Hidden Homelessness: Living In Cars

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This story from today’s New York Times illustrates the problems of the homeless and the working poor. Tomorrow, people from Holy Innocents will distribute grocery bags and shopping lists in neighborhoods near the church for a spring food drive. The following week, on Palm Sunday, we’ll return to pick up any bags that have been set out, full of non-perishable food and personal toiletries. This food will go to build up our supplemental food pantry. We also support the nearby Schaumburg Food Pantry, but their hours are limited to 9-5 daily, and they also have a six-week curb on how often an individual or family can pick up groceries. They do this for very good reasons – families needing food more frequently than that should be on assistance, getting food stamps. But the fact remains that for some people, getting to the Pantry during work hours might not be easy. Many of the hungry and homeless and working poor actually hold down jobs, and don’t have the luxury of taking off on personal business.

In coming weeks, we hope to have one evening a month when someone will be at the church to distribute a bag or two to the needy, during the time when the Bishop’s Committee meets. This will probably be on the third Tuesday of each month.

The news story is available via a link to the NYT news archive, so registration to read the story should not be necessary.
People Living In Cars Try To Keep It Secret

FAIRFAX, Va. ? After being evicted from his apartment last year, Larry Chaney lived in his car for five months in Erie, Pa. As he passed the time at local cafes, he always put a ring of old house keys and several envelopes with bills on the table to give the impression that he had a home like everyone else.

While Michelle Kennedy was living in her car with her three children in Belfast, Me., she parked someplace different each night so no one would notice them, and she instructed the children to tell anyone who asked that they were “staying with friends.”

Last year, William R. Alford started keeping a car cover over the station wagon where he sleeps. “I originally just had drapes, but the condensation on the inside of the windows was a dead giveaway,” said Mr. Alford, who has been homeless here in Fairfax since May 2005.

As with all homeless people, finding food, warmth and a place to clean up is a constant struggle. But for those who live in their cars, remaining inconspicuous is its own challenge, and though living this way is illegal in most places, experts and advocates believe it is a growing trend.

Parish Lenten Retreat

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Mission

“What if I am the one responsible for going after the life, the thing, I have been praying for?” – Renita Weems

The Parish Lenten Retreat was a success, as a number of us gathered to reflect, recharge, and rejuvenate at Holy Innocents last Saturday afternoon. We followed the same agenda as we had used for the Bishop’s Committee retreat last fall; this way everyone had the opportunity to work through the exercises and see what presented itself.

Here is a short version of the agenda:

Gathering

Prayers, reading, silent reflection

Our Hopes And Dreams

  • 15-minute art project depicting our personal hopes and dreams
  • Sharing depictions with one another
  • Reading, silent reflection
  • 15-minute art project depicting our hopes for Holy Innocents
  • Sharing depictions

The Mission of Holy Innocents

Brainstorming and recording our ideas on newsprint – below is a running “blog” of the brainstorming sessions:

–Outreach: Identifying and responding to community needs, shutins, ill and CHILDREN, Feed the hungry
–Welcoming ALL, and then following up with second tier and incorporating new people
-Creating an inviting atmosphere – how do people find us, how do we look when they DO find us?
-Worship of God in the Anglican tradition and relating that to our mission: inseparable. Music.

“There is no progress without a struggle” – June Raufheisen

IMG Discussing Mission

The Ministry of Holy Innocents

Ministry TO and WITH: What are the concerns in our community?
-Personhood: the people we minister with are our peers, not dependents (example: L’Arc communities)
-Challenges: Frenetic lives, financial challenges, un- and under-employment
-Ill health, Caregiver exhaustion, Health care, Loneliness, Bullying, Gangs, Drugs, Hunger in schools, Hidden homelessness in the forest preserve, immigrants (HR bill being debated), vulnerability of illegals, disaster response. Animals (Buddy Foundation, etc.), and many of the above are problems of the working poor. Also; teens, sexual minorities.

Priorities: which of these concerns do we have a passion for?
Mark next to 3 of the above concerns with red magic marker to identify our priorities

IMG Marking Priorities

Hunger – 8 marks
Homelessness – 5 marks
Literacy – 5 marks
Animal care – 4
Childcare – 2

Next Steps Ministry

” title=”More Depictions” />

Hunger – supplemental food pantry, network with Schaumburg food pantry, expanding our program

Colleen went over some of the things we’re doing or thinking of doing – food drive at Christmas, and now how to distribute food to more people. We will be asking food pantry for referrals of 2-5 families per month for distribution out of their hours.

