Category: Blog

I’ve been approached by an outside organization that wants to get its issue on the upcoming November election.
They want to hire homeless people (and anyone else that needs income) to collect signatures.
Let me make this qualification: According to this article  “A 501(c)(3) may work for or against ballot questions up to normal lobbying limits.” 
We are not trying to raise money for this initiative. And we aren’t paying people for this initiative. That said, if anyone with more experience than me thinks we, as a nonprofit, shouldn’t be promoting this work, please let me know: sage@thehomelesscharity.org
But get this!!! This group is paying $2 PER VALIDATED SIGNATURE!!
This is a great way for anyone who is interested to make some quick and easy cash.
I’m thrilled they came to us to offer this work to the homeless of Akron.
We need over 4000 signatures. So, there is plenty of work for anyone that wants it. They actually probably are going to need over 6000 signatures because it is very common for signatures to not validate.
If you know of a homeless person, a low income person, or really anyone that wants to make some quick cash have them come down to 15 Broad Street in Akron and get instructions, signature petitions and voter registration cards. Just come down the right side of the building and ask for them. Someone there will help you get them.
ANYONE CAN DO THIS WORK. You have to be over 18, though.
People doing the work don’t have to live in Akron. But the people signing the petitions must live in Akron.
 

I’ve been asked by some on our team for me to paint a picture of who we will become in the future.
This is probably one of my all time favorite activities. I am nothing if not a visionary and dreamer.
I can “blue sky” things all day long.
That said, in this case, I have intentionally taken a very “lead-from-behind” strategy with this organization.
I’m certainly not afraid of leading from the front. But I’m also not too insecure to let others take the operation in particular directions.
My biggest claim to fame in this entire day center and tent city journey is that I was the guy that didn’t say “No.”
I have found that that one word clogs things up more than all the “yeses” you could ever give out.

• Don’t sit in the front of the bus.
• Don’t pray to who you want to pray to.
• Don’t speak in that dialect.
• Don’t read the Bible that way.
• Don’t start a band.
• Don’t become an artist.

I can make an endless list of “No” statements we have all heard countless times.
But how often do you hear the opposite:

• Sit anywhere you want on that bus, we will support you in that civil right.
• Pray to any God you see fit, I love that you have an open mind and open heart to God, or Gods.
• Speak in any “slang” you enjoy, I respect your culture and upbringing.
• Read the Bible any way you’d like. It is a book meant to inspire you in many different ways.
• Dedicate your life to your band. I wish I had done that when I was your age.
• I love your art. Make it your life. The world needs more creativity and inspiration from people like you.

We live in a dualistic world. This or that. Yes or no. Us or them.
We have a very difficult time living in contradiction and unknowing.
So, when a few homeless people put a few tents in my back yard in January 2017 I didn’t know it even happened.
One day I walked out into our backyard and there they were. There were the tents.
I didn’t go rushing up to them and tell them they were doing amazing work. I didn’t see a great vision where these people were becoming activists taking a stand for the right to live in America.
I didn’t do anything great. I didn’t even smile, that I recall.
All I did was go back inside. I don’t think I ever talked to any of them about any of it. I just didn’t say no.
It wasn’t until several months later that I began to take an active role in the evolution of this place.
Very intentionally, this place became homeless run.
My role, as far as the community is concerned, is to only step in if it’s a safety issue or a legal issue.
Sometimes I overstep my bounds on that. But I try to be very diligent in that aspect of things.
These are people that repeatedly tell me that they are treated like children. They desperately want to be treated like the adults they are.
Being an adult comes with a lot of responsibility.
We have no curfews. Couples can be together. And we allow pets.
However, with those rights also come the consequences of adulthood.
People get removed from our facility on a fairly regular basis because they can’t abide by our code of conduct.
Even though they hate that, they very often will return and speak highly of our facility. That’s simply because, I believe, we treat them with dignity and respect.
I also believe they respect that it’s their peers making these judgement calls, not people driving fancy cars wearing Dockers and open collared button down shirts.
That’s a long prelude to “What’s the Blueprint for the Future of The Homeless Charity?”
But I think it’s important for you to understand the background so you can understand the future.
You should also know that we see ourselves as a triage facility.
We talk about the people we deal with as American-born refugees brought about by economic tragedies.
We are trying to stop the bleeding.
Tents in a secure, organized facility is worlds better than a tent out in the woods or on the streets. Living on the streets is extremely dangerous and terrifying.
“Sleeping with one eye open,” is a common saying among people who sleep on the street.
We see ourselves as a very legitimate part of the Housing First initiative.
You can’t possibly work on mental health, physical health and addiction issues if you are merely trying to stay alive and trying to keep your things from being stolen.
This is the entire premise of the Housing First theory.
A tent at our facility is significantly better, and different, than a tent out on the streets.
But the city and other homeless service providers don’t see it that way. A tent is a tent is a tent.
If I could snap my fingers I would create a replica of Community First Village in Austin Texas.
Here’s a picture of one of their streets:

This is their mission statement:

Community First! Village is a 27-acre master planned community that provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for the disabled, chronically homeless in Central Texas. A development of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, this transformative residential program exists to love and serve our neighbors who have been living on the streets, while also empowering the surrounding community into a lifestyle of service with the homeless.

