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Letter to the editor

An eye-opening experience

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published June 13, 2007

When Lakewood United Church of Christ announced plans to put up homeless people at its church, neighbors reacted angrily.

They called, sent e-mails and wrote letters to the congregation and complained to national and state leaders of the church's denomination.

Some said they were afraid to let their children play outside and some complained of being harassed at a nearby supermarket.

The church stood its ground. For 11 weeks, more than two dozen homeless men and women lived under its roof. Some found work. A few did odd jobs around church property. Two died. Several were asked to leave.

It was an eye-opening experience, said the Rev. Kim Wells, pastor of the congregation on the edge of Lakewood Estates. Yet, she'd do it all over again.

"We learned a lot about homelessness. We learned a lot about the different challenges these people face in getting themselves re-established as productive citizens, " the pastor said.

"We learned a lot about our internal dynamics, about our congregation and working with each other. We learned lessons, which, if we had known from the beginning, we could have been effective and organized from the beginning. It took us about three weeks to hit the stride of what we were doing."

Prompted by an advocacy group, the church announced in early March that it would offer to help ease the city's growing homeless problem. A tent city was to be dismantled and the church and homeless advocates were concerned that the space city officials were preparing would be inadequate.

The Lakewood congregation initially agreed to take several dozen homeless people for 30 days and put them up in tents on church property, but the city turned down a request for a permit for such accommodations. The congregation then decided to put its "guests" in the church building. It's where about 30 men and women found shelter before moving to permanent housing or treatment programs about two weeks ago.

Neighbors are relieved. Milford Strong, who lives nearby, said the congregation of about 70 was unprepared to handle such a project. Besides, he said, the church had failed to consult its neighbors.

"We were caught off-guard. You had no say-so, " said Strong, who arranged a meeting with some residents and Wells. "We gave her our concerns that this was not conducive to the neighborhood and that the church should always have an open relationship with the community it sits in, " he said.

"There are some incidents that happened up at Albertsons, where some of the homeless people were rude to the customers. It was just one of those things where you were taking a problem and bringing it into a residential neighborhood, where the city had already designated temporary housing. They had no idea what they were doing. They were bringing unnecessary stress and anguish into a community."

Wells said she was stunned by the outcry from the neighborhood. "We knew that we would get a significant negative response, but it was stronger and longer than we thought, " she said.

"What shocked me the most was every call we got, people asked, 'Why are you doing this?' We heard this over and over and over again. We said we believe that this is part of our calling in following the teachings of Jesus, and they were astounded."

Yet, said the pastor, many neighbors later offered clothing, food and other help.

Homeless advocate the Rev. Bruce Wright said he believes the effort at the Lakewood church worked well. He hopes other congregations would follow the congregation's lead. "It's manageable, " he said. "It was definitely a good thing."

On May 24 Lakewood United Church of Christ hosted a gathering for other neighborhood churches to encourage them to participate in a similar but scaled-down project.

"We were very pleased with the turnout, " Wells said. "We had lunch and all the food was prepared by our homeless guests."

Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at 727 892-2283 or moore@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 12, 2007, 22:41:53]