Homeless in the path of the greenway: Mark
Posted on June 28th, 2009 in homelessness
Via email, from Action Greensboro:
“… As you may know, Action Greensboro is spearheading a public/private partnership to create a Downtown Greenway…
Construction… will displace those living in this area…”
Mark
This is Mark. He is homeless and lives outside in a wooded camp in downtown Greensboro in the path of the proposed greenway.
When I asked what he needed, Mark immediately said, “A job.” Mark wants to work. He’s worked on cars all his life, remodeled homes and done factory work. Mark wants a job and a chance.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Mark would be embarrassed to know I was bragging on him, but behind the scenes, not at endless meetings, he was the most active giver and supporter of the failed attempt to create year round overflow shelter this past spring.
Although it is admirable this accomplishment because of Mark’s position in life, the Wealthy, Middle Class, the ordinary poor, the non-profits, the ministries, and the government should be incredibly embarrassed because Mark without any work lined up, somehow managed to be the largest financial giver.
Of course one homeless man’s financial giving would not be enough, or should I say two since I was staying at the HIVE, WE shelter at the time, so I was technically homeless (although I admit my life was a pretty comfortable homeless at that time compared to my peers), and I shouldered all the photocopying, printing, office, internet, and computer costs for the initiative, and additional publicity for the IRC, Hungry in Greensboro, and other winter homeless initiatives from my own personal budget. Mark ok’d that his contribution would be used to offset my costs. His contribution was actually the only one.
Now that I live in Burlington and raising my newborn twins nearly full time, I am curious who could more effectively manage that obviously needed initiative. My argument is that new leadership is needed, that though we don’t want to be thankless, that the existing channnels that are assumed will take care of the problem, won’t because using these cost effective techniques (shelters organized roughly like the WE! program), using them year round will render conventional shelters and homeless organizations irrelevant, outdated, thus effective grassroots efforts are a fiscal threat (this is basic economics, those who continue to believe that the conventional channels will solve the problem because they have the rhetoric and some results will continnue to fail to grasp why it is that the problem isn’t solved by working with their “friends”, who btw are actually the main reason why their own personal efforts will only go so far.
Look to see overflow shelter organized by the establishment only when the numbers become so unmanagable that it will be an embarrassing P.R. debacle such that people in the community are fed up (ie only in the winter)
Management of WE should pass from the established organizations, back to the grassroots people who actually made it happen. Ironically some of those people who actually made it happen are still convinced that the established channels that got the credit were actually the people who made it happen.
Since those grassroots activists are passionate about the cause, I know that God will eventually allow them to wisen up, and realize that they need to band together with others who are truly like minded and make it happen without the old failed establishment. They have shown themselves to be political, financial, and motivated by selfishness while speaking the gospel and letting themselves look good.
The beatings and rapes sustained by women (who btw were willing to continue in overflow shelter, but were not able to continue, because of the establishment’s decision to denounce the grassroots efforts and use all of their political might to put an end to the effort for continued overflow shelter) those incidents should rest on their souls heavily as they collect their endless titles in multiple organizations, and in some cases huge saleries which they would loose if the grassroots efforts were to continue to succeed. (Not to mention fires that may have been prevented as well)
I am a proponent of collaboration, but if you collaborate with snakes and vipers then one should wonder why your collaborative efforts fail.
I would recommend to anyone who is taking up my previous efforts to skip making partners with all the usual suspects, and forget collaboration. They will see you as competition whether you try to go with them or not and will force their skewed, politically motivated, financially skewed, failed vision at the top of the pyramid, or do everything they can to destroy you, with no apology to those who are as a result, raped, beaten, killed, starving, murdered, or otherwise destroyed.
Therefore they have made it this way. The only way you will defeat the cycle of homelessness and poverty in any seriously significant way will be if you go head to head against “them”. Do it. You won’t be disappointed with the results, and when you succeed and they want to join you, tell them no. Trust me they will be out to return it back to the old way. Highly paid executives at the top, trying to protect their own business and salaries on the backs of the poor, the taxpayers, and the charitable givers.
Its your Greensboro, I don’t live there anymore, you decide.
Mark is a homeless man with not much money, but he has seen how it is. He voted with his little money to support the grassroots. Those of you with precious time, physical and financial resources that would rival him by multiple powers, what will you do?
Last year, many at the training meetings for the WE! program asked what will happen when the WE shelter closes, there were no answers, and I still think that to say when it ended there wasn’t nearly enough is an fair criticism. This was a management decision. Very limited transitional housing for the “elite” connected and socialized homeless, and no room at the shelter, who ironically refused to do anything but denounce the efforts of new groups, but tried to profit from the publicity of their own lack of effort (or rather calculated decision to keep the supply and demand economics in their favor at the expense of the most vulnerable of citizens.)
This year if the same parties are the organizers, it will be more of the same: assuage the communities guilt during the winter and Christmas, then dump everyone on the street in the spring. The night the first WE! shelter closed for the spring it was below freezing!!!