"HOT MESS" Starting now homeless crackdown in Austin Texas

Endeavourer

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Good way to put that ! "no earthly idea"..... haha.....

Your replies were reminding me of a saying that I partially quoted..lol.

When people have a need, if you have the means provided by God (and everything we have is provide by God - or every good gift is from Him) , meet the need.

It takes a bit of our time and energy to love on someone and help them understand/run the errands they need in order to be a functioning household, but you don’t need a lot of financial resources. Your life experience applied to what they need next goes a long ways. And giving the person you are helping a way to reach you for emergencies.

Love is often spelled t-i-m-e.

At our church... truly an gathering of members of the ekklesia like none other I’ve had the privilege of fellowshipping with...... we team up so no one person is bearing the full burden.

This is standard practice among Ekklesia in some assemblies/ in some countries or every country. It is just a few though, out of many multitudes of people ("many on the wide path to destruction") as Jesus Says Plainly.
 
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Endeavourer

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The assembly of Ekklesia in the NT also obeyed the RULE: IF A MAN WILL NOT WORK, neither should he eat. Properly administered / carried out/ with mercy and justice in truth, the man who will not work learns what work to do , EVEN IF IT IS NOT A PAYING JOB - but say volunteer/ 'free' service/ for the assembly, ALL WORKING

Would you agree that it is difficult to assess their willingness to work until you try to help them take the steps necessary to get work?

I’ve been very shocked at the nonexistent life skills some adults...and adult parents...have that preclude them from even knowing how to get set up and how to function. They want to function independently but they can’t think past today. Our job has been to come beside them and mentor them into looking towards tomorrow.

True story... a woman we were helping received $130 in food stamps to feed her and her son for the month. She lived in a food desert and had no transportation. We were happy to run her to the store and would pay for whatever food stamps didn’t cover. But she would run out of food money because she would spend $30 on a giant Kit Kat bar for herself, some sodas and junk for her baby from an expensive ghetto corner store. She truly just couldn’t think ahead. When I saw her putting Dr. Pepper in her baby’s bottle I had to stop her to let her know that was NOT ok and to give him the milk she had just put in the fridge instead.

She wasn’t homeless because she thinks like you and me. She wasn’t homeless because she is lazy. She’s homeless because her thinking is broken. We had to give her some help to think ahead better.
 
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miamited

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HI MM,

Now who can really say that they do that
100% of the time.

So, is your point that since none of us are able to keep the law, then none of us should try? I shouldn't strive to love all, including my enemies, because no one can do that 100% of the time. How about we try this time. Let's forgive ourselves for all the times the we've failed God in what He asks of us, and keep trying to do what He asks of us. To love others as ourselves. Even though we know that in our human natural sinful nature we can't do it 100% of the time, wouldn't you think God might want us to then strive to keep the commands of His Son 90% of the time or even 50% of the time? Or, do we just throw up our hands and tell God that we can't do it and so mistreat and abuse and not give a hand up to others because we are sinners who can't keep the law at all?

God bless,
In Christ, ted
 
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Endeavourer

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So, is your point that since none of us are able to keep the law, then none of us should try? I shouldn't strive to love all, including my enemies, because no one can do that 100% of the time.

Or, do we just throw up our hands and tell God that we can't do it and so mistreat and abuse and not give a hand up to others because we are sinners who can't keep the law at all?

Ted, did you miss this comment of MM? Your reproof seems out of line:

I've been working with the homeless for close to 50 years now. I have helped them with Bibles, food, employment, taken them to church and given them a lot of monies over the years.

Ted, what have you found that works the best in your efforts to help the homeless?
 
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tulc

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Austin Braces As Texas Officials Plan Crackdown On Homeless Encampments - The Appeal

In recent months, large encampments underneath overpasses and outside the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, the city’s main downtown shelter, have become a flash point. Resident complaints and a from earlier this month—depicting a violent confrontation between a motorist and an allegedly aggressive panhandler—have sparked a backlash against the City Council’s decision to revise the ordinances. A newly formed PAC, Our Town Austin, has mentioned homelessness issues in its effort to recallthe mayor and some councilmembers. And Abbott has criticized the encampments as overcorrecting on homelessness at the expense of “public safety and common sense.”

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Seems like rather than worrying about all of the ones coming into the United States illegally we should start to take care of our own homeless population which has proven to be --
"one hot mess".

I've worked with the homeless for many years.
Taking on this issue is going to take a lot of resources.
M-Bob

(snip)
...lot of homelessness up there on the mountain? :scratch:
tulc(is just curious) :sorry:
 
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com7fy8

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Taking on this issue is going to take a lot of resources.
What can help is you know what already is available.

