Steve Campbell
Steve's first contact with the mission of Peter & Paul Community Services was in 1982 when he and his wife, Marty, first volunteered in the shelter. He became shelter director in 1986 and has been the agency’s executive director since 1987. When he is not seeking metaphors for the sacred in daily life, you might find him working on a quarterly progress report for one of our government funders. You can respond to his posts via e-mail at scampbell@ppcsinc.org.
October 17th, 2007
The good news on Wednesday was that homeless people in Los Angeles will no longer be committing a crime if they fall asleep on a city sidewalk. A law had actually been passed making it a crime to sleep on a sidewalk. Several homeless people had to file suit to overturn the law.
There are an estimated 90,000 homeless people in Los Angeles county, and an estimated 11,000 shelter beds. In a room somewhere, someone should be asking the question “Where will the other 79,000 sleep?”
The less-than-good news in today’s paper comes from Dallas, where a church has opened it’s parking lot for 150 homeless people to sleep on the pavement, because police were arresting homeless people found sleeping in public places. The Deputy Police Chief said that the city would be looking at whether the church had the proper permits to allow people to sleep on their parking lot. The article reported that the city of Dallas has 5,000 homeless people, and only 1,300 shelter beds.
Closer to home, in St. Louis the hotline that people call to get into shelter is forced to turn away seven out of every ten people looking for shelter, because all the beds are full.
I don’t mean to minimize the concerns of a community that is looking for answers to the problems homelessness causes. I appreciate that people do not want to step over sleeping homeless people on their way to work. It makes us uncomfortable. (It’s also less than comfortable for the person sleeping on the concrete.) But criminalizing homelessness is not the answer. It is demeaning to the homeless person, it ties up the time of the police and the courts, and it is expensive for the community.
One thing we humans all have in common is that we each have a body. And that body has needs. And one of those needs is sleep. Part of being human is that we take up space…even when we are asleep. Homeless people have to be somewhere, and by definition they don’t have a home to go to.
It’s a crime that in a country where we spend so much money on (insert your own pet peeve extravagant excess here), that people are hungry and homeless. We shouldn’t put them in jail for it.
August 30th, 2007
In the times that the Hebrew and Christian scriptures were written, hospitality was among the most prized of virtues. And it’s not difficult to guess why. It may have something to do with the desolate surroundings. Living and especially traveling in the desert has a way of keeping you focused on the fragility of human life. We simply don’t last long without food, and especially water. And if the land where you live is mostly arid and lifeless, knowing where your next drink of water is coming from becomes very, very important. It’s a great comfort to know you can count on your neighbors for help if you get into trouble. Hence, the scriptural value of hospitality and the concern for our neighbors.
This past Sunday’s Post-Dispatch carried an article with the headline: “Homeless clash with push to gentrify city.” The story reported the controversy between homeless people who congregate in Lucas Park downtown, and neighbors of the park who have moved into loft condominiums along Washington Avenue who would like to be able to use the park without being panhandled.
Now, because I work for an agency that provides housing and services for those who are homeless, you might think you could guess “whose side” I’m on in this situation. But as it turns out, in this case I don’t think it’s about “sides.” The condo-dwellers have a legitimate desire to use their neighborhood public park without being harassed. And the people who are homeless…well they need to be somewhere, don’t they?
The problem here is that too many homeless people have nowhere else to go. By definition, they have no space that is theirs. Lucas Park has been dubbed “Hobo Park” by homeless people for decades. I can only imagine that they chose to gather in the park because for years, until the recent revitalization of Washington Avenue, it was off the beaten path. There is less visibility there than in the parks along Market Street, and so they draw less attention to themselves, and so feel safer. It has the added benefit of being bordered by the New Life shelter, the main branch of the public library and Christ Church Cathedral. All three provide them with a refuge from the weather (and access to indoor plumbing) for at least part of the day.
The best solution is to create a space where homeless people will feel safe, a space that offers protection from the heat or cold, a space where their needs are met, whether it’s an immediate need for a rest room, a shower, a meal, a telephone…or a need for services like medical care, legal assistance, and substance abuse counseling.
The good news is that there are spaces being developed that will meet some of these needs. Our own Breakfast Club at Centenary United Methodist Church offers a morning meal and a caring staff to offer assistance to more than 200 homeless men, women and children each day. A nurse from Grace Hill Clinic provides regular medical screenings, agencies like BJC Behavioral Health, Community Alternatives and St. Patrick Center provide outreach and mental health services, and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri visits to provide free legal aid. And at lunchtime, Centenary Cares and St. Patrick Center both provide a meal, as well as linkage to a wide array of services.
As it turns out, the answer to this problem is hospitality. This week on the news I saw a woman interviewed who came to St. Louis after Hurricane Katrina. She spoke of her love for St. Louis, and how her family felt welcomed and cared for here. Just imagine how many problems in our city could be solved by applying that St. Louis hospitality.
By the way, that word hospitality comes from the same root as the word hospital, a Latin word that means “guest room.”
August 27th, 2007
Did you see the cartoon recently? A man is sitting at a desk in his den, surrounded by vast wooden shelves full of books. He’s working at his computer. His wife stands behind him in the doorway and asks, “Let me guess, the Great American Blog?”
Every “Writing 101” class starts by telling students to write what they know about, or at least, what they are interested in. Well, my interests are my family, my faith and values, and how those beliefs are played out daily in the public sector.
OK, so I could write er, blog, about family relationships (and vacation photos)…religion…and politics. Those all seem like safe subjects to write about. And surely no one else on the Internet is blogging about any of those topics!
When I was first asked to write a blog for this website, I had lots of questions. “Where would I find the time?” (After all, I’m a busy man.) “What would I write about?” (It’s the homelessness, stupid.) And most certainly, “Who would want to read it?” (I guess we’ll find out.)
Well, we’ll see where it goes from here. If you look for it, there is news every day from around the country regarding issues of homelessness. This Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch will carry an article about people who are homeless in the downtown parks. Check back next week for our thoughts.
Steve
Tom
Keith
David
Rochelle
Eileen