Progress for the second-to-the-least

Just a few things I want to highlight in this article from the Evansville Courier and Press:

On any given night in Evansville, about 30 people sleep in places not meant for habitation.

Approximately 400 men, women and children spend their nights in transitional housing.

Evansville is in the third year of a 10-year program designed to end homelessness.

"We're making progress," Hayes said. "We've hired a development director from Indianapolis to work on establishing a 60-unit housing project."

Long-range plans include building 500 units of single-room occupancy and 1,500 rental-assistance dwellings.

I am happy to hear that it sounds like they are adding enough units to help take care of all the people in Evansville who are living on the streets. Homes for everyone - yea!

But the article goes on to talk about what seems to be a trend in homeless shelters, towards program-based shelter.

The rules have changed at a local institution that has long been an emergency shelter for men.

"We're trying to end the merry-go-round," said Steve Hale, chaplain at the Evansville Rescue Mission. "I've been here 10 years, and I've seen some guys go through here 15 or 20 times."

New arrivals stay for a 10-day evaluation period. Then they begin a two-year training path, where they receive instruction in anger management and how to keep track of their finances. The next step is learning vocational skills.

"If they're not serious about changing their lives, they can only live here for the 10 days," Hale said.

I have mixed feelings about the "getting off the merry-go-round" philosophy that is being adopted at the Evansville Rescue Mission and at other major shelters here in Indy (Lighthouse/Wheeler).

I affirm that any service provider has every right to limit their services to those that they have the energy, resources, and expertise to actually help. Even with my limited experience, I know that if you try to help those who have problems you aren't equipped to deal with, you can easily just leave them worse off than they were before. And it is frustrating to not be able to force "grown-ass adults" to make an effort to improve their lives.

However, I guess the dilemma is for those who are unable or unwilling to enter the program. Essentially, what you have is the absolutely most broken people who end up staying on the streets. These are often your hard-core addicts, your seriously mentally ill folks, and your ex-felons who have lost hope after trying and trying to re-integrate but having every opportunity closed to them.

Where do we put "the least of these"? At OPA house, we know that we aren't ready to invite guests who are actively facing addictions. We tried it (albeit inadvertently) and know that we aren't equipped to offer the structure and discipline necessary to help with that. We also know that we can't allow people who have been convicted of certain felonies live with us, due to our proximity to schools and child care centers.

While I would love to go all Dorothy Day and offer OPA House radical hospitality to everyone, we just can't do that right now.

But my heart still breaks for those who have nowhere else to go.