A Mark on their Soul

Psalms 130:2-4

Out of the depths I cry to Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

Recently on a Saturday morning and while making breakfast for friends, I foolishly reached for something on the stove without looking first. The result, you guessed it ... a burn on my hand.

For the next several days that rather sizable red mark was a constant reminder of the careless action that created it. In the same way, all of us can be careless with our lives by "reaching" for something without looking first. The results can range from a slight reprimand to loss of job or family .. or even death.

Unintended consequences.

The verse above is key to understanding God's role; (psalm 130:3), “if You Lord would mark me, or keep in mind the things I have done wrong, how will I be able to stand it?” It’s a good question with a great answer supplied also by the psalmist in verse 4; “But with you, there is forgiveness.”

Every day, hundreds of men, women and families arrive at one of the ministry sites of Cherry Street Mission Ministries living out the unintended consequence of homelessness due to careless actions. They bear a kind of mark on their souls. Just like my burn, their mark is a constant reminder of things gone wrong, decisions which have gone badly and families left in disaster.

Like the Psalmist, they're crying out from the depths of their soul. The weight of incarceration, addiction, abandonment and homelessness crashes in on them every day. Can you imagine with me the joy and relief that comes on a person, when they begin to realize and accept that ‘In Him (God), there is forgiveness’, that our God has not marked them but rather desires to remove the mark of failure and addiction that's on their soul?

I hope, this is true for all of us today as we cry out to God for relief from our own failures and the weight of consequences we didn't intend - may we all find Him faithful in forgiveness.

What do you think?

Dan Rogers

Can we end poverty and poverty causing homelessness for an entire community?

WOW!

Can we end poverty and homelessness for an entire community??

As you may know, Cherry Street Mission Ministries has been ending poverty and poverty causing homelessness for individuals for 60 years. I think we've proven again and again, with staggering accuracy, that it's more than possible to end the chronic cycles of destruction in a person's life.

But that's not the question for today is it? Can we bring an end to the nightmare reality that thousands of our fellow citizens and their children are in fact without a home in Toledo and the surrounding region?

If you can only see the obvious, the answer is NO!!

HOWEVER - if you're willing to work, serve and intention yourself beyond the obvious and are willing to spend and be spent without a consideration for time, then the answer is an overwhelming YES!!

Poverty, incarceration, homelessness and addiction (just to name a few) are downstream issues, created way upstream of today's reality. When we end homelessness for a single individual, we do that in the downstream reality - they come to one of our facilities, we serve them and minister the life of Christ to them and they become restored and return to our communities.

But in order to solve the downstream realities for an entire community, we need an upstream solution. We are only experiencing the plight of poverty and homelessness as a community because there is a "factory", if you will, that's creating it.

We must also come to terms that the ultimate upstream reality begins with the parent. It's often been said that it takes a village to raise a child, meaning that it takes all of us to ensure the child's success. After several years of thinking this way as a community, I think we can say with relative certainty that not only is this line of thinking not working, it's failing miserably.

Don't you think the more accurate statement is, it takes a village to raise and support a parent and it takes a parent to raise a child? I do - the parent is the beginning of the stream and they need our overwhelming support.

At Cherry Street we always say; "Time is not a factor when the inevitable is being pursued". I guess, the biggest question we must answer is; Are we willing to take time off the table so that a better day for Toledo may emerge?

What do you think?

Dan Rogers

What does the lack of affordable housing have to do with Homelessness?

Gentrification. I'm one of those guys who love to see old areas of the city revitalize - especially abandoned areas where commerce is once again thriving and people are returning to live and raise their families. Bringing a community back to life establishes fair market housing and that attracts other people and businesses to the area, which leads to more revitalization and so on it goes.

Of course without a carefully thought out development plan, there's a down side to gentrifying an area - lack of affordable housing. The ugly side of bringing "life" back to an area, is that little or no thought is given to the life (people) already living in that area. Again without a careful plan that benefits all people, for every block that is revitalized affordable housing gets pushed out or down to the next block until it vanishes completely.

Many of the women and men, especially the men, who come to our facilities for shelter or transitional living are caught in what we refer to as the "Housing Sandwich." With more than 8,000 men and women coming from our correction facilities into Lucas County each year, many of them do not have a home to return to. Incarceration isn't the only contributor to the housing sandwich. If a person who has been without a home for an extended period of time, gets back of their feet, they to will be unable to move from our care to their own home. So for many, the sad reality is, lack of affordable housing brings them to us and lack of affordable housing keeps them with us - that's how the lack of affordable housing contributes to the homelessness of our fellow citizens.

