We are grateful to have Jordan this summer as an intern. Read below about her aspirations. You can also learn more about Layne, our other summer intern.

Where did you go to high school/college? I am a senior at Campbell University.

How did you found out about Love Wins? I officially found out about Love Wins and the work they do when Hugh spoke about the needs of the community at my old church, Trinity Baptist.

What do you look forward to accomplishing at Love Wins? I just want to help people, honestly. I want to get involved in the nonprofit world after I graduate, so while I’m here I’d like to gain more experience in working with others and just meeting people where they are. Simply put, I want to be a good presence here.

What are you majoring in at Campbell? Why? I am a religion major, and I am a psychology and Spanish minor; I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I want to show people that there is more to Jesus than Christianity, especially considering the fact that Jesus was a Jew. I just want to love like Jesus, and I want to help people. I am interested also in how people think, how they rationalize things, and how their emotions from those thoughts lead to the choices they make. I added my Spanish minor last fall; I’d like to challenge myself to meet others on all levels of understanding, including and especially linguistically.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be? Starting with myself, I would love people better and forgive more. After that, I would encourage others, those I know and those I don’t, to do the same. Love is the only thing that will change the world.

What’s your favorite quote? “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead

Related: Internship positions are still open.

Rev. Hollie Woodruff Duncan is our director of faith and community partnerships. She delivered a sermon this past weekend at Community United Church of Christ in Raleigh on a powerful encounter with grace, and what that means for the rest of us.

The work of Love Wins is not to make me feel better, or because the bible tells me so.  On the contrary, I participate in the work of Love Wins because this is the place the Gospel makes sense.

Because unbeknownst to most, there are hidden tent cities that people call home.

Because on Thursday night, while thunder storms and 60 MPH winds raged through Raleigh, I knew Jay didn’t make it to the bus on time and therefore didn’t arrive at the shelter on time …and therefore was out in that thunderstorm.

Because how the hell is someone supposed to find and keep a steady job when they need to be lined up at the shelter by 4:00 PM?

Because it shouldn’t be so damn hard to get a North Carolina ID.

Because a mother shouldn’t have to choose between her child and a safe place to sleep …

Because my liberation is bound up with yours.

 

I’m a little delayed in getting to this, but here is a description of the other treats that I prepared as part of a Mediterranean dinner I hosted last month. As you’ll recall from the previous post, the main dish … Continue reading →

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update 6/17/2013: Shon succumbed to his injuries. May he rest in peace.

We met Shon not long into 2013, but our community members have known him for decades. He sauntered into the office one morning with a few other young men like him– seemingly lost after a life of rejection, disappointment, and run-ins with the law.

At the office Shon was quiet and peaceful, always willing to help. Then one day he didn’t come in. That one day turned into several weeks. There are several common reasons for a long stretch like that, including a hospital stay, an arrest, moving to another city, or starting a job with day time hours.

The same reasons most people don’t see their friends as often as they would like.

No news is good news, and the same goes for Love Wins. When one of our guests heard about Shon on the news, he immediately told the rest of us. Our hearts sink, questions rise, and we thirst for details.

How did this happen? Is Shon okay? Will he live? Does anyone care?

Maybe you pray, maybe you don’t. The point is not that we pray for Shon. The point is that we care about Shon. Because he is a human being, and we are called to love him as such.

In the news: SBI probing jail altercation that left inmate on life support

Nonprofits and corporations alike are revolving doors of interns. In our second summer at 707 West Jones we are welcoming our second summer intern, Layne Bolden.

Where did you go to high school/college? I am a 2013 graduate of Cary Christian School. In the fall I’ll start at UNC-Chapel Hill.

How did you found out about Love Wins? My mom is friends with Sarah McCoy (Pastor Sarah).

What do you look forward to accomplishing at Love Wins? I look forward to getting volunteer experience, working with people, and doing things outside of my previous experiences.

What will you major in at UNC? Why? Religion and gender studies, because I’m interested in both and how they overlap.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be? I would make people less hateful.

What’s your favorite quote? “It’s better to be an authentic loser than a false success, and to die alive than to live dead.” – William Markiewicz

Welcome to the circus, Layne!

