How to Stop Homelessness.

In Your American City
Preface

I was a rich, “white” kid growing up in Connecticut, when I realized that I would not ever walk the paths of people who came before me. I mean, what was the point of learning other people’s lessons, anyway? I was in the talented and gifted program in junior high, but you know what? I found out that smart people get told what to do and how to behave, too. So, ever since junior high school, I secretly decided to follow the way that was the most successful for me. In the process, I left Judaism to become a born-again Christian. And I left my elite, college education behind me to spend about 2 ½ years on the road, living with homeless people.

Rest assured that I was never actually homeless: I could have called friends or relatives to bail me out of this journey that I was taking with America’s downtrodden. But I never did ask for a bailout. Instead, I stuck with living in homeless shelters, just so that I could write this book that you’re about to read. What I learned is that homelessness is a national disgrace – for the homeless and for us on the other side, who volunteer at shelters and soup kitchens in America. What I have concluded, is that homelessness must become a thing of the past if America has any chance of proceeding into the future with any clear, moral direction. Americans are scared of speaking out against homelessness. I think that they want the problem to just go away, but they are not willing to roll up their sleeves and find out why homelessness even exists in America. I hope that you will find this book to be trend- setting: Let’s finally talk about homelessness in America; let’s talk about poverty from an entrepreneur’s perspective; and, let’s get rid of homelessness without getting rid of the people who are homeless.

Welcome to a journey that I started back in May 2000. Welcome to the world of homelessness: Where social workers hoodwink the public into thinking that homelessness can be solved by tolerating it and throwing taxpayer money at it. Welcome to the world of really lazy, homeless people, who are just leeching off of the goodwill of others. But most of all, welcome to the world that Jesus Christ asked me to explore, so that I might shed light on the corruption and profiteering that goes hand in hand with homelessness in America.


Table of Contents

Part 1 – Why Homelessness Is Dragging Down America’s Local Economies

Part 2 – The History of Homelessness in America

Part 3 – Why Christians Help the Homeless Population

Part 4 – Cities That Succeed In Stopping Homelessness

Part 1
Why Homelessness Is Dragging Down America’s Local Economies

Let’s admit it: No one likes to see a fellow American sitting out in front of the local mall, begging for change so that they can “get something to eat.” But the odds are that when people beg on the streets in America, they are simply using that money to buy alcohol or drugs. Face it – homelessness is a dead-end way of life, and no one gets anywhere by living in perpetual homelessness. So, why do we put up with homelessness in America?

We tolerate public begging and vagrancy in America, because we don’t connect this delinquent behavior to the stability of our local economies. We don’t understand that large retailers like Wal-Mart and Costco prohibit the homeless from begging on their property, and that’s one reason why American consumers choose to shop there – so that they don’t have to be hassled for change or sympathy like when they visit local businesses, who often tolerate loitering and begging for change right in front of their stores. For their part, local businesses are afraid to clear out the homeless from their storefronts, because they don’t want to be perceived as callous and cruel to the poor.

Nevertheless, America’s homelessness problem is dragging down our local economies, and it has to stop. In college business classes, students are taught that a consumer has choices in the marketplace. Well, why don’t we as Americans choose to be without homelessness in our own country? Why do we tolerate homelessness, when all these people are really doing is refusing to re-integrate into American society while demanding that the taxpayers feed and house them? I say that it’s time to make the connection between homelessness and the faltering health of America’s local economies.

Case in point: Have you ever been to a city that was a great place to visit, but you’ve told yourself that you would never live there because of the crime and the “street people”? Los Angeles is the first city that comes to mind when I think of such a place – one visit to Skid Row is an eye-opener, because the homeless are allowed to sleep in the streets, loiter all day and are given free food and shelter all the time. Another example of a city that promotes homelessness is New York City. A homeless person can get food and lodging every day in the Big Apple, guaranteed. How would you like to have that, without having to work for it? Wouldn’t it be great if you could do nothing all day, except walk around and socialize with your friends, and then at the end of the day, someone would be there to take care of your food and lodging? Well, that’s what is happening all over America today – cities and towns are willingly providing free food and lodging for homeless people who neither appreciate what they get for free, nor want to give back in some to American communities. Of course, in places like San Luis Obispo - where homelessness is not tolerated - loafers and vagrants are urged to move along unless they want to improve their lives by working at it and contributing to the city in some way like volunteering. And I’m glad that I live in San Luis Obispo – the attitude and intolerance of homelessness here is refreshing.

Anyway, I think that homelessness in America needs to stop. Perhaps this short book will give you some ideas about how to deal compassionately with a social problem that has lingered in America for too long. The time is now to stop homelessness, and the time is right to raise the standard in America for what is allowed by people who refuse to participate in American society in return for the freebies that we give them. Make sure that you understand that I am not opposed to homeless people, but rather I am against tolerating homelessness in America – it is a demeaning, social problem that we can no longer allow.

