We're All in this Together

Ken Kraybill

The following is excerpted from a talk given by Ken Kraybill on the steps of the capitol in Olympia on December 21, 2006 (the longest night of the year). The talk was part of a gathering in honor of Homeless Persons' Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember those in our communities who have died while homeless.

How can we properly commemorate these members of our human family who have passed on? What tribute shall we give them?

I would like to suggest that one way to honor the dead is to bring life and hope to the living. Or, as Mother Jones put it, we must "pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living!" First, we must gather, as we are doing today, to grieve the loss of these loved ones and to reaffirm our shared humanity with all its wonder and weakness.

Second, we must continue our charitable efforts to provide direct support and care for people experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness in our midst. We do this by offering food, clothing, shelter, health care, treatment opportunities, and housing as best as we can with the resources we have. And we must do so with a spirit of hospitality, kindness and grace.

And third, we honor the dead by working for justice - the kind of justice that enacts fairness and basic rights.

Those of us who care deeply about the issue of homelessness and the people it impacts are faced with an uneasy tension between doing "charity" work and working for "justice." David Hilfiker, a physician who has worked in poverty medicine most of his life, describes this tension as such:

"Justice has to do with fairness, with what people deserve. It results from social structures that guarantee moral rights. Charity has to do with benevolence or generosity. It results from people's good will and can be withdrawn whenever they choose."

He goes on to say that charity must be viewed as a limited response. It may be a necessary response in our current situation, but it is not enough. Charitable organizations, including government-sponsored programs, provide important services and care, but are rightly seen as a "safety net" - not the solution to the concerns of poverty and homelessness.

Hilfiker asserts that "charity does little to change the wider social and political systems that sustain injustice." Instead, charity "acts out" inequality. It maintains the system of "we who are the givers and they who are the receivers." It does not address the fundamental conditions of injustice - the inevitable result of the structures of our society - that are at the root of poverty and homelessness.

In other words, when we look at the hard, cold facts of homelessness we must ask ourselves: "Why is it that…"

• Over 70% of homeless people, the poorest of the poor, have no health insurance to ensure access to health care.
• Many homeless people die from illnesses that could have been treated or prevented.
• The death rates of homeless persons are three times the rates of other Americans.
• People with housing in the U.S. can expect to live to age 78 on average. Homeless people can expect to live toaround age 50 - the average age at which Americans died 100 years ago.

I believe that a fairness-focused response to these facts would lead us to conclude that all people should have a guaranteed right to health care in this country - as is the case in every other industrialized country in the world. It's not a matter of affordability; it's a matter of whether we truly believe we're all in this together.

A fairness-focused response would restore a federal commitment to creating affordable housing for all. In 1978 the HUD budget stood at $83 billion; by 1983 it had been cut to $18 billion, a 78% decrease. Not the HUD budget corresponds to the dramatic increase of homelessness that occurred during the early 1980's. And since then, a lack of serious commitment to developing affordable housing has contributed to the ongoing problem of homelessness. It's not a matter of affordability; it's a matter of whether we truly believe we're all in this together.

Unfortunately, working for justice - for policies that are fair for all - is demanding and often unpopular. "Charity offends almost no one; at one point or another, justice offends practically everyone," says Hilfiker. Or as Dom Helder Camara, the Brazilian archbishop, once famously said: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

Nonetheless, the challenge is set before us individually and collectively - to grieve, to provide charity, and to work for justice. We're all in this together. May we honor all people, the dead and the living, by acting as if it were so!

Ken Kraybill is a mental health specialist with Public Health of Seattle-King County, with nearly 20 years experience working with people who are homeless and have multiple health, mental health, and substance use disorders.