Thoughts Regarding the Eau Claire Day Resource Center
If we created a Venn Diagram of our work as an organization, housing instability and the unhoused population would be found in its various intersections.
While my lived experience does inform me of what it feels like to not have a safe place to call home and to be “othered”, it doesn’t include having no home at all. I know that it’s because of privilege that I was never unhoused (though looking back I realize how close I’ve come a few times), so I’ve tried to use it to uplift the work and voices of our providers and community partners who know far more about what it’s like than I do.
This first half of 2024 has been a bit… busy… for us here at At The Roots LLC and I’ll admit that as the discussions surrounding the proposed Day Resource Center started taking shape, I wasn’t giving it a whole lot of attention. Not because I didn’t think it was important, rather my attention was spread very thin so I didn’t have a lot to spare and I knew some very good people were working on it. Some of my staff began sharing bits and pieces of what they were hearing with me, and honestly, it seemed like a pretty good plan.
I noticed it was becoming a hot topic on social media and in the news. On the surface, there appeared to be two stances being taken. Either you were a compassionate person who cared about people and were FOR the Day Resource Center wherever it went or you were a heartless bastard who didn’t care about your unhoused neighbors and just wanted them out of your sight. Pretty cut and dried, it seemed, so I filed it under “FOR” in my brain.
But lately, questions from our team and community members regarding how I feel about the Day Resource Center have become more frequent. It keeps popping up in unexpected meetings, conversations, and seemingly unrelated spaces so I decided to listen to nudges and learn more about it.
This led me to attend the Day Resource Center Community Meeting on June 18th (CLICK HERE FOR THE RECORDING OR WATCH BELOW). I wanted to hear, firsthand and with my own ears, the proposed plans, challenges, and thoughts of our community members. I intended to listen, observe, and absorb.
Frankly, it was less heated than I’d expected and I left feeling a lot differently than I had going in.
Here’s the thing, my lived experience doesn’t include being unhoused but it certainly has given me some very specific traits and skills. Namely, my brain is really good at finding patterns, I can think logically and strategically about the big picture while also working out the details, and my bullshit detector is strong while my tolerance for it is weak. That weird (but mostly loveable) brain of mine has been chewing on everything it heard at that meeting for the last week and the truth is…
I don’t support the Day Resource Center.
Let me explain why…
First, Western Dairyland and Hope Gospel made it abundantly clear that they were not planning to add any new services.
Rather, the intent was for their housing-related programs to have an onsite presence in a space where Hope Gospel was operating a day shelter …sorta. Their plan includes space for other outside programs and organizations that serve the unhoused population to utilize on rotation or as needed. From what I gathered, they believe that having all of these services in one space is enough to make a difference without adding additional services.
Some of the community members who spoke shared experiences of trying to access services, get help, etc. but reported facing endless barriers and systems that are ineffective, understaffed, and broken. I can validate their claims with my personal experience, as I imagine anyone who has had to engage with any social program could.
But what this group is implying is that the problem is just that the various services and organizations are simply too scattered. All we need to do is put them in one building and everything will fall into place.
This is, to put it bluntly, complete bullshit.
Nothing is stopping all of the programs and organizations in this city from working together right now.
It’s 2024, not 1802.
They don’t need to be in the same building to communicate, collaborate, and help people. Being in the same building won’t change the understaffing, underfunding, or unnecessary competition between entities. It won’t end the existing silos that the work is being done in or push us to question WHY things are the way they are.
If the existing entities were able to openly collaborate and the programs were effective enough as is to truly address the problem – they would have done it already.
All this proposed Day Resource Center does is give them a brand new, six-million-dollar building in which to conduct business as usual.
The argument was made that by making it a ‘one-stop shop’ transportation would become less of a barrier.
This is mostly bullshit.
Sure, if a bunch of incredible programs were all housed under one roof it would make it easier for everyone (unhoused or not) to access the services they need. But the organizations/programs need more work before they’re ready for that and the plan they shared doesn’t have ALL of them available at one time. Many would be rotating in or borrowing space as needed.
That doesn’t create a one stop shop, at least not consistently. (Plus, I think the library is already doing something like this.)
Technology alone could create a more consistent one-stop shop where people could access multiple programs virtually from wherever they could access the internet, rather than trying to funnel them through one building.