They, like us, are focusing on the people living on the streets.
But the reality is, refugees are put in tents all the time.
Here is a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan:

And this in Texas:
The Navy Is Planning Tent Cities for Undocumented Immigrants

Here’s a picture of our tent city:

We don’t have United Nations money like the Syrians do in Jordan. And we don’t have Navy money like the illegal immigrants do in Texas.
But we are getting by.
We buy $50 Coleman tents from Amazon and put a tarp over them to keep the rain out.
We do what we can do with the resources we have.
There are over 500,000 homeless people living in shelters and on the streets of America any given night.
I see them not as “the other”, not as “the homeless”. I see them for what they truly are: American citizens that are refugees in their own country.
It is what it is.
A refugee is: “a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.”
This is a natural disaster of economic conditions. If your house is destroyed by a hurricane or a tornado or an earthquake you will be instantly taken care of.
But if you are thrown out of your house because drug dealers own it and come in the middle of the night with baseball bats and guns you are now not a refugee, you are “homeless.”
And being “homeless” doesn’t get you anything.
If your house burns down in the middle of the night, Red Cross is right there to offer you gift cards and supplies, in the middle of the night, to get you immediately to a hotel.
If you lose your house because you get paid $8.15/hour at McDonald’s and your rent is $750/month plus utilities you are now not a refugee because of an economic disaster. You are now homeless with an eviction on your record.
While they are still walking around America, America has nothing for them. They have been pushed out of all the rights and support that America provides for all its other citizens.
If they are lucky, there is a shelter in their city. They must leave their pets behind. Spouses must separate. All their possessions have to be abandoned. That’s the answer for the homeless.
People become homeless all the time because of some very clear and well documented reasons.
According to the most recent annual survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, major cities across the country report that top causes of homelessness among families were:
(1) lack of affordable housing
(2) unemployment
(3) poverty,
(4) low wages, in that order.
It’s not because people are lazy, drug addicts. It’s because of economic disasters.
Yet we label them as homeless and then we see them as “the other.” “Those people.”
We disdain the others. We separate from them.
People will publicly admit that they don’t like to see poverty. It makes them feel uncomfortable.
This is my interest. Working with refugees created by economic disasters. 
We are starting in Akron. But I see this as a national tragedy.
We should be triaging these people as refugees and not judging them as homeless.
Do I want people in houses? Hell yeah I do.
Would I like a place as amazing as Community First Village? Hell yeah I would.
But until we take care of the people we’ve left to rot on our streets of the richest country the world has ever seen, I’ll do whatever it takes to shelter and feed and cloth these people.
So that’s my vision.
I want to dig down into the darkest, dirtiest places in America (and maybe someday the world) and find people in desperate need and help them. I don’t care what kind of structure we put them in. And quite frankly either do they. They just want fundamental, extremely basic shelter and food.
These people are living in such deplorable and inhumane environments that they literally would likely be happy with a dog kennel, if they could lay down in it. In fact, we had a woman whose dream it was to build a dog kennel with a roof for herself. That’s the realty of America today. I don’t care how it makes you feel. All I care about is getting these people off the streets.
This is why it is so important for this entire operation to be homeless run.
The homeless know what they need even if it might be unsightly for the housed community.
We can’t allow people to be discriminated against because other people don’t want to look at them. We learned that fundamental truth in the Civil Rights Movement.
Yes. Get these people better places to live than tents. But that’s not really my personal interest. I want to find more people that need shelter in a safe environment.
It is very likely that The Homeless Charity works in housing. We’ve already bought our first house. It could be that we work on tiny houses and better structures. But I see that as phase 2 of working with the homeless. Get them off the field and into something with better services. A field medic in war gets a person stabilized and then they take them to a proper hospital. The hospital is phase 2. That might be something like transitional housing.
But you can’t ever get a wounded soldier alive to a hospital unless they are first treated by a field medic.
We can be that process of triage and hospital for the homeless.
But as far as I’m concerned, I want to be the guy in the dirt and muck finding the worst case scenarios of homelessness. That’s where I feel most alive.
 
 

When you become mayor of a city, you become mayor of the ENTIRE city. Not just the mayor of the rich people. Not just the mayor of the trendy people.
Black, white, rich or poor. You are in charge of all the people of your city. But that’s not the way city officials in Cincinnati AND their entire surrounding county, Hamilton County, see it.
They are on the warpath for homeless people.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said in this article “We’ve had enough of it. They need to go to shelters and they need to obey the rules of the shelters.”
Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman made a ruling that reads, “In order to prevent the nuisance from spreading to other areas of Hamilton County, Ohio this court is amending the initial order and amended order to include the entire geographic area of Hamilton County.”
This entire directive is coming straight from the top of Cincinnati. From this article:

Mayor John Cranley called camping on public sidewalks “unacceptable” and “illegal” in a statement Friday, and said Deters would file actions in federal and state court.
“This presents a clear and present health and safety hazard to homeless individuals and the general public,” Cranley said. “The city is working hard to end this.”

Let’s break this down a bit. “They need to go to shelters and they need to obey the rules of the shelters.”
From here:

Area shelters have filled their permanent beds but continue to accept individuals who can sleep on spare mattresses, said Kevin Finn, president of Cincinnati-based Strategies to End Homelessness. No one has been turned away.

