Sweeney Homeless No More

A Solution for Families, Veterans and Shelters
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9967773-1-5
Verlag: Dallas LIFE
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

Discover why the co-chair of the national homeless caucus calls Homeless No More, 'the best example of a homeless recovery program I've ever seen!' Bob Sweeney designed his program for Dallas LIFE, the largest shelter in North Texas, where permanent recovery from homelessness is ten times the national average! In his book Sweeney reveals the 5 triggers that lead to homelessness, why placing people in homes never solves homelessness, and what we can do as a nation to transform homelessness. With families with children being the fastest growing homeless demographic, the need is greater than ever for the nation to act now!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sweeney, Bob

Leseproben

INTRODUCTION WE ALL HAVE A STORY Tell me your story. As the Executive Director of Dallas LIFE — a beacon that has been reaching out to homeless men, women and children with food, clothing, shelter, education and long-term rehabilitation programs founded on spiritual principles and the teachings of Jesus Christ for the past sixty years — I have the opportunity to hear my fair share of stories. It’s the first thing I ask of my residents when I meet them. “Tell me about the best day of your life.” “Tell me about the worst day of your life.” “And everything in between.” And boy, do they tell me. Drugs. Alcohol. A multitude of addictions; multiple visits to rehabilitation centers. Anger. Stories of prison sentences and brushes with the law. Relationship issues. Separation. Failed marriages. Divorce. Physical and mental health issues. And money, always money: an eviction; a layoff; a demotion; a history of financial struggles. Hang-ups with sex. Pornography. Stories I won’t tell. They all have one thing in common: hopelessness. They don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. They don’t know how they are going to make it until tomorrow. They have question after question, and they don’t have any answers. We live in an age of seeming hopelessness. We live in a time of brokenness. We live in an age — at least as perception has it — of despair. Broken homes. Shattered dreams. Things that just don’t work out. Wars and rumors of wars. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Civil unrest. Economic inequality. The homeless population is not getting any smaller. Drugs — from street to prescription — and alcohol consumption are on the rise. Violence — both domestic and otherwise — is an epidemic. While it may seem that we live in a hopeless state of affairs, hope springs eternal. There are many stories of lives who have been changed, thanks to the miraculous power of a Carpenter going about His Father’s business. There are many stories of people who — despite seemingly hopeless odds — face life with an almost unspeakable joy. You may not hear about it on the news — faith, hope and charity don’t command high advertising dollars — but there is a sea change coming. There are those who refuse to quit. There are those who refuse to give up. There are those who refuse to continue in a cycle of heartache and despair. If you ask them for details of their miraculous recovery from a seemingly hopeless state of living, they’ll tell you that it wasn’t possible. But with GOD, all things are possible. The Homeopathic Approach Isn’t Working Allergy sufferers know all too well the periods of coughing, wheezing, stuffiness, lethargy and misery that accompany the change in seasons or a freshly-mowed lawn or a deep breath of pet dander. We also know the relief that comes with a shot of a miniscule amount of those very same allergens at the allergy doctor and the kind of peace and tranquility that it brings. More and more people in our society are in severe need of help. While each year well-intentioned donors are more and more generous, the issues of society — particularly the issues of homelessness and addiction — are not close to eradication. Why is this so? I propose that we have been throwing money at some issues with the hope that they will take care of themselves. As the Executive Director of one of the largest homeless shelters in America with over 30 years of ministry experience behind me, I believe I have an answer: homelessness is not the problem; drug and alcohol abuse is not the problem — they are but symptoms to the problem. We cannot think that pouring money on the problem is going to fix it. We cannot move the homeless — while they are untreated — into housing and expect that things are going to get better. We cannot take away the drugs and alcohol — like keeping candy away from a child — without getting to the root of the real problem first. Unfortunately, the solution to homelessness is not as easy as driving to the allergy doctor. It is not as easy as throwing money at it. It is not as easy as separating the individual from their old haunts and their old crowds. It is not as easy as helping them with their bills and getting them on their feet. But there is a solution. There needs to be a total and complete change. And the person who is homeless is not the only one in severe need of change. The person who is homeless is not the only one who needs to hold themselves accountable. The kind of change we need is change that happens within the home. We need to hold our children accountable for their behavior. We need to know what they are doing. How about teaching them values beyond what they soak up in the many different forms of media they are exposed to on a daily basis? We need to teach them responsibility, encouraging them to learn from their mistakes. The kind of change we need is change that happens in the workplace. On more than one occasion I have had a group of business people visit the shelter to ask how they might be able to move the homeless away from their place of business, since the eyesore detracts from their daily affairs. While I completely understand their dilemma, and say what I can to help, I cannot understand why they are not interested in a permanent solution. How might the homeless recover and thereby not need to beg for money? We want the problem gone, not fixed. The kind of change we need is change that happens in the Church. Churches contact me all the time to ask how they might acquire a building near their fellowship to house homeless people, when many of their buildings are quite capable of housing them right now. What about cots in the fellowship hall? What about designing bathrooms with stainless steel fixtures which can really take a beating? There is no doubt that many church members do their part in volunteering at shelters serving meals to the hungry and giving clothes to the downtrodden, but what are our churches here for if we are trying to funnel crowds away from them because we just remodeled and the landscaping was expensive? Churches have become more like museums and less like hospitals. Needy people are attracted to places of healing just like sick people are drawn to the local hospital. We shouldn’t be concerned that the pew we are sitting on might have been occupied by a homeless person the night before. That should be the standard! The kind of change we need is change that happens in the government. While I do not think that a handout is the answer, when a person is in need of a safety net, it shouldn’t be taken away when they start to get on their feet. Shouldn’t they be given a little more time to actually put some money in savings so they can get off of government aid altogether? The other side of that same coin is throwing money at a problem that is getting bigger and not smaller, instead of funding what truly works and cutting what doesn’t, and becoming a crutch instead of a helping hand. There is plenty to be said about accountability and our government. The kind of change we need is change that happens in our society at large. It is a BIG problem in need of a BIG solution. Despair is a Useful State Hope is a team sport. Despair is a one person venture. Your typical alcoholic — homeless or otherwise — has a ton of secrets, things that they plan to take with them to their grave. And sadly, many of them do. The ones who are lucky — the ones who find recovery one day at a time — echo the same sentiment: they thought they were alone in their problems. One thing that convinces alcoholics and addicts of all kinds that there may be a solution to their problem is when they hear their own story. They are sitting in a meeting and someone shares a virtually identical story. And the alcoholic, the addict and the downtrodden suddenly realizes that she isn’t alone. While that isn’t to say you can’t feel alone in a room full of people, despair isn’t likely to thrive in an environment of people who share similar problems — and more importantly — simultaneously sharing the same solution. Hope and despair rarely share the same space. It is next to impossible. That’s why providing hope is so vital. You introduce just a sliver of hope and that is all it takes. Once hope is there — and the troubled individual continues to do what they...