Related: Internship positions are still open.

 

First Friday, Raleigh’s art gallery walk in the heart of the city, celebrates dozens of new and established artists each month. Project Red Light picked up Rocky and featured him in their June 7 art gallery and silent auction benefiting the Salvation Army’s anti-human trafficking program.

Rocky sketched for hours as passers by admired his work. He was expecting a few questions, but not an Honorable Mention from the judges, and certainly not the People’s Choice Award.

You can view Rocky’s online portfolio at Artist In The Woods.

See the complete collection of photos on Facebook.

Click to view slideshow.

Every year, our church has a fundraiser auction to raise money for our youth group. This year, I planned a Mediterranean 3-course dinner and auctioned off seats for five guests to join me for the meal.  I’ll share the menu … Continue reading →

This week we celebrated three occasions with one celebration, dubbed MegaParty. Unbeknownst to each individual guest of honor, we combined Hugh’s 41st birthday party, my 25th birthday party, and Emma’s going away party into one big room of sugar coated, polka dotted shenanigans.

Our fellow cake eaters come from all walks of life. Occupations vary, as do housing status, levels of food insecurity, and just general happiness. But at MegaParty, as with any Love Wins party, we celebrate our shared humanity– shared joy in a friend’s birthday, shared joy in a friend’s next step in life, shared joy in knowing each other.

Trust me when I say that five years ago, you couldn’t have convinced any of us that some day we would be sharing birthday cake with anyone you see in these photos.

Click to view slideshow.

See the complete collection of photos on Facebook.

Pope Francis discussed unhoused individuals and newsworthiness again in his weekly audience this morning, reports Religion News Service:

In his speech, the pope also warned that a “culture of waste” and consumerism have dulled the moral sense of humanity to the point that when “some homeless people die of cold on the streets, it is not news. In contrast, a 10-point drop on the stock markets of some cities, is a tragedy.”

The Argentine pope has been a vocal advocate for the poor since his election to the papacy in March, and has personally practiced austerity at the Vatican, living in a guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments and cutting down on elaborate vestments and liturgies.

The pope elaborated on this “culture of waste,” telling listeners, “Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry.” According to UN’s Food Environment Programme,

In the United States 30% of all food, worth US$48.3 billion (€32.5 billion), is thrown away each year. It is estimated that about half of the water used to produce this food also goes to waste, since agriculture is the largest human use of water. (Jones, 2004 cited in Lundqvist et al., 2008)

Love Wins does its best not to waste any food, and if you stop by, you’ll notice their peanut butter and jelly jars are spotless before they recycle them. Before throwing out any of your unused food, consider donating it to Love Wins. They go through coffee, peanut butter, bread, and fruit jellies like it’s nobody’s business. And feeding people is not Love Wins’ business either. They’re on West Jones Street simply to be there for someone.

If you happen to get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while you’re there, that’s just icing on the cake. Oh yeah, they have cake sometimes, too.

Related: The Bread In Your Cupboard Belongs To The Hungry

It is that time of year again…

Every year, we throw a party on the Fourth of July for our friends. Many of the services that our people use every day – the soup kitchen, the food bank, the library – will be closed on the Fourth. However, homelessness does not take a holiday.

So, for the fifth year in a row, we will throw a party for our friends. There will be hot dogs, of course, and watermelon and chips and laughter and kids running around and people wanting to know if they can get seconds and us saying of course you can.

We do it in Moore Square, in the heart of downtown Raleigh, NC. And like any party worth going to, there will be a wide range of folks there. There will be folks who are homeless – some of them will be serving, while others of them will be being served. There will be some of our regular cast of volunteers – doctors, engineers, soccer moms and plumbers – and all sorts of other folks, too – like hopefully, you.

So here is the deal: If you don’t have anything going on on the afternoon of the Fourth of July, we would really like it if you would come and celebrate with us and our friends who are homeless. Not to serve them, mind you, but to celebrate with us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Details: 

Where: Moore Square, on the Person Street side.
When: July 4th, 2:00 p.m.

What Can I Bring?

Like any good party, this will work best if you bring some things, too.

