Battling homelessness is like any good loving relationship.

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

We have been talking about some pretty heavy stuff lately. I hope I am not causing trauma in you by us talking about it.

I want to talk about something else today, something a little lighter.

Homelessness. More aptly, homelessness and how the YMCA is doing its part to combat it.

I was talking with a friend, I know, you are going to say, "You have a friend?" Yes, I have a friend. I used to have two, but that is a story for another day.

He was talking about these organizations and philanthropic groups that have the idea stuck in their heads that we can build our way out of homelessness. The reason people are homeless is the fact that there is no affordable housing in our region. Their idea is that if we only build affordable housing the problem will be solved. There is actually a lot of money being thrown in this direction. While that may be the case, housing prices being too high may be a contributor.

People with money can be so out of touch.

There is no way we can outbuild the homeless problem. Do you know that other states actually bus their homeless people to our region because we have so many services? You can't outbuild a problem that if you just bring in another service/program, states will send even more people.

Anyone who has actually worked with homeless people knows that the problem starts in childhood.

Yes, there are those who became homeless because they lost their job. Or because they got hooked on drugs or alcohol. There are a lot of reasons people become homeless.

But here is the big one. Most homeless people became homeless by running away from abuse. They didn't even start using drugs until they became homeless and started using to self-medicate because they were homeless. Most homeless people have very high ACE scores, Adverse Childhood Experiences.

While a portion of the population became homeless because of loss of job, addiction, and unaffordable housing, a majority of homeless adults started as homeless kids.

This is where the Y, your Y comes in.

We offer a variety of programs designed to combat homelessness, but you just don't see it at first glance.

Let's go through a few, shall we?

Unaffordable Housing:

Picnic in the Park. This is a program that actually started because of the need to provide food to kids at risk for hunger during the summer months when the schools are out, and the hot lunch program goes away. What we quickly learned was that it was more than just kids who were hungry. And, there were more types of hunger than we thought. We were also fighting loneliness and social isolation. You see, when a mom doesn't have to choose between paying rent and feeding her children she can stay in the housing she is currently in. When people from all walks of life come together and form a community that they previously never thought existed, help comes in the form of neighbor helping neighbor. I'm talking about more than food now, These people come together over a meal, Picnic in the Park, become friends and the next thing you know they are helping each other out. Sharing clothing when their kids grow out of it, and receiving those clothes as their children grow into them. Watching each other's kids so that daycare becomes less expensive and less of an issue. Social and emotional support. So often we may be really good at one thing but horrible at another. Take building and maintaining a budget. This alone could drive someone to homelessness just because they don't do this well. Someone in the Park (I will use this analogy) might be really good at budgeting and will help their neighbor out. This same person may not be very good at sourcing affordable nutritious meals, while the person who is not good at the budget is very good at meals. Bringing these people together opens a door that was not seen before.

Abuse:

The YMCA battles child abuse every day. I cannot tell you how many stories I have been told by adults who said, "The Y was my safe space." They would go to the Y to hide from their abuser. Every one of these people telling these stories held down jobs, owned homes, and were functioning members of society.

Our camp staff and Y-time staff are trained to spot behaviors and work with these kids. Oftentimes they are the ones calling the authorities to report abuse. Don't believe me just ask some staff who work with kids, you will find out. I often tell the Youth staff that they may be the only person showing that kid healthy love all day. Their job is very important.

Addiction:

The Y has many partners and collaborates with many other organizations that will help those battling with addiction as they work on themselves at the Y. The Y has support groups, I like to call them micro-communities, that give people a place to belong.

You see, battling homelessness is more than just trying to outbuild it. Battling homelessness is like any good loving relationship. A good loving relationship isn't just one big thing, it is a lot of little things adding up to a big beautiful loving relationship. A relationship that can change a kid, a family, a community; a relationship that can change the world.

The next time you walk into your Y try looking at it with a fresh set of eyes. I think you will see it differently, I think you will see a beautiful thing.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger