By Joanne Fagan | Eva’s Village, Paterson New Jersey – August 16, 2012
How to End Homelessness: First Listen, Understand, Then Act
The experience of homelessness, personally, might seem extremely remote to you, and where to begin to solve the problem of homelessness might seem beyond you.
However, while you don’t have to become homeless to understand what it’s like, there are ways to open yourself up more to the experience of what it must be like and that is often the first step towards starting to address the problem of homelessness in ways that you can’t imagine at the beginning.
National Homelessness Crises Triggers Large Scale Responses
In the early 1980’s, a severe recession triggered one of the worse crises in post WWII homelessness in the U.S. , and in the late 2000’s, another deep recession triggered a new round of homelessness. Both these events spurred large-scale public and private action to deal with these crises.
It is clear that we can collectively be moved to action by crisis, but to us as individuals, homelessness seems like a big remote problem that needs to be solved by bigger (and remote) large scale public agencies, such as federal and state governments, and large scale non-profit, non-partisan organizations such as the National Alliance to End Homelessness1.
In The Fight to End Homelessness, What Effect Can I Possibly Have?
It is true that large scale federal government intervention has put a dent in the problem of homelessness, but we forget that great change always starts with one individual. Through what’s called the butterfly effect2, one person’s small actions start an intricate chain reaction of cause and effect that marshals forces far greater than that one person, and influences others and the world in ways that person never know.
Until now it’s been almost impossible to wrap one’s mind around this concept, but it’s easy to see it in the immense and growing popularity of large scale massive multiplayer online games. These games are hugely popular because they are based in large part on the butterfly effect: thousands and thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of individual’s actions and choices shape and guide the game by dynamically arranging, in real time, plots and events. This drives the game forward with unpredictable but intelligent self-organization3, for good or ill.
From Martin Luther King, Jr., to Gandhi, to the matrix-like virtual worlds we are now creating, we witness the seemingly impossible power of the individual to change the world in vast and unpredictable ways. Never underestimate the effect of your individual choices and actions.
The Challenge for Each of Us
While we’re aware of the causes of homelessness (for families, according to a 2008 U.S. Conference of Mayors study4, it’s primarily a lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and poverty; for singles it’s primarily also a lack of affordable housing coupled with substance abuse and mental illness), the challenge for us as individuals of ending homelessness is that, personally, individually, we know very little about why a particular person is homeless or what it is really like to be homeless — despite all the research, the stories, the headlines, the statistics, it’s fair to say that homelessness and homeless persons remain a mystery to us, on a personal level.
As a result, unless we personally have experienced homelessness or know someone that is or was homeless, we see the problem remotely, and personally we’re at a bit of a loss of what we can do – and the problem seems too big and too beyond us anyway.
The Best Way to Start to Help End Homelessness
However, the best way individually to start to end homelessness is simply to begin to understand the homeless.
When you see the homeless, it’s easy to think they are, in some vague way, quite different from everyone else you know. In an everyday sense, that’s true – everyone you know has a job, they pay rent or mortgage, they hate doing their taxes, and they worry about having enough money for retirement.
However, in a basic human sense, the homeless are just like you. They have hopes and dreams, perhaps hopes and dreams they see as shattered. They have the same basic wants and needs, but unlike you, they probably feel completely lost about how to satisfy those wants and needs.
You can start to understand the homeless and their experience by simply treating them the way you would treat anyone else you meet on the street – make eye contact, say good morning, say hello. Not only will you be able to better empathize with the homeless, this simple act will have a profound positive impact on them.
Yes, the homeless person is full of need, perhaps they’re desperate, and it’s OK if you don’t have the power to change their lives and circumstances right away. No one has that power – except for the person that’s homeless. Instead, you have the power to do the simple things that lead to great things, things that lead to opening doors, things that ultimately change lives. The simple act of connecting is the first step — trust that this will lead to profound change, e.g., helping them connect with a local social service agency.
It is often the case that you’ll see a homeless person in severe distress. In this case, don’t hesitate to call 911 and stay with them until help arrives. This intervention could turn their life around. Similarly, if you see anyone harassing the homeless, while it may not be safe for you to personally intervene, note all the details about the homeless person and the person harassing them and call 911 immediately. Again, never think that your individual actions won’t amount to much. All change, without exception, begins with the individual – it begins with you.
© 2012, Eva’s Village – One of the Highest Rated Charities in the U.S.
References
1. National Alliance to End Homelessness, 1518 K Street NW, Suite 410, Washington, DC 20005
2. Andy Andrews (Author of “The Traveler’s Gift”) introduces The Butterfly Effect (or “Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions”) and how it affects human relationships.
3. The massive multiplayer game “EVE” is able to track the butterfly effect created by over 300,000 online players.
4. Hunger And Homelessness Survey. A Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America’s Cities. The United States Conference of Mayors. December 2008
How Friends of Eva’s Village Have Worked to Help End Homelessness
More and more young people are engaging in community service and fund raising. Dana Drobenak is a twelve-year-old from Clifton NJ who has collected money for Eva’s over the past two years through a variety of ways, like making and selling candies at summer camp and running a lemonade stand.
‘With each fundraiser Dana tries to raise more than the last time says her mom. This year she made up a brief leaflet entitled ‘Give up your lunch for someone in need,’ describing some of the programs at Eva’s. She attached it to a brown paper lunch bag and asked her mother to hand them out at work. The project garnered the support of many co-workers.
How You Can Get Involved With Eva’s Village
Eva’s Village has been involved in changing the lives of the homeless for 30 years. Through 30 years of service, Eva’s Village has achieved a unique record in facing community challenges and changing the lives of the hungry, homeless and addicted. Eva’s Village has grown from a simple soup kitchen to become one of the most comprehensive and respected anti-poverty programs in New Jersey and now includes fourteen integrated programs.
There’s many ways you can help the homeless. If you live near the Paterson NJ area, you can take advantage of the many volunteer opportunities provided by Eva’s Village, both personal and corporate.
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