Here is what we still need. If you would like to mail us your donation(s), look for the Amazon and Dollar Tree links. Our mailing address is 707 West Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27603.

400 hot dogs

400 hot dog buns

Bulk ketchup, mustard, relish (Amazon)

400 snack size bags of chips (Amazon)

400 cans of soda

Lemonade mix for 400 (Amazon)

400 bottles of water

12 large watermelons

1,000 napkins (Dollar Tree, Amazon)

500 sturdy paper plates

500 plastic cups (Amazon)

Food service gloves (Amazon)

Big pump of hand sanitizer (Amazon)

Cooler for lemonade

4 coolers and ice for each (for drinks)

2 grills with full propane tanks

1 box of 33-gallon trash bags (Amazon)

6 rolls of paper towel (Amazon)

If you want to come, do us a favor and shoot Sara an email at sara@lovewins.info and let her know you are coming and how many of you there are. Also, let me know if you can donate some of the stuff we need, even if you won’t be able to be there. (If email is not your thing, you can post it in the comments below.)

We will keep this page updated, so keep checking back.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Related: See photos of the 2012 cookout. 

I came across this piece on social media and its relationship to individuals without housing several weeks ago, and I nonchalantly stuck it in my bookmarks to revisit it later. I stumbled upon the post again last evening and would like to share its narrative with Love Wins’ followers:

When I first started all this, a young homeless woman in Chicago chased me down. I wish I could tell you I found her, but the truth is Ann Marie found me. I was visiting Chicago and I started to get tweets from @padschicago. As far as I knew, she was the first homeless person using Twitter. I started to @ reply her I wanted to meet, yet no response back. I kept on trying and trying until it hit me: Ann Marie may not have computer access and I’ll just have to wait for her to respond on her time. It was that moment that I learned, when dealing with people who are still experiencing homelessness, I must always view the world through their eyes. As a case manager I have always tried looking from the other person’s perspective, but it didn’t occur to me the challenges homeless people face when using social media until I met @padschicago. I’ll never forget Ann Marie, who was sleeping in an alley at the time, told me when she went to bed she never felt alone because all of us on Twitter were right there with her. By the way, Ann Marie found housing because of Twitter and has been off the streets for a few years now!

Admittedly, those of us without housing likely have more pressing challenges than our ability to participate in social media. But Ann Marie, or @padschicago, makes a wonderful point in her story that illustrates Love Wins’ mission: “[S]he never felt alone because all of us on Twitter were right there with her.”

Love Wins seeks to build a community, to foster relationships, and simply to be “right there” for others. Follow Love Wins in real life or on Twitter, and they’ll do their best to make sure you never feel alone.

FRIENDSHIPS

In the Dominican Republic, even more than in the U.S., relationships definitely make the world go round.  I've found that friendships are extremely important not just on weekends or in the evening after work, but they make or break you here, in the professional world as well.

 In the U.S. good friends or relatives may not talk to each other for months on end, and then one Friday night they can get together for coffee and feel fine about their relationship, and chat like they just saw each other yesterday.  Here, if I don't communicate with professional friends or neighbors from the other side of town for several weeks in a row they feel they've suddenly become unimportant to me, and they bluntly ask "Tu nos botaste?" "Have you thrown us away?"  This is a commonly-used expression here. "Hey - I haven't seen you in 3 weeks. What is the deal? Have you thrown me away?

In the U.S. we would probably never say such a thing. We have many friends who we rarely see but still love, and both sides of the friendship or professional relationship are ok with that. We just acknowledge "everybody's busy," and we don't take the sometimes limited contact as a problem in the relationship, necessarily.

