Destiny Got Her Forever Home

Today happens to be my birthday. This is the best possible birthday present Destiny could ever get for me.

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DESTINY GOT INTO HER FOREVER HOME!

And it is awesome.
She has a brand new refrigerator, stove and carpet.
It’s a beautiful open floor plan with 2 bedrooms.
This is incredible news because she is due to have her son in November.
Destiny lost her mom several years ago. It threw her life into a tailspin. She’s been homeless for about 3 years.
But she is homeless no more.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this happy.
What is important about all of this is: she could not have gotten into her apartment had it not been for you.
Something I’ve learned working with people here at The Homeless Charity is that any debts you owe a utility company must be completely paid off if you ever want to have utilities again.
I once worked with a person who had a $3000 debt with the gas company. She will never be able to get gas turned on in her name again simply because it is highly unlikely she’ll ever be able to pay off that debt.
Destiny owed $218 to the electric company.
The ONLY way she was able to move into this apartment was because we paid her past electric bill. We also paid her $25 deposit.
All that money comes from you.
We get no government money or anything like that. We are entirely funded by private donors like you.
Destiny is our first resident to get housed in our required push to house the current 43 people living in tents in our tent community.
We’ve housed many people since we’ve started.
But if we don’t house these 43 people they are going to be forced to leave their community and be pushed back onto the street.
So… 1 down and 42 to go.
If you’d like to help donate to this critical time in the history of The Homeless Charity please CLICK HERE.
Because we are entirely privately funded by people like you we are able to act faster and pay for things other agencies simply are not legally able to pay for.
For example, most agencies funded by the government are not able to pay for down payments. If the person can’t come up with the deposit they will miss out on getting housed and be moved to the bottom of the list. They have to start the entire process over again.
All money donated to the homeless charity go to the homeless. No money pays for staff or salaries.
If you are interested, I’ve put some more pictures of Destiny and her apartment in the member’s only site. You can click here to see them. Membership costs as little as $1/month.

The Future of Homelessness in America

The work we are doing with the homeless has a two pronged approach.
The first prong is working with the homeless where they are today.
Even though the city is forcing us to close our tent village we have a 4 part strategy moving forward:

  • Extending the hours of our drop-in center.
  • Buying houses to get people in-doors ASAP.
  • Get a shuttle to transport people to appointments and our drop-in center.
  • Working with remote tent communities to make them safer and more stable.

Our day-to-day operations are all about moving as quickly as possible in that direction.
But we have another prong in our approach that is a much longer game. We are looking very seriously at all the thousands of homeless that will be coming to America tomorrow, next week, next month and next year.
We have not solved a single thing, so far, for the homeless that aren’t currently on our “official list” of people in our village.
My personal view is that we live in an economy where the wealthy just continue to get insanely rich while they pay their employees non-livable wages.
If you aren’t making $15.09 an hour at a full-time job in Akron you are not being paid a wage you can actually live on. You can’t afford your rent, your utilities, your food bill, your phone bill, your clothing bill.
You are barely scraping by.
Amazon employees on food stamps – Business Insider

In 2017 nearly one in three Amazon employees in Arizona was on food stamps, or lived with someone who was

If you want to call me a left-wing wack-job liberal because I think it’s wrong we are subsidizing a $1 trillion company’s profits by paying for 1/3 of all their employees’ food, go right ahead.
But this is America.
And when people can’t afford to pay their own way then they can’t afford to help their son or brother or daughter or sister or mom or dad when they lose everything. And so homelessness increases.
People end up alone on the street.
It’s simple cause and effect. “I can’t help you because I can barely help myself.”
This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. Both parties are guilty. But look at the 2019 budget our current administration is proposing:

