‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
It Might Be a Start
PEACE HOUSING COMMUNITY: A PLACE TO BELONG By MARTI MALTBY I recently received a survey regarding racism in the Hennepin County homeless shelter system. The results of the survey will become the basis for a workgroup that will look for ways to eliminate racism from the shelters. Because of my work schedule I can”™t attend the workgroup meetings, so I don”™t know what outcomes to expect. I sincerely wish the workgroup success, because they”™ve undertaken a big project. Their task intersects with systemic dynamics, volunteer training, racism within the homeless community, mental illness, and a host of other issues. Homeless individuals and families face enough challenges already. Experiencing racism in the middle of the system that is supposed to help them almost defies description in how insulting it is. Because I received the results of the survey a week or two later, I have seen the variety of views that the workgroup will have [...]
The Never-Ending Tragedy
Peace House Community - A Place to Belong By MARTI MALTBY I”™m writing this on February 5, during the first really cold spell we have had this winter. Yesterday was not a shining moment in my career of serving the homeless. One of our community members who has serious physical handicaps mentioned in passing that he needed to get his tent and belongings from another part of town because his life was in danger. I commute to work by bike so I wasn”™t able to help him, but his comment about being in danger didn”™t register with me and I didn”™t look for other resources for him. When I arrived at work this morning a garbage hauler was standing over a collapsed tent in the vacant lot behind the Peace House Community building. As I rode past I recognized the wheelchair sitting next to the tent and realized that the community member was probably in the tent. Worse, because the temperature had dropped below zero during the night, I knew there [...]
A Golden Age, or Fool’s Gold?
Peace House Community: A Place to Belong By MARTI MALTBY I try to find positive things to talk about in this space, but I also want to make sure the voices of the homeless and others who come to Peace House Community are heard. Those two goals sometimes conflict, as homelessness and hopelessness often go together, especially in Minnesota in February. The optimist in me sees how much resilience and creativity people have shown in the face of the covid pandemic. I admire and appreciate how these folks have found ways to carry on and even to thrive in adversity. I find hope in people”™s refusal to give up, and I am reminded of Saint Augustine”™s comment, “This awful catastrophe is not the end but the beginning. History does not end so. It is the way its chapters open.” (I have no idea which particular catastrophe Augustine had in mind, but neither it nor any of the catastrophes since have ended history.) But when I read [...]