In the D.R. I've learned to stretch myself a bit on that front; to really make sure that people know they are important to me. (For a person who is moderately introverted, and likes to have some evenings and Saturday mornings to myself at home, this can be a real challenge.)  But I've learned that relationships come first here -- and having friends and collaborative business colleagues here requires being "Friend-tentional."  Just a few minutes ago -- at 7pm after the sun had already gone down, while I was in the middle of dinner, a friend (colleague from another organization) of mine came by the house on her way to church to ask me "Hey, we haven't seen you down at the hospital in a couple of weeks trying to help us improve our medical services there.  Have you thrown us away?" I apologized and explained that I've been out in the countryside helping those in the communities that don't have clinics get medical consults. She said "Oh, ok." We hugged and I promised to come by the hospital within the next couple of days to move forward on the work she and I have been doing there together.  Similarly, the 19 Community Health Workers who I supervise often say "have you thrown us away, Janelle?" if I haven't been to eat dinner at their house within the last month. The 400 patients in our various medical programs see me on the street and say "Hey Janelle, I haven't seen you in my community or at my house in awhile.  Have you thrown us away?"  I tell them I've been trapped in the office writing grants to get more funding for HHI so we can help even more people with medical care in the local communities, and that I've been in meetings with D.R. health leaders trying to improve the medical system (all true). They shrug and acknowledge.  "Oh, ok. So we're still important to you?"  Then we hug and I say "I wouldl never throw you away," and I promise to come visit soon, and they say the same, and then we're all ok.

It's been an interesting learning experience -- living in a country where every person emphasizes relationships and friendships as the most important element of life, and where sitting on your neighbor's porch chatting is not so much a fun vacation activity but rather a daily expectation, privilege, and responsibility.



It's a challenge for the introverts. But it's also a beautiful thing. And I'm glad to know that the many friends I have here -- whether co-workers, local partnering agency personnel, patients, neighbors, church friends, and even quasi strangers -- will also try hard not to ever "throw me away."  They'll be here if I need them.  That's a wonderful gift - especially for a single person living abroad. (Although I have many life-long tried and true, will drop everything for each-other friends in the U.S. too,) I still think that many of us from the U.S. can perhaps learn a bit more from this "friend-tentional" way of life...

So this month I want to share some photos of a few of the friends (Dominicans and also foreigners living here) who offer such essential "friend-tentional" support to me in the D.R., and in the work that I am doing here.




And here's one group that should not be left out at all -- They are some of my closest friends in the D.R. (though not everyone in the group is actually pictured here).   These are some of the other missionaries and humanitarian workers who I know through church and a local Bible Study that I've been privileged to be a part of on Wednesday nights for the past almost 2 years.  We support each other spiritually, emotionally, socially, and in whatever other way is needed -- giving each other advice when complicated questions or ethical issues come up in our lives and our work here.  I spent much of my day on Sunday with one of the women pictured above, helping her get treatment at a local hospital because she's come down with an unfortunate case of Dengue. But hanging out with her in that context was a pleasure because she's my friend, of course. It is a reciprocal relationship. Many of the other people in this photo have also done 8 hour shifts at the hospital with that same friend over the past 4 days as well -- making sure she's ok there in the hospital; or they've given advice from their own prior experiences with Dengue. We live our lives together -- week in and week out -- even though we all work in different places. Each one of us benefits from the support of the others, which is indescribably wonderful, especially for a group of people like us living and serving others in Jesus' name, while far from our "home countries," our original languages, and the friends, family members, and churches we left behind at "home" to come and serve here.

In the style of the old Visa commercials I might say
1.) Living and serving in the Dominican Republic = $400-600 a month.
2.) Having other foreign missionaries living near you who can support you, pray with you, and understand you in your daily struggles here -- PRICELESS.

I'm so very thankful to God for each of these missionary friends above, and for those not pictured. Together this group of friends consists of Christian missionaries serving in the following organizations here in the Dominican Republic:

La Tienda -- Standing Behind the Dignity of the Poor
Makarios International - International Educational Development
The Samaritan Foundation  --  Building Communities
Christian Surfers International -- Surfers Reaching surfers
Health Horizons International -- Health Care/Health Education -- where I (Janelle) serve and work
Kids Alive International -- "Rescuing Kids Around the World."
Mission Direct - Volunteers helping the World's Poor
A Serving Heart - Spiritual, Educational, and Economic Growth in Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Go Mad Ministries -- Fighting Human Exploitation
and more.

Once upon a time a Campbell Divinity student came to us to complete an internship in her last semester of school. She was eager but timid, and rightfully so, as the work we do is not for the faint of heart.

