It was just a year ago that I began writing my column in
Street Sense. Somehow I never dreamed that I would still see no end in sight to my troubles a year later, but basically nothing has changed in that time. Not long ago, I found a copy of the treatment plan that my first case manager in my first core service agency drew up for me in which she listed all the various outstanding issues I had before me and proposed solutions for these issues. Since that time – April 2003 – virtually no progress has been made. If anything, I have only been marking time in the interim.
I can recall the irony I felt last year at the holiday season as gifts were handed out at the shelter. Hebrew alphabet games were distributed to African American children who asked their parents, “How do you read these letters? They don’t look like the ones we learned in school.” Meanwhile, I was given a jigsaw puzzle of the Nativity to take to my own children, and there was no way I could swap with anyone who had one of the useless gifts that would have been useful for me. There seemed to be neither rhyme nor reason to what was happening. I said nothing because I held onto the hope that for me, it would not last much longer. A year later, I can see that it may go on indefinitely, especially in the aftermath of the elections that shot down any hopes that may have still existed for change.
Trying to decipher the headlines in the news only gives me a migraine. I read how jobless claims rose more than expected, yet long-term unemployment fell, and the only thing I could think was: does either of these headlines mean anything? People who have jobs have jobs; people who do not remain in the ranks of the unemployed. Even having a job doesn’t get a person off the streets, however; shelters have quite a few residents who are gainfully employed but who cannot secure housing because of credit problems, problematic past rental histories, or other reasons that keep them homeless. The neoconservative mantra, “Get a job, loser,” does not solve the problem, it seems; finding work is not a panacea, despite popular belief that once a person is employed, the problems end.
The United Nations, in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "confers on every member of society a right to basic economic, social and cultural entitlements that every (nation) state should recognize, serve, and protect, of which food, clothing, medical care, and housing are definitive components of the right to a minimum standard of living and dignity." Lofty words, indeed, and they might have some meaning were it not for the fact that the United States has already adopted the United Nations document but has yet to set its own house straight so that its policies might show it.
The problem is shared in Europe as well, where the concept of welfare state has long been an institution. In France, the term “
les exclus” (“the excluded”) nicely refers to persons suffering from all social problems such as homelessness, poverty, marginalization, and the like and expresses precisely the feeling that these people have: of having been excluded from life because of their situations. This exclusion seems to conflict with the words of the United Nations document. At present, however, the public seems to have little problem living with the doublethink that has become essential for coping with the realities of 2004, perhaps because that same exclusion seems ominously close for anybody who might fall victim to unemployment, disease, or some other misfortune that might terminate a source of income that would keep a person sustained and safely sheltered.
For the persons who have been excluded, it is hard to conceive of the holidays being a cheery time. In my editorial last year, I spoke of how donated gifts and meals were not the answer for the homeless; what the homeless really need is a reason for hope. This year that message holds even truer than last year, as the reasons for hope seem even more remote than before.
The best I can do is wish for all the readers the happiest holiday season possible and hope that we will all see happier times in the future, whenever they will be. As long as there is still life, there is still hope.
Copyright © 2004