I don’t think you have to be a great economist to see that housing and labor are all taking a hit. These numbers rip through local communities in ways stats like that graph never can fully explain.
I’m not here to judge federal economics. I’m just the guy on the ground trying to prepare for the cleanup.
Do you think those numbers are going to increase or decrease homelessness? My guess is that homelessness is going to increase.
And keep in mind, I’m working with people begging us for a tent in our backyard in a good economy. There is supposedly plenty of jobs and all the rich people are making crazy money.
What happens when the next recession comes? Do you think there are going to be more homeless or less homeless? My guess is that homelessness is going to increase.
Every path I see for the future is more homelessness. More people living in tents. I simply see no evidence where super-low income housing springs up from coast to coast, homeless people with no identification and no money are scooped up and put into spiffy new apartments.
That’s a fantasy world that has no conceivable foundation in reality.
So we are preparing for the fall-out of a nation-wide federal economic disaster. It’s already here. But we are planning for it to get worse.
Over 500,000 people slept on the streets of America last night. They had nowhere to go. They had no services to support them. They were scared, cold and alone.
Do you think they would have been grateful for a safe place to sleep? Do you think they would have been grateful for a blanket and dry shelter?
Do you think they would have been thankful for a tent on someone’s private property that was inspired to help them?
The answer I hear every single day is that they are incredibly grateful.
Do not believe the hype that we have resources for those people. That’s a gaslighting lie to make you feel better and divert attention from the reality that American streets are not paved with gold and, in fact, we are home to hundreds of thousands of people living on less than $1 day. We live in the richest country the world has ever seen and yet we have poverty on third-world country levels.
Homelessness is hard. If it was an easy problem we would have solved it already. But it just keeps coming. Wave after wave after wave of homeless dads, moms, kids, grandparents and veterans falling through all the government and family safety nets and landing on the streets of America.
Today I am moving on from tents because I am being forced by zombie laws that have no room to actually look outside and see the reality on the ground. People are going to be sleeping in the dirt in your city tonight. That’s not right.
Did we not ever read the story of the Good Samaritan? Or do we just think that’s a cute story to tell our kids?
The Good Samaritan is needed more than ever in America right now.
We need to be able to feed, clothe and shelter the poorest among us if we so choose.
There is no imaginable form of justice, humanity or civility where it is acceptable to be forced to leave these people shunned on the street alone because it is illegal to help them.
If you’ve got a better idea than tents that is as cheap, instant and effective I’m all ears.
Otherwise, my position is that private citizens with private money on private land should be able to help the most in need in the United States of America.
The image for this article came from here: War On The Homeless: Cities All Over America Are Passing Laws Making It Illegal To Feed And Shelter Those In Need | CSGlobe – It’s another good story about the illegality of helping the homeless in America.
 
 

An Amazing Meeting With Akron's Continuum of Care

I just got back from this REALLY good meeting with Akron’s Continuum of Care.
If you aren’t aware, these are the people and organizations that are tasked with helping the homeless in Akron and Summit County.
This meeting was entirely about helping our residents in our village get into housing.
The city of Akron has put a two month deadline to house all 44 of our people. And they put the entire responsibility of that task on The Continuum of Care.
These are organizations that are already running very thin. They have huge jobs working with the homeless of Akron.
And now they have this 2 month deadline of getting all these people into housing.
But what was great was they were really energized by the task. They were all thinking about ways they could help.
One person has a box truck we can use. Another person has storage space.
They all brainstormed together on how best to accomplish this task.
It was really cool to see.
We, as humans, have a tendency to want to look for villains. To look at who is in our tribe and who is not in our tribe.
I would like to caution against that tendency as we move forward.
There are no villains. There is no us and them.
We are ALL in this together.
If we are going to solve homelessness we are going to need every person, resource and organization working together to do it.
Homelessness is an incredibly challenging issue. There have always been homeless people.
But society has never done a great job, in my opinion, of thinking of creative ways on how to bring these people back into the fold.
I feel like we are at a time in our human evolution where we might be ready to work on this truly fundamental human issue.
One of the greatest parts of the meeting with the Continuum of Care was how concerned they were for these people’s psychological welfare both during and after these people get housed.
There was also sincere concern about all the other people that aren’t on this list of people we are currently focusing on.
It was truly beautiful.
They talked about making a systematic spreadsheet where the group could see what a particular person needed and then we could address it as a group.