And if someone has decided to cooperate, this can work.

People can find many ways to get out of services.

But others can find ways to make things work, with what they've got.

It depends on who you are talking about.
 
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Mountainmanbob

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...lot of homelessness up there on the mountain? :scratch:
tulc(is just curious) :sorry:

I go to the City and see them everyday.
A friend who was homeless for many years gave me a token today. We support each other.

We have some homeless goats up here.
Want one or two?
Will send to you Special Delivery.
M-Bob
 
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miamited

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Ted, did you miss this comment of MM? Your reproof seems out of line:



Ted, what have you found that works the best in your efforts to help the homeless?

Hi endeavourer,

No, I didn't miss his post. In fact, I responded to that very post in a previous post.

Hi MM,

I have to agree with JW. While I applaud your work, whatever it was, to help the homeless, you'd honestly never understand that you're that kind and compassionate person by your posts. I also had a pretty similar understanding pop into my head when I read how tough and expensive and burdensome the problem of dealing with the homeless was going to be, according to your treatise, I couldn't help thinking about the movie 'Soylent Green'.

There are a lot ways that we can help the homeless and some communities are better at it than others. Some cities have a much bigger problem than others and that surely makes it tougher. However, the bottom line is that it will take a complete turn around in the way that most people see and deal with the problem. Jesus said that we would always have the poor with us and in today's world, being poor often means being homeless. In our society, having a roof over someone's head is always going to cost money. Until we can come up with some way to ensure that everyone has enough money to keep a roof over their head, or provide enough 'social' housing to just give such people a roof over their head, the problem will not be solved.

God bless,
In Christ, ted
 
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timewerx

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America is the destination most are seeking. They aren’t flocking to Iceland with all its merits. They want to come to the US.

Is Iceland in your future?

~Bella

Iceland isn't as popular as USA for immigration due to many reasons. But if someone from USA and Iceland offered me a job at the same time, I would definitely pick Iceland.

I know people who did made it to Iceland via skilled work and they felt like winning the grand lottery.

I have many relatives in USA and they struggle to get their kids into college. Those in Iceland are living care-free lives. Free education, free healthcare.
 
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bèlla

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I have many relatives in USA and they struggle to get their kids into college. Those in Iceland are living care-free lives. Free education, free healthcare.

Getting accepted into college is rarely a struggle. Paying for it is usually the problem.

Have you suggested they move? :)

~Bella
 
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timewerx

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Getting accepted into college is rarely a struggle. Paying for it is usually the problem.

Have you suggested they move? :)

~Bella

I think it's obvious what I meant is the payment.

A relative suggested to move but it's not easy, even for an American citizen.

Anyway, my point is not about immigration. But how much nicer a nation can be if everyone does not love/worship money.

Things flow smoothly and efficiently and there's not a lot of corruption and bureaucracy. Money goes where it should be and very little is wasted.
 
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bèlla

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I think it's obvious what I meant is the payment.

Getting accepted means gaining entry in our vernacular. No one would assume you’re referencing money.

Sin is a problem for the world. Iceland is no different. Satan didn’t give them a pass. An absence of poverty and loss of God isn’t a gain in His eyes.

Since the late 20th century, and especially the early 21st century, religious life in Iceland has become more diverse, with a decline of Christianity, the rise of unaffiliated people, and the emergence of new religions, notably Heathenry, in Iceland also called Ásatrú, which seeks to reconstruct the Germanic folk religion. A large part of the population remain members of the Church of Iceland, but are actually irreligious and atheists.

~Bella
 
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Jonathan Walkerin

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We have some homeless goats up here.
Want one or two?
Will send to you Special Delivery.

Maybe send them to Trump ? He and Jared seem to need endless supply of scapegoats so they would be delighted with those.
 
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Pioneer3mm

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I was involved in 'homeless ministry'...some years ago.
- Help/assistance in temporary housing, food..etc.
- They ( homeless ) had to go through 'interviews and paper work process.'
- I learned a bit about..what 'homeless' means.
----
Interesting to note.
Many of them came from 'affluent area/region'.
During the interview, I asked them.
- Why come to us? ( we had limited resources.)
- I assumed that they can get more help there.
They said, "it is difficult to get assistance/help" - from affluent area/region.
- I was puzzled.
- Later on, I found out..what they told me was true/accurate.
Not much help from there.
----
I am saying this from my experience in homeless ministry.
It is possible that others might have different perspective/experience.
 
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Endeavourer

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They said, "it is difficult to get assistance/help" - from affluent area/region.
- I was puzzled.
- Later on, I found out..what they told me was true/accurate.
Not much help from there.
I can understand this.

