Reflections from the front lines serving people experiencing homelessness, watching the minutes of sunlight decrease day to day, planning for the 20th Mike McQuaid I am Home Breakfast, and focusing on peace.

Here we are in November. It’s been one year since the final section of encampment was removed from the neighborhood around Key Campus. Which means one year of the Safe Outdoor Space, the City of Phoenix project at which Keys to Change is a service operator.

Over the last year the Keys to Change Street Outreach team continued to find and count unsheltered people in the immediate vicinity of the Key Campus plus an expanded area (several mile radius) around the Campus. The numbers fluctuated month to month. What we see over the last few weeks is an increase in the number of people and an increase in the number of people sleeping in vehicles. Today the team found 258 unsheltered people in the closest vicinity and 585 people in the expanded area for a total of 843.

It’s November and an autumn chill is finally in the air. Well, I say finally… I have a house, a car with heated seats, plenty of clothing. The low temperature last night in Phoenix was 52 degrees. In the dark and on cold concrete, I can’t imagine it felt comfortable for anyone sleeping outside.

As I wrote last month, we are winding down programs and rapidly working to move people into other indoor spaces, ideally permanent homes. And we have dozens of employees who will be looking for jobs. These are challenging dynamics that present a host of successes and frustrations at the very same time.

If you are a frequent reader, you know I often write about the ebbs and flows, the ups and downs, highs and lows, the roller coaster that we witness deeply and consistently in this work of ending homelessness. Each month when I stop to write, I pause and think about might be of interest to people reading. There is never a lack of material, however some is minutiae while some is sensitive. As these blogs transitioned from COVID/Pandemic updates to broader “reflections,” I find myself being more intentional about the words and with less stream of consciousness.

Today I feel like I’m deliberately avoiding election and political narrative. If I was going to simply write from my heart and mind, it would include feelings and thoughts about the elections. It would express a bit of anxiousness over what might be to come after results are tallied and announced. It would be a lot of opinion and emotion with little to no fact.

With all the divisiveness and opinion in the atmosphere, I don’t want to contribute and expand that activity or energy. When it is all said and done, we will continue to be here serving people who fall into homelessness. We will search for the avenues to work with elected officials. We will navigate impacts of propositions as they connect to this work.

In this reflective space the last few days, I keep returning to words I heard from Deepak Chopra about seven years ago. He was discussing Gandhi’s “there is no way to peace, peace is the way” quote. A light bulb turned on for me. To view our existence in that manner – that peace is the way, for me meant to stop reacting and expending energy in fight or flight mode. It opened my eyes to a different way of being. It’s a daily practice and not perfection.

To be here in this work every day, I have to remain centered, focused, present, and calm most of the time. I have to be at peace. Dr. Chopra goes on to describe how at an individual level the attitude, energy and behavior we put into the universe affects those around us. Peace starts with each of us through our awareness, witnessing our thoughts, and being intentional with our actions and words.

This peace is tested, some days more than others. Yet the more days I practice centeredness, the quicker I rebound when I’m pulled off track and find my way back to peace.

Tonight I’ve turned the television off. Once I share this post, I will log out of social media and stop replying to work emails. Worrying is praying for something you don’t want to happen. So I will meditate and go to bed. Whatever is going to happen will happen whether I’m awake for it or not. Tomorrow people expect me to show up, be present, and continue to get stuff done.

Peace is the way.