Sign In Forgot Password

Housing: Lo BaShamayim Hee

10/04/2022 02:47:44 PM

Oct4

    Boker Tov, and Tzom Kal. I hope you are having a soul-refreshing morning and a meaningful fast. This morning, as we engage in our personal and communal teshuvah, our Torah portion comes from parts of chapters 29 and 30 from Deuteronomy, reminding us of the essential equalizer that is the Torah. I love the words of this parasha: 

It is not in heaven that you should say, “Who will go up for us and bring it down to us, that we may do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say, “Who will cross for us and bring it over, that we may do it?” No, it is very near to you, in your mouth and heart, and you can do it.

The “it” of course being Torah itself, or the covenant between the Israelites and God. Moses specificies that this sacred relationship belongs to everyone in the community, and they are all holy members of the covenant, from the noble priests and scribes to the lowly woodchoppers and water-carriers, and everyone in between, and all the generations to follow. 

    If we were to live as though we too valued every person in our community as an equal and important member of the social order, our society would look fairly different, I think. Currently, there are fewer residents experiencing houselessness in Prince William County and the DMV region than in decades. Researchers and people who work on the ground in housing justice efforts cite the eviction moratorium and various rent assistance programs we’ve seen in the last two years as the source of this improvement for so many in our population. Yet there are still nearly four times as many people experiencing houselessness as there are beds in emergency shelters in the county, and hundreds of folks sleep on the streets and in tent cities across the county, especially on the western end of the county. 

    Many of us probably have an image of who makes up these numbers. People struggling with addiction or other mental health problems, people without jobs or skills, people without hope, these are often the stereotypes of who is in need of housing. But with housing costs rising year after year, along with various other factors in cost-of-living, while wages stagnate, plenty of well-educated, mentally stable people with jobs live precariously close to the edge of poverty. I was not able to find exact numbers but anecdotal evidence proves that plenty of people experience houselessness despite doing everything “right” by our society’s standards of behavior and effort. And while our society's vision of the American dream seems to lead people into thinking they are always just one big break away from becoming a millionaire or better, the truth is that most of us are really just one missed paycheck or one great medical emergency away from becoming homeless. As for the stereotype of the homeless we are shown in the media and in our collective imagination, the truth is plenty of people turn to drugs as a coping mechanism or develop mental illness as a result of the trauma of becoming homeless. While it's true that some people become houseless because the lack of resources to help addicts and the mentally ill kept them from being able to hold down a job and keep a home, again anecdotal evidence suggests the inverse happens just as frequently - that perfectly healthy people experience houselessness due to unforeseen events and then develop these problems as a direct result. 

    Part of the difficulty in determining exact numbers of the population experiencing homelessness and their specific situations is that without an address it’s hard to participate in the census. Single-night counts are done semi-regularly by advocacy organizations. By their estimates, only about .2% of the US population experiences houselessness, but that still means more than half a million people in one of the wealthiest countries in the world don’t have homes. Of those half-million, about 65% are sheltered (in homeless shelters, couch-surfing, or safe-parking programs), while the other 35% sleep on the streets. Here in Prince William County, the percentage drops to .062, or about 327 people, just below the statewide percentage of .07%. Again, this includes the people we think of when we think of homelessness: people living in unhygienic conditions on the street, struggling with mental illness and drug addiction. And it includes those we forget about: people with secure jobs who miss a rent payment due to an unforeseen emergency expense and then before they know it late fees have added up and there’s no way to catch up, and they are evicted with no place else to go. If you think this is a distant problem, for people of a different social class than you, you are wrong. People you know, people in this congregation, have experienced homelessness, and people you know will experience homelessness in the future. 

