Homelessness became a major issue in our country when the government made draconian cuts to low income affordable housing programs in the early 80's. Cities all over the land were forced to deal with thousands of homeless people living on the streets.
Three Houstonians responded with a novel idea. Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of the Catholic Diocese, Pastor Bill Lawson of Wheeler Avenue Baptist church, and Betty Bean, head of the United Way, formed the Houston Campaign for the Homeless. For the first time in the U.S., the churches and the United Way joined forces in a fund raising effort. I was asked by Bishop Yonts to represent the ELCA in that campaign and I chaired the committee that allocated the money raised in the Campaign.
At the same time, Pastor Ron Pogue of Bering Drive United Methodist Church began housing homeless men in his church during the winter months. After the first year, he asked neighboring churches to share the load. A member of a Jewish congregation had just purchased the buildings that now house the Montrose Library and the Black Lab restaurant and he offered those facilities for a shelter.
Christ the King Church was one of the churches to participate and we provided volunteers to spend the night, two nights a week, at the shelter. Malcolm Waddell, Ed Segner (who volunteered for Christmas Eve duty), Alan and Donna Dieter, Gary and Gretchen Miertschin, Fran Moncure, John McCluney, David Hollrah, Bud Wendt, Rebecca Shields and I were some of the people who participated. Fran Moncure remembers reading an evaluation sheet written by the shelter supervisor who said that the Christ the King Church volunteers were some of the nicest people to serve there. Donna Dieter went on to help Ron Pogue form the Houston Coalition for the Homeless.
One of the first projects funded from the Campaign was a study by the McKinsey Company, which led to a long-term plan for Houston. The most important recommendation was that the old Coalition for the Homeless which consisted of shelter providers only, be replaced with a new Coalition consisting of government, business, religious, and agency representatives. Our bishop asked me to represent the Lutherans on this new board of directors and I have been on the board since the early 90's.
Prior to the establishment of this new Coalition, Houston received no federal money to assist homeless people. The religious community had responded but the size of the problem was far beyond our ability to do much. In our best year, the campaign raised about $10 million, mostly from Roman Catholic and Jewish people. So our goal was to organize an effort to bring federal money to Houston and we have been successful - $130 million in the last ten years. More than half of this money goes to faith-based organizations like the Salvation Army, Star of Hope, SEARCH, and others.
Two people stand out as giants in the Houston community in our effort to help homeless people, Shelly Cypress and Earl Hatcher. I first met Shelly and Earl when they came before my allocation committee asking for start-up money for Shelly's new project she called SEARCH.
Shelly is a member of our neighboring congregation, Temple Emmanuel. Her founding principle is that homeless people have lost everything, but their most profound loss has been their dignity and respect. From the beginning, every homeless person who enters SEARCH for a meal is offered a seat at a table and then they are waited on by volunteers who treat them with dignity and respect. Because of Shelly's vision, SEARCH has grown to what it is today, but I truly believe it is her founding principle that is the deep source of SEARCH's success.
Earl Hatcher was Shelly's first employee and was a probation officer and social worker before joining forces with Shelly. With this background, his pragmatism complemented Shelly's vision. Earl feels passionately about the plight of chronically homeless men. He has taken me to the hidden places where these men hide and live and I have been moved by his compassion in reaching out to them.