A home in time for the holidays...

One of the Case Workers in our Homeless Prevention and Rapid rehousing program shared this story with me today and I wanted to share it with you.  

Last week I met with an applicant for our Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP). He is a single parent and has been homeless with his 12 year old daughter for the past six months. After teaching at a nearby high school for four years, he was laid off last spring and was forced to move out of his apartment in Bellflower. Since then he has been staying wherever he can, sleeping in a different place almost every night. In the fall, he started as a substitute teacher at a charter school and has been working consistently all semester. However, it has been difficult at times for him to get to work and get his daughter to school because they don’t have a car.

As we sat in our meeting he shared with me the stress and worry that has been a constant part of his life for the past six months. He said it was difficult for him to explain to his daughter why they had to be moving around so much and why she might have to walk a long way to school on days when they didn’t have enough money to take the bus. He also shared about his passion for educating. He has been a high school teacher and basketball coach for many years and it was easy to see how much he loves what he does. We went over a budget together to figure out what amount of rent would be affordable for him in a normal month. He asked me if I thought he could be moved into a new place before the end of the week so he and his daughter could have their own place for Christmas. I told him that it would depend on whether he could find a place within his price range and getting approved quickly enough. On Monday he called me back. He had found a woman who was renting a room in her house and was willing to let him and his daughter move in as soon as possible.

I went yesterday to see the room and do an inspection on the house. It is in a nice neighborhood in Long Beach and was in great condition. My client was standing in the front yard waiting for me with a big smile on his face and he gave me a hug as soon as I walked up. He was ecstatic about the possibility of having a home for his daughter before Christmas. I spoke with the owner of the house as I was doing the inspection. She was very sweet and said that my client and his daughter would be able to share the living room, dining room, kitchen and refrigerator with her and her two daughters. My client was excited to hear that she has a daughter around the same age as his. After going over the lease agreement, I was able to give the owner of the house a check for the full amount of the deposit and the first month’s rent. As the property owner made copies in the other room I talked with my client. He said that he had just told his daughter a few weeks ago that they wouldn’t be able to have a Christmas this year because he wasn’t sure if they would have a place to stay. He started to cry as he told me how thankful he was for our program and that he would be able to have Christmas with his daughter in their new home. He was excited that the house already had Christmas lights up and a big tree in the living room. As I left yesterday I felt so blessed to be a part of my client’s story. He is a single father, an educator, a coach, and a person of peace and joy. Because of the HPRP program, he is now able to have a place to call home, just in time for the holidays. 

Power vs. Grace -- Reflections on helping Floyd get into detox

On Monday received a call from "Pink," one of our homeless neighbors who struggles with debilitating alcoholism that has put him on the streets for the last 10 years.  He had "reached bottom" and wanted help getting his life back.  I love calls like this one.  These are the moments we pray for and the desperate cries for help that I believe God hears and answers.

At KCB we don't have resources or capacity to help someone "dry-out," so we partner with a detox facility about 20 miles down the road.  The ride was a roller-coaster for him.  Wavering from extreme nausea at the thought of the hours of painful detox to come, to euphoria, singing along to his nick-name sake Pink Floyd playing on the radio; Pink was hopeful about the change he was seeking.

When we arrived at the facility we headed to the intake office where we were met by the three volunteer committee members who would be making the final decision on whether Pink would be allowed into their facility or not.  They sat him in a chair close to the window and emphatically opened it, letting the cold winter-evening air in. They then positioned themselves across the room, standing arms folded, clearly conducting some sort of assessment.  No words were exchanged at first, just awkward silence. Finding the cold too much to bear, Pink turned to close the window.

"Don't close that window. You stink!", said Bill* roughly.
"Excuse me?" Pink retorted, not sure that he had heard his accuser correctly.
"People who don't pay attention to their hygiene tend to have a smell about them." Bill explained, "the window helps the rest of us get some cross-ventilation."

This made Pink justifiably upset and I sat awkwardly silent.  Was this really happening?  After that awkward and unwelcoming opening, Bill led in with...

"So, what do you want?  Why are you here?"
Pink, still ruffled by the rude opening, responded with, "Well, I want to get cleaned up and then get back out there."
"Wrong answer.  That's not what we do here.  You may as well leave right now. You're wasting our time."
"Oh Pink!  What were you thinking?"  I thought to myself.  I knew he didn't really mean what he said, he just has a tough time imagining a future for himself.  He's used to thinking ahead only as far as his next drink.