I think about homelessness as a business opportunity that helps others while I make money solving it; I think about homelessness as a way to instruct government on how to streamline their social service programs; and I think of homelessness as an opportunity to prevent the American public from being swindled by professional, non-profit agencies that take large donations for the poor, but use that money instead for their overpaid, salaried professionals, who are simply not getting the job done. And what is my purpose for writing this book? I think that whoever solves homelessness in America, will profit immensely in wealth and in the spiritual realm. I think that it is time to take our streets back from those who insist that they have the right to upset the general public with their overtly delinquent lifestyles. And we must do this quickly – think of how many lives might have been saved during the January 2004 cold spell on the East Coast if we as Americans had already found and implemented a permanent solution to homelessness.

God wants us to clean up vagrancy in America, and there is no time to waste. Homelessness can be stopped – but we must stop tolerating it first. Only then can we solve homelessness altogether. Finally, this book is dedicated to everyone who literally sleeps on the streets in America; to everyone who lives in America without knowing where they’ll sleep tonight; and to all the good people in America who still care that there are still fellow Americans who are mercilessly neglected in our country today.


Part 2
The History of Homelessness in America

We all have misconceptions about homelessness. It’s important to isolate where homelessness comes from in America, so that you can understand what I see coming when I observe a homeless person in the street. You see, homelessness goes way back to the days when America was still being settled by pioneers and new states. As Americans moved to the West to explore new land and exploit more natural resource opportunities, the original inhabitants of America – the Native Americans – were displaced from their homes. That was the first, real incidence of true homelessness in America. And I’m sure that you are also aware of all the hardships that Native Americans have faced trying to reclaim their ancestral lands, mostly without success. Once America was settled and cities continued to grow, homelessness became a problem that mostly African-Americans encountered, because many from this ethnic group were displaced after the Civil War from plantations in the South. As former slaves migrated to the North, especially in the late 1880s, they experienced a shortage in affordable housing and soon, social service agencies like the Salvation Army recognized a need, and stepped in to help those Americans who could not find a place in the American economy.

In the early 1900s, hoboes became popularized in American fiction, and their numbers swelled, as many vagrants found that they could live on the rails by jumping freight cars to get around. Of course freight car jumping still goes on today, but it is far more dangerous now than it was then, and of course, it is also illegal. The big turning point for homelessness in America came when the Depression hit in the 1930s: Millions of workers were thrown out of work – many came to places like Los Angeles and Detroit, and hoped that the big cities had work for them. Unfortunately, the cities were often worse for the unemployed than the smaller, jobless towns, because too many people had come to the urban areas looking for work – and that’s when the modern idea of the homeless shelter or mission really took root in America.

Since the Depression, America has gone through many economic downturns and wars that have continually added to the nation’s homeless population. After the Vietnam War, depressed and distraught military veterans made their homes on the streets, because they were unable to deal with the reality that they were sent to fight a war that could not be won, and the Veterans Administration was slow to help these broken soldiers re-integrate into American society. In the 1970s, drug addicts, alcoholics and the mentally ill have all increased in number, along with homeless veterans, creating a crisis in every major urban area in America. Although the GI Bill triggered the establishment of a series of other social service agencies in the 1950s, nothing has worked (today’s homeless population can walk into any county in America, and apply for food stamps and Section 8 housing). The poor, who don’t take advantage of government welfare services, tend to wind up homeless and a nuisance to the citizenry of every town, city and state in our great country. Make no mistake about it: Homelessness is for dropouts, plain and simple. And Americans should consider 2004 the best year in American history to either stop homelessness once and for all, or to just let the problem grow and grow and grow and grow and grow. Why? Because for the first time, America has a book like mine, that will help lead our country away from homelessness and poverty-related social problems, once and for all.


Part 3
Why Christians Help the Homeless Population

No single religious group does more for the poor in America than Christians. There is the Salvation Army, with agencies in every state of the union; Catholic Charities has been helping those in need for years; there are Christian missions and homeless shelters all over the United States; and local churches sponsor soup kitchens everywhere. Any place that you go to in America, you will find Christians helping the poor. Of course, Christians are far from perfect: They tend to preach to the poor and blame them for being poor in the first place. Nonetheless, Christians give the most to the poor in America. And the answer to why they do this might surprise you – the fact is, Christians value life more than other religious groups. Perhaps that’s just a way of saying that Christians just can’t stand to see another human being suffer, and without hesitation - they will try to help the poor with donations, moral support and especially with prayer.

When I was traveling from homeless shelter to homeless shelter, I found out that Christian agencies were doing far better in helping the homeless than their secular, social service counterparts. Here is an article that got published on a Christian website in 2003 (worthfinding.com), about my experiences in Minneapolis:

“Jesus Christ: The Only Solution to Poverty”

It is two days after July 4th. I am sitting in a neighborhood park in Minneapolis, where The Gospel Light Baptist Church is having its annual picnic. It is a very small church, maybe forty-five people in all. And the pastors have the courage of Christ to open their doors to all who will enter. Saturday is another day in the lives of Minneapolis’ homeless: They wander the city looking for handouts and drug dealers. Come Sunday –which is today- they grab sandwiches from the back of a truck parked on Currie Street, down near the bus station. The owner of the vehicle is a good samaritan, who does more than his share to feed the poor. Too many homeless men have fallen through the cracks, and yet, there is always the hope that Jesus Christ will one day shine in their eyes, too.