2008 started out with our high energy level slamming into the usual official indifference.
In January, PUSH met with the city of St Augustine to explain our organization and request a seat at the table in upcoming roundtables on homeless solutions. After a few scheduling mishaps, we met with John Regan and were promised such a seat at forthcoming roundtables and a full accounting of the $15,000.00 allocated to St Francis House in a three month pilot program to house 30 extra homeless people during the months of November and December 2007 and January of 2008. The paperwork provided was incomplete and did not fully account for the money. An attempt at outreach to the Marketplace, a network of community leaders and business people, went unheeded at their January 08 luncheon meeting at Carrabas.
In February PUSH was riveted by a presentation by Zollie Goodman from Iraq Veterans Against the War. Zollie noted the numbers of young homeless veterans, many with post traumatic stress disorder, who are not receiving needed services, and who are prone to suicide and addiction related problems. He advised of the upcoming Winter Soldier event in Washington in March where veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq will recount their experiences to the public. Many in the PUSH meeting were moved to tears by his account. PUSH also researched two very successful faith based programs and presented outreach materials to members willing to approach local churches. PUSH also attempted to attend a board of directors meeting of the Emergency Services Homeless Coalition but was told the meetings were private.
March saw 2 PUSH members attend the statewide Homeless Advocacy days in Tallahassee on their own dime. Meetings were held with the aides for Senators King and Hill and members were able to garner fifteen private minutes with State Representative Proctor.
April was a real month of renewal for PUSH. The new PUSH website: www.pushsjc.org was unveiled. It’s an incredible source of information and resources for our area, well designed and beautiful. Members aligned themselves with the Society of St Andrews gleaning project and went out for the rest of the year, gleaning and bringing back to St Augustine literally thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to needy agencies and Food Not Bombs. Also in April, members were treated to presentations by Bob Balch of the Green Home Store who plans for smaller, affordable green housing units and Bill Lazar, from the St Johns Housing Partnership, who gave members an insightful overview of zoning and funding challenges. Secretive plans for the relocation of the new St Francis Shelter caused concern among all present.
In May, Ryan Day, who spent his semester break living as a homeless person and Amy Simpson, who did her senior thesis on perceptions of homelessness in St Augustine, presented the results of their research. Members were fascinated by both students’ indepth work and analysis of results. Both had post graduate plans for continuing their service work.
June saw PUSH presenting to the Democratic Womens Club, continuing gleaning work and supporting Food not Bombs and other county agencies with fresh vegetables. While PUSH suspended meetings over the summer, the steering committee continued to meet and plan for the fall. Members attended the Mayor’s open forum on Homelessness in July where the regional director for the US Interagency Council on Homelessness presented the outlines of a 10 year plan adopted by over 300 US cities. Mayors Boles and Obrien signed a proclamation to participate. The regional director, Michael German, was to return later in the year to continue the process. To PUSH’s knowledge, he has not. Members scheduled two meetings: one with Representative Proctor who promised to look into concerns and get back with us and despite numerous phone calls, never did and the other with County Commissioner Bryant, who provided PUSH with the history of the county’s attempt to address the homeless issue and the demise of the original planned shelter generously drawn up by architect Howard Davis.
In September, Memorial Presbyterian Church hosted 4 very well attended forums on homelessness with numerous presenters and attendance ranging to 100 people, including members of the homeless community. PUSH members attended all 4 and 2 members applied to be on the board of the new shelter, to no avail. Having been excluded from any discussions of the secret shelter, this was not a surprise. It is
also not a surprise that the shelter is now a non starter due to the huge cost. Also in September PUSH members presented two programs for homeless veterans to the veterans council. We received a cold reception for the two PUSH endorsed programs to help homeless veterans by the Veterans Council. The programs, Vets for Vets and Give an Hour, are low cost, hands on solutions. (Program descriptions on PUSH website). PUSH met with the sheriff separately and received a positive response from Sheriff Shoar who realizes a community can’t arrest homelessness. PUSH acquired a beautiful logo from Lindsey Buechler, Flagler graphic student and the design has been incorporated into ads, website and business cards. PUSH also participated in Memorial Presbyterian Church’s CROP walk for hunger. Also, plans were laid in October for PUSH to support the fifth consecutive year of St Augustine Food not Bombs. PUSH members contributed food and flyers and set up luminaries all around the downtown gazebo to celebrate the end of the first Annual March of the Impoverished. On November 10th, over 100 homeless, church members and citizens marched down St George Street from the Visitors Center to the plaza to share a huge Food not Bombs serving. The event was a huge success. Despite press releases, the Record chose not to cover the event and the Folio gave a short accounting ending with irrelevant statements by the Director of St Francis House, who had nothing to do with the event.
Also in November, PUSH learned of yet another secret meeting the Mayor was holding to formulate a steering committee to generate a 10 year plan to end homelessness. An unproductive plea to John Regan for PUSH to attend, as promised, any roundtable discussion on homelessness, necessitated 2 PUSH members crashing the breakfast meeting to take notes. PUSH, Food not Bombs and several homeless citizens also made their presence known at the entrance to the Mayor’s second annual fundraiser for the homeless shelter by holding signs with homeless statistics and thanking the guests for attending. Food not Bombs served a great spaghetti dinner right outside the door as guests entered. To round out a busy year, PUSH volunteers assembled gift bags for the 46 children living in transitional housing on Chapin Street in West Augustine. One member, dressed as a very credible Santa, called out the children's names and delivered their gifts on December 15th.
It’s been a great year. We’ve made a lot of connections and a lot of friends among the homeless in our area. We’ve learned a lot about alternatives to standard government approaches to homelessness and we learned what works and what doesn’t in our area. Some of our homeless citizens are coming out of the shadows and woods and finding their voices. We are determined to continue supporting them and advocating for workable solutions based on the incredible resources of our members and our community. We are stronger and more determined than ever going into our third year.
Thank you, each and every one of you, who made this year such a success.
--Mary Lawrence
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