Pan Handling in Bellingham
BTV10 is the local info station around here, running everything from how to use the new roundabout up by Whatcom Community College correctly to city council meetings. Mostly, it’s not very interesting stuff. But tonight they caught my eye with a brief story on the pan-handling issues in the downtown area.
The gist of the story is that there is a real problem with pan handlers
in downtown Bellingham and we, the community, can do something to change this. If you life around here, that’s a no-brainer.
It’s hard to walk the streets of downtown without seeing someone who’s
asking for money or hanging around. I think the story was put together
by the police department, but the interviewed a lot of local business
owners, people from the Downtown Renaissance Network, and the mayor on
how we can change this situation.
They walked through all the affects that our charitable donations to
someone on the street can have. I’m the kind of guy who always wants to
give something when I see someone on the side of the street, so I’m
interested in finding ways to help these people affectively. One of the
manager’s from the Light House Mission, a local homeless shelter, told a
story of a man who had been living with them for a few weeks who was an
alcoholic. Some how, he ended up getting enough money (they believe from pan-handling around town) to restart his
binge drinking and ended up dying in an accident at the end of his
3-day intoxication. It’s sad, because, as the guy said, someone bought
that man his last drink, intending to help him out, but actually ended
up killing him.
I don’t mean to sound all dramatic, because we all are aware of that
tension between wanting to help and fearing the consequences of that
help being misused. The positive message that this TV story had was
that it’s really great that there’s a general feeling of empathy for the
homeless and needy of Whatcom County and there are ways we can help.
But it’s not by perpetuating pan-handling by giving to people on the
street. It’s about working with all of the local service organizations
whose goal and mission is to reach out to the people of our city. By
volunteering at the Light House Mission or going out and giving sack
lunches prepared by a local shelter, we can make the contributions we
desire to make in ways that may be more affective.
I guess this story caught my eye because I’ve worked downtown and passed the same people everyday who are looking for help. Or their looking for a way to get their fix. Or their just looking for something, because they’ve gotten so lost that they don’t know where to turn. I also just finished a book called The Gutter, which talks about our need and calling as Christians to do as Christ did and hang out with, serve, love, support, and lift up these people. I feel really good about the city of Bellingham trying to do something to change our downtown and help it’s citizens feel safe and it’s homeless get the help they need.
I bet that amongst the 100s and 1000s of people who read this blog, we have some divergent opinions on how we should approach dealing with poverty, on the local and global levels. But I suggest we put those differences aside for a moment, and honestly look at how we can make a difference, for the betterment of our community (which, contrary to popular belief, includes the pan-handlers, drug dealers, etc.) today. This TV spot got me thinking. Now I have to start doing.
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First things first, why isn’t “Under African Skies” on your friends network? Seriously bro? I would be curious to know some of the solutions that the story proposed, were there any?
one of my friends won’t ever give money out but will buy them something (food, clothing, etc…)
The solution offered by the TV spot was based around the understanding that there is a very strong network of social services in Bellingham that are designed to provide for and take care of the needy in our community. So, instead of donating to individuals here and there, where we can’t be sure the money will be used to their good, we are asked to support those local groups (ie: Light House, Hope House) and let them do their jobs.
This is such a difficult thing, because a part of me wants to not trust that those services are enough or maybe I think that a little kind deed to an individual actually can work.
Sean, back to you: Volunteering at the Light House Mission, did you feel that your work was an affective way to support the people of Bellingham? Was it productive or did you feel like a program like that acted as a “band-aid” for these people while not really enacting change for them?
I think the problem with our local poor is so complicated. During my time working at the Lighthouse Mission I’d meet people who had never been given a chance in life- no opportunity to be anything but homeless. I met teens who had been kicked out, women who had been brutally abused by husbands or family members, lazy guys who just don’t want to work, war veterans, and everything in between. To try and prescribe one solution for these very different groups, while a noble task, is almost impossible. Thus you have multiple social services in Bellingham including a Women’s shelter, etc. However, it seems that offering comprehensive programs for the poor is expensive and difficult to task. Certain political parties cut social programs at dramatic rates when they take office to lower taxes for us more fortunate folks. The tax break is nice, but it breaks the backs of the poor. Take the Lighthouse shelter for example. Maintaining a competent and qualified staff is difficult to do and in the end is expensive, not to say that the staff at Lighthouse mission isn’t amazing- they are, but they can’t do it all by themselves. They need professionals to come and help raise funds, to manage programs, and develop even more effective strategies to implement in the community, but they can’t afford these folks and so they are under-staffed and most of the time just struggling to survive. One day on my ride home from working at the Mission I stopped to grab a bite to eat and had a conversation with a guy who asked me for money outside the Pita Pit. I suggested he check out the Lighthouse Mission and it turns out he had in fact been there, but he complained about the rules and regulations placed on him at many different shelters. Beggars can’t be choosers? Well, why not? Perhaps we haven’t created enough incentive in our social programs to allow the poor to choose how THEY would like to change their status of living. Too often the “rich, educated, white people†make decisions for the poor, whether that be in Africa or in Bellingham and in reality, I don’t know what its like to live on the streets. I don’t know what it takes to beg for food or money, so why should I be the one that creates a strategy to effectively deal with that problem. Perhaps what the poor need are resources, loose guidelines of some kind, and room to creatively brainstorm new and unique methods of reducing their poverty…So what do we do in the meantime? I have no idea… I often do the gift card thing from a place like Pita Pit or fast food place and maybe what I should spend more time doing is actually taking a few minutes every now and then to listen to their story…back to you bro, thoughts?
Thanks Sean, I appreciate your insight on this. I think you hit it on the nose. It’s great to think we could model our social welfare programs around the vocalized needs of those they affect, but how realistic is that? I can see where you’re going with this and putting into words the ideas that I was working towards in my own mind. It’s a tough calling, for us (the middle-class, white educated), for others (the upper-class, who benefits from tax breaks) and those on the bottom, who need the help but have no voice in the government or in society in general and therefore cannot seek their own benefit without the help of us on the comfortable side of life.
I like what you say about getting in, listening to people, working with them and just generally loving and involving yourself in their lives. For me, not one to go to DC or find himself working for a government advocacy group (I’m really glad I didn’t finish applying for that job) I think that is the best way to make a difference. I think God has been working on me to develop a greater sensitivity to the needs of my community and helping me see the need to get involved on that personal kind of level. We’ll see how that plays out. Thanks for your words Sean, I always appreciate your insight. Feel free to provide more.
Yes, I agree that it is necessary to do my best to love and listen. I think one other thing we can do is to vote with the poor in mind so that our country chooses to favor the less fortunate…Okay, enough of my rant, good post bro.