  • Who is going to help a person move into their apartment?
  • Where are we going to get furniture?
  • How are we going to follow up with these people after they are housed?

These questions, and many others, are the complicated aspects of working with people that were once homeless and now are not.
People not involved in the day to day operations of the homeless community might just see this as a house issue.
“We need to get these people into houses.”
I mentioned that to a case worker the other day and she looked at me puzzled. “You can’t just throw these people into houses and consider it case closed,” she said to me.
“You have to find the right house for that particular person,” she said.
The Continuum of Care is made up of people that truly care about this population. They know how to deal with these people in ways they need to be dealt with.
They have a lot of rules and regulations they are required to adhere to by law. So that can be a challenge for them. Government restrictions make working outside the box sometimes challenging.
During the meeting they were talking about 22 people they need to meet with that they have never met with before. They asked me if I could get those people to show up to a meeting. I said “sure.”
They asked me how I was going to do it. I just casually said I’d pay the people to show up at the meeting.
They laughed at me.
They aren’t legally allowed to do that kind of thing.
But on the other hand, they have many resources that I don’t have. They have case workers and therapists and actual housing.
We need each other.
An outsider, like me, can be confusing and strange to an insider. But my hope is that I am not seen as an enemy to them.
I hope they can see me as a person who is aligned exactly with them. I just am coming at the problem from a different direction,.
We don’t need to be negative to anyone along the way.
The best thing we can do is be positive and encouraging and helpful to anyone that needs help.
What if this process of quickly housing all our people helps build out new systems that enable the Continuum of Care to house more people faster down the road?
What if we all learn things through this process that makes us all better able to serve these people?
The Continuum of Care truly cares. I absolutely believe that.
I am so thankful they are working with me and our charity to help house these people.
And I’m really hopeful that we can work together in the future to house all the other homeless people that are currently still on the street and will be on the street in the future.
This is a rare and unique time in the history of America. We are doing things to help the homeless in ways that have never been done before.
 

The Biggest Thing We Need Right Now: Friends

“You know not what you’ve done.”
That lack of interest or concern for how the homeless might deal with the imminent closing of our tent community is difficult for me.
Imagine dangling off a cliff as the last stone holding you up slowly but surely disintegrates before your feet.
Imagine an hour glass slowly but surely seeping sand that will spell your certain doom.
A deadline of Thanksgiving hanging over the head of these people makes even me, a person with a home, edgy. My pulse quickens. My breath shortens. My muscles tighten.
These are real human beings. These are not dogs with no awareness. No human consciousness. No human understanding. These are real human beings.
And now the city is taking away the last thing that they found safety in.
There is a “memorandum of understanding” which is a document that has no legal binding. It’s just a pinky-promise that “will ensure that a housing option is offered to all current residents of the Encampment within 60 days.”
It’s hard not to get jaded as we yell into the wind for help and no one shows up.
Is that “memorandum of understanding” a word game that they will be able to turn on us come Thanksgiving day? Or is it just a non-binding statement that is also not well stated? Since we are making statements that have no legal meaning, it would be more comforting to have a statement like: “will ensure that housing will be provided regardless of income, criminal record or lack of identification.”
But it doesn’t matter. This is the house we live in today. A house built on a foundation being dug out from under us. We are now entirely at their whim. If our master says they will be nice to us we will respond with a resounding, “Yes sir! Thank you sir!”
I am 100% all in on getting these people into housing. I have a meeting with the Land Bank (the place that has hundreds of abandoned houses in Akron) and the Continuum of Care (the place that has millions of dollars to fix homelessness) on Friday and the coming Monday.
Perhaps if the city would not tear down all 300 houses this year, as they do every year, and only tear down 290 we could instantly get all these people into houses.
There is an important lesson I learned in business: You can either be right or you can fix the problem.
Play by the rules of the game you have been forced to play. Don’t grumble about how the rules aren’t fair. Just play the game.
Our charity has a four part plan moving forward:

  • We likely will open our day center 24 hours / 7 days a week by Thanksgiving
  • We are laser focused on acquiring as many houses as possible.
  • We are going to need to acquire a shuttle to transport homeless people to appointments and their inevitable tent communities that will be scattered all over the city.
  • We will become a type of Red Cross for illegal tent cities. We will be the triage / M.A.S.H. units for these people that are now forced to live illegally in the shadows as American refugees.

