From Foe To Friend

It was a cold stormy night. I was standing at the end of a long line outside Portland Rescue Mission hoping to get one of the thin mats on the floor. By the length of the line, I guessed I might be left out in the cold. I was afraid.
I had stashed my gear outside that morning because the day job I went out on wouldn’t allow backpacks or sleeping bags. Someone stole it. They might have needed it more than me, but in the moment I was filled with resentment and fear. Looking at the cold miserable bastards in front of me I wondered if one of them had stolen it. I didn’t have any friendly feelings for the folks standing in the same situation as me. I was in competition with them.
That happened before I became involved with street roots, crossroads or Portland’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. Before I started looking beyond my immediate needs toward solutions to root causes of homelessness.
When reviewing the data from the Community Organizing Project, it struck me how much prejudice homeless people had against homeless people. Even where homeless people have managed to organize the prejudice and mistrust runs deep.
Dignity Village was able to compensate for the prejudice against homeless people by homeless people because they meet a basic need, a place to sleep, as well as engaging folks with the larger community.
Street roots is another grass roots organization where homeless people work and have a voice. Though struggle and strife was a part of the mix people meet a basic need for income by selling the paper. These organizations give as much or more than they get. Like Sisters of The Road they work toward systemic change instead of a charity or social service model.
Sisters of The Road Cafes barter program provides fair compensation for work done in the cafe. The work force development program provides income and verifiable job references. Both the barter program and the work force development program have subsidized administration, rent, heat, and development. Recently talk at the cLOT meeting was focused on paid staff for the personalist center. This will be place where people can wait in line to eat in the cafe, get their mail and maybe pick up a few hygiene items. The community needs someone accountable to hand out mail, but handing out shampoo would be a good barter opportunity.
While the cafe has a barter and work force development program, crossroads has had thousands of volunteer hours from the homeless community go uncompensated. We met no basic need we just fed the fire of passion for over a hundred volunteers and fanned the flame till they burned-out.
Last year, through the visioning process, Sisters developed a stipend program. This began to compensate low-income people with experience of homelessness for time they devote to crossroads Leadership Operational Team.
People will come to the personalist center to meet a primary basic need, a meal at the cafe, but as they wait we recruit additional member from the homeless community interested in being involved with the Civic Action Group. I don’t know what that may be, but as we recruit additional member from the homeless community I believe the group will come together with actions and events.
The Civic Action Group is in the birthing stage with the bulk of the work being performed by a few individuals. If this concept is to become a movement, then the groundwork must be planted with due consideration in fertile soil. Visioning, brainstorming, and policy writing take special skill sets.
The meetings, coordination, and networking all point to a common need. The Civic Action Group will need a Community Organizer. This has been a goal of crossroads for years. The funding has been pushed aside in interests of financial security.
Time and again the work done at crossroads has been displayed when seeking grants. The Community Organizing Project is a star of Sisters achievements. The project was under funded due to a misunderstanding of the capability of voice recognition programs. This misjudgment caused Sisters to spend tens of thousands of dollars it didn’t expect and the drain nearly killed crossroads.
If not for the foresight of last years visioning process, Sisters future would be little more than an honorable cafe. If we truly intend to embrace systemic change, then we need to honor the hard work and passion caring people from the homeless community have contributed to Sisters through crossroads by continuing the work of organizing people with the experience of homelessness.