On Thanksgiving Day, when my sons and I sit down for dinner, we will be joined by a gentleman who spent the past 12 years living the harrowing life of an unhoused person. While living on the streets, he suffered almost unimaginable violations against him, ranging from people stealing all his belongings to the fencing off of some of the places he found to sleep even though the buildings were unoccupied and he was sleeping outside them under the eaves for a little protection from the weather. He experienced sickness, time in jail for loitering and any other charge that has been derived to assist in making poverty and homelessness in particular a crime.
Decades ago, when I discovered the British had Poor Laws, I thought that was the most horrible thing anyone could ever do to people who already are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Now, here I am in Atlanta, where we have made being poor a crime. Along with that it is also dangerous.
Catherine Meeks
Recently the city of Atlanta, in its preparation for the World Cup, and continuing its campaign to clear encampments of the unhoused from near downtown, bulldozed a person. He was in a tent asleep and while some folks around tried to warn the bulldozer that someone was in the tent, the warning was unheeded, and the person was killed.
We read and hear about these assaults on the poor, but our outrage is short lived. After all, we do have to get ready for the World Cup and they are in the way. As a community, it would serve us well to reflect more deeply on the value of all human life, even the poor.
Along with this are the recent debates in some parts of our country in relationship to people losing their SNAP benefits that vividly highlighted the attitudes held by many toward the poor. Of course, some of the negative chatter around SNAP comes from the mythology that continues to plague us about the racial makeup of the recipients.
“While the lie continues to be told that it is mostly people of color who are receiving SNAP, that is not true.”
While the lie continues to be told that it is mostly people of color who are receiving SNAP, that is not true. According to USDA data from 2023, white people are the largest racial group receiving SNAP benefits, but the disaffection for people of color and poor people makes it difficult for that negative cultural narrative to shift to the truth.
In spite of the criminalization of poverty, it remains possible for each person to make a determination about their personal intention for engaging with poor people. My oldest son has demonstrated this quite well. For the past five or so years, he has been sharing small bags of food with folks he encounters while walking his dog.
While many of them simply gratefully accept the food without much interaction, sometimes he gets to know the people he encounters. Our guest for Thanksgiving is one of those people. The gentleman told me with such a deep sense of gratitude: “Your son always respected me. He looked me in my eyes when he spoke to me. He never disrespected me even though I was dirty and in bad shape most of the time. He talked to me, and he was always respectable.”
The lack of people making eye contact is one of the major points poor and unhoused people will share in most conversations. There is something very dehumanizing about not being acknowledged by another person through eye contact even though it is such a small gesture.
My son made himself a committee of one after he learned this gentleman really wanted to be housed. He began to search for how he might help him. It took more than two years, but it worked out. He has a lovely efficiency apartment that is a part of an initiative to address homelessness. He is provided support services such as psychological counseling and medical care. These wraparound services are a necessity when folks are returning to living inside after long periods outside on the streets.
This is a small effort, but small efforts add up and in this time of disruption and global instability, committees of one are more important than ever.
Catherine Meeks was given the President Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement and Service Award in August 2022; was listed by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of the 500 women to watch in Georgia in 2022; retired as the Clara Carter Acree Distinguished Professor of Socio-Cultural Studies at Mercer University; is a community and wellness activist and midwife to the soul; and the author of The Night Is Long, But Light Comes In The Morning, Meditations on Racial Healing, She previously served as founding executive director of Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing and currently serves as founder and executive director of the Turquoise and Lavender Institute for Transformation and Healing. She lives in Atlanta.