    There are current and on-going efforts in Prince William County to expand services and resources for this issue, but they are often interrupted by NIMBY-ism. People who support the concept of homeless shelters in general cry Not In My BackYard once the concept starts to concretize. Not in our neighborhoods, but also not in our office parks, and not in our shopping centers. There is a real and valid concern for the safety of children in these neighborhoods, or whose extracurricular activities are held in these office parks and shopping centers, of those stereotypes that do exist and experience houselessness, and behave erratically due to their mental health struggles. However, when we block such efforts to help uplift our whole community, we are still endangering children and adults alike. There are families with young children that experience houselessness, and shelters rarely accomodate families together. When given a choice between keeping your family together while you sleep in your car or letting your kids be taken from you in order to utilize a shelter, which would you choose? It’s not such a clear choice. Further, if we as a society refuse to take action, the problem festers and grows and we perpetuate housing crises for generations rather than allowing equal access to all people. 

    Besides homeless shelters, affordable housing is a necessary step in housing all our neighbors and lifting up our community to the level of equality and inclusivity displayed in our morning’s Torah reading. Besides the houseless population, approximately six times that number of people in this country live with insecure housing. In Virginia in 2021, a study showed that about 30% of renters worry about their ability to pay their rent month by month, and another 20% had already missed a payment in the last year. There are different styles of affordable housing projects, but one that is relatively new to me is Workforce Housing. As I said, plenty of people with jobs we value and depend on live on the precipice of houselessness at any given time. Workforce Housing creates options for essential workers, who on average only make about 50% the area median income. I often hear a lot about “the death of the middle class,” and here’s an opportunity to support its regrowth. Teachers, first responders, nurses, utility workers, and sanitation workers at least should be able to afford decent moderately priced housing as they contribute to our society in immeasurable ways. There are currently efforts to bring more of just this sort of housing into Prince William County, and our local leaders need to hear more “Yes, please build this in our proverbial backyard,” instead of the usual NIMBY complaints. 

    I would like to hope these efforts are just the beginning of great changes that would see the eradication of houselessness throughout our entire country. But sometimes I am actually capable of reigning in my wild progressive activist dreams, keeping the horse before the cart, and focusing on the matter at hand. Not always, but sometimes. So even if all we can accomplish is to build one more homeless shelter to serve the unhoused people living in the western end of the county, and build one Workforce Housing unit, Baruch HaShem, that will still mean greater stability for hundreds of people in our community. In the meantime, in speaking with someone in our community who has experienced houselessness, a major takeaway was for everyone here to recognize how close most of us actually are to losing our housing security, and that those who aren’t are in a position of great privilege. Many of us probably see ourselves somewhere in-between. Comfortable, but not wealthy. Not at immediate risk of becoming houseless, but would still be deeply upended by a several thousand dollar emergency expense. It is likely that if confronted with the prospect of becoming houseless or realizing a loved one was houseless, as friends, family, and community members we would feel hopeless because we don’t feel we have resources enough to help. But, distancing ourselves from those in need for fear we cannot do enough is not the answer. If someone is struggling a small gesture may evoke the hope and courage they need to endure their hardships. Don’t underestimate the impact a single kindness can do to alleviate the suffering of others even when you can’t fix the situation. It is better to do something, than to do nothing at all.

    In our haftarah today, we heard Isaiah remind us that fasting for the sake of fasting is theatre. Fasting should remind us of the afflictions in our world and motivate us to fix them. The true fast the prophet and God are looking for from us is to give up a modicum of our comfort, not just this one day, but every day, so that we can make space for more people. The true fast we are asked of is to act fast to undo the shackles of injustice, let the oppressed go free, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and house the homeless. For a few weeks now we have been gathering the food and clothes to help with at least two of those. Unless you plan to drive by the mall and pick someone up from the tent city out that way and let them stay in your home for a night (something Isaiah would actually want, by the way), advocating for housing justice is the next step to help with these other exhortations. Solving the houseless crisis in our county or country wouldn’t necessarily undo all the injustices and oppressions in the world, but it would be a significant start. 

    This Yom Kippur, may we commit to a 5783 that sees every human housed, all bellies fed, and more equitable distribution of the resources this country and county have to offer. Amen and Shana Tova. 

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784