Reflections from the front lines serving people experiencing homelessness, adapting to rainier and cooler weather, inviting people to the December 4th I am Home Breakfast, and raising holiday giving awareness.
Rain fell on Arizona over several days last week and through the weekend. It caused flash flooding, including in metro areas and through areas with unsheltered human beings. Even after more than 20 years living here, the speed with which water collects and rushes along and across streets catches me by surprise. Seeing washes and riverbeds that are always dry and empty collect and fill with standing water appears as an oddity. We react to weather like people react to watching fireworks on the fourth of July. Oooooh how much rain was it?
I am guessing the unhoused and unsheltered didn’t react with as much glee. Driving through the neighborhood around Key Campus on Monday tells a different story. The Keys to Change street outreach team counted 239 unsheltered people. Sidewalks and fences were covered with personal items spread out on flat surfaces. Clothes and blankets lining chain link for drying. Standing water creating obstacles walking to and on Key Campus for services. One program space the victim of internal flooding.
Mother Nature knows how to get all of our attention. We observe her effects in a variety of ways, however we are equally all powerless over the rain, wind, and otherwise what we call ‘weather.’
Now we pick up the pieces and repair.
Meanwhile we plan for increased inquiries about items to donate for the holidays, as well as random giving by people with good intentions. We see Thanksgiving coming up, and then the December gift-giving days. And people from all over the Valley think about homeless people. That is amazing.
What is less-than-amazing is that people with good intentions may not understand the unintended consequences of their gifts. Homelessness doesn’t always mean hunger. At Key Campus there are meals provided every day by Andre House and St. Vincent de Paul. In my eight years working at the Campus there is not a time where those programs have run out of food. Yet people drive to 12th Avenue and Madison in downtown Phoenix from everywhere to hand out food from their vehicles, parking to block vehicle traffic, generating unsafe lines of people in the middle of roads.
Most people probably are not aware that Keys to Change holds a special permit with the City of Phoenix in order to provide emergency shelter and charitable food service. This permit is required because Key Campus sits in the “governmental overlay” which means that even though the area is zoned for industrial usage, permission must be given for a long list of services and businesses, including food and shelter. This means that Keys to Change and its partners cannot serve food on the streets and must have the permit to do so indoors. We invite people into dignified spaces, with tables and chairs. Spaces that fill with volunteers for each meal service. Andre House and St. Vincent de Paul prepare food that is served with intention and hospitality.
When people drive through our neighborhood and hand out perishable food they often do not stick around to pick up trash and ensure that food waste is not left on sidewalks and in the streets. That trash is left behind, which collects and piles, at times picked up by the wind and strewn even further through the neighborhood. It can attract pests and rodents, cause foodborne illnesses, and may lead to stench.
What person wants to then have to sleep outside in the remnants of good intention?
What business owner and housed residents want to walk, drive through, and exist in a neighborhood that is a mess?
No one wants either situation.
Some of you have heard this message from us before. I apologize for repeating. The message is not amplified to the level it needs to be for community-minded helpers to hear our plea for help.
Help us to keep the neighborhood clean and safe. Help unhoused and unsheltered people access meals and services in healthy, safe, dignified places meant for eating and sleeping. If you want to volunteer with a meal program, visit andrehouse.org or svdpaz.org If you want to look at ways to support multiple organizations in meeting their specific needs, visit phoenix.gov/friendsgiving or keystochangeaz.org/key-campus/ for all Key Campus partners.
Our organizations know exactly what is needed today and tomorrow, during the holidays and every day of the year. We love volunteers who ask what we need before they give. Please ask.
If you don’t live in downtown Phoenix, seek out organizations in your own neighborhood to offer support rather than sharing your caring on public streets. There are thousands of nonprofits in Maricopa County who need support all year. Seek them out and ask how you can help.
And if you want to take that help a step further, register to attend the Mike McQuaid I am Home Breakfast on Friday, December 4 at the Arizona Biltmore. We gather to celebrate successes over the last year in helping people to move out of homelessness and into homes. The registration is open here.
‘Tis the Season for events, and giving, and celebrating.
May your Season be full of peace, joy, and good health.
