‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
Peace House Community”“A Place to Belong “Relatives are in Danger!””¦Native Community responds with speed and determination
By MARTI MALTBY After over 20 years of working with social services agencies that serve the homeless, I have seen many different responses to ending homelessness. Some have been more successful than others, while some have benefitted from having good salespeople promoting them as the next big thing. Recently, I have been encouraged by the work of the Native American community, especially with efforts around Franklin and Bloomington. In the last couple of months they have opened two overnight drop-in centers, coordinated overnight street outreach efforts, made sure the issue of homelessness doesn”™t slip to the back pages, and generally made a positive difference to the homeless and the greater community. Most of the responses to homelessness that I have seen haven”™t started at this level. When homelessness first became a national problem in the 1980s, this was how people addressed it. Churches, community associations, and similar groups saw the problem [...]
He Has His Own Mind
By MIKE HAZARD and MARTI MALTBY “As you can see, I”™m part Irish American, part African American, and part Native American,” said Vernon. I asked what nation. “My brother says Cherokee.” He thumbed through his cellphone texts looking for a picture of his Irish American great grandfather, Henry O”™Killian. He never found it. We talked. MIKE HAZARD “My father taught me to hunt,” says Vern. “We hunted to eat. Venison, bear, beaver, raccoon, and quail. We lived in southern Illinois, near the Kentucky border. I was a country boy. I”™m ready to go back.” “I was a cook in the military, a biscuit burner. Sister Rose (the founder of Peace House) hired me to cook. I cooked at Peace House for two or three months, and then I got a job as a machinist. Machinist paid more, but I liked cooking more. I cook everything. I learned a lot about cooking from ex-girlfriends. (Laugh.) Italian, Spanish, [...]
The person in there
Peace House Community ”“ A Place to Belong By MARTI MALTBY This December I got to lead the annual Homeless Memorial March, an event that honors those who died in the past year who were either homeless or formerly homeless. It was the fifth time in seven years that I led the March, an honor I received because I carry Luna, a huge “puppet” mounted on a backpack frame. Luna has become the symbol of the March and all for which it stands. When Luna rides on my shoulders, she”™s about 12 feet tall. The March ends at a church where we hold a service memorializing those who have died. As participants file in, I scramble out from under Luna while two other volunteers lean her against the wall. As you might expect, something as big as Luna is quite heavy, weighing in at maybe 70 pounds. A couple of years ago, as I emerged from Luna”™s robes, I heard someone express surprise that I had carried her during the entire March. They [...]
