The New Era’s office faces Main Street in the heart of downtown.
Thus positioned, we are acutely aware of the presence of and problems experienced and caused by the homeless in Sweet Home.
Although we often are not immediately involved, on a personal basis, in stories we cover for our readers, this one is different. We see it every day.
And we’re delighted by Police Chief Jeff Lynn’s efforts to take practical steps to employ some solutions to the local challenge of homelessness. We appreciate that he started late last year by tapping into the experience of our neighbor down the road, Lebanon, which has a two-year head start in addressing some of the issues that Sweet Home will be facing.
When we’ve reported on homeless issues in the past, it’s become clear that most of us who are not homeless probably don’t really have enough understanding about the causes and realities of this situation.
One thing that’s clear is we can’t generalize. All homeless people are not drug addicts … or don’t have mental issues … or aren’t necessarily financially irresponsible … or don’t just prefer being homeless. There are a myriad of reasons why people end up in this state.
What is true about a lot of homeless people is that they have lost hope. And that’s where Lynn and his volunteer committee, formed to address the issue, come in. They’re looking to address these challenges head-on, not just talk about them.
We, the community, should be appreciative and supportive. How many of us have idly wondered what in the world to do to help? How many of us have wrestled with whether to give money or not to give money, to connect or ignore a needy person in front of us?
The homeless are people in need – every one of them. Their challenge may be financial, or psychological or substance dependence or any combination of those. While some homeless individuals’ behavior can be annoying and disruptive, they are needy – maybe more than most of us who have our own homes to sleep in at night and who and drive to where we want to go in the cars that sit in our driveways. These folks need food, shelter, healthcare, money – just like the rest of us do.
It’s very easy to distance ourselves, to look at this as an us-vs.-them problem. But if we have any milk of human kindness flowing through our veins, and if we have some understanding of the grim realities that have brought these people to the juncture they’re at, as a community we can respond to these challenges with genuine concern and, hopefully, some wise solutions that extend beyond the Band-Aid stage.
What is pretty clear from the reporting we’ve done is that isolation seems to be a problem – not just for the victims but for the responders. It seems pretty critical that, in order to be efficient and effective, those who respond to the local challenges of homelessness need to know what resources are available. They need to communicate effectively, not just with victims but with each other.
That’s another thing we appreciate about Lynn’s approach: the committee members are getting a grip on the availability of resources early on instead of plunging in and learning as they go, although there will likely be some of that.
What the homeless committee members are doing will help us all. It’s difficult to know what to do when we walk past a person sitting on the street with a “Help Me” sign, or pushing a shopping cart loaded with their worldly possessions.
Near the top of the list in just about all the advice on how to help the homeless is this: Give them some respect. Most have not chosen to be in this position. Many do not have a place to live simply because they are caught in some economic vicious circle of not having enough income to afford rental housing, which isn’t very available in our community right now anyway and, as a result, isn’t cheap.
We’re probably not the only ones who have heard of people living in their cars, trying to hold down – or get – a job somewhere.
People who work with the homeless say that ignoring the problem does nothing for anyone.
Averting our gaze when we walk past a homeless person simply is a put-down to them, and doesn’t really feel that good anyway.
As our community, led by this committee, figures out what we can do and how to do it, as individuals we will be better equipped to offer a pleasant greeting and direct a needy person to where they can get help – which is a lot better than gazing fixedly into our cellphone screens or off in the distance so we don’t have to make eye contact.