We will be creating a pantry up in the library
We will be writing a policy (Ginny Gibbs) on distribution
Eastertide food drive
Pat Kalicki will talk to Schaumburg Food Pantry this week regarding referrals and offer once-monthly evening distribution (6pm the night of monthly Bishop’s Committee meeting).
Scott Eiler suggests a Sunday after church food-pantry program of some kind

Literacy
We will be checking with Schaumburg Township library to see if we can help with their literacy volunteer program – David Raufheisen will call them

Affordable Housing, Homelessness
Scott Eiler works for Sparrows Nest, knows some of their needs: volunteers and items for thrift shop. The shop goes towards supporting women’s shelter
PADS shelter laundry help – can we do more? Can we get together with St Nicholas to host a meal?

Animals
June Raufheisen, Ginny Gibbs, Billie
Investigating volunteer opportunities, fostering with Buddy Foundation, fundraising for their new shelter, blessing??

Evangelism of Holy Innocents

Who is waiting, hoping for our invitation?

IMG Katie's Priorities

-New People to the area
-No family in the area
-Older people
-People with young children
-Outcasts
-People in crisis
-People of other religions
-Gays and lesbians
-Questioners trying to reconcile faith with their intellectual pursuits
-Ex offenders, people who have been in prison
-People who don’t fit the “norm” in other faith traditions
-Unmarried parents
-Divorced
-Special needs family member
-Physical disabilities
-Homeless
-Unemployed
-Illiterate, poor reading skills
-Persons with HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses
-Persons without transportation
-Latino/a people
-Asian people
-Non-religious, unchurched people
-Highly intelligent people (Mensans, etc.)

Identifying Priorities: Who Shall We Concentrate On Welcoming?

Outcasts – offer space for meetings? Make website even more obviously welcoming
Singles, Marrieds, and Gays With Children – add content to website, scheduling conflicts,
Persons In Crisis – this is a safe place, listening, offer information, referrals for support

Critical Mass – there needs to be more than just one kind of each kind of group. How to incorporate new people?

Highlights

IMG Fr Ted's Priorities

“There are lots of opportunities for ministry and evangelism” – Scott Eiler
We’ve begun to prioritize our passions
Be practical about keeping goals realistic and attainable
Shared concerns:

OUTREACH: Hunger, homelessness, literacy, animal welfare
EVANGELISM: Outcasts, people with children, persons in crisis, dialogue with persons of other faiths. We are struggling with how to welcome people in our midst and how to communicate this welcome to our larger community.

“We have to start with ourselves.” – Billie Matkov
“We have to see Christ in ourselves and in one another and the visitor in our midst.” – Pat Kalicki

What do we do next?

Monthly check-in with the larger congregation – end of Mass before dismissal
Need a facilitator – Ted, Colleen, Ginny etc. keep people informed and on track with reports

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Sojourners: Illegal Hospitality, A Church’s Guide to Civil Disobedience

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In light of the current controversy over H.R 4437, the so-called “immigration reform” law that could potentially make it a felony to assist, house, or aid an illegal immigrant, here is this timely story from Sojourners Magazine Online:

by Melissa Bixler
SojoMail 3-29-2006

A few weeks ago I read about my friends Jonathan and Leah Wilson-Hartgrove being arrested. Clothed in sackcloth, the Old Testament symbols of grief and mourning, pictures in the paper showed the couple on their knees outside the Raleigh-Durham Central Prison protesting the execution of inmate Perrie Simpson. Images of my friends being led away in handcuffs gather in my mind alongside other historic moments of resistance: sit-ins in Greensboro, Buddhists monks torching themselves in protest of the Vietnam War, and the chants and dances of anti-apartheid demonstrations in South Africa.

Recently I’ve added a new and unusual image. Abram and Sarai, the mother and father of Israel, are now planted in my imagination as possible protestors and rabble rousers. Their act of potential civil disobedience is found in Genesis. Abram’s welcome of three strangers is the quintessential hospitality story in the Bible. It is marked by a flurry of activity as Abram rushes about ordering food, cleaning up the tent and entertaining the mysterious newcomers.

But Abram welcomes the three without knowing where they came from or where they are going. He asks for no identification and requires no answers about the strangers’ country of origin. As such, if Abram lived in the U.S. in 2007, these actions would have made him a potential crime suspect. If the strangers turned out to be undocumented workers a bill passed by the House in December would have allowed law enforcement to arrest the holy couple for harboring illegal aliens.