A Heart Beats in the Red Zone
I have lived, steeped in the red zone, for 26 of my 50 something years. During this time, all my candidates for office have lost their elections, any proposal I voted for was voted down - it was discouraging. But today I am reinvigorated, and proud of my community. Last night, the City of Fort Walton Beach got into the homeless shelter business.For the past four years, the only shelter available to homeless men, women and families has been the cold weather shelter (40 degrees or less) offered by three churches on a rotating basis. Occasionally another church would pitch in for a while, and we were all grateful, but only three have stuck it out for the whole ride. The problem is, none of these churches can hold as many homeless as need shelter on cold nights. They would try. If the Fire Marshall told them their capacity was 40, they would try to shove 60 in, but still people kept knocking on the door.
Last week, at the urging of a homeless man, I asked the city to let us use a recreation center as an overflow shelter. The city has not had a history of compassion, but with all the dislocations and increased homelessness caused by the past two catastrophic hurricane seasons, I figured it was worth a try. I wrote out a proposal, presented it to the mayor, the city manager, the parks director, and got it on the city council agenda. I rallied the troops, and had a dozen or more church representatives come demonstrate their support for this issue. I got up to make a brief presentation, which lasted over 30 minutes with all the questions being tossed my way. But in the end, the City Council voted unanimously to allow the recreation center to be used as a homeless shelter when needed.
That may not sound like the biggest start in the world, but for us it was huge. The City Council members openly acknowledged that they are going to have to help with long-term solutions and not just stop-gap measures, and I pledged my support to help them find answers.
Thanksgiving is a brighter holiday this year, knowing that there will be blessings for all the members of the community and not just those who can afford a home. Now I guess I need to do something to make it happy for the people who come to my door!
Happy Holidays.
posted by Lenore Wilson @ 7:17 AM
4 Comments:
Yay, Mom!! I am very excited. Getting the city to agree to a cold weather shelter is such a big step from the previous "well what are bridges for" comments.
Wow, I'm very proud of you mom. The intensity that u have put into your work as been reward. Not that it hasn't been reward in the past but this is an execptional step of progress.
This is great...one question though...If I see someone who is need help, in which direction do I point them? Would it be possible to get little cards printed up that had the address and a contact number on them. All too often I feel like all I have to give is a couple of bucks, and I am not able to ofer any real help...maybe some way to get more visibility out there on the issue and local resources...
Carter: Your question reveals how very much farther we have to go. I am truly exulting in one very small step, but many more have to follow. There is no one-stop shop in homeless assistance here, no single 24/7 (or even 8-5) agency you can refer people to for help. The best bets are these: Monday-Friday, 8-1, Sharing and Caring is open in the parking lot of the 1st Presbyterian Church. They hand out meals and information. Saturday, 11-1, 1st Prebyterian Church provides a hot meal. 6-9 a.m. on Sundays the 7th Day Adventist offers breakfast and showers. Noon to 2, St. Simon's Episcopal offers lunch. Any of these places can give someone the schedule for cold night shelter. Or, anyone can call the Crisis Line at 244-9191, and they have the schedule as well. The Crisis Line is available 24/7. It's not a great system, but it's all we have to work with at the moment.
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