Homeless in Santa Barbara, Bangor and the Bible

If there is anything that makes me conflicted it is when one talks about homeless people. Bangor has a pretty significant homeless population. More than one would or should expect in a town of this size but of course Bangor is not typical of a town of this size nationwide. Across the country a town of this size is a blip, one of many in each state. In Maine Bangor is the one of the largest communities and the shopping and cultural center for a large geographic area. Services are offered here that are not offered anywhere else.

If we have a larger than average homeless population and we have a basic idea of what attracts folks down on their luck to Bangor the next question we need to ask is what do we do to help them, if you believe helping them is the right thing to do.

One fact that we cannot dismiss is that, at least for a small segment of the homeless population in Bangor, they are homeless because they choose to be. We all know the faces of at least a few middle aged and older men that we have seen on the streets of Bangor for ten or more years. Services are plentiful in Bangor and these men have made a choice to partake of the services and live their lives on the edge of society. It is assumed that they may have substance abuse issues but I do not know this. What is more important is that we do not let these few who make these choices cloud our thoughts on the many that do not choose to be homeless. If you talk to the folks who run the shelters and services for folks such as these they will tell you that families with children are a growing segment of the population. No one should begrudge any help we can offer to these people.

Which brings me to an article in Rolling Stone a week ago that featured the story of several people and families that live as homeless people in Santa Barbara, California. Santa Barbara, known for its mild climate is, if one needs to be, a good place to be homeless. It has also created a program to fill a need that no town wants to fill. So many people are homeless in Santa Barbara that the city has created a safe parking permit program that allows people living in their cars to park overnight in assigned lots that the owners of such have made available. The folks we meet in the article have for the most part been living in church parking lots and the like. We meet people who at one point were productive members of society, business owners, members of the military, full families. It is a sad tale. We, not in this position, are tempted to think that something has happened to these people that with different choices on their part could have been prevented. Surely that is possible in some cases, for the most part however these folks are simply people caught in an economy that collapsed, a job market that increasingly is casting aside former active members, and especially older workers ten or more years from retirement but too old to be hired by the younger people often interviewing.

So is there a difference between the homeless in Bangor and the homeless in Santa Barbara. For the most part yes, but not always. What Santa Barbara is doing is trying to differentiate the homeless that are victims of the economy and those that are homeless due to the typical problems that beget homelessness: mental illness and substance abuse of some kind being the primary reasons.

Bangor, for those who do not know it, is undergoing a crime wave. I have never felt anything but secure in my home, in my nice comfortable neighborhood here in Bangor. In the last months though we have had a couple of friends and acquaintances tell us their homes have been burglarized, we have seen a rash of robberies at local pharmacies and for me personally I have noticed a steady contingent of people walking aimlessly around and or through our neighborhood. I live in a street with four houses, it easy to know who is a resident. Many blame the homeless and certainly some of the crimes being committed are by homeless folks, it seems drugs are also a huge problem. Bath salts, oxy contin, prescription drugs, the abuse of these drugs seems be seeping down to affect our lives in our quiet little suburbs.


What is to be done? I have not a clue. I usually argue that locking people up for drug abuse is stupid. And yet when people commit crimes for their drug habits what is to be done. With budgets continually being cut help with addiction problems seems to be shrinking and of course one always has to know who really wants to be helped. I right here admit I do not have the answer.

I am frustrated however that for the first time I am conscious of this issue here in my town. So frustrated in fact that the other day I did something my wife has severely chastised me for. Last Sunday we witnessed another man wandering down our street, looking around, meandering at best to no apparent destination. Not a crime by any means but certainly not someone who looked like he had any apparent reason for being here. Later in the day as I was leaving my home, no one else was home, he walked by again. I stayed in the driveway and watched him. He looked at peoples houses, yards and again seemed to have no destination. He looked disheveled and out of place. I watched him look into a neighbors garage, he turned the corner, and then came back and looked again. From my experience watching television he certainly seemed up to no good. So, and you have to understand I am frustrated, frustrated that I have to even think about these things, I back out of the driveway, drive up the road a bit and pull up to the man and ask him if he is looking for something. He shuffles quickly away and says no. I state that I am just asking because I have seen him around a couple times today and wanted to make sure that he did not need something. He told me in a non polite way to do something physically impossible and walked away.

Was this smart? Hardly. Was it the right thing to do? No. Was it charitable? No description of my actions can be taken as charitable.

We have all heard the story of Jesus rebuking a person who he said saw him without food and clothing and did nothing to help him. Who saw him without shelter and did not offer him any. The person being rebuked says Jesus I did no such thing I never saw you. Jesus says " that which you do to the least amongst you, you do to me." So if we do not help people down on their luck, if we chase them out of our neighborhoods are we treating Jesus this way?

I have elderly neighbors who complain about the people you see begging on the medians and stoplights around town. They state that they would never give them anything. And yet these are some of the nicest, most generous, sincerely sweet and gracious people you have ever met. How do we become so hardened to the poor that we have these feelings?

So as one can see, I am conflicted. I have no answers. I do not want to be one of those people who does not trust people who are different and down on their luck. And yet last weekend I might have chased Jesus out of my neighborhood.