As someone who writes about, thinks about, and pines over the meaning, nuance, and emotional tug of the word home, I seldom acknowledge how privileged I am to even have the space to pontificate or lament or yearn. In my personal world, I’m almost always talking about the emotional sense of the word – less the physical space and more the people that make up a sense of home. That said, in my professional world, I am well aware of how a sense of home occupies more than one position on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs… how for many, it’s about basic shelter and a place to rest one’s head.
As a college student and then recent grad, the very first charity I donated to on a regular basis was Habitat for Humanity. I thought Jimmy Carter was a good man (still do), and I believed in the basic right to shelter (along with food, water, safety, and health). Shortly after entering the nonprofit sector, I was elected/voluntold to be the secretary for my county’s coalition to end homelessness. I attended meetings on allocations and funding and best practices. I worked with a talented group of people to address a problem that is nearly impossible to address. During that time my organization helped fund a position for a former homeless person turned social worker to be the county’s lead outreach worker – he quite literally saved lives by helping people get shelter from the heat and the cold. Now, I’m less involved in systems design and discussion and instead help raise money to fund shelters and housing programs. We have a housing issue and a homelessness issue in this country. I’ve talked with people who are homeless. I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve seen how communities fight to keep low-income housing out of their neighborhoods. I’ve watched my hometown build countless expensive, age-restricted communities on what little land is left while ten or fifteen miles down the road police bust up camps behind the Walmart.
Tonight, I was thrilled to see John Oliver tackle the issue of homelessness. He gets the basics of the approaches right, he chastises the increased criminalization of being homeless, and most importantly, he holds everyone accountable.