So we have a plan that I’m actually very excited about. It’s going to be harder and likely not as efficient as our first plan. But things being harder has never bothered me.
All that said: we need something very important from you:
We need friends. We need people to just come and hang out with us. We need people to come and just be with these people.
Counselors, ministers and priests would be wonderful.
But anyone that is willing to just be an open ear would be great.
They don’t need lectured. They don’t need pressed about anything like what they are going to do next.
They just maybe could use a friendly person.
And, if the mood strikes, maybe you could help as these people hopefully move into housing down the road. (Certainly no one has considered the logistics of transporting people and possessions into houses. These people live on less than $1 a day. They can’t afford a bus ticket.)
You should know that tensions are high right now. There is more yelling. There is more storming around. I have moved my main desk to the center of the day center. I will be physically present as much as I possibly can.
I haven’t seen any physical violence. And all of our structures of our security team and tri-council still exist.
This could be a tough time for some of these people. I’ve heard talks of suicide where before no one has ever talked about that with me.
If you are willing to come spend some time just sitting around that would be great. Make some friends. You might find it very satisfying. I know that it is the greatest work I have ever done in my life.
Maybe no one will talk to you. But maybe they will.
You are welcome to host a Bible study, a movie, a book reading. I don’t really care. You can host a box of donuts, for all I care. And you certainly don’t need to feel like you need to bring anything other than yourself.
Oh! And we have one more request: Please bring ground coffee. Tony says we’re out.
United we stand, divided we fall.

We need your support now more than ever…

The end of Tent City is NO WAY the end of The Homeless Charity 501(c)(3). We are just getting started in our mission to help the homeless of Akron and our nation.
Our steady income from donors like you and grants keep The Homeless Charity in solid financial condition. All our current grants and submitted grant requests support our day center, which will remain open. We continue to be a volunteer run organization.
Here’s where donations, new and old, will be focused moving forward.
The Day Center
Ideally, we will begin running the day center 24 hours a day. There will undoubtedly still be many unhoused and unsheltered in our community after our tent city comes down near Thanksgiving.
Our day center provides (and will continue to provide):

  • Three meals a day
  • Outdoor Porta Potties
  • Outdoor Hand washing station
  • 7 Day a Week Food Bank
  • Free Laundry facilities
  • Showers & bathrooms
  • Free Internet, Computers and Charging Stations for phones
  • Drug rehab classes and meetings
  • A makers school
  • Storage for belongings

Purchasing and Rehabbing Housing
The city council’s no vote doesn’t change our commitment to our residents or to working with the city to find permanent solutions to homelessness. While the COC has pinky promised to “offer housing options” to every member of our 45 person community, we are not 100% optimistic this promise will be met.
We also have 21 people currently on our waiting list and many more folks out in the woods who are not yet ready to meet our tent city requirements. This issue of tents and unsheltered homeless in our city will not go away in 60 days. Not even close. So, we’re acquiring property to house people indoors, but that will take time.
We will be:

  • Working closely with the land bank to acquire non-condemned houses taken from owners who abandoned them due to back taxes.
  • Working closely with donors to acquire donated property
  • Working with previous, generous companies that have donated time and resources for rehab including SA Communale, Thomson Electric, and HFH Restore.
  • Continuing to apply for occupancy permits and filing for contingencies to house people at 15 Broad street (on the first floor) and other suitable properties.
  • Requesting Capital grants to further this effort.

Robust Outreach
Those left on the street and in the woods in tents will need us now more than ever. We will need to provide blankets, coats, hats, gloves, socks, hygiene items, sleeping bags, heaters, food delivery, transportation to our day center, transportation to doctors and housing appointments and SO MUCH MORE.
We will be:

  • Using donations to acquire a shuttle or other vehicles (to convoy on outreach missions) and the insurance and gasoline costs.
  • Assembling outreach team volunteers to regularly provide outreach to known camps and individuals in need.
  • Collecting material donations for our outreach team.
  • Working with other local nonprofits to support them in doing this work (like the Snow Angels as one example)

 

Win Win

When you you decide one day to become an activist you have many mentors you can look to for direction.

