Homeless?

“There’s no such thing as homeless.” This statement, repeated quite often by one of our regular visitors to The Salvation Army in Ashland, is a complicated one. I believe his intent was to challenge social service workers to look at those who self-identify as homeless in a different way. Instead of labeling them “homeless,” he wanted them to be known as people without stable housing, people in need of shelter, or “our friends without homes.” We no longer use words like crippled, Mongoloid, or retarded, or words deemed offensive to describe racial groups, so his point was, don’t use “homeless” either. 

Yet to our friend’s chagrin, the word homeless is still used extensively to describe a lack of housing. The group who gathers to work on solutions for unsheltered people in Ashland County is called the Homeless Coalition. Larger cities often have an intake phone number called the Homeless Hotline, a nice alliterative ring. Nationally, the federal government coordinates the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness that implements the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. And based on McKinley-Vento federal legislation, public schools are required to provide services to homeless children, creating and maintaining a system that supports students who are experiencing homelessness.

According to a recent Point in Time report issued by the Ashland County Homeless Coalition, homelessness here is on the increase. Federal funds are available to help pay for housing on a temporary basis, but individuals and families struggle to find affordable housing to rent. 

Two local situations have exacerbated the difficulty of finding housing. The first was the recent acquisition of an apartment building by the Land Revitalization Corp, displacing residents in fourteen units, many whose housing was subsidized because of their disabilities. 

The second was a transfer of ownership of an apartment complex to management that is no longer willing to accept Section VIII vouchers for low income families and individuals. So even if they reach the top of the nearly six hundred names on the waiting list for Housing Choice Vouchers that are administered by the Wayne County Metropolitan Housing Authority, it’s quite difficult to find an approved apartment to rent. Why Wayne County MHA? Because there’s never been a housing authority in Ashland County. I told you it gets complicated.

But whether we use the term “homeless” or a more euphemistic term, too many people remain without shelter or precariously housed in Ashland County. These people are men, women and children, on their own or in family units. They may be bearing the weight of mental health diagnoses, escaping abusive domestic situations, wrestling with addictions, working low-skill and low-wage jobs, or struggling to adjust after military service. And even if they get approved for funding assistance, often they can find no vacancies. There truly is no room at the inn.

Here’s a further truth about the terminology: even those who have adequate shelter can be homeless, without a home. Because in a more philosophical sense, a home is much more than a stable roof over our heads. As an unknown poet suggests, “A house is made of bricks and beams. A home is made of hopes and dreams.” A true home has roots and warmth, connection and commitment; a home is a place of belonging.

Robert Frost once said, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” For most of us, he’s correct. But for some of our brothers and sisters, there is no one to know them, to listen to their dreams, to take them in, the ultimate meaning of homeless. 

What can we do? When we listen to and affirm each other, when we offer a seat at the table, when we open our arms to a wandering heart, when we extend grace, the homeless of body and soul can begin to find their way home. Mother Teresa explains: “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes [neighborhood, community] to remedy this kind of poverty.” That’s when there will be no homeless.