Smoke and Mirrors!
The most obvious change is all the high rises that have sprouted up around the 10-story building I lived in for almost 25 years. Building up hasn't caused a reduction in poverty or homelessness. Those on the ground aren't getting any trickle-down relief. In stark contrast, I didn't have to look far to see a considerable increase in people sleeping in tents!
Uptown may look flashier and fancier, but I counted over 50 tents on my walks! Yes, over 50, and many of those tents have more than one person living in them. These are real people with real health concerns trying to navigate their way through their real daily lives. On one of my walks, an ambulance showed up to assist someone and ended up transporting them to a local hospital. It's sad! It's heartbreaking! The struggle is real!
Parking lots, grassy fields, abandoned schools, an old Burger King, a facility that once housed and supported youth and children, and a house where a gentle humble priest welcomed those in extreme poverty with Mass and a warm breakfast for decades are all condos now! (Rest in Peace Father Powell, you made this world a better and more loving place!)
What strikes me the most are the many buildings torn down to create bigger, brighter and better places to house a different and more affluent demographic! The question arises; where did all these real people with real housing needs go? Whereas some were fortunate enough to relocate into other housing, many ended up in shelters, squatting, couch surfing, and in the many tents just down the road!
Gentrification creates a false narrative. It's all smoke and mirrors! It pretends to be solving poverty as it's making more. It pushes some people out of the neighbourhood, relocating real needs into other areas. In Uptown, we've watched as buildings are flattened, we've watched their occupants leave with nowhere to go, we've watched new high rises go up that the previous renters can't afford and we've watched homelessness grow and more tents go up.
Property developers, politicians and powerful folk love to use smoke and mirrors. They want us to look up. They want us to be wowed. They want to tell us they're making our cities and neighbourhoods safer and nicer. What they don't want is for us to look around and see real people with real needs in real distress dealing with real trauma sleeping in real tents!
What troubles me is how those in power play with those who have none. What troubles me is how they get us to argue over who is worthy and who is not. What troubles me is how they divert our attention and how we fall for it. What troubles me is how fear is utilised as a powerful tool.
After almost a month in Chicago, we returned to Aotearoa, knowing that the Powers-That-Be in New Zealand also uses smoke and mirrors. We're being told that homelessness is being solved, but it certainly isn't! We're being told to look at the numbers, while they tell half-truths. It's just another game, affecting real people with real needs!
In Aotearoa, those experiencing homelessness don't go to homeless shelters like in America, they go to boarding houses, transitional housing and emergency hotels. Those in charge have a target to reduce the number of occupants in Emergency Hotels. They're aiming at that target and are successfully meeting that target. The last I heard, the number of families occupying hotel rooms has reduced from around 800 to around 140. That's a massive reduction, but it doesn't tell the full story, it's smoke and mirrors. It doesn't mean homelessness is being reduced, but it does mean it's harder for those in need to access these much-needed rooms. It means a policy change, not a reduction in homelessness!
In my personal opinion, privatised hotels are not the best solution and certainly aren't cost-effective options, but removing them without creating more viable help is negligent at best. I'm someone who works on the ground and knows many tangata experiencing homelessness. I see firsthand the consequences of these decisions, of these smoke and mirrors. It's discouraging because I know this 72% reduction of those living in hotels hasn't left more people housed, it's resulted in more people rough-sleeping, more people going into transitional housing, more people having to return to dangerous situations, more overcrowded houses, more people sleeping in their cars, and more people struggling in their desperation.
I write this to encourage us to look beyond the deception. I write this to encourage us to see through and beyond the smoke and mirrors. We need to look past the hype and see the person. The person who is real, with real needs, with real trauma, with real gifts and who has real love to offer this real world.
If we can go beyond all this deception, hype, lies and fake news, what will we see? We'll discover a reality we don't want to admit is happening in Aotearoa or America. This past week I've met an elderly lady in her 70s who's quite sick living in her car, a younger man sleeping under a bridge, a couple moving from unsafe location to unsafe location, another elderly woman in her car who's recovering from triple heart bypass surgery and a host of other people desperate to move out of their experience of homelessness and into safe affordable housing!
The problem is real and we have to stop pretending there isn't a problem! And we've got to stop pretending there isn't a solution.
The difference between "them and us" isn't character flaws, it has more to do with privilege and resources. Many don't have the means or options to prevent them from ending up in their car, in a tent, in a shelter, in an emergency hotel, or under a bridge!
Smoke and mirrors are used to create a distraction. They don't want us to see the humanity in those living in less fortunate circumstances. They want us to believe it's "them" and not us. They want us to believe that they created their own destiny. They don't want us to talk to or chill out with any perceived enemy. Proximity is powerful, as it heals, face-to-face time restores and allows us to "see them in us and us in them". Proximity breaks barriers and helps us see the "other" as human, as worthy of our love and time and respect.
The smoke faded and the mirrors were smashed when Jesus walked this planet. They told him to reject Zacchaeus, that he was an evil little man, but Jesus invited himself to his house for a feed! As a result, Zacchaeus repaid all the people he ripped off and gave much of his fortune away. They told him he shouldn't speak to the Samaritan woman at the well, but Jesus stopped and shared deep and meaningful revelations with her, freeing her and giving her unmistakable hope! Speaking of the rejection Samaritans received in 1st century Palestine, Jesus challenged and provoked his arrogant exclusive listeners with one of his most memorable stories by making a Samaritan the hero of his story about loving our neighbours! What if we followed the example of Jesus? How would we then treat our Palestinian neighbours? Our homeless neighbours? Or any neighbour who is judged, condemned and labelled? Proximity heals! Proximity restores. Proximity breaks down barriers. Proximity includes. Proximity promotes love!
My encouragement to us all: push through the smoke and mirrors and get to know our neighbours. All our neighbours! We'll discover the healing power of proximity. We'll discover that those we're encouraged to despise, or hate, or judge, or condemn aren't that much different from us. We'll discover a people with similar dreams, similar loves, similar goals, similar hopes, and similar joys, we'll discover a people who love their whānau and who want to create a better and more peaceful world. We'll discover the smoke and mirrors will vanish, and we'll be confronted by a beautiful and harsh world, where together we can move toward changing it to a more loving and equitable society.
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