Pulling Together

The membership meeting for the Okaloosa Walton Homeless Continuum of Care/ Opportunity, Inc. was held on Monday, following the 4th of July weekend. Meetings held on holiday weekends in the middle of summer are not generally well attended, but over 50 people came out to see what needed to be done to assist our homeless and extremely low income neighbors, and what they could do to help.

Working to end homelessness is like tackling an 50,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, and being handed a new piece every day. The end picture is a bit fuzzy, and we are still working on the outlines. But despite the challenges, we are steadily finding clearer focus.

About a month ago, caring individuals, churches and businesses in the Destin/ Fort Walton Beach area worked together to save the life of a child, and move her mother and two brothers into sustainable housing and employment.

A few days ago, Crestview individuals, churches and a business came together to help one of their own: an older man who had lost his job, and who, with his wife, was watching everything they had worked for over a lifetime fall apart. It's coming together again now.

Yesterday, a family in Walton County began going under for the count due to sudden huge increases in their utility bills. They had been on a tight budget for years, and were overwhelmed when power bills leaped from $100 to $500 a month. A church in DeFuniak Springs sent out a crew, which identified the malfunction in the heat pump, and began working with the power company to distribute the excess charges over a period of months. Other help from other sources is being arranged.

Tomorrow, a young woman whose life started falling apart when her best friend was murdered, will get a new start because six strangers heard of her plight and teamed up to pay the fees needed to get her into housing. Another set of strangers is providing basic furnishings. Still another person is helping her find work. While the young woman is located in Fort Walton Beach, assistance is coming from Santa Rosa Beach, Navarre, Niceville and Destin, as well as Fort Walton Beach and Shalimar. Word finds it way quickly into the hearts of those who are willing to take a chance on someone in need.

One of the questions posed Monday concerned the phenomenal growth of the Continuum of Care, as it reaches north and east and counts hundreds of individuals and scores of non-profits, churches and businesses in its ranks. "How do we know how we all fit together?" one very bright and discerning man asked. "When do we see the shape of the end design? How will we know when we have achieved success?"

These are good questions. Most of the time, I have no good answers. I come to the membership meetings sometimes, and see 65 people in Fort Walton Beach; 30 in Crestview; 25 in Destin; and 15 in DeFuniak Springs. Each one of these people represents anywhere from 5-500 people more. Committee meetings can easily attract 30 people.

It seems like yesterday (it practically was) when we were hard pressed to find 10 people to meet over the question of how to find a fourth church for cold nights, so that no church would have to take more than two cold nights a week. Homeless prevention and sustainability issues never even arose. The rate in which we have grown not just in numbers, but in maturity and sophistication while dealing with the issues involved in creating a better society, has blindsided me.

One task I am setting myself is to create a frame to illustrate the scope and depth of what all the various component parts of our group are doing, and how they inter-relate. Hopefully it will answer some of the questions that came up Monday, and will be a good sales piece when explaining Continuum function and philosophy to the general public. But it will just be the window dressing.

The real miracle of the Continuum does not lie in the policies, procedures and charts we create, though all those are important. The miracle lies in the same dynamic that created the story of Jesus and the loaves and fishes.

It was said that Jesus was given a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread, and fed thousands. Somehow, the fish and bread grew as they were handed from one person to the next. As a child, that story amazed me. As the head of the Continuum which receives 20 requests for help for every check that comes in, I now regard the story of the loaves and fishes as our business plan. It's the ordinary magic of a community working together - a community composed of rich and poor, north county and south, and filled with all religions, races and age groups. It's a community fueled by love, and driven by hope. I'm glad it's ours.