Category: Blog

Dear Dan,
I thought it was time we should probably start talking.
In my idealistic and naive head I always imagined you would come by our homeless center. I’d show you around. We’d talk about cool and innovative ways to fix homelessness in America.
That never happened. But don’t feel bad. I often have unrealistic fantasies of idealism and innovation.
Now is a good time to talk because, as I’m sure you know, not this November but next November you will be up for re-election.
This was made apparent to me by someone near you that offered to be my campaign manager to run again for mayor.
My greatest adviser is my wife. She strongly encourages me to not run for mayor. Rightfully, she says I have little interest in sewers and residential tax credits for wealthy people to move into Akron.
For what it’s worth, you should know that people I speak with in the fire department are enjoying working with you. They appreciate that you will listen to their ideas.
And you should also know that I respected your position on being a sanctuary city. I’d probably have also supported the idea of eliminating taxes on new construction of residential housing that you implemented.
The fact of the matter is: we want the exact same thing. We want Akron to be great. We’re just coming at it from different directions. You are working at it from the top. I’m working at it from the bottom.
You are trying to bring in new revenue to the city. I’m trying to fix homelessness, which whether you know it or not is a big financial drag on your city.
If I was mayor I’d be focusing on poverty.
But whatever. We all have to pick and choose our battles.
Let me get back to the point of this first letter to you.
Your office has said several time that “any homeless person that wants housing can get it.”
Take this April 28, 2018 Akron Beacon Journal article for example:
Volunteers build small, single shelters for Akron’s homeless

“No Akron resident should be living in a tent or a shack – period; and they don’t need to,” Lander Nischt [City spokeswoman ] said in an email. “Unlike some other urban communities across the nation, we are very fortunate here in Akron and Summit County to have healthy, stable, clean and safe housing available for any homeless person or family who needs it.”

So let me tell you how I took this position initially.
I honestly thought you were just trying to gaslight and basically lie to Akron by saying we have housing for all homeless people.
Everybody talks about politicians playing 4D chess these days. I thought you were cleverly trying to put misinformation out into the public discourse to confuse people. While frustrating, I thought it was a clever tactic.
But just this weekend I was talking to someone who has worked with your office on homelessness and they said you actually believe this.
They said that you actually think housing is available for any homeless person that wants it.
I have to admit I was shocked. But then I quickly realized people believe a lot of crazy things.
We have flat earthers. Our current president believed our past president wasn’t born in the United States. And I began to think about all the mass stereotyping American society has done to minorities since the beginning of our country right up to this day in 2018.
Like anyone that has a belief not based in reality or any form of fact whatsoever, I have very little hope of trying to convince you that you are wildly wrong that “we are very fortunate here in Akron and Summit County to have healthy, stable, clean and safe housing available for any homeless person or family who needs it.”
But as I mentioned early on in this letter my idealism and naivete are truly boundless. So let me try swaying you just a little bit.
Imagine this scenario. You are an 18 year old woman living in a very poor part of East Akron. You have a baby out of wedlock. You never finished high school. You are living with your mom. Your mom is a heroin addict. But you are clean.
One day your mom overdoses and dies.
You mom was your only supporter. You never knew your dad. You have no siblings. The only person who ever gave the slightest damn about you just died.
You have no high school diploma or GED. You relied on your mom to take care of you and your baby.
Now you are being evicted from the house your mom was renting.
Quick! What do you do?
Well I’m going to tell you what you do.
You start going to friend’s houses. You stay as long as they’ll let you. But they keep kicking you out.
You do that over and over again.
Someone reports you to Child and Family Services. Before you know it you’ve lost your baby.
Now that you’ve lost your mom and your baby you fall into a deep depression.
A “friend” offers you some heroin to smoke. You take it.
You spend a night sleeping on the street.
Your backpack that had all your identification in it gets stolen.
You get more depressed. You liked how that heroin felt. But you have no money.
So now you try having sex for money.
You get picked up by a pimp that turns you out and starts to beat you because you aren’t performing well enough.
And that’s where we, The Homeless Charity, usually come in.
In the case of women who have been repeatedly raped, beaten and tricked, they come to us for safety.
The street for anyone is hell on earth. But for a young woman it is a complete and total nightmare.
Now before you say you wouldn’t have let it get that far if you were this woman let me tell you this fall happens quickly.
The story I just told above can happen in 2 to 4 weeks.
If you think you would have done better in that scenario you are either deceiving yourself or are just imagining coming at it from the privileged middle class white male perspective that is the only thing you’ve ever known.
Let’s say this young women is one of the strongest 10% of homeless. She is laser focused on getting a job, getting a house and getting her baby back. She is all in.
The first thing she needs to do is get her birth certificate. (You can’t get into housing without a birth certificate, photo ID and social security card.) If she was born in Ohio that’s ideal. Ohio is really good about giving people their birth certificates. She just needs to come up with the $21 and transportation to the west side of Akron to get it. The Homeless Charity will do that for her.
Next she needs a photo ID. As of yesterday, July 2, they are now mailing out photo IDs. So you can no longer get one in the BMV office. They know me on a first name basis at the Tallmadge Road BMV. I was there yesterday and I’ll be there again today getting IDs for people.
But now we have to wait for the IDs to come in the mail. I’m imagining that’s 7-10 days. An ID costs about $17. We pay for those and take them to the BMV to get them.
Then you have to get a social security card. Fortunately they are free. But they are also mailed and take 7-10 days.
At the very earliest this young woman will get all her required IDs in 2 to 4 weeks.
Keep in mind I’ve helped people get birth certificates from other states that have taken as long as 6 weeks all by itself.
And Texas is the worst. They are incredibly protective of birth certificates. That process more often than not requires a lawyer to get involved.
So, if you believe the truth that I’m telling you that you need all 3 forms of identification to get into housing, you have to believe me that we are looking at anywhere from 2 weeks to several months of homelessness just to get on the list for housing.
The next thing I’d like you to do is call AMHA, Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority. Here is their number: 330-762-9631.
They will tell you that they have over 20,000 people on their waiting list to get into housing. Ask them how many months it takes a homeless veteran to get into housing. (Because it’s months. Not weeks or days. It’s months.)
Of the hundreds of people that have come through our doors I think maybe a half dozen have gotten housing through AMHA. It’s not that they aren’t awesome. They are just inundated with need.
The program we LOVE is Home Again. They are a rapid rehousing program.
Ironically, they make me send a letter for each person that enters their program confirming they live in a tent. You see in order to be part of Home Again you must either be staying in a shelter or a place not fit for human habitation… such as a tent.
If you spend one night on a friend’s couch you get thrown off the list.
They must have all forms of ID. But I’ve seen people get into housing in as little as 2 days.
But all the stars need to be aligned properly. You have to have income or have a solid plan for getting income soon.
Home Again pays the deposit and first month’s rent. But then the entire rent is on you.
If you can’t work and don’t have any other form of income then you are stuck.
A felon with a violence charge is a hot potato. It’s really hard for them to get work. And I’m not sure if you have ever talked to a homeless 18 year old woman with no diploma about her experience getting a job. But I can tell you she isn’t really qualified for anything, including fry cook at McDonald’s. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone without a high school diploma ever get a legitimate job.
I could go on and on. But I’m sure you have more to do today than read this letter.
I do, however, appreciate you reading it.
I’m not angry that you don’t understand the reality of what’s really happening on the ground of your city. There are a lot of moving parts. You can only focus on so many things.
I just ask you to consider this: Do you think it’s possible that a person could find it difficult to get into “healthy, stable, clean and safe housing?”
Because if you could imagine that it might be at least slightly difficult for one person to navigate that system, maybe you could imagine that it would be difficult for another person of whose circumstances you don’t understand having similar difficulties.
Most of these people are street smart. But they aren’t bureaucracy smart. These systems to help the homeless are made the way they are for a reason. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t incredibly challenging for a person trying to just stay alive while they are living on the street.
We can do better. We can fix homelessness.
All I ask is for you to consider the possibility that some people are homeless and can’t get into a house tonight or tomorrow night or the night after. They have to go somewhere.
Thanks again for reading. We’ll talk more.
Sincerely,
Sage
P.S. If you’d ever like to see our facility I’d LOVE to show you around. Just call me on my cell phone: 330-416-7519
Sage
 

