What is a Home?

For several months now, the Mobile Loaves and Fishes staff have been reading and reflecting on Jim Collins’ book Good to Great.  We’ve debated about the exact nature of the MLF “flywheel” and whether we have “the right people on the bus” as well as many other Good-to-Greatisms.  But of all that Collins wrote - and Alan may disagree with me on this - I don’t know that there is any thought from Good to Great that has so effectively penetrated the Mobile Loaves and Fishes organization as the pursuit of finding “what we can be the best in the world at.”  Ultimately, this is a debate about the MLF central idea.  What are we really (really) about? 

In our internal conversations, a word that seems to describe the collective wind within the MLF sails pretty well is hospitality.  We are not merely a food and clothes provider, nor solely a relational and resource provider for our brothers and sisters living on the streets.  When we get right down to the thing that keeps us laying in bed awake at night, for many of us, our thoughts seem to always drift back to the idea of home-making: what is it and how can we foster it? 

Of course when we began, most of us already thought we knew the answer to these two simple questions.  Eight months ago, I moved into a trailer within one of the Habitat on Wheels (HOW) RV communities and didn’t think twice about telling my friends and family what that program was all about.  HOW is a housing program for chronically homeless people in Austin (what is it…solved!) whereby generous patrons supply the money for a fifth-wheel RV trailer for them to live in (How can we foster it…solved!).  Eight months, many tears and painful conversations later, I am less convinced I know what a home - or true hospitality - really is. 

What do I mean by this last line?  I mean that I have witnessed good friends of mine within the community move from being homeless, to housed, to deeply residing “at home” within our community; and then to being only housed, and ultimately homeless again.  In the few circumstances this has occurred, it has been terrible to watch.  What did their “housing” have to do with their “home”? Absolutely everything!  But not all aspects of their “home-fulness” were present when they were simply being housed.  Something additional was present at one point in these residents lives - something magical - that, for a variety of reasons was snuffed out, leaving tired individuals to once again orient their lives according to the heavily wounded and chronically underfunded resources of their homeless heart. 

The real fact is that we haven’t got it right yet, but that doesn’t mean we’re not on the right path.  With your help we’ll get one step closer each day. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas.  What is the essence of “home” and how can we help foster it for our brothers and sisters on the street and in the Habitat on Wheels program?

Comments

[Darrell]

I too ponder this subject, but have no solution. I can say I have began to gain a few insights. First, it is obvious a house is not a home, but merely shelter unless there is more. When the homeless leave the streets, they also leave their family, their community. At first, the comfort of shelter is a welcome relief from the discomfort of the streets. But it appears that after time lonliness sets in and one begins to feel isolated, alone and even outcast. For this reason, it is important for the individual to be surrounded by a community of individuals that are able to show love and caring. I have also observed that the former homeless want a means to earn and provide for themselves, but are often given fish instead of being provided the opportunity to fish for themselves. I have yet to see an effective program to facilitate communities for those looking to get off the streets and finding work for these individuals is even harder.

[Crews Giles]

Provoked by this entry, my reply, I fear would overwhelm. I do not normally blog on homelessness, although there are a few entries which are related "Girl on a Bus" and "Failure of the alter-Christus" for examples, but it is what began as my reply to this blog which I ask you to consider: http://crewsgiles.blogspot.com/2010/04/homeless-heart.html "The Homeless Heart."

Thanks to all of you who "get it."

[Steven]

Hey Crew,

Great post man. I especially liked the account of the dumspter diver in the middle. It is true that being homeless is incredibly hard, but I think it is not settled that all homeless are without communities that shape a form of "home" for them.

[Gary M]

... and Da Dillo had this to say about that subject @ http://dadillo.wordpress.com

[Cheryl Pace]

A home is where you feel you can drop your burdens, where you can rest without turning around to inspect your area before you can sit, where your environment asks nothing from you but provides a place for you to lay your head.

I think we over complicate, over think, over squeeze the question. And we don't see the answers because they are not are own.

If we can just be satisfied to not find relief in our own hearts, but to trust that some semblance of that is being found in the hearts of the homeless.

Cheryl P.

[Alan Graham]

You really hit this one on the head Cheryl! Thanks for your comments. I do believe we tend to ever think the issue. That is really what gets in the way of our doing something about this catastrophe. Thanks again! -Alan

[Diane Lehr]

I am homeless and would really love to have a trailer to live in. I am trying to e-mail Alan Graham but can't find out how just yet.