Blue Notes from a Red Zone

Sometimes You Win One

Just a quick update on the earlier blog entry: the issue of churches vs. Department of Health came to a quick resolution. Once the issue came to the attention of the director and top staff of the Department of Health, a decision was rapidly reached to abandon attempts at licensing and regulating churches providing essential subsistence services to homeless persons. This pleased absolutely everyone except the newspaper reporter who had gone home after completing a page one story on the controversy, only to find out a couple of hours later that she had to go back in and rewrite it. She swears she will never again read a late-afternoon e-mail from me until at least 12 hours have passed. The person at the Department of Health who took on this benighted crusade may not be completely thrilled at the turn of events either. However, those of us working with the homeless, and those working in public health, are all very content.

The biggest gain came in knowing that not everyone is locked into a narrow view of rules, regulations, and bureaucratic turf struggles. Since I spend a lot of my professional life working with government contract managers, I spend a lot of my time being utterly frustrated by narrow-minded people incapable of abstract thought or vision. It is not unusual to spend hours arguing with a bureaucrat about a $1.56 bill for postage, faxing copies of letters sent in order to prove that the postage charge was attached to letters related to the particular grant. The contract manager is unmoved by the fact that both parties to the $1.56 dispute have now spent $75 each on resolving it. He or she is also not about to let us just drop the charge. It is hard for us to remember that the actual goal of the contract is, say, to provide services to victims, not fight over postage stamps. It is impossible for the contract manager.

Thus, contact with people on the bureaucratic side of the fence who share our passion for assisting the mentally ill, homeless, victims of crime, and other fragile persons is essential to maintaining balance and perspective. I am very lucky to have a contract manager for a homeless services grant who is not only reasonable in working through invoice issues, but will serve meals at a soup kitchen or collect blankets for a cold night shelter. And now I am fortunate to have seen the top personnel at the local Department of Health move rapidly to bring sense and reason to a rapidly escalating situation.

Tomorrow night is predicted to be a cold one. Fortunately, we can turn on the heat and open the doors to those in need.

posted by Lenore Wilson @ 11:22 PM