(Photo by Phil Masturzo/Beacon Journal/Ohio.com)
Supporters and residents filled City Council chambers and two overflow rooms for our first chance to be officially heard by a government body.
The room erupted in applause and cheers when the 5 person planning commission unanimously agreed to hold off on their decision of whether we should stay or go until next month.
While a small step, the mere fact that people in official positions would agree to at least consider the plight of the most extremely poor was a massive victory.
The homeless are the voiceless and the invisible.
They know all too well what the heavy stigma of homelessness means.
Homelessness means broad brush strokes of stereotyping and generalizations.
Homelessness means people not ever looking at you or talking to you day in and day out.
Homelessness means you have crashed through every social and family safety net until you are left penniless and without anywhere to go.
Homelessness is choicelessness.
Homelessness is the great shunning from the richest country in the world.
It is heart-breakingly beautiful and sad and lovely to see the homeless get the official word that important people will at least consider their plight for one more month.
Of course they wouldn’t be able to hold back their cheers and applause when they heard the word that a group of important people said they would “think about it.”
No one has ever thought about them before this.
And then there is this: Doug Livingston of the Akron Beacon Journal reported in his article, First public hearing on homeless tent city in Akron draws large crowd:
“If I would have voted today,” said Ken Jones, a former councilman and commission member who made the motion to postpone a vote until the next meeting on July 13, “I would have said to council and the [Mayor Dan Horrigan] administration that this is an issue you have to fix.”
That’s just down right astounding. In fact, that’s the Holy Grail.
That’s all we ever wanted this to be: a conversation. This tent city was meant to be a proof of concept. Homeless people do indeed live in the woods. Now they live in my backyard. Let’s talk about this.
This is incredible.
But it was not all good.
Privately, after the event, I was met with several people filled with fear and worry.
In one case I was sent a formal letter by a significant supporter that they are seriously thinking about withdrawing all their support.
For some people they didn’t see success. They didn’t hear the stories of hope and love and life saving community.
All they heard were the detractors. Again, as Doug Livingston reports on the issues of the people against our tent city:
“They [the detractors] said villagers have been stealing electricity from outdoor outlets, leaving used needles and condoms on the ground, loitering and talking too loud at night. They brought photos from the fall and winter to illustrate their grievances.”
That was the entire story for some.
It filled some people with fear and worry and anger.
That was enough to call it quits on this movement.
I was not prepared for that response initially.
But I’m prepared for it this morning.
Sewing seeds of discontent is how detractors win.
The FBI did everything in their power to undermine Martin Luther King Jr’s legitimacy. They called him a communist, a Marxist, a womanizer.
The head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover was nearly obsessed with smearing Dr. King.
JFK File: FBI Monitored Martin Luther King’s ‘Abnormal’ Sex Life of Orgies, Hookers and Joan Baez

Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s antipathy to King is well documented, and he went to extreme lengths, including authorising breaking into and bugging King’s home and offices, to destroy his reputation. The zeal of the FBI’s campaign against King has been outlined in tens of thousands of declassified FBI memos from the 1960s, and Congressional hearings on the FBI’s harrassment of King in the 1970s.

I’ve already experienced, on a much smaller scale, these kinds of attacks.
I’ve detailed many of these accusations in this article:
Every Rumor I Can Think Of
I am a drug dealer, pimp, failed business man who is just using the homeless to get rich and run for mayor.
This is how these things go.
There are many people who want to see our tent city fail.
And it’s not just neighbors. It’s people we’ve previously kicked out of the village who went against our code of conduct. It’s jealous “competitors” who would rather see all our work fail than see me, personally, succeed. It’s the mayor’s office of Akron.
These are powerful tactics.
Humans are easily scared. Our animal instinct of fight or flight kicks in at the first sign of danger. We don’t seem to be able to lose our natural animal instinct of fighting for life or death on our own in the wild.
But we must fight those instincts.
For society to get better we must push back our lessor instincts. We are not animals. We are humans.
And be warned. It will get worse.
Now that we’ve won the tiny step of being told people will think about our cause, the detractors will become louder and more dangerous.
They will try to divide us. They will try to undermine us. They will try to destroy us.
Make no mistake, what we are doing here is worlds better than what we had in Akron Ohio 18 months ago.
And as for the neighbors, they are top on my mind.
They have every right to live in peace and to feel safe.
On Monday I’m going to setup a security booth in the front of our building. We will not allow our people to loiter in front of our building or on the sidewalk near the apartment building. We won’t likely have much luck telling non-residents to move on. But we have a lot of pull with our own residents.
And we have to do something about this back and forth bickering between some residents of the apartment building and some residents of the tent city.
I heard that the first thing that happened after the hearing yesterday was that an apartment building resident yelled something condescending out her window at our people. And I’m quite sure some of our people couldn’t resist to yell something back.
I have been thinking about trying some sort of canopy system that keeps both people from being able to see each other.
These ridiculous, childish back and forths must stop. I can’t do anything about the people in the apartment. But I can definitely do something about the people in our facility.
We have security cameras. But I’m going to see if I can add audio to those cameras as well. I will have no problem throwing people out of our tent city that can’t act respectfully and can’t treat our neighbors with the same dignity that they themselves have been given by living in our community.
We have a waiting list for our facility. We are a place where homeless people move forward in their lives. We do not have room for people who refuse to stop playing loud mouth street games in our tent city.
Yes. We have faults. Yes. We have work to do.
But at the same time we have come a great distance. We have created a highly desirable community for the homeless who are ready to re-enter society.
We cannot obsess about rumors and hearsay. They will continue come. We will continue to be threatened and undermined at every opportunity.
We cannot let the detractors divide us. That’s how every war is won. Flank the enemy. Get them to stop moving together in the same direction. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
We have come a great distance. Yet we have far to go. And the outcome is far from certain.
This will be difficult and scary. And you will hear terrible things along the way.
But our doors are always open. All are welcome. Talk to our tri-council. Talk to our security. Talk to the drug counselors who rent space from us in the building. Walk the tent city. See for yourself the truth.
The truth, will indeed set you free.
Don’t let fear be your ruler. Don’t let hate and anger destroy your love and hope. Be strong. Be brave.
We are doing God’s work.

We have our first public hearing that will ultimately determine our fate this Friday, June 15 at 9:00am.
These are the details:
AKRON CITY PLANNING COMMISSION
MEETING OF JUNE 15, 2018 – 9:00 A.M.
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, THIRD FLOOR, MUNICIPAL BUILDING, 166 S. HIGH STREET IN AKRON.
PLEASE COME TO THIS!
Please join us to support the homeless of Akron at this Public forum of the City Planning Commission. The public voicing support for our tent city is how we will win. Without your public support we will lose. It’s just that simple.

YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EVENT BY CLICKING HERE.

I’m endlessly swirling in my head about what I want these people to know.