So as long as we can physically stuff humans inside a building then the shelter system is completely fine. There is not a mention of human rights or civil rights. As a poor person the unspoken law is that you lose ALL your rights.
GO TO THE SHELTERS AND OBEY THE RULES.
That’s not sheltering. That’s imprisoning.
When you have one option and every other option is illegal you are putting people in homeless prisons.
Here are some of the reviews of a major shelter in Cincinnati, Shelterhouse:
Shelterhouse
411 Gest St, Cincinnati, OH

“This is absolutely the worse place ever it has bedbugs everywhere in there.”

This is not a shelter, it’s a warehouse where men who have found themselves homeless are exploited for government grant money and packed in like a boxcar bound for Bukenwald.
The staff treat grown men like children… Scratch that… Not children, dogs. If a child were found living in conditions like this, the parents would be arrested and the children would be removed from their care.

If your choices come down to Shelter House or a tent by the river… Take the tent option.
It’s safer, cleaner, and less damaging to your mental and physical health.

Because it’s filled with alcoholics and drug addicts and if you go there trying to get straight and sober it’s a bad place for you is relapse waiting to happen

********************
Reviews like these are the norm for shelters all across America. They are places that strip people of dignity and self respect. They strip you of your very humanity. As the reviewer above said, he felt like a dog.
And they are filled with drugs and alcohol. Shelters gave up long ago on policing that activity.
The Hamilton County Justice Center (their jail) gets similar reviews:

“Horrible place to be. Wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy”

“This place is filthy! I’ve never ever seen such dirtiness & I’ve been in several detention centers. Along with rude staff.”

We can pretend that homeless shelters are this universal catch all for every single homeless person of America. But that’s childish, unrealistic thinking.
This article lists some of the many reasons people won’t go to shelters:

• No Pets Allowed
• Denied Entry Due to Mental Illness
• Discrimination Against LGBTQ People
• Fear of Contracting Parasites like Lice, Scabies, Pubic Lice, or Bedbugs
• Hours of Operation Incompatible with Work Hours
• Danger of Rape or Assault
• Fear of Contracting Disease
• An Invasive and Disrespectful Check-In Process
• Lack of Handicapped Accommodations
• Drug Use is Rampant
• Separation of Family Members
• Service Dogs are Barred from Entry
• Danger of Theft
• Religious Differences
• Lack of Privacy and Fear of Crowds

The officials of Cincinnati and Hamilton County are saying, “None of those reasons are valid. Go to the shelter or get arrested.”
We must be very truthful in what is happening in Cincinnati. There is no interest in understanding the homeless citizens of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Therefore they have taken an entire group of people and stereotyped them and have begun rounding them up.
One size fits all is not civilization. That’s bigotry. And it is a dangerous, slippery slope.
“We don’t care what you want.”
“What we want is for you to disappear.”
And that’s not an overstatement. That’s LITERALLY what they said,

Cities across the country are zeroing in on homeless camps, said Megan Hustings, president of the National Coalition for the Homeless. On Friday, local officials ordered about 20 people to leave an encampment in northern Massachusetts, citing health and safety concerns. Hustings said many people don’t like being confronted with visible poverty.

People don’t want to see poverty.
If you don’t want to see something that means you want it to go away. You want it to disappear. Our refined senses make seeing poverty an uncomfortable experience.
The reviewer of Shelterhouse gets right to the point:  “[We are] …packed in like a boxcar bound for Bukenwald.” It is written very clearly in these articles above that they have run out of beds and are now packing people in every available piece of floor space.
This is what we do with people we don’t like. We put them in concentration camps.
Jews, Poles and other Slavs, the mentally ill and physically-disabled from birth defects, religious and political prisoners, Roma and Sinti, Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses (then called Bible Students), criminals, homosexuals, and prisoners of war all went to Buchenwald concentration camp.
While we aren’t targeting Jews, Poles and Slavs, we certainly are targeting African Americans:
Homelessness Has A Black Face | HuffPost

The face of homelessness has a majority Black face. In Los Angeles, African Americans account for 9% of the general population, but over 39 percent of the homeless population.

And most certainly a high percentage of homeless people are mentally ill and physically disabled. They are also felons and homosexuals.
We might not be killing these people. But we are certainly rounding them up and putting them in camps that we now have rebranded as “shelters.”
Will humanity ever stop rounding up people they don’t like and putting them in camps? I see no end in sight of this practice.
This is the American homeless policy.
Round up the homeless and force them into shelters. That’s the big plan we’ve all come up with.
We must stop this practice for the good of the very foundational structure of our American society.
Homeless people aren’t homeless in a vacuum. They have significant mental health issues. They have significant physical health issues. They have significant addiction issues. And they have become untethered from civilization. Their families have either all died or have disowned them.
We treat them like dogs and then they become feral. We are creating wild humans. No one cares about them. Everyone wants them to disappear. And so, of course, they don’t want to acclimate back into society. Society has given up on them. And so they have given up on society.
We have to look at the individual. Each homeless person has a story. Each homeless person has a very valid, legitimate reason why they are homeless. We must understand these stories. We must analyze these stories. And ultimately we have to care about these people. We, as a society, have to take an interest in these people if we are ever to have any hope of getting them back in society.
And this is where you come in. Where we ALL come in.
We all must have an interest in these people. Because when we take an interest in these people our politicians will take an interest in these people. We can then begin the process of inviting them back into our communities and make them feel like they are a wanted part of society.
Otherwise, we might as well just admit defeat and truly start imprisoning these homeless people. The situation will never get better otherwise.
Sage
P.S.
If I did my job, you hopefully see the inhumane injustice Cincinnati and Hamilton County are inflicting upon their homeless population. But it’s still worlds better than Akron.

