Letter to church pastors soliciting help for homeless Vera The Westchester
Watch July 15, 1997 Dear Pastor, I would like to share with you my concern for a homeless woman who has found her way to Camp Springs. I am not a social worker or a county employee. My interest in this woman is solely that of a concerned community member. I publish a newsletter (see attached) for my neighborhood and in the course of looking into the case of another homeless person, a disabled veteran, I discovered a lady not far from my home who is essentially living on the street. She does not want her situation to be publicized, so I'll refer to her only as Ms. B. Ms. B. is a Russian immigrant, 43 years old, very polite, intelligent and articulate. She is obviously well educated and she speaks English quite well. She is a permanent, legal resident of the country, but I do not believe that she is a citizen. She is not a substance abuser and is not dangerous in any way. In fact, she understands and appreciates kindness and compassion better than most people I know. Unfortunately, however, she exhibits a psychological condition that makes her a little hard to deal with. I am not a psychiatrist, so I can't precisely categorize her affliction, but to my untrained eye, this condition seems to be a relatively mild one. She is extremely intelligent, and paradoxically, this intelligence is partly to blame for her communication problems. Her English is excellent, but I suspect that many people just don't understand her, not because of her accent, but because she talks way over their heads. You see, Ms. B. studied philosophy at Moscow State University, and it seems that everything she says is expressed in a philosophical context. What worries me, however, is not her mental condition, but her economic condition. She has no financial support, and apparently no family to help her, so she must rely entirely on the generosity of friends and neighbors. She is very resourceful, sleeping in a tent that she carries in a backpack, but clearly she can't continue living outdoors like this indefinitely. I believe Ms. B.'s situation is one that merits the attention of the community. After all, most residents in this part of the county (Clinton, Camp Springs, Ft. Washington, the old Temple Hills) live in relative affluence. There should be a way for us to figure out how to help this lady. Moreover, Ms. B. is not the only person who is homeless in our area. I know of at least four other people right now in Camp Springs whose living conditions are not much better, and in some cases worse, than hers. I think you'll agree that given the wealth of our community, there should be some way to at least feed these folks, allow them to shower occasionally, and get them in out of the rain. Ms. B. is currently "camping" behind a gas station near Pyles Corner on Allentown Road She is in a public area, and it is not really a safe place to camp, but it's the best she can do right now. I have helped her a bit myself, taking her to Upper Room Fellowship Church in Clinton, wherethey donated some clothing, food, and money, and also to the Allentown Recreation Center at Padgetts Corner in Camp Springs, where she was allowed to use the shower room. The Allentown Baptist Church in Ft. Washington also donated food, and I found out that in the past she received assistance from the Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Bethesda, Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, and the Calvary Baptist Church in DC. I have been taking food to her fairly regularly, and I have given her a few dollars out of my pocket now and then. She is very grateful for these small acts of charity. Until recently I was rather ignorant about the facilities that are provided for the homeless. What I am now discovering is that at least here in the Washington area, the services that are offered are very limited. Social workers do not seek out the homeless in this county, and as far as I can tell there is no public official who is tasked with finding a place in the community for such people. I gather from talking to Ms. B. that she has stayed at a number of shelters in the Washington DC area over the past few years. I did some checking, and here in Prince George's County, there is only one county operated women's shelter, and you are only allowed to stay there for six weeks. When I spoke over the phone to the folks who answer the county's homeless hot-line, they explained that Ms. B. is well known to them, but that for some reason she was turned down at the county shelter. I believe that they have strict entrance requirements - paperwork that must be filled out - and that Ms. B. was apprehensive about it, didn't put all the information down, and was hence refused entry. But clearly six weeks of shelter isn't enough. What Ms. B. needs is a permanent home. Thus what I would like to do is locate a benefactor who would be willing to take Ms. B. in for a period of time. Say, six months or so. That person could then serve as a personal reference, and perhaps offer testimony about Ms. B.'s good character and behavior. Once she has developed a history in the community - a positive track record, so to speak - it would subsequently be easier to find a permanent place for her with a family, or perhaps with other women in a group setting, I might add that I am certain that Ms. B. would pass the character test with flying colors. I acknowledge that there are indeed people in the world who are a little bit dangerous - people you need to be careful with - but Ms. B. is not one of these. Once you have spoken to her for a while, heard her story, and interacted on a human level, this becomes obvious. Needless to say, it requires a special person to take in a homeless stranger. It has to be someone who is very understanding, who has a very big heart, and of course who has the resources to manage it. Such people are rare, but there is a lady living nearby who did in fact take Ms. B. into her home recently. A lady in Temple Hills put Ms. B. up for two months last fall. She told me that Ms. B. fit quite well into her household. She helped with the house cleaning and the yard work, and showed a great deal of courtesy. She also said that Ms. B. would be a good candidate to live in a co-op environment where she could participate with others in keeping up the living space. Unfortunately this lady has a family commitment that precludes her from taking Ms. B. back again. I have located two other potential benefactors who might be willing to offer their help. They too, however, are providing shelter to other people, and have a full house already.So what I'm thinking is this: Say I find someone who is reluctant to take Ms. B. in, but who would perhaps be willing to take in a boarder who is currently residing with one of these other people. That would free up space for one of them to provide shelter for Ms. B. It's easy to envision a hierarchy of support coming out of this scheme: primary benefactors take people in from the street or from public shelters, secondary benefactors take people who have already lived in the community for a while, and advocates work on finding the benefactors. I suppose it's possible that such a system already exists, but if so, it seems that the Camp Springs area has been overlooked. If you know of anyone in your congregation who could provide shelter in the manner that I have described - as either a "primary" or "secondary" benefactor - please ask them to contact me. If there is no one who can take Ms. B. in, then the next best thing would be to find a suitable place for her to camp. The place where she is staying right now is simply not safe. As a minimum she needs to move to a more protected location. I should mention that Ms. B. does not know I am making this appeal on her behalf. She is quite sensitive about how help is given to her. She knows she needs help, but she doesn't want to be viewed as somehow disabled or derelict. In fact she has specifically requested that I not make her situation public. Thus it's probably best to be somewhat discreet about revealing her circumstances. If you have any suggestions to offer, or know of someone who can help, please contact me by mail, phone, or FAX at the following address:
If folks can't offer a place to live, but would like to help in other ways, there are several things that are needed pretty much on an on-going basis. Items such as the following:
I can help out in coordinating this assistance. (I'm trying to organize some sort of food delivery service from my own neighborhood so that people can share their meals.) My sincere thanks for your attention. Alex Gabis |
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