Each year the Quad Cities has a Low-Barrier Winter Overflow Shelter from December to April 15.
This shelter has for many years been situated in Davenport and hosted by King’s Harvest and most recently Humility Homes. The model is built around regional buy-in, where each city invests financially into the host site.
In theory this seems logical, but in practice it is highly problematic. First, the host city feels overrun as people from various locations within a region converge in an area where businesses and neighborhoods have negative interactions with people experiencing homelessness. This breeds contempt for the sister cities, which in their minds send their “problems” to them. Second, when only one city has a low-barrier winter overflow shelter, those experiencing homelessness have to uproot themselves from their surroundings where they have established routines for survival, friendships and relationships.
This sense of uprooting dislodges them from people who support them with food, or a few dollars, or at the very least people and family members who keep an eye out and know where they can generally find their severely addicted or mentally ill loved one.
Considering this, I simply ask, “why can’t we create a Shelter in Place model for each city?”
We should not expect them to make an annual pilgrimage every winter or be transported at night out of their community of choice. Let me be clear, I am not advocating for separatism but a collective approach where the region is united to end homelessness and poverty.
Like an athletic team, each member plays their role or position. Likewise, each city must do its part and carry its weight of responsibility in areas of poverty elimination and end homelessness for our Quad Cities to win.
Ending poverty and homelessness is not the sole challenge of city planners, city councils, or the chambers of commerce, nor is it the sole responsibility of our nonprofits. If one city in our region is being overwhelmed with socio-economic challenges, we collectively suffer. Unified we can widen the landscape of economic security and stabilize our region for our urban and rural communities.
Second, we must overcome the common enemy of our collective humanity, indifference! It is the one thing which will dim the vision of a bright future. Indifference sinks hope in a pool of despair and submerges possibilities under the floodwaters of ethnocentric judgement.
We are at our best when we stand up and demand justice, when we step up and demonstrate commitment and speak up to amplify the concerns, aspirations, and challenges of others.
The Rev. Dwight Ford is executive director of Project NOW and senior pastor at Grace City Church in Rock Island. He can be reached at [email protected].
