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This week a few of my friends and I went camping in one of my friend’s RV. We spent the day in various activities and wrapped up the day with a light dinner and got ready for bed. As we were about to head to bed the carbon monoxide alarm starting going off. We pushed the reset button and silenced it and went on about our business. About 5 minutes later it went off again. We silenced it again. 5 minutes later it went off again. By this time it occurred to us that this alarm was probably going to be going off all night unless we either 1) figured out why it was going off and address the root cause ; or 2) disconnect the alarm. A quick assessment of the environment lead us to believe that we were in no danger and that the alarm was either ultra sensitive to something in the air or malfunctioning. But the real issue was that the alarm was hard-wired into the RV so it was no simple matter to disconnect it.
It was already late in the night and we were ready to go to bed. Frustrations begin to rapidly grow as every few minutes the alarm would go off. All I could think about was how my planned night’s sleep was going to be regularly interrupted by the alarm. This was not good!! We all needed our sleep. And to think about having to sleep with one ear listening for the alarm so as to not be scared to death when it went off was just not acceptable. We read the owner’s manual to try and figure out how to disconnect the alarm but there was nothing giving us those instructions.
As we jumped up every few minutes to hit the reset button on the alarm it occurred to me that this must be something like my friends living on the street experience every night. They’d love to have a good night’s sleep – uninterrupted and quiet. But most of them lay down for the evening in fear of being woken up by passers-by, by the weather or by the police. They know they can’t get too comfortable because a siren might come screaming by and wake them up. That’s life on the street – not just one night but every night.
Within about a hour we found the fuse box for the RV and pulled the fuse powering the alarms so we had our quiet night’s sleep. Simple solution once we were able to figure it out. I just wish it was that simple for the people looking for a good night’s sleep on the streets of Nashville.
6.8.10
It’s been about a little over 3 weeks since the Red Cross shelter closed and two week since about 50 people had no other choice but to move onto the property in Antioch generously offered by Lee Beaman. Make no mistake about it this was not how it was supposed to happen…
From the day after the flood there was no doubt that a need would exist for another emergency and transitional living arrangement to take the place of Tent City. Those most familiar with the homeless situation in Nashville saw the “opportunity” afforded by the flood to change the model of Tent City while some saw it as a chance to eliminate that particular rung altogether.
So while meetings were going on during the time in the shelter the focus was on long term housing solutions, namely Section 8 vouchers. Make no mistake about this either – eventually having 70 vouchers allocated to help homeless people displaced by the flood is a great thing. But it has not and will not eliminate the need for the rung on the ladder to housing that was filled by an emergency and transitional arrangement. Rationalizing that the Mission or the Campus can fill that rung is just not the truth. Both of those organizations fill an important role but they admit themselves that they are not structured to be an emergency and transitional housing model like that envisioned by the “new Tent City”.
Everyone associated with the old Tent City knows that model was not working as well as it could. There was both a perceived and real image problem – alcohol, drugs, violence and lack of respect for law and order. And so when the people of Antioch heard that Tent City was being relocated to their community they screamed. No one ever thought to call the Red Cross shelter that had been in the middle of Green Hills by the name of Tent City. It was an emergency shelter and folks were OK with that. There were rules and security that had to be enforced. Yes people could come and go, they could walk down the streets around David Lipscomb and yet there was no neighborhood outcry. There were no community meetings to debate the merits of opening the shelter. It was an emergency and that’s just what people do.
If there was a failure on the part of Metro and the faith-based groups trying to work behind the scenes as the shelter was closing perhaps it was a failure to communicate that an emergency still existed and there was a real need for another kind of shelter. What was set up in Antioch is NOT Tent City. There are rules and registration and security. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. And neither was the arrangement at Lipscomb or the prior arrangement on the Cumberland River called Tent City.
What really happened was that politics got ahead of love for our neighbors. The folks flooded out of Tent City are not taxpayers or voters (although most would love to be). When faced with disasters in residential, commercial, entertainment and business areas all on the heels of the CMA, it makes perfect sense that the priority would be on those areas. No one argues that. But prioritizing and intentionally ignoring are very different. No one is going to step up and say who made the decision to ignore the impending disaster when the shelter closed and there was no place for the folks to go. The response by the faith community to step up and not let it be swept away has brought it to light and the powers that were in control are pretty frustrated with us. (That’s not speculation – I’ve been told that to my face). What’s interesting to me is why the frustration is with us. Just because we didn’t walk away? Did they really think that people of God would do that? Does that say more about the faith groups or the power groups?
