Homeless Journal: Occupy Albuquerque

This is the first entry journaling my interactions with and observations about the homeless, as part of the upcoming street ministry I’ll be involved with. The writing will be informal and perhaps a bit disjointed, as I’m just trying to capture thoughts rather than write polemics or sermons. I’m posting these entries on my blog because I want to share, and hopefully open up some discussion.

The University of New Mexico has decided not to renew the permit for the “Occupy Albuquerque” group. One of the reasons they cite is the growing number of homeless people that have been joining “Camp Coyote” over the past week.

I’m of two minds on this. One one hand, the Occupy people have been very generous in sharing their food and water with the homeless, and bless them for that. You can call it socialism, I prefer to see it as simple kindness and human decency. By allowing the homeless to sleep among them, it’s provided a safe place for them to be. Any time the homeless are being taken care of, I want to put it in the “win” column.

On the other hand, I do worry about the homeless being exploited. Hand them a sign and now they’re a protestor, which automatically swells the movement’s ranks. Are the homeless doing this because they believe in the cause, or are they doing it in return for safety and resources? Is this unscrupulous, and possibly hurting the cause?

A number of the homeless at Camp Coyote are also friends and clients at Helping Hands, the outreach I work at. In talking to them about it, no, they’re not feeling exploited or leveraged. They’re there for the same reasons as the rest of the Occupiers. They’ve been hit by the downturn in the economy. They’ve lost their jobs, and are unable to find enough steady work to pay the rent. It’s they’re protest, too. They are the 99%.

I’ve been to Camp Coyote a number of times over the past few weeks, to talk with people. They are calm, quiet, respectful, and clean. I’ve seen clutter, of tents and signs and boxes of food and such, but no litter. It’s been a polite, peaceful protest, mostly people or standing, holding signs, handing out leaflets with information, willing to discuss the issues and why they’re there. It’s had to distinguish between the house and unhoused people, because they’re all dressed in warm, casual clothes and look a bit weather beaten from being outside so long. If you didn’t know some of the people were homeless, you really couldn’t tell them apart. So how, exactly, are “the homeless” posing a problem?

This local news clip show the camp; there are at least five homeless people that I work with regularly among them. Can you pick them out from the other protestors?

Violence has been cited as well in the decision to not renew the permit. There’s been exactly one instance — a passerby pulled a knife on a protestor. No one was injured, and in my research I don’t see that anyone was arrested or charged. UNM wants to point to this as a reason to shut things down. In my opinion, it’s as weak as saying the growing number of homeless poses a problem.

I was speaking with someone annoyed by the protestors, who think they’re just spoiled kids and lazy people who want something for nothing. I asked about the homeless, and the response I got boiled down to “it’s not like its working people who’ve lost they’re home, it’s just the normal homeless”. I’m appalled that there’s somehow an acceptable level of homelessness, that the reasons for homelessness matter, that people can be divided into “us” and “them” and compassion is reserved for those similar to us.

Saturday night there was a death, unrelated to anything else going on. A woman at Camp Coyote wasn’t feeling well and a homeless man, who from what I’ve read did not know her, told her to lie down on a bench and had her rest her head on his lap. He stayed with her and watched over her as she fell asleep. When she didn’t wake up, he asked a passerby to call 911. He stayed there, with her head on his lap, until police arrived and declared that she had died from what was later determined to be some sort of seizure. I have no idea if the woman was housed or unhoused, but the man’s compassion flies in the face of how some choose to paint the homeless — as selfish, only looking out for themselves, untrusting. This woman died with a man, probably a stranger, concerned about her and watching over her.

Harold (I don’t know his last name; I didn’t ask), the unofficial organizer at Camp Coyote, is scrambling to find a new location for the protest. I hope he finds a spot that’s not far off the beaten path where they won’t be seen. I hope it’s a place where the homeless can continue to participate. I hope that they’re able to get permits, and that the movement isn’t squashed and the homeless aren’t swept back under the rug and out of site.