homeless by trying to save the souls of those who have been predestined to misfortune in the moral ethics of stewardship and evangelism.”   Nevertheless, the homeless community will be truly helped when those concerned work on social policy that prevents homelessness in the first place.  This includes developing new housing policies, building more affordable housing, creating more feasible social aid and entitlement programs, creating more steady employment and income within the public sector (private sector is too hard to regulate), and  building an atmosphere that supports building a strong family/friend support structure for all individuals.  

Evaluation

            Stoner does an excellent job at identifying the various needs of the homeless community in a systematic, concise manner.  She is truly and advocate for the homeless community.  Assuredly, the homeless community, in particular the mentally ill homeless community is an un-reached people group within American society.  Stoner notes that the majority of the chronically homeless people are isolate.  In foreign missions, difference in culture, difference in language and difference in location attributes to the difficulty in witnessing in this environment.  The same is true when witnessing to the homeless community.  Because the homeless are isolate it is difficult to reach them with the gospel.  Stoner notes that outreach is essential for reaching the homeless community.  Once the initial contact is made, it is also essential to meet the homeless person’s needs.

From the perspective of the patients, outreach that welcomes frail people into a service system that cannot meet their needs ends up as just one more frustrating encounter with human service agencies that have failed and disappointed them in the past.  If outreach means only a sandwich, cup of coffee, clean cloths and a bed for the night, it represents another broken promise to alienated people.   

Alienated people need Jesus.  Although Stoner comes from a liberal, academic background, she understands that homeless people “deserve better,” especially in a country such as America.

Definitely, the breakdown of family and social relationships, among the poor, have caused much of the isolation that is within the homeless community today.  My question:  what is the church doing to meet the relational needs of the homeless community?  How many of us within the body of Christ have family members who are isolate and are with whom we have stopped communicating? To simply tell them to trust God when we have the relational resources to meet their needs is not enough. By meeting the relational needs of a difficult family member now, we within the body of Christ could prevent homelessness among our family members.

Perhaps this is a missionary work that all Christians can participate.

Unfortunately, Stoner does not fully address the breakdown of relationships as a cause for homelessness within America. Thus, in addition to the economic, housing, and program initiatives that Stoner suggests, an effective homeless prevention and service program must include an extensive effort to restore family and friend relationships. We must reach the homeless with the gospel and let them know that loving relationships and financial provision are available in our Father’s house.