The holidays come and go. For the homeless, the holidays can be a very demoralizing time. The holidays are designed for families who can spend time at home with their loved ones. The homeless frequently have few family members ready to spend holidays with them, and they certainly have no homes to share. For the homeless, the holidays are a reminder of the rejection that society has shown them.
In Washington, DC, many of the services offered to the homeless are dispensed through core service agencies operating through the Department of Mental Health. The assumption made is that if the homeless are medicated, they will not regard their situation as so severe. This sort of thinking is a “don’t raise the bridge, lower the river philosophy” for sure. A homeless person taking enough happy pills to make an elephant fly is not likely to feel cheery at a time of year when he or she sees others spending the holidays in comfort. The reality of homelessness is that it is a perilous, survival-of-the-fittest struggle that offers few comforts and many disappointments.
To “celebrate” the holiday season, the Department of Mental Health’s project to solve homeless housing problems Home First II, announced that it was freezing its funds until further notice. The holiday season is hardly easier to ear when the hope of finding housing vanished indefinitely. Instead of looking forward to residing in a comfortable dwelling, the homeless must worry that they will be put on the street. Vague promises that the freeze will not last forever provide the coldest comfort possible to persons facing hypothermia conditions.
A cooked meal is not a substitute for a home. Certainly no homeless person in Washington, DC needs to go hungry on holidays. So many places serve holiday meals and so many organizations come to offer food, that a homeless person runs the risk of being compelled to join Weight Watchers. However, man does not live by bread alone. Abundant food does not take away the feeling of being abandoned, which is a common feeling among the homeless, for both those who have recently been left on the streets and those who have come to regard homelessness as a way of life. When a charitable organization distributes gifts to the homeless, the kindness is obvious, but it is also faceless; the gift of caring is not one that can be donated to strangers in attractively wrapped packages.
The homeless do not need handouts. They need hope. Hope is the one thing that nobody gives them. During the holidays, when the message of hope is so central to the season, hope is the one thing that is conspicuously absent. There is little comfort in knowing that the holidays may offer only a brief reprieve before a return to despair.
Many will say, “you are in our prayers.” They mean well. They are not the ones, however, who have forgotten the homeless. The many government agencies that claim to help the homeless but leave them homeless indefinitely offer no such prayers or even holiday greetings.
The words “Peace on earth, good will to men” ring empty to persons on the street. On the day when homelessness ceases to exist, then hopes for redemption will have some meaning.