  • Jesus
  • Gandhi
  • Martin Luther King Jr.
  • John Brown
  • Malcolm X

Those were the top figures I researched as I started this journey helping the homeless.
While Jesus is the oldest of these mentors, I’ve come to realize that he asks the most of all of them.
He is just straight up pure, unadulterated love. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Love your self.
Jesus speaks directly to our better selves.
All the other activists start speaking to our lesser selves.
Gandhi and MLK do it the most elegantly with non-violent civil disobedience. But make no mistake, it is uncomfortable and tension-filled.
John Brown and Malcolm X are straight up much more militant.
I chose very intentionally to go the route of Jesus activism. My belief was that after all the horrors we have inflicted on minorities in our country we would be ready to just do the right thing.
Make no mistake, there are those in power that are ready for that kind of pure love change.  And there are others that are almost ready for that. But their pragmatism says that caring for those most in need immediately just isn’t practical.
But I would say that most (more than half) aren’t in those camps at all. They want nothing to do with helping the homeless. They don’t care to think about it and they would rather just get back to building expensive buildings.
As of today, I don’t believe most of the leaders in America are ready to be directed by their better selves.
They are fearful, angry and self-absorbed.
I don’t know if I will ever see a day where American leaders will actually be guided by the teachings of Jesus.
But I do know one thing: Most American citizens are ready, willing and able to be guided by their better selves.
American citizens are caring, loving, giving, great people. Working with American citizens is a new frontier everyday where they overwhelm and surprise me with their greatness.
Truly, we need more democracy in America. If America was actually run by the people, as it is supposed to be, and not by the rich, we would be a much better country.
So, today I am thinking more about MLK than I am Jesus. My strategic path is beginning to turn in a slightly different direction. I am preparing for the worst.
But know this: I am 100% focused on expecting the best.
The leaders of Akron can do the right thing. We have a path out of this where we ALL win.
Right now, leaders come to me and tell me that I need to buy this house and acquire this property and modify that building.
I get it. They don’t have any money.
But that’s wildly different than the story they have been telling all along that houses are available for EVERYONE that needs them. That is a complete and total lie. There are wait lists for every form of housing and shelter in the city.
I am moving towards houses. I am pushing as fast as I possibly can down that path. But my resources only go so far. I’ve already borrowed $20,000 in my personal finances for the housing path. I am not a millionaire. I can only do so much.
If anyone is listening: HELP US GET DOWN THE HOUSING PATH. Think creatively. Think about all the houses that continue to be torn down as we have a filled tent village with 21 people on our waiting list.
If you are a person in authority stop just staring at us and judging us. Ask yourself: What is a path we can pursue? What is something we can do that we all can agree on?
I want to find a path where the only activism we ever needed to use with the activism of Jesus. Love should be enough. We just have to fight together to make it a reality.
 
 

We Live To See Another Day

On Monday night City Council decided to delay voting on our conditional use permit for our tent city.
In poker there is a saying: a chip and a chair.
It’s the idea that as long as you have a place at the table and you have at least one chip you are still in the game.
There was a packed room at the City Council Chambers. And, as always, the stories were so incredibly beautiful.
Ohio.com wrote about it here: National law firm joins local man’s effort to keep homeless camp open in Akron
And WAKR invited me to talk about the meeting. You can hear that interview here: Sage Lewis: We Need New Solutions to Help the Homeless by WAKR/NewsTalkSports
Channel 3 news covered it here: Future of Akron’s ‘Tent City’ debated at council meeting | wkyc.com
Every chance we get to keep doing our work, we have to fight like hell to stay alive and find a path forward so we can keep doing our work.
We already have a house. We have a donor who has given us money to buy another house. We need to get houses to get people indoors. That’s our phase 2. Getting people into houses.
Houses are incredibly affordable right now. And they meet all requirements by the city and county and fire department of “human habitation.”
We just need to buy more time to generate the money and resources to buy up these houses.
I also believe we need to reach out to individual city council members to have a dialogue with them. These council meetings are not great places for talking together. They are just places where we all talk AT each other.
So for me, that’s where I’m headed now. Houses and talking WITH council members.
If you have an interest in talking with your council member I would LOVE that. You can find their contact information here: Council Members
As always, we would be nowhere without you. The fact remains: the voice of the people is powerful in America. You are incredible supporters. I am so honored and humbled by your never ending support of the homeless.
Thank you.