More importantly, the barriers with transportation don’t end after meeting with a service. For example, let’s say you went to this magical one-stop shop and they helped you apply for jobs and set up some interviews. YAY!
But then, how do you get to the interviews? And after that, how do you get to work reliably every day?
Putting all of these services together as a solution to transportation barriers is backward.
If we’d put all of that money towards free public transit, all of our community members would have an easier time accessing services, work, and play. We would be creating far greater independence and autonomy for everyone. (Not to mention less traffic, pollution, etc.)
My second major objection to all of this is the organization running the Day Resource Center - Hope Gospel Mission.
As a religious organization, they’re free to create programs that are “bible-based”. And while I’m sure that there are people who have found those programs to be helpful in their recovery, they’re not for everyone. I don’t know if they publicly release the number of people they graduate from their program and are able to stay in recovery vs how many have been involuntarily removed (or not “accepted” in the first place) but I couldn’t find it. Regardless, I would bet that there will be some of the latter that will need to utilize the Day Resource Center.
Imagine being in their shoes for a second.
When I questioned their leadership in this initiative and why our government would be funding a religiously based program, one government official told me that Hope Gospel Mission wouldn’t be evangelizing or using their faith as part of the Day Resource Center.
This seems unlikely given that one of their listed values is literally, “Evangelism (The Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to save and transform lives for the glory of God and we will not be ashamed of it).”
They also say in THIS DOCUMENT, “You do not have to be a Christian to join or complete our programs. At no point must you believe what Hope Gospel Mission believes.”
The problem is, just a few pages up in that same document they say, “We believe in the local church and the importance of it in edifying and equipping the believer for the work of the ministry. Every believer should be a part of a local church, serve within, and be accountable to it. We are not a church and will therefore partner with local Bible believing churches to provide this function.”
I think what they’re trying to say is that you don’t have to believe in the bible or Christianity but you’re damn well going to act like it if you want to receive help.
And don’t even get me started on what they call “work therapy”.
I could go on and on about how rehabilitation centers whose policies are not evidence-based at all hurt people (but to be fair, some that claim to be evidence-based do too). Policies that include things like… a relapse resulting in immediate expulsion and program termination when we know that relapse is a part of recovery …or not allowing people to be in a program if they’re using medication-assisted treatment (MAT)… or the requirement to wear gender-specific clothing (who decides that?!) all get me really fired up… but I won’t spend any more time on that particular soapbox today.
This isn’t actually about whether or not I approve of the methods they use in their private program, though.
But this is about inclusivity.
It’s about access.
It’s about ARPA and public funds.
It’s about honoring ALL pathways, not just the ones HGM decides are ok.
It’s about helping people regardless of their spiritual beliefs, clothing choices, or humanness which sometimes leads to setbacks.
As a private, religious organization they’re pretty much allowed to make up whatever policies they deem “biblically” justified. But that doesn’t mean that they’re the right choice to spearhead something that should be open-minded, flexible, community-focused, and non secular like a Day Resource Center.
So no, I don’t support the proposed Day Resource Center… at least not right now, in the way it was presented.
Here is what I hope happens:
I hope that the group working on this will, if they haven’t already, invite people currently within the unhoused community to act as advisors to the committee.
I hope they pay them because their LIVING experience is invaluable and they should be compensated for their expertise and consultation.
I hope that without needing to build another new building, the programs that do exist already will begin intentionally working together more efficiently, creatively, and collaboratively.
Lastly, I hope our community will start having these bigger, deeper discussions more often without rushing to find the quickest, most media-worthy solution. When it comes to complicated issues like homelessness, there isn’t one right answer and no single program/person/organization has it all figured out – no matter how much they claim to or how many keywords they add to their website.
It certainly takes a lot of expertise – both lived, worked, and educated.
But it also requires a sustained, collaborative, and thoughtful effort.
And it demands curiosity, humility, and honesty.
Often the initiatives that do the most good are the ones that address multiple issues at one time across the whole community (like free public transit, just saying) in conjunction with collaborating services.
It very rarely takes new a building alone.
HELPFUL LINKS:
Volume One Article (regarding the June 18th meeting)
Recording of June 18th Meeting
Western Dairyland’s Business Owner Survey
