Waiting on you

Unity for the Homeless estimates that 12,000 people are living on the streets of New Orleans, twice the number pre-Katrina. No one knows how many more are living in flooded homes without heat and other utilities. We are facing a winter unlike anything we have seen in a generation.

The homeless crisis in New Orleans continues to mount as colder weather settles upon us. More than 300 people are now living in and around Duncan Park, according to latest estimates I have seen. Restrooms facilities are unavailable or horrific. It is a growing community of employed and unemployed persons with or without a political agenda but certainly without proper shelter and other essentials.

All functioning homeless facilities in the city are full now for both men and women. The shelters are turning away many people every day. Long lines trail for hours from the doors of these helping agencies.

I have heard many people asking why something has not been done. I stumbled on the answer this week in a meeting with Ruby Bridges. She desegregated public schools in New Orleans by walking into the William Frantz Elementary School as a six-year-old in 1960 escorted by four U.S. Marshals. Wednesday I met with her to talk about her old neighborhood and school. It just happened to be the 47th anniversary of that amazing moment in her childhood.

Ruby told us about an incident with her youngest son, Malcolm, several years ago when he was nine years old. He saw pictures of the Presidents of the U.S. and asked his mother, "Can a black person be president?" She thought about it for a moment and said, "Yes, Malcolm. A black person can be president." "Then why are there no black presidents?" Malcolm asked. "Well, Malcolm, I guess they're waiting on you," his mother replied.

Many important matters are still unattended in our city including the perplexing problem of homelessness. Somebody might ask why these problems remain unsolved. My first reply now is this: "I guess they're waiting on you."

The size of the homeless population is certainly daunting. But good people are addressing it one by one, providing food and warm clothes and shelter for a day. Truthfully, we can all help with this one. You may not be able to fix potholes or water lines or levees, but you can drive down to Duncan Plaza with last year's winter clothes and give them away. Your church or fraternity can collect items for the homeless and take them to the shelters.

I always feel better about a problem when I am actively doing what I can rather than standing back and cursing the darkness. In fact, you will feel hope rise up within you as you transfer your unused coat to someone who is shivering in the cold.

An initiative is now in the offing at New Orleans Mission to provide shelter and food for many more people through the colder months upcoming. We hope it will be up and running in a few days. It is likely to be full as soon as it opens.
Many of the homeless in our city are people who had a job before they came and thought they could work out their living situation when they arrived. They have discovered that rents are beyond their reach and that flooded homes are not decent shelter. Almost all persons staying nightly at the New Orleans Mission now are fully employed, the director told me.

No children should be lying cold and hungry in the streets of New Orleans tonight. We have the means to make sure that every child in our city is warm and fed. It's all a matter of deploying ourselves and our institutions, public and private, to address the need.

When you think of the homeless in our great city, think this: they're waiting on you.