When Bill's retort sets in, it makes Pink justifiably angry and he stands to drunkenly defend himself but it's already too late, the committee has deemed him a "waste of time".

As we walk back to the car for our long ride home I called Kim, our Homeless Outreach Coordinator, to share the bad news with her.

"Wait a few minutes" she said, "let me call them and see what I can do."

God has done an amazing work of restoration in Kim's own life and she can talk to former addicts in a way that I simply cannot.  So Pink and I wait.  We wait. We pray.  He yells a few curses at the house off in the distance and I silently harbor cynical thoughts about former addicts.

And then Kim calls back.  She's made a way where there was no way... they'll take him, IF he'll apologize.

"Can you do that?" I asked Pink. "Do you want to get better so bad that you will apologize even when the other guy is in the wrong?  Can you forgive him?"
"I think so." Pink humbly responded, demonstrating the depth of his desire to change.
"Let's go... God help us!" I pray as we head back into the office.

The good news is that they did take him in and he is on the way to becoming healthy.  More good news is that God answered his cry for help and provided and advocate by way of his servant, Kim, who was uniquely able to minister justice and mercy because of God's transformation in her.

Upon reflection, I've realized a few things.  I realize that I sat in silence while the powerful intake volunteer, the one who held the keys to Pink's first step, treated him with disrespect and disdain.  I was silent in the face of oppression.  Lord, help me be prepared so that the next time I witness injustice I will stand up and defend the oppressed immediately.  Then after thinking about it further, I recognized myself in Bill, the powerful intake volunteer.  Working with broken people daily has created in me a fair amount of unhealthy cynicism.  Some days I forget to have faith and hope that God can change people.  Some days I sit in the seat of judgement, dolling out mercy at my own whim and based on my past experiences with others.

So, I pray that God will be merciful with ME.  I pray that he will create in me a heart of flesh and not a heart of stone and that I will extend to others (the oppressed and the oppressors) the same mercy and grace God has shown me.

*name changed

GSI's beginning

Driving with an employee to our 12th lawn care property of the day in a freshly washed Chevy Astro Van with sprawling decals promoting “Good Soil Industries”, I couldn’t help but smile remembering how far we’ve come in the last three years.

Good Soil began with a question at our homeless outreach breakfast, “what if, in addition to showing up for a pancake breakfast, our homeless neighbors could show up for a day work?” So with naïve ambition and a vision of what could be, we began working to make that vision a reality. We bought a 1989 Chevy family van complete with wood-paneling and shag carpet. We received donated yard equipment that our well-intentioned donors hadn’t used since shag carpet was cool, and convinced six friends to let us do their gardening.
Our journey began humbly. There wasn’t enough money to pay for employees, so Ryan and later myself began mowing lawns alone. One of my first days on the job, I was driving along making a left turn onto Artesia Blvd from Palo Verde, when the edger rolled across the gas-stained carpet into the side door and the entire door came off and landed in the intersection, creating a yard sale of the Good Soil equipment and the wood-paneled door.

We knew if Good Soil were to take hold of the vision, it needed to mature from this Mickey Mouse beginning. Soon after, God began opening doors of opportunity and through the generosity of God’s people we acquired a truck, new equipment, and a larger route.
I love to look back and remember where we’ve come from; to see how God has remained faithful in bringing His vision to reality. We’re still in the middle of our humble beginnings and there are still moments when the doors seem to come off, but the past reminds me that God has an adventure for us and He has been good.

Together we helped 35 people stay off the streets last month!

I am again so blessed to report that thanks to the direct investment of Calvary Bellflower and First Bellflower CRC we've been able to tangibly bless several families in our community this month that would have been homeless during the holidays.

Thanks again brothers and sisters... let's keep working together to love our neighbors at the point of their need!

Here's one of their stories:

C. V. – Bellflower Neighbor

Last month, a woman came into the Community Center in desperate need of housing. This woman had been in a domestic violence relationship for the past three years. As of a year ago, she was able to gain the strength to leave this relationship, which in turn left her homeless. When she left this relationship she lost all of her belongings including her home, furniture, clothes, her car and some of her family and friends. All she has had for the past year are the clothes on her back. Sadly, she would sleep in friends’ cars, motels and on park benches. Fortunately, we were able to house this woman locally. Our Program would not have been able to help this individual get off the streets and into a safe place to live without the finical assistance and prayers that we have received from Bell One and Calvary Baptist. Now that this individual is stably housed, she is able to focus on healing from the pain she has endured during her lifetime. She has attending bible study and support groups through local churches and is excited to gain a network of safe friends in the Bellflower community.