Daily Lobo Columnist
Although it’s some months from Thanksgiving, the time when we all remember the homeless, Joy Junction, New Mexico’s largest emergency homeless shelter, will still take in individuals and entire families without roofs over their heads tonight.
Three years ago, the everyday plight of the homeless was brought to light by a well-known author, who reminded us of two important facts of life:
First, even in the summer, the homeless still need our help. Second, with proper help, many of today’s homeless can turn their lives around.
The book was called “The Street Lawyer,” and it was written by John Grisham, the man who gave us “The Firm,” “The Testament” and a host of other material. Without giving away too much of the plot, the book begins when a homeless man follows a Washington, D.C., lawyer into his law firm and then takes the firm hostage.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The man holds workers at the law firm into the evening, demanding to know how much of their income was donated to homeless shelters. He orders that food from a homeless shelter be delivered to the law firm’s sixth floor conference room. While he opens the door to allow the food to be brought in, a police sharpshooter kills him.
That incident is a life-transforming experience for Michael, a young attorney who soon becomes a legal advocate for the rights of the homeless. Grisham writes that Michael determines he “would spend whatever was necessary to get (the homeless) into a warm place. They would soon become (his) clients, and (he) would threaten and litigate with a vengeance until they had adequate housing…(He) didn’t care what it would cost or how long it might take.”
For those of us who have dedicated ourselves to transforming lives of the homeless, “The Street Lawyer” contains more than a hint of truth (although sadly it also contains some liberal propaganda and left wing rhetoric) — and it is sometimes a depressing truth.
While most homeless people pose no threat to our community, the fact is, some homeless can be violent and irrational.
They have also typically made bad decisions in their lives — getting involved with illegal drugs or abusing alcohol. Denying this fact would do more harm than good.
Yet the problem with stereotyping extends to the homeless. There are other homeless who are not significantly different than those of us who can afford to be clothed, fed and sheltered. These people, such as runaways and victims of domestic abuse, come to missions through little or no fault of their own.
They are also people who have served this nation in times of need.
According to national surveys conducted by Joy Junction and other rescue missions around the United States, nearly one in three men at our missions is a veteran. Nearly half of these are veterans of the Vietnam War and about one in 10 served during the Gulf War.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned after 19 years of working with the homeless, it is that, with help, they can and will turn their lives around. Specifically, rehabilitation requires not only mental and physical counseling, but also spiritual nurturing to give these men and women the strength they need to return to society. That’s what Joy Junction — and faith-based ministries in general — are all about.
This nurturing of faith is the key to taking people off the streets, giving them new lives and making them productive. Yet it must be done in a sustained way. Just as the problems creating homelessness are not “seasonal,” so, too, the solutions to homelessness cannot simply be administered at certain times of the year.
As you go about your daily duties, please remember those in need — even before the holidays. In the Grisham book, when the main character first goes to a homeless shelter, he looks around and declares the situation hopeless. For Joy Junction, helping the homeless is difficult, but with the transforming power of Christian faith, combined with your generosity over almost the last 15 years, we are succeeding.
Please help us continue.
Jeremy Reynalds is a UNM alumnus and executive director of Joy Junction, an Albuquerque faith-based homeless shelter.