• Women come crying to us thanking us for a safe place to sleep at night.
• People that society has forgotten now have a place where they matter and are part of a community.
• Closing our village will only send people back into the woods and onto the streets.
• Senior citizens (in their late 70s) have a safe place to sleep.
• This isn’t permanent housing. This is transitional, low barrier living to get people back into mainstream society.
• Guardian study of two US cities finds crime is likelier to go down than up in neighborhoods that host city-sanctioned encampments. Read more here. 
• We bring people to housing.
• We have an addiction recovery group that rents space from us. Everyone that lives with us is required to take their drug assessment.
• The health department comes regularly.
  • They inoculated us against Hepatitis A, a disease spreading through homeless populations throughout America.
  • They installed a hand washing station for us.
  • They bring us rubber gloves to handle food.
  • They bring us hand sanitizer.
• Our main shelter in Akron is not ideal for everyone. Church service is required if you want to sleep there. Curfew is 8:00pm. Showers are in a wide open room with no privacy from all the other residents.
• Agreeing to go to a shelter means losing many of your possessions. You have to pack what you can into a bag and leave the rest behind, to be stolen or thrown away.
• Going to a shelter means giving up your pets and separating from your spouse. There are no co-ed shelters in Akron other than our tent city.
• Our goal is to get people into housing.
• If there was housing for everyone we wouldn’t need transitional facilities. But at the very least, it takes time to get people into housing.
• People living alone on the street is worse for society.
  • They steal food.
  • They have nothing to do all day other than wonder aimlessly downtown.
  • They can’t get clean.
  • They rarely wash their clothes.
  • This spread disease.
  • Aimless homeless people downtown makes a city look bad.
• We are part of the housing first model. We give people a safe place to live so that they can get back on their feet.
• Being in a supportive community is what these people need at this time in their lives.
• Being alone causes them to revert to higher drug and alcohol use.
• We currently house nearly 50 people that would otherwise be on the streets, providing them a safe place to seek direct services, healthcare, and find jobs and housing.
  • That sentence is taken from Hope Village in Las Cruces New Mexico. It is a tent community that is approved by their city council.

It’s not like we are the first city in America to do this. These kinds of camps are springing up all over America.

More and more sanctioned tent communities are being established all over America because the need is real.

• Las Cruces, NM, hosts a permanent encampment with a co-located service center.
• Washington State permits religious organizations to temporarily host encampments on their property.
• Vancouver, WA, permits limited overnight selfsheltering encampments on city property.

From the report by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty: TENT CITY, USA: The Growth of America’s Homeless Encampments and How Communities are Responding
“At the federal level, an increasing number of courts are applying the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to protect the rights of homeless individuals to perform survival activities in public spaces where adequate alternatives do not exist; the rights of homeless individuals not to be deprived of their liberty or property without due process of law; the due process rights of homeless individuals to travel; and their rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.”
We have come so far in the last 18 months at our tent city. If they close us down then we lose all the progress we’ve made.
We are the beginning steps of getting people off the street.
And that’s the thing we can all agree on. We want people to stop living on the streets. It is bad for them. And it’s bad for the city.

This Helps Akron

If the people in power do nothing other than say don’t do this and don’t do that then we can’t move forward.
This is what will happen if they shut us down: People will go back to the woods and abandoned properties. They will disappear. We won’t know where they are. We won’t be able to help them. They will just be festering like an untreated wound on the city.
It might make people feel better that we can’t see the homeless. But just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there and aren’t costing the city money and pulling us all down through crime and drug use.
Homelessness is real. And it’s not going away.
We aren’t asking for a single dime of money from the city. All we are asking for is the right to help the homeless.
If they close our tent city they will not have gotten one single person off the street. All they will have done is taken 50 homeless people and scattered them to the wind. They still will be on the street living in much worse conditions.
What we have created here is a HUGE opportunity for the good of Akron. We have shown that there is a need for a community for the homeless. We have shown that people will respond positively to this type of service who otherwise are service resistant. We are making them safer. We are making the city safer. And we are getting these people the help they need. Drug treatment, mental health treatment. Birth certificates. Photo IDs. Social Security cards. Food. Clothing. Internet access. Computers. Laundry. Showers.
This is a positive for Akron.
Please see that. Please see that we are making things better.
 

I’ve been thinking a lot about how modern humans have lost touch with their world.
I’m eating apples for breakfast right now. I had corn on the cob for dinner last night. Pineapple is always available.
When, in Ohio, we should be eating cherries, beets, rhubarb and strawberries.

And then there is all the light pollution that makes it so we can’t see the sky.
Here’s a person star gazing in Hocking Hills:

We truly have lost touch with our surroundings.
Perhaps the greatest loss is our understanding of community.
“Community” has become a series of institutions. Fire, police, medical, utilities, trash service. That’s what community is for us today. It’s such a smooth operation that we have lost touch with what community truly is: community, at its core, is life or death.
For all the complaining we do about this or that department of society, we’d be living a much different life faster than you might imagine, if any one of our community services failed.
We see community in its most pure form every single day at The Homeless Charity Village.
Young people help old people put up their tents. Individuals buy milk to give to the group. Divisions of labor have developed. Jimmy takes out the trash. Brett watches over the day center. Willy cleans the bathrooms. Our elders bestow wisdom and structure for all of us.
There is no money to hire these things done. There is only community.
But community becomes everything.
Community at The Homeless Charity Village becomes absolutely apparent at the life or death level.

This weekend we had an overdose.