Listen to the words by Derek Webb from his song Love is Not Against the Law:
Politics or love can make you blind or make you see
Make you a slave or make you free
And only one does it all
And it’s giving up your life
For the ones you hate the most
It’s giving them your gown when they’ve taken your clothes
It’s learning to admit when you’ve had a hand in setting them up
And knocking them down
Because love is not against the love
Are we defending life when we just pick and choose
Lives acceptable to lose and which ones to defend
Because you cannot choose your friends
But you choose your enemies
And what if they were one and the same
Could you find a way to love them both the same
To give them your name because
Love is not against the law
But that’s all water under the bridge (sorry for the pun). There are solutions to the issue at hand. Antioch can rest easy to know their image is back in their hands. The emergency shelter on the Beaman property will be gone by July 5. But just like the powers in control, that doesn’t mean the issue is going away. There still is a need for this rung in the ladder and it’s not going away. Perhaps we’ve come to place that we can all sit down together and come to short-term and long-term solution.
From the day after the flood there was no doubt that a need would exist for another emergency and transitional living arrangement to take the place of Tent City. Those most familiar with the homeless situation in Nashville saw the “opportunity” afforded by the flood to change the model of Tent City while some saw it as a chance to eliminate that particular rung altogether.
So while meetings were going on during the time in the shelter the focus was on long term housing solutions, namely Section 8 vouchers. Make no mistake about this either – eventually having 70 vouchers allocated to help homeless people displaced by the flood is a great thing. But it has not and will not eliminate the need for the rung on the ladder to housing that was filled by an emergency and transitional arrangement. Rationalizing that the Mission or the Campus can fill that rung is just not the truth. Both of those organizations fill an important role but they admit themselves that they are not structured to be an emergency and transitional housing model like that envisioned by the “new Tent City”.
Everyone associated with the old Tent City knows that model was not working as well as it could. There was both a perceived and real image problem – alcohol, drugs, violence and lack of respect for law and order. And so when the people of Antioch heard that Tent City was being relocated to their community they screamed. No one ever thought to call the Red Cross shelter that had been in the middle of Green Hills by the name of Tent City. It was an emergency shelter and folks were OK with that. There were rules and security that had to be enforced. Yes people could come and go, they could walk down the streets around David Lipscomb and yet there was no neighborhood outcry. There were no community meetings to debate the merits of opening the shelter. It was an emergency and that’s just what people do.
If there was a failure on the part of Metro and the faith-based groups trying to work behind the scenes as the shelter was closing perhaps it was a failure to communicate that an emergency still existed and there was a real need for another kind of shelter. What was set up in Antioch is NOT Tent City. There are rules and registration and security. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. And neither was the arrangement at Lipscomb or the prior arrangement on the Cumberland River called Tent City.
What really happened was that politics got ahead of love for our neighbors. The folks flooded out of Tent City are not taxpayers or voters (although most would love to be). When faced with disasters in residential, commercial, entertainment and business areas all on the heels of the CMA, it makes perfect sense that the priority would be on those areas. No one argues that. But prioritizing and intentionally ignoring are very different. No one is going to step up and say who made the decision to ignore the impending disaster when the shelter closed and there was no place for the folks to go. The response by the faith community to step up and not let it be swept away has brought it to light and the powers that were in control are pretty frustrated with us. (That’s not speculation – I’ve been told that to my face). What’s interesting to me is why the frustration is with us. Just because we didn’t walk away? Did they really think that people of God would do that? Does that say more about the faith groups or the power groups?
Listen to the words by Derek Webb from his song Love is Not Against the Law:
Politics or love can make you blind or make you see
Make you a slave or make you free
And only one does it all
And it’s giving up your life
For the ones you hate the most
It’s giving them your gown when they’ve taken your clothes
It’s learning to admit when you’ve had a hand in setting them up
And knocking them down
Because love is not against the love
Are we defending life when we just pick and choose
Lives acceptable to lose and which ones to defend
Because you cannot choose your friends
But you choose your enemies
And what if they were one and the same
Could you find a way to love them both the same
To give them your name because
Love is not against the law
But that’s all water under the bridge (sorry for the pun). There are solutions to the issue at hand. Antioch can rest easy to know their image is back in their hands. The emergency shelter on the Beaman property will be gone by July 5. But just like the powers in control, that doesn’t mean the issue is going away. There still is a need for this rung in the ladder and it’s not going away. Perhaps we’ve come to place that we can all sit down together and come to short-term and long-term solution.
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