Fast forward nine months. On Sunday we commissioned our dear friend Sarah McCoy (see above video), now Rev. Sarah McCoy on paper, and “Pastor Sarah” to our guests. On the Internet she is @sheologian, and such a name suits no one better. Today she is still eager, but less timid– perhaps even a petite lion, brave and fierce.

Sarah joins our staff as the associate pastor. She is an excellent pastor, a wonderful person, and a delightful friend for whom we are all thankful.

Welcome, Pastor Sarah!

Follow Sarah On Twitter – Read Her Blog – Sign Up For Her Newsletter

Reuters reports that this past Saturday, Pope Francis referenced individuals without housing and their lack of newsworthiness in his Pentecost vigil mass:

Today, and it breaks my heart to say it, finding a homeless person who has died of cold, is not news. Today, the news is scandals, that is news, but the many children who don’t have food – that’s not news. This is grave. We can’t rest easy while things are this way.

At the time of writing this post, Raleigh’s News & Observer website lists its most popular pages as:

• Raleigh police charge two men, woman with murder in North Hills slaying
• Three suspects arrested in woman’s slaying
• Wolfpack’s new quarterback brings athleticism, unselfishness
• Wake names three superintendent finalists
• Wakefield High girl’s softball coach charged with sex offense with a student
• ACC baseball tournament: Taking the first step to Omaha

The newspaper’s online readers appear to deem two murder stories, two sports articles, a local politics piece, and a sex scandal as most deserving of their reporting.

I can’t write this definitively, but I’m willing to guess “NC group wants to rehab buildings for homeless” and Shaffer: Birthday party for Momma Judd, saint to Raleigh’s homeless,” both reported this month by the newspaper, never will make the “most popular” list.

A lot of the people whose wisdom guides Love Wins‘ ministry likely never received this superlative either, including Pope Francis during this time in secondary school at Escuela Nacional de Educacion Tecnica.

Building relationships and loving and respecting others as equals isn’t sexy, and our culture doesn’t enjoy reading about:

People that society has left behind. People who wear dirty clothes. People who beg for money on the side of the road. People who are not welcome in most church buildings. People the city wishes would disappear.

But like Pope Francis, Love Wins won’t “rest easy while things are this way.” The organization has, among other things, helped to organize art shows for members of the community, baptize friends, share coffee with companions, and spread peanut butter for others.

And speaking of peanut butter, this is merely a taste of Love Wins’ fostering unconditional love and friendship.

On the morning of every weekday a school transportation SUV pulls up outside the Raleigh Rescue Mission. Two small kids board the vehicle, and their young mom, with an exhausted expression, waves goodbye.

I witness this event at least twice a week on my walk to work. I want to hug the mom and give the kids coloring books and new sneakers. Instead I smile, sometimes wave, and continue on my way.

The image of children boarding a school bus is a traditional one, but there’s nothing traditional about a family living at an overnight shelter, or about children living without a home.

In a space shared with dozens of strangers, where do bedtime stories, homework, and family dinner happen? I guess sometimes they don’t.

Tonight at 5 p.m. WRAL-TV will introduce viewers to two children experiencing homelessness.

On any given day, more than 2,000 homeless children go to school in Wake County. Their classmates likely have no idea.

We will introduce you to a single mother doing what she can to give your two sons a better life. For now, they live in a homeless shelter. That doesn’t stop them from going to school, working and spending quality time together as a family.

When I mentioned the segment to Mark, a young Love Wins volunteer currently living in a shelter, he recounted his ninth grade year when he lived in a car with his mom. Divorce left them with almost no belongings and terrible credit. Mark’s friends and school never knew that he was homeless. Mark wasn’t invisible, but his crisis was. He was a part of the invisible homeless.

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” – Plato

Related Video: “A child’s perspective on homelessness”

Would Jesus support the United States’ food stamp program? That question came up last week on Capitol Hill when legislators discussed possible cuts to the food-related financial assistance program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

NBC News reports,

During contentious debate over the Farm Bill, which funds food stamps, in the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., invoked the Book of Matthew as he noted his opposition to the cuts.

“[Jesus] says how you treat the least among us, the least of our brothers, that’s how you treat him,” Vargas, adding that Jesus specifically mentions the importance of feeding the hungry.