A young man had injected Fentanyl in his tent.
It was at this point that most people here believe the only reason that young man is alive today is because of divine intervention.
We have a newer resident: Ethan. He’s on our security team.
The laundry attendants asked Ethan to go back to the tent city and see if he could find some missing clothes baskets. Sometimes people leave them in their tent after doing laundry. (I’ve never heard of this being done before. It was just a “random” request.)
Ethan had a couple tents he was going to check. He certainly couldn’t check all 50 tents.
He said that he had no intention to go to one woman’s tent. But she was standing outside of her tent. He walked over to her to ask her if she had a clothes basket.
As he was walking towards her he heard the most faint moan.
He asked the woman he was talking with if she heard it. She said no.
Ethan called out to the head of security, Brandon. Because Ethan is new, he didn’t know the protocol. Was he allowed to open a tent if he felt something was wrong? Brandon told him he most certainly could.
Ethan unzipped the tent.
Inside he found a young man laying across his bedding. His back was arched slightly backwards making his head and feet below his chest.
He was foaming at the mouth. He was making an almost imperceptible gurgling noise. He was purple.
This was Sunday.
Two days earlier, on Friday, we had a Narcan training class. Ethan was part of that class.
Not only was Ethan trained how to use Narcan, he also was carrying it with him.
He administered two doses of Narcan in hopes of bringing the man back.
It didn’t work.
Brandon then came over. He also had been certified on Friday for using Narcan. And he had his Narcan with him.
The third dose was administered. It didn’t work.
The fourth dose was administered.
The man began to breathe on his own. He slowly moved his wrist.
Ethan and Brandon saved this man’s life.
During all of this they also had called 911. The paramedics and fire department came to continue helping this man.
It was discovered that he had overdosed on Fentanyl.
Fentanyl is significantly more powerful than heroine. It’s very easy to overdose on it.
But Narcan can revive people who overdose if they administer it in time.
This is community.
This man would most certainly have died if he was living in a tent in the woods.
This is why we all need each other.
And most importantly, this is why these people, who have absolutely nothing, need each other.
Humans can’t survive alone. But together we can prevail. Together we can do amazing things.
Society has lost its understanding of what community is.
We have a mentality of “we got ours.” And “it’s either our way or the highway.”
If people don’t fit into the one size fits all society we lose interest in them very quickly.
This is early society mentality. The weak and old either need to keep up or they will be left behind.
America does not need to live in such a brutal society.
We don’t need to leave the weakest among us to die alone in the gutters of America.
And what’s worse, these people at our tent city aren’t asking for anything from the city other than to exist. They aren’t asking for handouts or special dispensation.
All these people are hoping for is that someone who has all the power will say, “You can live.”
But right now that’s not what the people in power are saying.
All across America the powerful are saying:
“Don’t feed the homeless. You are just encouraging them.”
“Don’t give the homeless a place to pitch a tent. You are making them too comfortable.”
We are lead by people who think they are still living in dog eat dog times where if we give a person a place to put a $50 Walmart tent we are risking too much as a society. They must either get on board with the system or…
Or what?
I’m pretty sure the unspoken answer is: “Or just crawl away and die.”
Ethan was holding this revived man in his arms as he came back to life.
After the paramedics came and took over, Ethan stepped away.
He began to sob.
He had never experienced holding someone in his arms that was so close to death.
He had never experienced helping someone come back to life.
He had never experienced the fundamental core and power of what it means to be part of a community.

(The picture here is with Tony Putnam, Tara Samples and Sage Lewis. Tony and Tara grew up together.)
I know that Memorial Day is to remember veterans that lost their lives in active military service.
But it also makes me think of homeless veterans. In many ways, they have lost their lives to a failed system that doesn’t work hard enough on their behalf.
About 11% of the adult homeless population are veterans.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that 40,056 veterans are homeless on any given night.
And we, of course, have our fair share of homeless veterans come through our facility.
This interests me because Akron is proud to say that “Veteran homelessness in Akron reaches ‘functional zero’”
Basically, they are saying any veteran that wants housing can get it.
That is either a lie or a delusion. I haven’t figured out which, yet.
We repeatedly have older veterans with serious mental health issues come to our facility. They can’t work the system. They don’t have IDs. They don’t have phones. And they certainly don’t have a single dollar to their name.
And service providers sit back and wait for the homeless veterans to come to them.
“Call us between this time and that time.”
“Come to our office for a meeting”
“Just get a job.”
These are massive obstacles for a person who can barely walk, has no money and is extremely depressed.
Homeless service providers have barely scratched the surface on doing the work that needs to be done to help the homeless reintegrate back into society.
So, of course, we have homeless veterans in Akron. And until we all work A LOT harder at meeting their actual needs we will always have a lot of homeless veterans in Akron.
This functional zero designation is gaslighting us into believing a completely false narrative. Just because someone says we don’t have any more homeless veterans doesn’t make it true.
If there is ever a person in America that deserves some care and attention, it’s a veteran. How many of us would be willing to sign up for anything where we agreed to give our lives up for a cause? We accept that as reality in America. But the truth of it is incredibly heavy. Most of us are cowards with flexible ideologies. But not veterans. They are all in.
Today, I want to give thanks to one veteran I get to spend a great deal of time with at The Homeless Charity: Tony Putnam.
He runs our kitchen with Mary. He’s a powerful force of good. He always goes to the Food Bank with me to help load and pack food on our truck. He is an amazing role model to his girlfriend’s son, who loves him dearly.
He works constantly for us. I seriously don’t know what we’d eat if it weren’t for Tony.
And he lives in a tent.
He is one of the 40,056 homeless American veterans with nowhere to go.
Thank you Tony!
My life is so much fuller and richer for knowing you. You are a great guy. I thank you for your service as a veteran. And I thank you for your service at The Homeless Charity.
You are awesome.
 
