He Serves the Homeless

By: James K. Lewis, Sunday's Letters to the Editor, presstelegram.com - 02/10/07

Some recent letters regarding the homeless and views they advocate toward the homeless have disturbed me. The plight of openly chronic homeless in Long Beach has regularly been in the news and in the opinion section. Those addressed as homeless are not necessarily representative of the growing population of the homeless, but are getting the bulk of the coverage.

This coverage, which exacerbates the negative image of the homeless, helps me understand the apprehension of the public, whose only perception of the homeless are the chronically addicted lying around in neighborhood parks and on church steps, panhandlers accosting downtown shoppers and street people with signs.

These articles and letters, however, expose naive and simplistic views. Those reflected in the news are not the picture of the homeless that we see coming in off the street into our residential programs. The growing homeless, or near-homeless, population is made up of men, women and families who, without our help, would otherwise quickly become homeless statistics as those we read about.

A young mother loses her job, can't pay the rent, and is told to vacate her apartment without notice; she packs some clothes and takes the hands of her two toddlers and walks to the Mission. A successful CPA falls into alcoholism, and is brought to the Mission by a pastor friend, and finds spiritual recovery.

A man with several warrants is found to be a participant in the Mission's New Life Program, goes before a judge and is remanded to the program; the judgments are dismissed upon his completion of the program and his subsequent gainful employment.

A young man who finally desires a life free from drugs, successfully completes the Mission's New Life Program, finds gainful employment, is reunited with his wife, and they regain custody of their children from foster care.

A young woman caught in addiction graduates from the women's program; after 13 years of successful executive employment she returns to provide case management at the Mission.

These are actual cases involving successful clients in the Missions I have worked with. Our long-term residential programs have more than doubled in the last few months, and we are planning on taking emergency overnight beds to make more program beds.

The current discussion of the homeless sleeping outside on the steps of a local church troubles me. Can people really be willing to pay a $1,000-a-day fine rather than hire staff to bring the homeless inside out of the cold or take them a few blocks to the shelter pick-up site? Are we really that against a city wanting to take homeless off the street when there are available beds?

We, as a society, have a responsibility to act accordingly when others can't, or refuse to, act on their own behalf. Those sleeping in the cold need us to step up to the plate. And law enforcement is a necessary element in providing motivation for some to come out of the cold. We need to be ready with a safety net and effective solutions for those who will wind up homeless statistics without such support.

Even the Good Samaritan provided the beaten-down man shelter.


James K. Lewis
President/CEO, Long Beach Rescue Mission
Long Beach


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