“Homeless camp settles in after a week of moves, this time on private property”

Cincinnati Police spokesman Steve Saunders said the creation of a homeless camp on private property, rather than public property, changes the way authorities will deal with the situation. Unless they receive complaints about criminal activity or health and building code violations, Saunders said, police would likely keep hands off a camp that’s been permitted by a private property owner.

So even though all of Hamilton County is out to arrest every single homeless person and supporter that camps on public land, they are more than happy to let these people live in peace on private land.
We should be so lucky in Akron. I fully expect Akron to shut down our camp on MY PRIVATE LAND any day now.
S.
 
 

We need to talk more about the vision and future of The Homeless Charity.
I’m learning that this is not just an Akron issue or an American issue. Tent cities are fighting for their existence all over the world.
We need easy, low barrier sheltering and housing solutions for the homeless of the world.
Quick and easy and cheap emergency shelters are needed to protect our homeless people.
But once we triage that there is still a lot of work to do.
The traditional system of housing the homeless is complicated and backlogged.
Different cities will need to deal with this in different ways.
In Akron, Ohio we have the luxury of old, abandoned houses.
Look at the prices of some of these houses you can get from our land bank:

In Akron I believe one of the quickest and easiest things we can do to help the homeless population is to start housing them in these very affordable houses.
To that end, I’m incredibly excited to announce that we now have purchased our very first home:

This is the home directly behind our property.
If you remember, this was the home that had a lawsuit with us. We were both able to come to an agreeable settlement with this house.
Settling this lawsuit was a huge milestone for us.
We now own 3 of the 5 parcels of land in our block:

I’m in talks with the owner of the 5th piece of land. And the 4th piece of land is basically abandoned so we should be able to get that from the city.
We are making a collective plot of land that could be an amazing space for helping serve the homeless of Akron.
So this is an incredibly exciting time in our evolution.
With this, we are starting our first Brick Campaign for The Homeless Charity.
We are building a new brick walkway in front of our house and we would like YOU to be part of it.
To help us with this process we want to offer you the opportunity to be part of this monumental time in the history of the homeless of Akron.
Please consider purchasing an engraved brick to go in our walkway.

$100 – 4×8 Brick for our walkway.
A 4×8 brick can have four lines of text with 20 characters on each line. (Any symbol is considered one space, like a period or comma or dash.) All text will be centered and in all capital letters. We’ll follow up with you for your engraving so you can give it some thought. 🙂

You can engrave anything on these items that you would like.

• A biblical verse
• An inspirational quote
• Your family name

Whatever you’d like.
We will follow up with you on your engraving through email. I can help you come up with something to say, if you’d like. But there is no hurry on that. We’ll get to that in a bit.
Please consider becoming part of our history. Support us with our Brick Campaign for The Homeless Charity.
 

I thought I’d see if American Tent City creators would like to meet in a Facebook group to talk strategy and issues. If you manage or have created a tent city in America please come join this group: Operation: American Tent City. 
*********
I have had the privilege of getting to meet, online, some of the other creators of tent cities in America.
I hope this message reaches any of you out there doing this important work.
Whether your tent city is secret, put up with or sanctioned I want you to know you are doing incredibly important work.
I know you know that to be true. But the pressures from city officials, your Continuum of Care, city residents and even the people you are helping can be intense.
You are being attacked from all sides.
But you must know: you are doing the right thing. I want this message to be a reminder that you are on the right path. You are doing the work no one else is willing to do.
You are helping those most in need. You are organizing those who have been cast aside. You are dealing with the great American tragedy of our time. All the while everyone else looks the other way and pretends there is nothing to see. There is no need to be addressed.
Every great prophet and revolutionary since the beginning of time has been vilified, and in earlier times, tortured and sentenced to death.
This is because you are making a difference.
You are causing ripples in the placid lake of the status quo.
Listen to none of them.
Your tent city is needed. Your work is great. You are walking the path of the greats in history such as Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi.
I felt compelled to write this today because of a discussion I had this weekend with another tent city creator. She asked: Do people you’ve tried to help in the past come back and attack you?
I laughed out loud when I read that message.
I had just been losing sleep over this very thing the night before.
There was a rumor going around our camp that I was now forcing people to roll cigarettes with Bible paper.
I am an idealist with a literature background. I have a thing against burning books.
But this is just the most recent of many accusations those we have tried to help have cast on me. I have been accused of being a drug dealer, a pimp, a money launderer… to name just a few.
These are the most painful accusations.
I have no interest in being thanked for this work. But I sometimes selfishly wish I would not be attacked by those that I’ve tried to help.
But my wife reminded me of the important Biblical story of Judas.
I can see so clearly how that all went down.
People, undoubtedly, came to Jesus saying: “Jesus! Look what Judas is doing!”
I know what Jesus was feeling.
I know he met it with an understanding calm. I know he was saying “let it come.”
It’s just like when Obi Wan lets Darth Vader kill him.