 

It becomes increasingly difficult to not think in spiritual terms when working with the homeless.
More and more ministers come to work with these people. They say things to me like “You are walking in the way of Jesus.”
That’s embarrassing. But coming from them I know it’s a great compliment.
I’ve also been asked why I’m not a Christian.
It is very difficult for me to explain my spiritual beliefs.
I asked that one minister who accused me of not being a Christian, “How do you know I’m not?”
While it might have sounded combative, it was a sincere question. I wondered if there was something glaringly obvious, like a neon sign over my head blinking “NOT A CHRISTIAN!”
I guess it comes down to not caring about my own salvation. This isn’t about me. I don’t need to declare some words to the world that makes me one faith or another.
If I end up displeasing God because I didn’t swear loyalty to Him, that’s the way it should be. What happens to me simply is not of a concern.
I don’t care if one story is true in the Bible and another story in the Koran is false. That’s just noise to me.
But let me take a step back. Like way back.
I always had a strong desire to prove myself. From a very young age. In the late ’70s they didn’t diagnose kids with learning disabilities. You were either smart or stupid.
I fell into the stupid category. I couldn’t read until about 4th grade.
Except I knew full well that wasn’t true. I knew who I was and what I was capable of.
So I spent most of my life proving myself to the world.
Acclaimed cellist, good college student, nationally recognized digital marketer, successful in family, successful in business.
But what I found was that accomplishments all had a hollowness to them.
One time my accountant asked me if I ever thought I’d make $250,000 a year as I had that year. I told him I didn’t. And I didn’t really care. That number changed nothing. I didn’t want a bigger house, a newer car. I just didn’t care.
That struck me as an important milestone in my life.
No matter how big that number got, it wouldn’t excite me. Maybe it excites other people. But it just didn’t change much for me.
That was a depressing moment. What was I doing this all for?
And then the great recession happened and we lost almost all of our momentum as a company.
What I learned at that point was that money didn’t make me happy but it sure as hell could make me sad.
It was at that point that I grew to resent and hate money. It controlled me and gave me very little in return.
And then I realized I had been doing all of these things for some external validation. And no one cared. And if they did, I didn’t care that they did care.
This was the moment I began serious contemplation.
What am I doing here? What is the point?
I checked all the boxes I was supposed to check and nothing changed.
Contemplation and action go hand in hand. Or at least they should.
You come up with an idea and you try out the idea.
The first thing I did was run for Mayor of Akron.
That changed everything for me. The vast majority of people that talked to me were the homeless. Most people that should care about who their next mayor is going to be were too busy to think about it. Most would just ignore me or scowl at me as I asked them for signatures to get on the ballot.
This opened a major door for me. The homeless.
They weren’t at all what I thought.
They weren’t stupid or lazy or wasted or dangerous. They were just poor and living on the streets.
I just started listening to what the world was telling me. “Go here.” “Do this.”
What I didn’t know at the time, but I certainly know now is that I had just started working on my spirit. I spent the first 45 years working on my mind and body. And for the first time I started paying attention to my spirit.
I’m fascinated by the universe. By dark energy and dark matter. I love watching scientists who believe something is out there because of math and then they prove it with experiments.
Do you know that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider, the most complex experimental facility ever built, and the largest single machine in the world. And it’s purpose is to document the smallest things known to man.
These scientists are trying to understand God. I want to understand God.
Scientists are using math. I’m using my spirit.
They want to know who God is. I want to know what God wants.
And I finally feel like I’m on the path. While I’m still very much in the learning phase of all this, I strongly believe God is telling us something about the poor and the weak and the prisoners.
Why?
Why would these people unlock the riddle to understanding what God wants? Is it just supposed to make us feel good? Is it a test? Are we supposed to learn something?
What if this is preparation for something bigger? What if God is teaching us to help the poor so that one day we’ll be ready for what He really wants us to do.
Do you know that there is a mystery force in the universe that scientists can’t see, yet they know it’s there. And we are hurdling toward it. It’s called The Great Attractor
Astronomers have theorized for years that something unknown appears to be pulling our Milky Way and tens of thousands of other galaxies toward itself at a breakneck 22 million kilometers (14 million miles) per hour. But they couldn’t pinpoint exactly what, or where it is.
What if we are getting ready for something big!
I’m at a point now where I believe in a great cause. A great destiny.
I also believe we are coming to a place where capitalism is failing us. Government is failing us. I feel like we very well might see a resurgence in spirituality as a way to understand our purpose. Because let’s face it, no one has been spending a lot of time on their purpose for the last 100 years. We’ve been told by government and business that our purpose is to buy more stuff.
Last week I spoke to a woman who was new to our village. She had been there a couple days. I just got to meet her.
She said, “Oh! You’re Sage.” She gave me a hug.
She told me that for the last couple days she had been asking around, “Who are the ones that love us?”
“Who would put all of this together for us?”
She said that never once in her life had she been loved. No one had ever loved her.
And now, strangers she hadn’t even met loved her.
That’s it!
That the point. Love and hate are the great forces of the universe. We will either transcend or we will crumble.
Nothing feels more right than loving someone that you don’t know. It changes everything.
Loving for nothing in return. That’s the secret to the universe.
That’s why I don’t care if I’m “saved” or not. I want nothing in return.
And in fact, I expect dark forces to continue to come. I am planning on more difficulty and pain.
I need no gratitude for doing this. The work is so right. The work is the gratitude.