A ministry to the homeless gains a lot of expertise over time as to what is necessary in order to help.
Affluent areas don't have the volume of clients you would need to build that expertise. Helping without that expertise is very discouraging because nothing changes in the homeless person's life. They just burn through your resources and are no better off. They need mentoring on how to fix their broken thinking.

My sister is involved in ministering to children from severely dysfunctional homes. She introduced an initiative at her church where people volunteer to be mentors to a child and visit them at the school for an hour or so once per week. It's a program that has been set up and standardized by some people experienced in this ministry that can be replicated and rolled out by other churches.

Her materials said that every time a child has a positive interaction with an adult, a connection in their brain forms. They need multiple connections to be formed each day or else when they mature they are missing these connections and it affects their ability to think for the future. This is one reason why poverty can be generational. A child raised in dysfunction and without positive parenting is missing a piece of intellect that couldn't form during his upbringing. Their thinking wants to consume their resources for the moment rather than planning for the next step.

Once she told me about this aspect I realized that was what we were seeing. Our help was being consumed but not applied for the next step.

We've had to give some tough love over this. One example is that we put a dear sister in Christ up for two weeks in a hotel - one week to recover from an assault, and another week while on the waiting list for a shelter. After the second week we told her to call in the morning to get her spot at the shelter that had come available (we confirmed they had a spot). The next morning she called but she hung up every time she was put on hold, until when her call finally got through all of the spots were gone. We had already invested at least $1,000 in her needs and she had several times done things that didn't help herself, like abandon half of the diapers we had given her, throw away some of the clothes we had given her etc. She had about $150 in cash from her paycheck when we paid for her hotel for the second week. We left her with food, her money (of course) but she also had food stamps and WIC. She spent the week in the hotel not even using the breakfast buffet or the food we left but instead spending her last $170 on restaurant food and junk food.

When the week was over and she hadn't secured her spot at the shelter, she didn't even have bus money left. I had put some money on her bus card earlier (which she also mostly wasted), but there was enough money left that she could ride the bus all night to stay warm. We did not step in to buy another hotel night, even though she and her baby were on the street, because she needed to understand the outcome of her bad planning. Around 11:30 pm my son was so worried about her that he called the shelter and asked if they could at all take her in - that she was currently on the streets with a baby. They made an exception we aren't aware of them making before (they want to do intake work and the social workers are not there at night), and said if she called they would let her in. She did, so my son sent an uber to her bus stop to bring her to the shelter. If the shelter hadn't taken her, he was going to go find her and let her sleep on his couch - he just didn't have the stomach for a baby to be homeless.

And the ending to that chapter of the story illustrates why affluent people's help can be enabling rather than helping if they give the kind of help someone with a thought process like theirs would put to good use. And, helping that way is discouraging because you just gain a dependent rather than actually helping someone.

The next chapter of this dear sister in Christ's story still had some very poor decision making, but she is slowly moving towards self reliance. The journey takes a long time and has mis steps. It similar to the process of raising a child. Restoring broken thinking takes time and mentoring. There will be failures in their thinking and behavior as they are learning a new way of life (planning for tomorrow), but there doesn't have to be failures in your loving on them.
 
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tulc

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yeshuaslavejeff

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Hi YSJ,

While I understand and agree that the outcome for those without God is different from those who are children of God, I don't find that the Scriptures say that we are to 'care for' either group any differently. Jesus said that we were to treat 'others' as we would want to be treated. He didn't qualify those 'others' as believers or non-believers.

God bless,
In Christ, ted
For somewhere else - i.e. another section or thread -
in the original languages
I believe Yahuweh shows quite a difference , as well as the observable results, between those obedient and those not obedient, and sometimes if not often shows things in order as in "FIRST", "SECOND", "AFTER FIRST AND SECOND"..... (most obvious - do not neglect father and mother or family, and say korban instead of caring to be helping , or rather to appear to help, someone else).... likewise also "to the Jew first, and then the gentiles (even Yahuweh did this); and probably to "members of the assembly (of faith), first, then outsiders; and so on..... Yahuweh's Directions Always.
 
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yeshuaslavejeff

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It takes a bit of our time and energy to love on someone and help them understand/run the errands they need in order to be a functioning household, but you don’t need a lot of financial resources. Your life experience applied to what they need next goes a long ways. And giving the person you are helping a way to reach you for emergencies.
As long as if someone has a need for $5.47 and asks for that , it is given freely expecting nothing back in return, that might be okay. But to say , "go and pretend you are helped (go and be warm)", yet not giving what is needed when it is already at hand available to be given, would be/is/ sinful as Jesus Says.
 
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