They’re the see-through people.
That’s how “Paul,” who characterizes himself as a “missionary,” describes Pacific Beach’s homeless population.
Changing that perception is the first — and most essential — step to be taken to cross the homeless “divide” bridging the “caring gap,” said the self-styled evangelist, who voluntarily abandoned seminary school and a material lifestyle to pursue a spiritual “calling” out on the street.
“We look too much to government to solve our problems,” Paul said, noting the problem “really boils down to a human issue.”
“What happens is, people who are homeless tend to become invisible to those who are not homeless,” Paul said. “Each time someone walks by a homeless person and basically looks through them — It takes a little bit of humanity out of both the person sitting on the sidewalk, and the person walking by. When we lose our humanity, we lose our interaction, our pathos, our concern for our fellow human beings. We lose a little bit of the humanity in ourselves.”
Paul believes “solving” homelessness “has to come first from within each individual person.”
What could be done to help?
“The question isn’t what can be done to help the homeless problem,” Paul said. “It’s what can be done to help a homeless ‘person.’ If one person would walk up to another person, and simply ask, ‘What can I do to help?’ That is almost never asked. That’s the bottom line. In that interaction, that step forward, humanity is improved, humanity is added.”
“Buddha” as he is known in PB homeless circles, suffers from bipolarism and depression. Currently undergoing alcohol rehab, he spoke of attempting, after more than four years living on PB’s streets, to reverse his downward spiral by breaking the endlessly repeating “cycle” of “self-medicating” to anesthetize oneself against the pain of being rootless on the street.
One view Paul, the now-homeless evangelist, and Buddha, the recovering alcoholic, share in common is their conviction that homeless people need to be seen — and dealt with— as individuals. That they shouldn’t be treated as if they belong in some kind of one-size-fits-all category.
“Many of these people are victims of the economy who are on the streets because their finances became unsustainable because they got laid off, or their workplace downsized,” said Buddha, a former sales and marketing rep with a college degree who’s traveled the world. “The changing economy has shifted these people out of their homes and into their vehicles (or onto the streets), where they’re living like vagabond gypsies.”
Asked what he would do to resolve homelessness, Buddha said, “First and foremost, you have to have a central place where people can go and sleep and feel safe in a nurturing environment. Many of them (homeless) are highly intelligent and are interested in putting their lives back together. But finding an avenue to do so can be very difficult because society isn’t (exactly) rolling out the red carpet.”
A stroll along PB’s boardwalk during an early, mid-summer morning is an eye-opening — and heart-rending — experience.
Michael, a young Asian homeless man from Arizona, clutches a Mexican blanket someone gave him. When asked why he’s here, he replied, “The ocean.” Quizzed about his relationship with the non-homeless, Michael replied, “If you respect people, you get it back.”
Queried as to whether he would accept housing if it were offered, Michael said, “I don’t need that. I prefer here.”
Ellen, another weather-beaten, homeless person on PB’s boardwalk, is short on teeth but long on street experience.
Asked where she sleeps at night, Ellen replies, “In the (public) bathroom on the floor.”
Asked what could be done to help the homeless, Ellen answered, “We need the cops off our backs. We need somewhere to be. We used to have places to congregate, but (homeless) people are all hiding out (now).”
“I’ve lived here 30 years and pick up trash on this beach every day,” boasts Michael, another PB boardwalk homeless man who has his name tattooed on his neck.
“Jim,” from Lebanon, a middle-aged man who suffers from vision diminishment and is sober, said he came to the United States originally as a foreign student and to escape high unemployment in the war-torn Middle East.
Asked what could be done to help people like himself, Jim replied, “Maybe affordable housing. I get Social Security, but it’s not enough to rent a place.”
Of the present social system, Jim said, “It doesn’t work. It isn’t monitored properly. There’s a lot of room for improvement.”
“Homelessness is a huge problem, and it breaks my heart,” concludes Buddha, who is now grappling with the life-and-death personal struggle to break free from the iron-grip of the homeless lifestyle. Buddha, however, is convinced the homeless problem will only get worse unless society collectively deals with the problem head-on.
“Why not tackle the problem sooner rather than later?” asked Buddha adding, “It’s not going to go away by ignoring this issue, turning our heads, not doing anything about it and pretending it doesn’t exist.”
There is hope, however, Buddha believes.
“There’s a lot of different perspectives on homelessness and what leads up to it,” he said. “But most homeless, if offered the choice, would choose housing in a safe environment, re-education and assistance with their drug- and alcohol-abuse. There are a huge amount of homeless people who would take advantage of that. These people want to contribute and provide for themselves. These aren’t throw-away people.”