Here's today's question; "What happens when we merge a ready labor force (homeless men and women), with all the abandoned houses in our city (between 400-500 conservatively) and education in the building trades (plumbing, electrical construction)?

The return of affordable housing! Simple, yet complex - what do you think?

Dan Rogers

What's the number one cause of homelessness?

Let's get the familiar and obvious answers out of the way:

1. Alcoholism?
2. Illegal or prescription drug use?
3. Incarceration?
4. Pornography?
5. Gambling?
6. Economics?
7. Lack of affordable housing?
8. Illiteracy?

If you said yes to any of the above, you've certainly identified a number of contributors to homelessness. In fact the number one contributor of homelessness among men in the United States is alcoholism and the number one contributor of homelessness among women in the U.S. is crack cocain. Incarceration - huge! We have more than 8,000 men and women coming into Lucas County every year from our corrections centers. Gambling? No one wants to talk much about the down sides of something so fun and"innocent" as gambling. Economics? Ohio still hasn't seen the economic recovery of most states, so our state and region wide economic woes definetly contribute to homelessness. What about pornography? This is the number one contributor to sex crimes and the making of sexual predators - I know, shocking isn't it?

But what about the number one cause of homelessness? Ready? It's the lack of knowledge!! That's right, the Bible says people perish because of it. The reason why the ministries of Cherry Street have been widely successful is because we know that the obvious (the list above) is simply the product of something else.

You can prove this by thinking about all the times you've failed, or made a bad choice or decision. You can track the wrong done to the lack of knowledge; either you didn't know, or you did know and chose to ignore it anyway. Either way, it was the lack of knowledge applied that brought about the negative outcome. How have you corrected these bad decisions moving forward? You've made sure you've got knowledge working for you.

When we introduce knowledge into the lives of the men and women we serve, their lives begin to change - from the inside out. Of course, the knowledge that we unashamedly apply is that of God through Christ Jesus.

Dan Rogers

Faces of Poverty

There are just over 11 million people living in Ohio. Of the 11 million, 147,000 of our fellow Ohioans experience homelessness each year. Think about this for a moment; over 13% of our state population each year is homeless - without a home.
Here are a few questions for us to consider over the next few weeks;

1. What is the number one cause of a person or persons becoming homeless?
2. What contribution to homelessness does lack of affordable housing cause?
3. If we can end homelessness for a single individual or family, can we end it for an entire community?

Dan Rogers

Ohio Homelessness Statistics

The statistics of homelessness can be such a daunting realization, particularly when you realize the following stats are from our own great state of Ohio. As you read through the following statistics, keep in mind that there are real people behind each number.

In the next few weeks, we’ll explore both solutions and preventative measures to homelessness and discuss the root causes of men, women and families who have become or are without a home.

I’ll look forward to your comments and observations as we dialogue through critical issues of our community, as well as learn from one another.

Homelessness in Ohio

147,000 Ohioans are homeless annually.

Women comprise 57% of homeless adults in rural Ohio and more than one-third in urban areas.

The median age of homeless people in urban areas is 33; in rural areas it is 29.

As many as 30,000 veterans experience homelessness annually. 35,000 children are homeless annually; two-thirds are school age.

Homelessness in rural Ohio has increased by 300% between 1985 and 1990.

20% of homeless Ohioans report drinking often, while 30% suffer from mental illness. These groups significantly overlap.

Young families no longer able to close the gap between housing cost and total household income.

Individuals currently employed full- or part-time but with too little income to afford housing.

Women unable to work due to child care responsibilities or limited skills to meet the demands of a changing labor market.

Men unable to work due to disability, limited skills and education with minimal social support.

Disabled persons without the social networks and supports to live independently in the community.

Patterns of Rural Homelessness in Ohio

Average length of time homeless was 49 days (79.7% six months or less).

Nearly one-half were living temporarily with family of friends.

39.2% were living in shelters or missions.

14.6% were living in cars, abandoned building and other unsheltered conditions

Over one-half (52.4%) were residents of the county more than one year, 48.6% of the non- residents had moved from another Ohio county.

Economic factors were identified by 45.1% as the most important reasons for their homelessness; family problems were cited by 30.4% of respondents.

Almost one-third (3 1.2%) had worked for pay in the prior month; 43.2% of those working, were working full-time.

Major sources of income were earnings: 26.2%; welfare: 26.1%; disability (SSI or pension): 9.2%; and family and friends: 3.5%.

Homeless families (26.8% of he interviews) included an average of 2 children per family; and 67.9% of the families were single parent households (99% headed by women).

Major changes in the characteristics of rural homeless persons are a greater proportion women, younger, better educated, and less likely to have history of psychiatric hospitalization.