via Gfycat
This is how the story is supposed to go.
Try never to allow resentment to creep into your soul.
Forgive everyone. And forgive them over and over and over again.
Those that attack you come from a place of fear and resentment brought on by years of pain and suffering.
And those in authority that attack you come from a place of power that they don’t want to lose.
Change agents always put those in charge in a vulnerable position.
Forgive them too. They are protecting the only thing they know.
You are the leader of an underground movement that will one day become mainstream.
You can see it already happening in some states.
I am inspired to write this today because for the first time in 2 years I have come to realize that tents will be a permanent part of the American landscape for some time to come.
There are those whom a house is too confining. There are those whom a shelter is too dangerous. There are those that are so filled with anxiety and depression and extreme cases of anger issues and impulse control issues that a tent is all we can do for them now.
But they deserve love. They deserve protection. They deserve help.
Don’t quit.
If they close down one of your tent cities open another one. Understand your laws. Try to change your laws. Work in the gray areas of your laws.
Tell the stories of those you are helping.
The rest of America needs to see and hear these people. Because just as you know, they are American citizens that are just regular people. As you know, leaving them on the street is not motivating, it is not safe and it certainly doesn’t help get these people back into mainstream society. It just makes them more outside the system. It makes them vulnerable, angry and violent.
You see the complete irrational and immoral and cruel outcomes of society abandoning these people on the street. Even though those in charge and those who should be caring for homeless people don’t see it now, someday they will.
The more we can humanize “the homeless” the more we will win the hearts and minds of American citizens.
I believe we are in a decades long evolution where there are not enough services in America for the poorest of the poor.
If government doesn’t want to take responsibility for these people then we the people must do so.
You are doing the work all the great people you admire and follow through history want you to do.
Be strong. Be resilient. Be forgiving. Find peace.
I love you. You are doing the right thing.
Sage
*******
I thought I’d see if American Tent City creators would like to meet in a Facebook group to talk strategy and issues. If you manage or have created a tent city in America please come join this group: Operation: American Tent City. 

Today is August 3, 2018.
According to this article in the Akron Beacon Journal, Housing the homeless a challenge as authorities move to shutter tent city:

The Continuum [of Care] had set a deadline of Aug. 1 to move Lewis’ roughly 40 tenants into something sturdier and more secure than a tent.

I thought it was going to be like Henry Cavill loading his arms in the new Mission Impossible movie:

via GIPHY
Continuum of Care people were going to flood into our building and would be practically throwing people into houses.
YOU get a house! YOU get a house! YOU get a house.
But it’s more like crickets

via GIPHY
No one has called. No one has stopped by. It’s pretty much exactly how it has always been.
I’m learning that some people in authority just say words to suit the given situation.
They tell people there is too much need when they want to build another building. They tell people there is housing for everyone when they are referring to our tent city.
But actions speak louder than words.
The truth is that the system is broken, homelessness is increasing, shelters are more like prisons and the entire system is nearly impossible to navigate.
If you Google the phrase: Akron Continuum of Care, you go to a page on the Akron City Web site that looks like this:

The Continuum of Care is supposed to be the group of organizations in Akron that take care of the homeless.
This page irritates me because a city councilman has come to me twice this week and asked me what the hell is going on with this page.
The council person got a tip that a pregnant mom, dad and two kids were about to become homeless.
He had just been to a meeting where the Continuum of Care met with all the council people.
So he thought he’d call the Continuum of Care to see what advice they could give.
He called that number above AND GOT THE FREAKING WATER DEPARTMENT!
He first called me in disbelief. He just kept saying, “How would it feel if I was about to become homeless? I call the people that are supposed to help me and I get the water department.”
People email me, call me and come to me crying (literally tears running down their faces). They are so scared. They don’t know what to do. They don’t know where to turn. They and their entire family are about to be out on the street.
Imagine being in that situation, calling what you think is the Continuum of Care, and getting the water department. It’s like a grotesque and carnivalesque scene from a novel by Kafka.
I’m worried because what I fear is going to happen is that come September, City Council is going to vote that we have to close our tent city.
Then the city planners will call the Continuum of Care to ask them if it’s ok to close our  tent city. The Continuum of Care hates our tent city because it makes them look bad because they don’t actually have the Akron homeless situation under control.
The Continuum of Care will say, “No worries. Close that terrible, rotten place down. We’ll get all those people housed.”
And the city, wanting this whole thing behind them will gladly send the cops to shut us down.
And then all these people will be on the street… just in time for winter.
That’s what I’m worried about.
But unlike politicians and bureaucrats, we aren’t just sitting around talking.
We are moving into the Second Phase of our process.
WE JUST PURCHASED OUR FIRST HOUSE!
It’s the red house right behind our property.
If I could snap my fingers I’d get 10 houses and put all our people in them today.
Houses are expensive and slow to get online. That’s the beauty of a tent. Tents cost $50 and can be up in 10 minutes.
Our goal now is to continue to get more houses.
These houses will be low barrier homes.
Some people will pay. Some people will work to pay for their rent.
We won’t require anything from these folks. They will just move into the houses.
Homelessness happens fast. The system to assist the homeless needs to work as fast.
There is not a single piece of paper that is more important than helping a person or family that has become homeless.
Paperwork, if a must, can come later.
We must make getting people off the street the absolute number one priority. The street is hell on earth.
But there is a catch. There’s always a catch. 🙂
In order to make the dream a reality, we have to stay outside of the government system. Government money comes with endless requirements and obligations. It’s a slow moving machine.
We need people like you to help make this all happen.
We want you involved in many ways. We are going to need volunteers and supplies. (Drywall and drywall screws is a big thing at the moment.) We’ll talk more about that.
But we also need your financial support. To that end, we just launched our first Homeless Charity Brick Campaign.
We are going to be making a brick walkway in front of our home and we would love for you to contribute an engraved brick for the walkway.
We have 3 items you can purchase:
A 4×8 brick
An 8×8 brick
or a super awesome large bench.
We are running this campaign on Indiegogo. It’s a very cool platform that lets organizations like ours create these kinds of campaigns.
If you’ve read this far you clearly are a supporter and great advocate of ours.
Please take a moment to click over to our Brick Campaign and learn about how you can become a part of it.