Republican Congressman Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, who supports cuts to the program, had his own Bible verse from the Book of Thessalonians to quote back to Vargas: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat,” he said.

Representative Fincher fails to acknowledge, however, that many of the SNAP beneficiaries he references are willing to work and in fact have jobs. The USDA reports,

Nearly 30 percent of SNAP households had earnings in 2010, and 41 percent of all SNAP participants lived in a household with earnings. For most of these households, earnings were the primary source of income.

Similarly, almost half of Fincher’s “unwilling” workers are the elderly and children.

Nearly half (47 percent) were under age 18 and another 8 percent were age 60 or older. Working-age women represented 28 percent of the caseload, while working-age men represented 17 percent.

I also wonder what Fincher may think if he realized his adoption of the “He who does not work shall not eat” concept was also a tenant of Lenin’s socialism:

“He who does not work, neither shall he eat”—every toiler understands that. Every worker, every poor and even middle peasant, everybody who has suffered need in his lifetime, everybody who has ever lived by his own labour, is in agreement with this. Nine-tenths of the population of Russia are in agreement with this truth. In this simple, elementary and perfectly obvious truth lies the basis of socialism, the indefeasible source of its strength, the indestructible pledge of its final victory.

The truth, however, is “every poor and even middle [class]” person, and “everybody who has suffered need in his lifetime,” also may occasionally need help. In 2010 alone, “about 40.3 million people living in 18.6 million U.S. households,” qualified and received assistance from SNAP.

According to The Huffington Post, Fincher provides more of his thoughts:

“Jesus made it very clear we have a duty and obligation as Christians and as citizens of this country to take care of each other. Democrat, Republican, Independent — we should look after one another,” he said. “But I think a fundamental argument we’re having today is what’s the duty of the federal government. We’re all here on this committee making decisions about other people’s money.”

Love Wins often makes decisions about other people’s money. The organization doesn’t receive any government grants or money from denominations or other large groups. Instead, Love Wins relies on the financial contributions of supporters from around the world, who trust their money will be used to further the ministry’s mission of fostering relationships.

And Jesus would likely be OK with that.

The News & Observer reported on May 15, 2013, that “police sent a message to street panhandlers” in downtown Raleigh:

Several uniformed and plainclothes officers from the department’s Downtown District worked the area for several hours on Tuesday.

Ten people were arrested in the 200 block of South Blount Street, while 3 were arrested in the 200 block of Fayetteville Street.

Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said, “Raleigh understands and respects that people have a right to panhandle and has adopted regulations that protect that right while prohibiting overly aggressive and inappropriate begging practices.”

“Those arrested,” Sughrue said, “were charged with violating the begging ordinance or violations of other laws.”

Charges included soliciting for alms, consuming alcohol on city property, trespassing, possession of drug paraphernalia and misdemeanor marijuana possession.

Those arrested were taken to the Wake County Detention Center for booking.

Most were being held in lieu of $500 bail.

My first reaction to the article is that the Raleigh Police Department should spend their limited resources on more pressing criminal concerns, not the least of which include arresting civil rights advocates (that’s another blog post).

What gave rise to this post, however, is a comment I received after posting sentiments similar to the ones above on Facebook. One particular Facebook friend responded, ”If someone is panhandling, isn’t short-term shelter and a meal a winning proposition?” I replied that short-term anything doesn’t do a bit of good. The friend then posted:

I’m honestly not sure. The problem with someone who has hit rock bottom is they have nothing to lose. The second they are in the system they at least are assured a roof and hot meal.

There are a lot of issues with these statements, but I’ll focus on the idea of hitting “rock bottom” with nothing to lose.

The newspaper’s “panhandlers,” or rather, people who allegedly asked other people for money, still have quite a bit to lose. In fact, they have everything that people who were not allegedly asking other people for money have to lose except, perhaps, some material items that require money to obtain.

Pope Francis warned of the reliance on these types of items yesterday, reports The Guardian:

“We have created new idols,” he said in a speech in the Vatican. “The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.”
…
“Money has to serve, not to rule.”

The non-material “things” to which the people arrested this week still possess– heart, mind, affection, soul, spirit, will, and faith– are the items that will ultimately carry them to the next day and beyond. And Love Wins is here to add one more non-material item to the list– community.