Tonight! Save Akron's Tent City

Please come support our homeless community for this historic moment in Akron’s history:
The Final City Council Hearing For The Fate Of Our Tent City
Monday, September 10, 2018 at 7pm
Akron Municipal Building
166 S High St, Akron, Ohio 44308
This is the most incredible journey I’ve ever experienced.
I came to this homeless work as a person who had all the stereotypes so many of us had.
I believed the homeless were all drug-addicted, lazy people that were too intellectually slow to dig themselves out of the hole they fell into.
As you know, every one of those stereotypes are wrong. College graduates are homeless. People who have never touched a single drug are homeless. Veterans are homeless. Pregnant moms are homeless. The homeless aren’t a cyst on the foot of society.
The homeless are us!
The homeless are our brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, moms and dads. And sometimes they literally become us.
Separating us from them is just a convenient way to try to make us feel better that we won’t someday need to live in a tent while we get back on our feet.
That someday we won’t need to turn to a stranger and ask for a meal and a blanket. (I see medical tragedies every week that crush family finances. We do not live in a country with as many safety nets as we’d like to think.)
But those aren’t the stereotypes that have made the most profound impact on my life.
It’s the stereotypes I carried around of YOU!
We all see the news. Random murders. Countless drug overdoses. The rich getting richer.
Based on what we read and see on TV we are living in a desolate, uncaring desert of hate and anger.
It’s you that have restored my faith in humanity.
I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that humanity is inherently good. I don’t need to read Rousseau or any other philosopher to understand this.
I see it in the food you bring, the clothes you bring, the money you bring. The sheer outpouring of love and support you bring.
Humanity is good.
In fact, not only have I come to understand that humanity is good, I now know that it is US, the people, that are the true leaders of America. The actual leaders plod reluctantly behind the bold paths we carve out for them.
The “leaders” of America don’t want things to change. That risks money and their very own livelihood.
Leadership IS change. Leadership requires doing the hard thing. Leadership requires taking a stand about something no one else has dared take a stand on before.
The only people I see doing that kind of work is YOU. The everyday, common American. You are the people showing the leaders what actual leadership looks like.
I can’t thank you enough for not only how you have rallied around the homeless. But for how inspired you have made me in humanity.
Thank you!
With that, I would love for you to come to our final presentation to the city tonight. Here are the details:
Monday, September 10, 2018 at 7pm
Akron Municipal Building
166 S High St, Akron, Ohio 44308
We got a resounding NO from the city’s planning department.
We got a resounding NO from the city’s planning commission.
And, quite frankly, I would be shocked to get anything different from our City Council.
But that’s not important.
As of this moment 371 of you have filled out THIS FORM to express your support for our tent city. These responses were individually emailed to all of City Council.
We have a team of attorneys flying in right now from DC and Austin Texas to make their presence known for the first time.
We have a bus coming to transport our residents to city hall for tonight’s hearing.
Caterers have been paid for by supporters to give our residents and supporters a meal before the hearing. (You are welcome to come to this if you’d like. The bus leaves 15 Broad Street at 6.)
America is converging on Akron to say: LET THE PEOPLE CARE FOR THE HOMELESS.
We cannot focus on the negative of what might be. We must keep our spirits and minds on what CAN be. We must be the physical manifestation of our better selves.
We cannot allow ourselves to get mired in pessimism and negativity. We must walk in belief and hope and love.
As we lead by example the actual leaders will, sooner or later, have no choice but to file in behind us and do the right thing.
Don’t be afraid of any outcome tonight. In fact, there may not even be a vote tonight.
This is not done. This is not over. No matter what leaders decide today we will continue to be the moral leaders and stewards for the homeless tomorrow and the day after.
We will not quit until the powers that be wake up and understand that there are Akron citizens living stranded on the streets of our city and all we ask is to allow the people to care for the least among us.
See you tonight!
 