Click here for our very first Homeless Charity Brick Campaign.

Take any city in America and do a search in Google for it with the words “homeless shelter.”
Like this:

• Albuquerque homeless shelter
• Detroit homeless shelter
• Dayton homeless shelter
• San Antonio homeless shelter
• Cleveland homeless shelter

Then read some of the reviews in Google about any of these shelters.
SteelBridge
525 2nd St SW, Albuquerque, NM

This Place is A Joke. I only have it 1 Star because I couldn’t leave a review without doing so. This is suppose to be a Bible Based Recovery Facility. But the treat you like your still a junkie

Detroit Rescue Mission
3535 3rd Ave, Detroit, MI

lf l could give it -0 negative stars if l could. Sometimes life happens, l wound up in there. This is where you have workers that are ex addicts and ex homeless. They get the position only to dog and disrespect men that are already down. Mr. Blakely is a snake. Watch the short guy on the door in the morning who has braids and shades on. He’s a set up artist.

St. Vincent de Paul Gateway Shelter for Women and Families
120 W Apple St, Dayton, OH

Terrible, terrible place to be!! It’s horrible!! Whatever you do, try not to go there!

San Antonio Rescue Mission
907 E Quincy St, San Antonio, TX

Walking in feals like going to prison , I would recommend the salvation army furst

The City Mission
5310 Carnegie Ave, Cleveland, OH

What a bunch of thieves,this place is awful!!

I’m not picking on any shelter in particular or any city. I just randomly thought of those cities and clicked on the first Google listing for homeless shelters in their city.
It’s like this all over America.
I seriously have never seen a Google listing for any shelter in America that doesn’t have reviews exactly like all of these reviews.
This would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact that these are the places of last resort for our weakest and poorest citizens.
You might be tempted to say: “What do they expect? Beggars can’t be choosers.”
If you are thinking that keep in mind that the only thing these people did wrong compared to the rest of the population is: They ran out of money.
They are legally living in America. If we are going to say that you can live in America as a Free citizen only if you can afford it, then lets come clean with that stance. But I don’t recall reading that as a requirement in the Constitution.
And that’s exactly what is happening. They are not legally allowed to live anywhere. Encampments routinely get destroyed. Cars used as shelters get towed. It is illegal to be homeless in America. That’s the plain and simple truth of the matter. There is no freedom in America for the homeless.
There is a high likelihood that they will force me to take down the homeless tent city we have created on my private property. It’s my property. It’s my choice. But that’s not good enough for city officials. Helping the homeless in this way is inappropriate and not good for the city.
Saying they don’t care about the homeless and the brutal existence they experience is not an overstatement. The homeless are nothing other than an annoying problem for the cities of America.
This fact hit home for me as I was reading this comprehensive study from Yale: Welcome Home: The Rise of Tent Cities in the United States
They write:

Homeless encampments often reflect the lack of adequate housing or shelter in the community. Our research indicates that in addition to the simple lack of available beds, the shelter system often does not meet the needs of homeless individuals, especially over the longer term. For example, inability to accommodate couples; requiring families to separate; safety concerns; restrictions on storing belongings; and opening and closing times that conflict with work schedules can deter individuals and families from shelters. In some instances, tent cities can offer individuals and families autonomy, community, security, and privacy in places where shelters have not been able to create such environments.

This is an intensive 155 page analysis. Here are their primary recommendations for working with tent encampments:

• Affirm and implement the human right to housing by increasing the availability of
  affordable, safe, high-quality housing.
• Work constructively with tent city encampments to support viable temporary solutions.
• Repeal or stop enforcing counterproductive municipal ordinances and state laws that
  criminalize homelessness; pass Homeless Bills of Rights in accordance with human
  rights standards.
• Prioritize the autonomy and dignity of homeless individuals in the provision of shelter
  and placement in affordable housing.
• Adopt the Housing First model wherever possible.
• Support innovative entrepreneurial education and employment programs for persons
  experiencing homelessness.
• Recognize and provide treatment for the psychological causes of homelessness,
  including the “trauma histories” that often result in diagnosable mental illnesses.

They conclude:

…municipalities should work together with tent city residents in a manner that prioritizes the autonomy and dignity of homeless individuals and allows them to have a voice in the process. Rather than viewing tent cities as a threat to public safety, communities should view self-organization by homeless persons as an opportunity to provide services and to address the root causes of homelessness and guarantee the human rights of all their residents.