I used to find these rumors amusing. But now they’re just getting boring and tedious.
But people actually believe them… like government officials, ministers and priests. People you wouldn’t think that would be suckered into believing far fetched fantasies.
So, I thought I’d start making a list of these rumors and give you my stance on them.
I suppose a true conspiracy theorist would say I’m just cleverly creating this post to confuse you into thinking these things aren’t true when really they are all SO very true.
Whatever, I can only tell you my side of the story. Think what you want.

Rumor 1: I am the plug.

This one might take a little explaining. Urban dictionary defines “The Plug” thusly: “A top hustler or boss motherfucker”
This is and likely will always be my most favorite rumor. I mean who doesn’t want to be a “boss motherfucker.”
Apparently I am THE ice dealer in Akron. Ice is a form of meth, I guess.
Look: I have never sold any drugs ever. And I am most certainly not the leading ice dealer here in Akron.
Truth be told, I’m a little insulted by this rumor. It suggests that I’m an idiot. Why the hell would I publicly surround myself with meth addicts and then start my ice career? It would have been way smarter to stay far away from my clientele. I should have continued my online marketing career as my front while I was secretly selling ice to the world. I mean come on! I watched Breaking Bad. I know how to make a proper front business.
I’ve never seen ice. I’ve certainly never made ice. I sucked at chemistry.
I am NOT the plug.

Rumor 2: We are run by the Aryan Brotherhood.

I don’t know if this is still an active rumor. But I thought I’d cover it here. People believed the Aryan Brotherhood were getting out of jail and moving in here.
I was a little scared about this one for a while. But then one day a person who lived here who had actual connections to the ABs said this was insane. They said that ABs aren’t going to camp in my crappy backyard. They like to camp in places like Montana.
This person said ABs were never here and would likely never lower themselves to coming here.
Aryan Brotherhood is a white supremacist and Neo-Nazi prison gang and organized crime syndicate in the United States with an estimated 15,000–20,000 members in and out of prison.
They wouldn’t let their fellow brothers be stranded in a tent city.

Rumor 3: We are run by the Hells Angels.

The problem with this is that in order to be a Hells Angel you have to qualify:
Hells Angels Membership Requirements – One Percenter Bikers
You will be expected to live on your Harley Davidson, riding across cities and states on your way to meets and as your primary form of transport, if you want to know how to become a Hells Angel then you need to be a dedicated Harley Davidson rider.
There are 2 people here that have drivers licenses. Me and Steve. Steve drives our minivan.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone roll up here on a motorcycle looking for a tent.
One time one of our residents went to a Hells Angels meeting and asked if they wanted to support us. He said they didn’t want anything to do with us.
We are not run by the Hells Angles. As far as I know, they have never stepped onto our property.

Rumor 4: I run prostitutes and drug deals out of our back yard.

This is a little bit like Rumor 1. But it’s different enough that it deserves its own attention.
The amusing thing about this is that this rumor came from someone living here that was actually trying to sell drugs out of our backyard. He has been kicked out of here for months.
I do think that in the early days when we allowed drinking and a camp fire some prostitutes came into our backyard a couple times.
That was the main reason we ended the drinking and campfires. It was like the wild, wild West. One morning we found a guy we didn’t know passed out in the fire ring. Fortunately, it had been extinguished.
If you ever start a tent city, take it from me: NEVER ALLOW DRINKING AND A CAMP FIRE.
This rumor bothers me because it seems to stick. I still hear questions about this one.
Let me be clear: We have ZERO tolerance for anything illegal in our community. It is grounds for immediately and permanently being banned from the property.
I have never and will never prostitute anyone. I have never and will never sell any kinds of drugs. Business for me is a game. Part of the fun is playing by the rules and still being successful.

Rumor 5: Sage is a failing business man.

This is a weird one to counter. I’m happy to show my tax returns. If you really want to see them because you think I suck at business let me know. I’ll ask my wife if she’s cool with letting me do that.
I will say this: I am not impressed by my business dealings. I’ve only broken $1 million in revenue one year. I’ve always felt like I was much better than that. I felt like I should at least be a $10 million to $100 million guy. But I never got there. I’ve since lost my interest in chasing money. The great recession ruined me on the glories of capitalism.
If you want a real rumor it might be that I’m probably becoming more of a Marxist than a capitalist. OOOOOOHHHH. How’s that for some juicy gossip!? You can use that the next time I run for office.

Rumor 6: Sage is just doing this to run for mayor again.

