Twenty years ago I was a homeless young adult living on the street in a midsized, mid-western city. In the 1980s there were no shelters for homeless youth and few for adults. (Still there are not enough beds or services, but sadly shelters are now an accepted institution of housing as a last resort). I had recently relocated to that city for a job and knew no one. The triggering event to my homelessness was an illegal "lockout" eviction, but the systemic, family, and personal causes were far more complex. Though I'd been working two jobs while trying to complete college, and I'd always paid my rent on time, I often couldn't pay the utilities too. The electricity had been turned off before I became homeless. The Minimum Wage wasn't a "living" wage even then. The apartment where I'd lived was a total slum with broken windows and a broken furnace. Tenant protection laws were non-existent and there was not enough decent affordable housing available. I didn't have family to call for help because my father's chronic mental illness and dangerous abuse had fractured my small exhausted family. Throughout my childhood both the child welfare and the public school systems had failed me when my cries for help fell on deaf ears. I was homeless twice in high school but I saw myself as "just staying with friends for a while". Before I found myself on the street, I don't recall ever even seeing a homeless person. My biggest personal mistake had been to try to finish college with my class the year before. I should have dropped out when the college refused to re-figure my financial aid package and continued to expect my father to pay one-third of my educational bills. Instead, I over-optimistically attempted to pay all the expenses myself, I didn't make it, and I exhausted all my personal and financial resources in the process. I was left with starting my independent adulthood with almost nothing. Ultimately, I was homeless on and off for nearly 5 years. I survived by joining a community of 9 other homeless youth. I eventually completed college while living in an abandoned house and I worked my way out of homelessness. I was, however, the only survivor of my peer group. All 9 of the other youth were dead by 1992: of AIDS, suicide, overdose, and a hate crime murder. Since this defining moment in my life, my spiritual journey has been to make my survival worthy. I feel called to a ministry for housing as a human right. At midlife I earned a graduate degree and now I work with homeless youth at a non-profit by providing direct services and as a community organizer. I hope to meet others who are called to a ministry of social justice activism, others who have survived homelessness, and human rights workers. We're all in this together. Speak truth to power!

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  The Inner Wisdom of Space - October 9, 2008 at 1:00 AM

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