Yesterday I rode my bike to Coyote Hills with my friend
Josue. We went to take pictures and make
a video to raise awareness about Measure W, a ballot measure in which Fullerton
voters get to decide whether to approve or deny a massive housing and retail
development on the last large natural open space in our community.
On the way back, Josue got a flat tire on his bike, so we
had a long time to talk as we walked our bikes home. Josue asked me what it was like growing up in
Fullerton. I explained how I was really
involved in my church, the First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, and how
that shaped a lot of my experienes.
Growing up in the church, I went on missions trips to places
like Mexico and Poland, to build houses and churches and “evangelize” to people
less fortunate than us. I felt good
about doing these things.
But something that we rarely talked about in church were the
real needs that existed in our own city, like homelessness and poverty. I always associated poverty with faraway
places. Living in a comfortable suburb
in Fullerton, it was easy to get this impression. It wasn’t until I moved to downtown Fullerton
in my mid 20s that I began to see that real needs existed right in the town I
live in.
Take homelessness, for example. There are hundreds of homeless people in
Fullerton, and yet there is no year-round homeless shelter. The only existing shelter I am aware of is the
Cold Weather Armory, which is only open during the winter months.
What there are a LOT of in Fullerton are churches. There are at least seven in the downtown area
alone. The fact that so many churches
exist, with all their resources, and no homeless shelter exists, is deeply
disturbing.
I asked my classes today why this might be the case. That is, why are there so many churches (who
have as their role model Jesus, a guy who cared deeply for the poor), and yet
no permanent homeless shelter in Fullerton?
How can such affluence and potential goodwill exist right alongside unmet
human need?
My students had some good insights as to why this might be
the case. One potential reason is
image. Orange County cities like Fullerton
tend to place a strong emphasis on image and “looking nice.” People invest huge amounts of money in houses
and home improvements and having nice lawns.
Churches (like the First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton) shell out
millions of dollars to build themselves state-of-the-art facilities, media
centers, parking structures, leisure areas.
Attending a service at my old church, or Saddleback Church, or Mariners
Church in Irvine, one is impressed by the size and quality of the
facilities. These churches value
“looking nice.”
Also, there are homeowner associations (HOAs) whose purpose
is to keep neighborhoods “looking nice” to keep those property values up.
Allowing a homeless shelter into one of these “nice”
communities might compromise this carefully constructed image. It might drive down property values. It might make neighborhoods appear
“ugly.” I remember a couple years back,
when a local politician started talking about building “affordable housing” and
various groups put out mailers saying “So-and-so wants to build low-income
housing in YOUR neighborhood!” As if
this was a terrible thing. If people in
Fullerton get that up in arms about “low-income housing” I imagine they would
not take kindly to a homeless shelter.
The solution to homelessness, in places like Fullerton and
Brea and Irvine and Newport is to simply not build homeless shelters, to
essentially keep poverty at a distance, to use police and buses to physically
herd the homeless from one place to the next.
In Irvine, for example, it is illegal to be homeless.
This, of course, does nothing to solve the homelessness
problem. It simply pushes it away, for other
communities to deal with.
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| This is my friend Ernie. Photo by my friend Josue. |
