Where do you go when you have nowhere to go

March 6, 2011, is "Where do you go when you have nowhere to go?" 
(written by Kelly Gauthier & with P&J Committee).


Introducing our 
Sack Homelessness Sack!
Where do you go when you have nowhere to go?
Imagine that you are:
• A young adult who is aging out of foster care and unemployed (the unemployment rate for youth today is about 20%).  You have no family support; no one to lend you money or give you a place to stay.  Where do you turn?
• A woman whose husband left and is not paying child support.  You have been a stay-at-home mom for years, but are now trying to enter the job market.  The bill collectors are calling; the car was repossessed and the house is in foreclosure.   Where do you go?  Even if you can qualify for welfare assistance, a cash payment is only $500/month for a family of three—not even enough for a studio apartment.  The local homeless shelter has a 90-day waiting list.  The waiting list for a federal housing voucher is closed; so is the waiting list for the City’s affordable housing.  What do you do? 
• A full-time clerk in a retail store who takes home $1,300 a month.  The cheapest apartment within ten miles of your job costs $550 per month + utilities—half your income.  You can’t afford a car, so you can’t move far from a bus route.  What do you do?
• A person who served time in prison for robbery and is trying to make a new start.  You were released with little more than the clothes on your back.  Nobody will hire you because of your prison record.  You have no family to help and your old friends will be a bad influence, so you don’t want to return to them.  What do you do?
            These are not just imaginary scenarios.  These are the lives of real people.  Our neighbors.   Lacking a strong social safety net, Americans mostly rely on family members to assist us when we are in need.  But if you have no family or friends who can help, where do you turn?
            The Catholic Church says that housing is a human right.  And social service agencies know that every person’s primary need is to obtain decent, stable housing; other issues are best addressed after housing is secured.  But for too many people, this is little more than a dream.  A lack of affordable housing means that some people have to move far from their jobs and spend hours each day commuting (creating pollution, wasting resources, and taking time away from the things they would rather be doing).  Some have to “double up” with family members in an already crowded home; others “couch surf” with friends.  Some find a temporary bed in a shelter; others end up on the street or in a tent. 
            During Lent we will focus on housing insecurity in Washtenaw County, sharing real people’s struggles to find affordable housing.  Our “Have a Heart” sacks will raise funds for the Religious Action for Affordable Housing (RAAH) capital campaign.  These funds will be used for emergency housing needs and, most importantly, will be used to build or purchase affordable housing locally.  Affordable housing is critical.  It keeps people from becoming homeless in the first place.
             We hope that you will join our efforts.  Lent is a time for prayer, service, and almsgiving.  It is a great opportunity to hear the experiences of our most vulnerable neighbors, and do what we can to help.

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A Compelling Argument For Affordable Housing in Washtenaw County We are raising money for the RAAH campaign, which exists mainly to support AFFORDABLE HOUSING.  This is the most important way that any community anywhere can fight homelessness.  By having homes that people who live and work in the community can actually afford to buy or rent, it prevents low-income people from becoming homeless or having to double-up or triple-up with family or friends. 
This is the critical piece of the puzzle that is missing in Ann Arbor and much of Washtenaw County.  The price of housing in Washtenaw County is almost double the price of housing paid out in the rural small towns of Michigan.
This is why so many people are "at risk" in Ann Arbor.  A full-time job that pays $9/hr will net about $1,200/mo.  How can this worker then rent a home for $1,000 or $1,500/mo?  And if the worker does rent for that price, what's left for s/he and family to live on?  For those who live on SSI (disability), their entire monthly check is about $650/mo.  A mother on welfare who has two kids gets a cash check of just under $500/mo.  Is there anywhere at all for those people to live in Ann Arbor?  Or even in Ypsilanti or Willow Run, it's hard to find housing they can afford.  On top of everything else, we have lost hundreds of local affordable housing units over the past few years as co-ops turn into condos and older affordable housing is torn down or sold and "rehabed" and the rents are then tripled.
Lack of affordable housing is one of the primary "root causes" of homelessness and it's rarely discussed for fundraising because it isn't as compelling as raising money for a shelter or an emergency aid program.  Without it, though, there is no foundation for low-wage workers, the unemployed, the disabled and elderly on fixed incomes, those on welfare, etc. to build their life upon.