I'm So In Love With You

I’m finding it hard to get any work done simply for the fact that I can’t stop reading the beautiful messages you are writing to Akron City Council.
I asked you to take time out of your already incredibly busy life to write a message to city council with this form:

Fill out my online form.

(Incidentally, that form works and you are welcome to continue to send messages to City Council.)
One of my advisers cautioned me about this strategy. “If only 10 people fill out this form it is going to look like people don’t care about Akron’s homeless.”
As of this morning 237 248 256 of you have sent a message to Akron City Council.
And this isn’t one of those canned responses. Each of you spent time talking to them from your heart.
Messages like:
“The homeless need help too. People helping people is the meaning of life.”
“Akron’s homeless deserve dignity and respect and self-determination. Save Tent City!”
“These people need help, we have taken supplies and food to Tent City numerous times. We need to come together to solve and make this workable for all.”
Your messages were kind, compassionate and heart felt.
Your messages were coming right out of 1 Corinthians:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

As I look around at the “leaders” in America I see such little leadership.
Business leaders care about nothing other than making more money as their workers can’t afford housing.
Religious leaders are often most concerned about protecting the shrinking pie of congregations who aren’t finding the moral compass a church promised to give them.
Government officials… well, all government officials seem to care about is the next election cycle.
But you. The quiet, unassuming, everyday people of America. It turns out you are the leaders all our so-called leaders should be looking to for guidance and direction.
You aren’t yelling at city council. You aren’t bad-mouthing city council. All you are doing is trying to connect in some way with city council in hopes that they will wake up and see the situation of this tent city for what it is: Private people, on private land, with private money coming together to help those in need.
Aren’t those the words every true leader has been telling us since we were children?
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
“If you want a friend, be a friend.”
“Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”
Then when we enact those words we all have been taught, leaders come rushing in and tell us to stop.
And it’s not just these heartfelt messages you are sending.
It’s the meals you bring.
It’s the clothes you bring.
It’s the supplies you bring.
It’s the money you bring.
It’s the time you bring.
It’s the compassion you bring.
It’s the love you bring into our building and share with people who have lost everything.
It is YOU who inspire me.
While you often thank me for what I do, it is YOU that drives me to continue this important work. You take such time and effort and endless resources to help these people… often when you have little yourself.
This is a noble cause. This is a cause that we the people see so clearly as something that needs addressed.
We stand on the right side of history as our leaders navel gaze, wring their hands and shake their head on the wrong side of history.
But this is something I know: time and time again, leaders eventually come around to the will and moral judgement of the people they should be serving.
When you look at the trajectory of society over time, even if we have fits and starts, we seem to always drag our leaders begrudgingly on a slow and steady upward-angled moral line.
We are the leaders. We have always been the leaders. We become the hand of God that seeks justice, morality and compassion.
You are my great inspiration. I will be forever indebted to you for all you have done and continue to do for the homeless of America.
I love you,
Sage
 
 

We Need You September 10, 2018 at 7pm

Whether the City of Akron realizes it or not, they are standing at a great crossroads in the history of our city.
With one yes or no vote they will be deciding the fate of the poorest, most in need people within our city. And with that vote they will be making a profound moral statement on how they feel about these homeless Americans.
Do they care that American citizens are living like third world refugees on the streets of Akron?
City Council will begin the process of deciding the fate of our privately run tent community September 10, at 7pm in the Council Chambers at 166 South High Street in Akron, Ohio.
If ever there was a moment where we needed you to physically support our cause this is that moment.
If at all possible, PLEASE mark your calendars to meet us September 10, 2018 at 166 High Street in Akron, Ohio at 7pm in the Council Chambers.
People are homeless for many reasons.