So to my Facebook friend: everyone, regardless of whether they allegedly ask for money, still has a lot to lose.

Recently, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch said in an interview that he only wanted “thin and beautiful” people to wear his clothes, which is why the largest woman’s size their stores carry is a 10.

The outcry has been predictable, and loud, and well deserved.

One of the more popular responses is a video titled “Abercrombie & Fitch gets a Brand Readjustment” (above). The video consists of a man handing out Abercrombie and Fitch clothing to persons who are homeless, as a ‘snub’ to the clothing brand. Because, after all, what could be worse than seeing clothes made for the beautiful people on poor people?

The only reason this “works” as humor is because we see people who are experiencing homelessness as “the other”, as someone who is different than us, and not only different, but offensive. It should, we are saying, offend Abercrombie and Fitch that “these” people are wearing our clothes.

If you doubt this, consider how you would feel about this story if, instead of “homeless people”, the story was that a man shot a video that sought to offend the brand by giving its clothes to black people or gay people. The internet would be in an outrage, rightfully calling the video racist or homophobic.

But give the clothes to homeless people and the Huffington Post calls it a “funny and creative way to readjust the Abercrombie & Fitch brand.”

Sigh.

This is wrong. It is, to use a word I do not use lightly, evil. It is stigmatizing an already stigmatized group in order to “strike back” at a brand that let you down. One of our idols failed us, and so we critique them by shooting video of vulnerable people wearing their clothes in order to lampoon the brand.

I mentioned on Social Media that I have a problem with the video, and several folks implied I was being overly sensitive. After all, the narrative, the story, is that A & F is bad, and they must be punished. And after all, homeless folks need clothes, right? The guy meant well, after all.

No. This is really a story about us. About our wanting to believe that we are just and good and, dare I say it, holy. And that any cause we champion is just and good and holy as well, and after all, we are helping out some homeless folks who need clothes…

It is never okay to stigmatize people in the defense of your cause – no matter how just or good it is. It is never okay to use poor people – or, in fact, any people, as props or object lessons or teaching tools. Ever.

People who are experiencing homelessness are people. They are not extras in a movie about you.

In an op-ed for CNN earlier this month, David Frum, a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast, discusses surprising statistics regarding homelessness in the United States.

“The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that the number of the chronically homeless declined by 30% between 2005 and 2007. You might have expected the numbers to spike again when the financial crisis hit but no. Since 2007, the number of chronic homeless has dropped another 19%.”

He attributes the decline in individuals without houses to the policies of Philip Mangano, former executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness under George W. Bush. Specifically, Frum credits Mangano’s “housing first” concept as the reason for his success.

“A former music agent imbued with the religious philosophy of St. Francis of Assisi, Mangano was seized by an idea pioneered by New York University psychiatrist Sam Tsemberis: ‘housing first.’

The ‘housing first’ concept urges authorities to concentrate resources on the hardest cases — to move them into housing immediately — and only to worry about the other problems of the homeless after they first have a roof over their heads. A 2004 profile in The Atlantic nicely summarized Tsemberis’ ideas: ‘Offer them (the homeless) the apartment first, he believes, and you don’t need to spend years, and service dollars, winning their trust.’”

Love Wins celebrates Mangano and his success, and we’re always happy to see a decline in individuals without houses! We serve these members of our community a little differently, however.

We may help people without houses obtain shelter, food, and jobs, but we don’t “[o]ffer them … the apartment first” to win their trust. We offer relationships and love, in the hope that the rest of society will do the same. In other words, we operate on a model other than “housing first;” we focus on “community first.” As our founder, Hugh Hollowell, says, “The opposite of homelessness isn’t housing. The opposite of homelessness is community.”

Rev. Hugh Hollowell

Pastor & Director

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Rev. Sarah McCoy

Associate Pastor

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Rev. Hollie Woodruff Duncan

Director of Faith & Community Partnerships

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Sara Acosta

Director of Communications

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Maggie Kane

NC State Intern

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Rachel Jones

Office Volunteer

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Emma Nafziger

Mennonite Mission Service

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Ashlyn Watson

Communications Intern

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