It is really great to see the story in this edition about the Interfaith Shelter Network and its ongoing desire to serve the homeless in our communities. I was speaking with a friend of mine who works with homeless and battered women and one thing I was told was that when she reached out to the churches for help, they were the most resistant in helping out. As a Christian herself, she finds this mind-boggling and so do I.
It is really great to see the story in this edition about the Interfaith Shelter Network and its ongoing desire to serve the homeless in our communities. I was speaking with a friend of mine who works with homeless and battered women and one thing I was told was that when she reached out to the churches for help, they were the most resistant in helping out. As a Christian herself, she finds this mind-boggling and so do I. As many stickers as I see on cars that say, “What would Jesus do,” you would think they would be at the forefront in serving the underserved. After all, isn’t that what Jesus would do? It seems that somewhere along the line, his message has been lost at the pulpit.
I’m not trashing churches and I hope that the local churches of all faiths join the cause with the Interfaith Shelter Network. Homelessness is a problem in all of our communities that only our communities can solve. There is no overnight cure, and there are some homeless that will always be that way. But the rise in “situational homelessness” is on the rise with no sign of letting up anytime soon. There are many causes and effects for this, a recovering economy, wars that have brought home service members with conditions that hinder them from fitting back into society, and in too many cases, the apathy of people who just do not care.
Our cities and communities seem to do little to offer help to the homeless, except to ostracize them and build and build until there is no place for them to turn to but our rural areas and riverbeds. Even then, powers that be tend to attack them, even though in many cases they have nowhere to go.
There is one exception to this as Lemon Grove is and has been actively addressing the homeless problems in their city at the City Council level for a couple of years now. I would hope that other community areas would follow suit, rather than just making it more difficult for the homeless to get off the streets.
I read a report from the Regional Task Force on the Homeless that breaks down the homeless population by city and gives a view of the problem countywide. It is a recent report, but in looking at the numbers it is at best a statistical guess and that is understandable as many of the homeless do not live in shelters, get relief or free meals from some place that numbers can be actively recorded.
This 2015 report showed El Cajon at 711, Santee at 30 (all without shelter), La Mesa at 19 and the unincorporated areas are dumped into one category. But just by what I see every day in my travels through East County and beyond, I believe that these numbers are ludicrously low. And I do not see any way of getting real numbers until we start getting them off our streets.
I am hoping that our local places of faith in East County will join forces with the Regional Task Force and make a difference. The shelters are small and made more like a family setting, which will enable those who just cannot aid themselves in getting off the streets.
Contrary to popular opinion, they are not all drug addicts, prostitutes, alcoholics and thieves. Overcoming this stigma is the first step in aiding them to recovery in society. We cannot help them all, but with a little heart, they can be helped one at a time. And that one may be a person or a family. As statistics show that families and runaway teenagers are a large part of the homeless population. It is time to look at the problem as it is. People in need. And the Interfaith Shelter Network is on the right track, both physically and in heart.