I sometimes compare the Midwest to middle management. We are useful, good people. But daring, innovative ideas don’t typically come from here. We’re more of the keeper of the way things are.
If we don’t want to be called the “flyover states” we need to change that mentality. We need to push the boundaries. We need to innovate and take risks. That means fixing things that need to be fixed instead of waiting for California and New York to say it’s OK for us to do it.
Incidentally, California not only says it’s ok to have tent cities they are actively putting more and more people in tents.
San Diego unveils unorthodox homelessness solution: big tents | US news | The Guardian

Christine Wade sits among her children in front of their donated tent in the city-sanctioned encampment on a parking lot in San Diego. They are, from left, Shawnni, 12, Roland, 4, Rayahna, 3, Jaymason, 2, Brooklyn, 8, and Shaccoya, 14. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
That picture is from this article: Rising homeless population in San Diego flocks to tents – Las Vegas Review-Journal
Just as the reviews of shelters are strikingly similar, so are the findings of tent encampments.
This is what the Yale study concludes:

…encampments and tent cities have emerged as a means of self-help for homeless individuals to survive and find shelter, safety, and a sense of community.

We see this exact thing in our camp. Safety and community.

This is Brian and Alice. They met here and now are a couple.
In fact, the community aspect is so strong that others in the homeless services community are seeing it as a bad thing. They regularly tell me that the community aspect of our facility is so strong that it’s keeping people from not taking housing. Apparently our tents our so incredible that no one wants to leave them for an actual house.
That is an absurd position. Not one of these people wants to be in a tent. And they most certainly do not want to be in a tent through the winter. Yet our facility was full all winter long last year. Living like that is incredibly difficult.

These are some of our tents in the winter of 2017 – 2018
Homeless service providers have told me that the street is “motivating.” I was so shocked by that statement that I asked them to confirm that position at the following meeting we had. They agreed. The street, in it’s violence, isolation and mortal fear is motivating.

This is Brian. He got brutally beat on the street because he hears voices and talks to them.
This is coming from the people in charge of helping the homeless.
They are grasping at straws. Because the truth of the matter is: the current system is broken and inadequate.
20,000 people are on the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority waiting list. It can take up to 3 years to get a home through them.
And the system is incredibly difficult to navigate… particularly for a person who has just lost everything.  The system has an “if you want it bad enough” mentality.
“There are options and solutions, but sometimes it just comes down to a person not capable of understanding or not having the ability to get along with others or follow through on plans.” That’s a direct quote from a homeless service provider.
So what are these people to do?
Go to the prison that is a shelter, live on the street, or come to our tent city?
What would you do?

There was an opinion piece in yesterday’s Akron Beacon Journal titled, “After the Tent Village.”
Basically it is a message to city council to vote no on our tent city.
As a message to whoever wrote that piece, it was probably unnecessary. My belief is that we have 4 votes and probably can’t get to the needed 7.
Let me also say that I agree on the idea that we have made progress. That if I disappeared from earth tomorrow I believe the homeless situation in Akron would be incrementally better than when we started.
But I’m not an incrementalist. If I was able to speak with my activist mentors: Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., do you think a single one of them would pat me on the back and tell me I did a good job?
I highly doubt it. I would hope they would critique me as an enthusiastic apprentice, tell me how I’ve screwed up so far and how I need to stop pussyfooting around and get to the serious work of the matter.
This is not some pet project for me. That I helped 40 people and now I can feel satisfied with my work.
By the time I’m done I hope to change the lives of all the hundreds of thousands of homeless that live in squalor and terror on the streets of America.
I didn’t come here to be told I did a good job. I came to do the job.
If, and likely when, the city forces the homeless of Akron to walk away from the only place that truly cared about them, we will move our work to the streets of Akron. We will care for them in the hovels the city will so graciously allow them to stay in until they decide they can’t stay there anymore. And then we’ll move to the next place and the next place and the next.
Because the truth of the matter is there is not enough housing for all the people that need it in Akron. If there is then give me the addresses and I’ll drive them there tomorrow. It’s a strawman argument. You are intentionally misrepresenting the amount of actual houses in Akron because it is easier to defeat than the real argument.
We who work with the homeless world know that there are 20,000 people on the wait list for subsidized housing through the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority.
And homeless service providers will even admit it, except when talking about us. It was made abundantly clear in this Akron Beacon Journal article on November 1, 2016 about the new homeless facility, Stoney Pointe: 

Demand for long-term housing for the homeless in the Akron area far exceeds the supply. At The Commons at Madeline Park, a similar project developed by Community Support Services and Testa Enterprises, some 1,000 are on the waiting list.

They change their “facts” however it suits them.
Joe Scalise from the rapid rehousing program, Home Again, says it very clearly in this Cleveland.com article from July 13, 2018:

Are there enough shelters?
No. Residents seeking housing vouchers through Akron’s housing authority have about a three-year wait, Scalise.

So start thinking about how you’re going to spin how great it is for these people living terrified for their lives on the streets.  Because that’s where these people are headed.
This I assure you, the homeless of Akron are going to go into hiding no longer. We have given them something more powerful than anything you can fight them with. We have given them dignity. We have given them respect. We have given them back their humanity which you stole from them when you told them to go shut up and hide under that bridge.
We will share their story and we will encourage them to stand as the heirs of the American inalienable right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They have come from generations of hard working Americans and have, up until this moment, been exemplary American citizens. And as soon as they fell down America turned their back on them.
This is unjust. This is inhumane. This is un-American.
They will not hide any more.