So you’re telling me that I’ve set up this entire tent city and elaborate homeless day center as a campaign stunt? How cynical do you have to be to think I’m doing this work just so I can run for mayor. I mean at least say I’m doing it to run for Senate or governor. This is a lot of work to hope to be mayor some day.
I have no idea if I’m going to run for mayor again or not. It really depends where I am in the homeless process. It also depends on how I think I can be of the best use and make the biggest difference.
In my mind I’m thinking about how to solve this homeless crisis nationally. Akron is just the beginning for me. I want people to say that Akron was where America learned how to properly help the homeless.

Rumor 7: Our building is now under immanent domain.

This is the rumor that started to make rumors less fun for me. Maybe I was a little tired. But the fun of all this kind of slipped away. I started getting slightly irritated. But just the same, I understand the reason for the rumor.
There is a resident here who loves this place. Of all the people here he might love it the most. To the point of maybe even needing it.
Somehow he got it in his mind that we are now going to be a parking garage. And I think it’s going to be happening in 2 days, according to him.
Immanent domain is one of those things that technically could happen at any time. So the “worry” is always out there. But this is completely false. No one in authority has ever so much as even whispered this to me.

Rumor 8: Sage is buying china for the village.

Um… I hate china. It doesn’t microwave and you can’t put it in a dishwasher. I wouldn’t buy china for my worst enemy.

Rumor 9: Sage is getting fat rich off the homeless.

Since we started this operation in  late 2016 I have taken no salary. On average we are in the hole about $2500 per month.
The yearly taxes of the building are: $8232.40
Total Utilities so far for 2018 are: $9,681.42
So far we have brought in: $19,992.61
$5000 of that is earmarked for an opiate recovery grant.
$2000 of that is earmarked for a grant of food, clothing and tents.
Our expenses so far this year have been:  $14,191.45
If you can figure out how I’m getting rich off of those numbers please tell me.
All I know is every single month my wife covers all of our home expenses and pays out about $2500 per month to keep this place a float.

Rumor 10: Kids live at the village.

NO KIDS LIVE AT THE VILLAGE!
Our feeling is that child and family services would likely take them away from the parent. So we send kids back to their cars and the woods.

Rumor 11: People turn down housing vouchers to stay living in a tent.

If I ever got word that happened I would throw that person out immediately. We aren’t trying to keep people living in tents. We are a place where they can get back on their feet and get into housing.

Rumor 12: There is housing available for anyone that wants it.

The city says this. AMHA has 20,000 people on their waiting list. There is not housing available for anyone that wants it. That’s just a flat out lie.

Rumor 13: Sage is selling the building

I’m 46 years old. I’m healthy and have a ton of energy.
A commercial building is a ridiculously difficult thing to purchase. The appraisal to purchase the building was $4000. The paperwork was endless. The loan process was a nightmare. I had to put 20% down on the building. If I had known what I was getting myself into for the buying process I seriously might not have done it.
But I did do it. And now I have a commercial building. It’s not just any commercial building. It’s a GORGEOUS commercial building with a lot of really cool history. I love having this building.
On top of that, you can do really cool things with a commercial building that you can’t do with a single family home. It’s a bunch of fun to have this building.
I’m not at a point in my life where I want to sell this building.
On top of all that, I can see one day where this building becomes the property of The Homeless Charity. Maybe we could make this the homeless center of America. That’s where my head is right now.
But the charity isn’t at a point where it is able to take on a building. And I’m happy to have the building.
No, I’m not selling the building.
***********************
These are the rumors I know of right now. If you know of any other rumors please let me know. I’ll add it to the list.
 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the number of good people in the world is staggering.
I had no idea what the hearts of Americans were truly made of. It’s pure, compassionate, boundless love.
Rich people. Poor people. White people. People of color. I see endless goodness everywhere and every day.
(I do believe in evil, for what it’s worth. But I can tell you without a doubt that it is weak, small and afraid.)
Because of this goodness, we have developed an abundance of several items:

• High end bread.
• High end bagels.
• Clothing.

I am now getting bagels 7 days a week. Sometimes that includes bread as well.
On Friday mornings I get crazy good bread.
These are all yesterday’s baked goods. But I can tell you from personal experience: You would never know it.
This stuff is fluffy, fresh and delicious.
But I need help getting these items to the people.
The people here at The Homeless Charity have thought that Haven of Rest and Hope Cafe could use them. I would love that. But I don’t have any good contacts those places. If you know someone there could you pass this message along?
I would love to give these to any group that comes in contact with people that might enjoy these items.

I NEED YOUR HELP!

Can you think of some people that might want these?
The only thing is they would need to come and get them at 15 Broad Street in Akron. This stuff is here by 9:00am every morning Monday – Friday. If you need them on the weekend we might be able to arrange something else.
While I’m writing, I also want to let you know that we get an abundance of clothes. If you know of a group that could use clothing please let me know also.You can call me at: 330-416-7519
And if you know of any individuals that might need them please pass this message along.
You can come pretty much any time Monday through Friday 9-5. At 15 Broad Street in Akron. If I’m not here just let someone know that you are here for bread or bagels or clothes and they’ll hook you up.
I really don’t care what you use them for. Just don’t sell them!
Fundraisers. Church gathering. Picnics. Come and get ’em!
Come: Monday through Saturday 9-5.
Sunday 12-5.
15 Broad St.
Akron, Oh 44305
330-416-7519