  • Parents die and leave them stranded alone with no money or support.
  • Medical conditions force them from being able to work.
  • Mental health issues make navigating the systems of America brutally difficult.
  • Intellectual disabilities make traditional work impossible and bureaucratic systems endless complicated mazes.

We are not asking the city for money.
We are not asking the city to raise taxes to pay for these people.
We are not asking the city to lift a single finger to do anything to help these people.
All we are asking is to allow us the right to care for these people on private land with private money.
If you have seen our facility you know that the meager tents these people live in are completely invisible from the street.
You know that we have bought the only house that is behind our facility. We are now using that as transitional housing to help these people begin the process of moving into permanent housing.
You know that we have a self-governed system that includes zero tolerance for drug and alcohol use.
You know that we have laundry, a shower, computers, wifi, food and clothing.
You know that we offer AA meetings, church services and many other learning programs.
You know that we are now integrating learning pods to teach marketable skills such as screen printing, air brushing, music, electric and many others.
These people are not a figment of our imagination.
These people are not useless trash to be thrown away.
These people are not deserving of our city’s scorn, dismissal and hatred.
They are legal American citizens that have done nothing wrong other than run out of money and family support.
Who have we become if we can’t even allow private citizens the right to care for these people?
What is America if it becomes illegal to walk in the way Jesus taught us to walk?
Why do we feel the need to punish those that have nothing and have done nothing wrong?
We must stand up for the right to allow private citizens to be what America asked us to be: The land of the free and the home of the brave.
We must stand up for the right to allow private citizens to be what God and Jesus asked us to be: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
We must stand up for the right to allow private citizens to call out a government which oversteps its bounds and creates laws which do not exist simply because it doesn’t like the idea of helping the poor.
But most importantly we must get our government on the right side of history.
Caring for the homeless of America immediately and in a way that is safe and able to be accomplished economically is an inevitable truth.
There is not any perceivable scenario where it is acceptable morally, logically and spiritually to allow people to fester and rot alone on our streets, under our bridges and in our ditches in the richest country the world has ever seen.
We are living in a Bizarro alternate universe where our government has brainwashed itself into thinking that this is somehow OK. That these people somehow have put themselves in a brutal, terrible existence that does not deserve our attention.
Our government officials must wake up.
We must do everything in our power to get our government on the right side of history this September 10, 2018. If they work with us now this moment will go down in history as a win win for everyone.
The city will be seen by future historians as forward thinkers and innovators dealing with a problem that has been brewing since the 1980s.
For their own sake in the history of Akron we must do everything in our power to convince City Council to vote yes on allowing our tent community to exist.
Because if they don’t vote yes, this bus will turn into a much more complicated, messy and elongated process. The outcome will be the same. We are on the side of justice. We are on the side of morality. We are on the side of God Himself.
Our right to care for the homeless is as certain as the sun rising in East every morning. It will happen.
But by voting no they will take a stand on the wrong side of history. They will be drawing a line that will create a great moral divide.
This will not end. This will not go away. This will get messy.
This will be the 21st century equivalent to the Montgomery bus boycotts of the mid 1950s.
They will realize that all of America is a bus. And if we are citizens and if we have broken no laws then we all have the right to have a seat on the bus.
Please come to this historic hearing on September 10, 2018 at 7pm in the Council Chambers at 166 South High Street in Akron, Ohio.
I would suggest getting there earlier. I’m planning on being there about 6pm.
We will also be renting a bus and having a meal before the event at our facility at 15 Broad Street in Akron. You are very welcome to come to our facility for that gathering anytime after 4pm.
If you have never been part of a gathering like this before I know it can feel awkward and strange. But being part of something important like this will be a moment in your life you will likely always remember.
Just showing up for something you believe in makes all the difference in a country like America.
Please, please, please come support us on Monday, September 10, 2018 at 7pm in the Council Chambers at 166 South High Street in Akron, Ohio.
 

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