(The featured image here is of Brian. He was attacked on the street because he hears voices and speaks to them.)
Truly, I’ve never experienced anything like this.
I’ve certainly read about it.
Dr. King writes in “Letter From Birmingham Jail:”

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

Change the word “demonstrations” with “Tent City” and “Birmingham” with “Akron” and you will have a nearly identical set of circumstances. History does indeed repeat itself.
I have these very pleasant meetings with the homeless services providers in Akron, the Continuum of Care. And then they go out in public and thrash around blaming me and the homeless for the homeless crisis.
From the Letter To The Editor from the Continuum of Care:

This past year we have seen an increase in homelessness. In exploring the cause of this increase, it appears the growth and development of the Second Chance Village is a primary factor.

According to them, we are the primary cause of homelessness in Akron. Never mind that Dozens of local homeless mothers and children are turned away at shelter every night in Cleveland – News 5 Cleveland
Never mind that the Continuum of Care is reporting an increase in homelessness in Barberton.
In Akron, the reason there is an increase in homelessness is because of the work we are doing at The Homeless Charity.
They have reported that the reason people “won’t leave” The Homeless Charity is because we have such an amazing community. I find it absurdly amusing that somehow people have turned a supportive, self-governing homeless community into a bad thing.
And now I’m hearing that it is my “charismatic personality.” “They will only go if Sage tells them to go,” they say.  So I did an impromptu video of some of the residents of The Homeless Charity asking them if they wanted to get housing. Here is their response:

So, they then turn their blame on the victim.
I received this statement in an email from a leader at the Continuum of Care:

There are options and solutions, but sometimes it just comes down to a person not capable of understanding or not having the ability to get along with others or follow through on plans.

I tell the Continuum of Care that I will demand any person take a house if it is offered to them. That they either must take the house or leave our village.
And then the Continuum of Care tells me I’m being cruel to them by forcing them to leave.
Their excuses to why The Homeless Charity tent city is bad squirt this way and that way like squeezing a water balloon.

But the excuse never goes one direction: Blaming themselves.

It is Sage’s fault. It is the community’s fault. It is the homeless people’s fault. Never once have I even heard them suggest that they may need to look in the mirror themselves.
I think the debate over tents versus homes reveals a deep truth about homelessness. Homelessness isn’t just the lack of a home. If my home got crushed by a tree tomorrow, I’d have somewhere to go right away and I’d get a new one when the time was right or rebuild my old one. Homelessness is a manifestation of a deeper personal dysfunction related to addictions, trauma, bad luck, poor health, mental illness, loneliness, low job skills, the absence of a family who can help you, etc. Homeless people don’t simply need a home. They need this full range of human wants satisfied that are absent or diluted when you’re homeless: love, safety, sympathy, empathy, mutual support, productivity, some sense that life is more than suffering.
All the Continuum of Care has is houses. And, may I add, houses preceded by a great deal of paperwork, meetings and bureaucracy. There is no checkbox for needs like: love, sympathy, dignity or self-respect.
The Homeless Charity and Village has done one thing and one thing only: It has shown the glaring, gaping hole that is American homeless services.
Before us, homeless people coward in fear in dark allies, dumpsters, various woods and under train trestles.
Today, the homeless have come out of the shadows and have stood up for their rights as American citizens who demand to be treated with dignity and respect.
Homeless service providers make services for a people they have never consulted with. We are run by homeless people themselves.
Homeless service providers have a very strict process of entry into the system. We just take homeless people the way they are.
The entire homeless system of America is outdated and antiquated.
At the turn of the 20th century, cars were still a far-fetched idea. People didn’t know much about this newfangled vehicle and those that did, well they didn’t think it wouldn’t catch on.
I’m quite sure the ice business men of Sandusky said things like “People will always need ice.”

At one point, Sandusky was the largest American producer of ice west of the Hudson River. The ice blocks men harvested from Sandusky Bay were shipped as far as New Orleans, said James Miller, history chair of the city’s bicentennial celebration.

This is America. Things change. We are a country based on innovation and entrepreneurship.
American government and American homeless service providers must stop wringing their hands about the effects of things like self-governed tent villages and, instead, focus on the causes that created the tent villages.
I’m sorry to say, the soul searching is going to take you right to broken government policies and dilapidated homeless services that began in the 1980s.
I assure you: I did not cause our tent village. I merely let it happen. The cause of our tent village is the American homeless system.
The homeless services industry is fundamentally broken. They know it. And they are doing everything in their power to divert attention away from that reality.
So they accuse and blame and chastise in hope that the inevitable locomotive of change and evolution will not come roaring into town. But I’m here to say: the train is already at the station. The change has already come to town. Things will never be the same again. I will not back down and homeless people will cower in the shadows no longer.

I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We lost a village member this week: Franklin Prieto III.
He was found by Sully in his tent having a seizure. We called 911 immediately. He passed away at the hospital.
I know Franklin’s birth date because I’m looking at his birth certificate right now.
Last week he and I ordered his birth certificate. It came in the mail Monday. We were supposed to get his ID this week.
Franklin was quiet but extremely helpful. He and Sully and I would load up my truck about 3 times a week to take trash to our dumpster up the street.
He was Sully’s right hand man in the yard helping put up tents for new residents.
He was such a kind and warm person. I can’t say enough good about him.
Here is a picture of a prayer circle the villagers held for Franklin:

Franklin’s family has come by to collect his things. They said they might be able to shuttle some people to the funeral when that happens.
It’s sad that we lost Franklin. But I’m so thankful he was here and not on the street. He truly was loved and respected here.
Being loved and respected is about all you can hope to ask for in life.