‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
Peace House Community Journal: A Special Thank You
By MARTI MALTBY From last November until mid-August, a homeless encampment occupied the vacant lots behind Peace House Community. Over the months various people came and went from the camp, bringing with them tents, bicycles, generators, and a host of other items. Many others stopped by during the day and the night, sometimes to say hi to friends or to drop off supplies, and sometimes for less socially acceptable behaviors. The camp presented various challenges for PHC. We do our best to serve homeless individuals, among others, and we want to reduce the stigma that goes with being homeless. However, we recognize that homelessness and criminal activity sometimes go together. The homeless are often the victims of the crimes, while at other times they are the ones breaking the laws. In the case of this encampment, every property on our block suffered vandalism, theft, threats, and in one case arson. Often our missing items turned up in the encampment. But many of the problems [...]
What’s in a Word?
Peace House Community Journal Over the last few years, there has been a movement to stop using the word “homeless” to describe those who don’t have permanent housing. Phrases like “those with lived experience of homelessness” or “the unstably housed” have popped up to fill the void. Those advocating for the change intend to reduce the stigma attached to homelessness by highlighting the difference between the person on the one hand and the place where they sleep on the other. Although I like reducing the stigma around homelessness, I’m ambivalent about the words we use to talk about homelessness. Reducing stigma is great, but solving the problem rather than renaming it would be better. I’d rather see more focus on providing housing than on vocabulary. But having said that, the stigma that arises from the belief that homelessness results from bad choices and irresponsibility makes it more difficult to generate support for efforts to end homelessness. As long [...]
Working Instead of Staying Busy
Peace House Community Journal By MARTI MALTBY Someone recently sent me an article that, among other things, lamented the busyness that people experience at their jobs and the amount of time and energy that this busyness wastes. The author’s goal was to get his readers to move from busyness to action, from working a job that may or may not pay the bills to finding ways to deal with weightier societal issues like the breakup of the republic, the mass extinction of many of earth’s animals, war, disease, famine … the list goes on. The author pointed out that many people discovered during the pandemic that their jobs involved far more busyness than accomplishment. From picking out appropriate work clothes to sitting in traffic to finding a parking space, workers found that they could accomplish just as much by staying home as they could by going to work. And all that time was saved before they even started working. Once they added on the time saved by avoiding [...]
