Tent Cities & No Crib for a Bed

                                                         Panhandler Jesus -- Timothy Schmalz

 1 Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,

the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.

The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay,

the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

Last Saturday the Globe and Mail included a multi-page article about homelessness, one of the lengthiest I've ever seen in the weekend newspaper which often offers long-form pieces on a variety of subjects. It was written by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall who was homeless years ago, somewhat by choice, and is his reflection on the current nation-wide crisis of precarious housing with a focus on Toronto, his home now, and Vancouver. 

He writes about the encampment which is cheek by jowl around Saint Stephen in-the-Fields Anglican church, only two blocks from where he now lives and not far from the daycare attended by his son a decade ago. Saint Stephen has been in the news a lot lately because the encampment, supported by the congregation, is actually on city property, a park, so it has been cleared more than once, in part because of safety reasons but also because our society is clueless about how to address the growing dilemma of tens of thousands of people who have no place to live. 

Even in places where some forms of housing are provided they are often so restrictive or dangerous that people would rather take their chances "sleeping rough", often in tent communities. Of course, they are too are dangerous and we hear more and more about fires and explosions (propane tanks). Residents perish from drug overdoses and from exposure. Life expectancy for the unhoused is roughly half that of the population as a whole.

It's been noted that while this seems like a recent issue it has been steadily increasing over time, to which Bishop-Stall attests from personal experience. Today there is hardly a community of any size that isn't struggling with what to do about unhoused persons in their midst. Our community of Belleville in about 55,000 and there are many people who don't have adequate housing. Some of them pitch tents outside of the Bridge St. UC building, my former congregation, even though they regularly get moved along. 

Every few days I read about another community trying to figure this out, some of them much smaller than Belleville. Should they allow tent communities and provide toilets and other services? Should they build tiny house settlements? How can they expand affordable housing or shelter space? If we are bringing in a record number of refugees and immigrants, where will they live.  In Canada, a wealthy country by virtually any standard, we have as stark a contrast between rich and poor as we've since -- when?-- the end of World War 2? 

How do we look at this situation clearly and within compassion? How do we get past the publicly earnest blah, blah to make a difference. I'm weary of those who privately grouse about the inconvenience of navigating around those who just don't have a prayer. While I understand why people can't live permanently in public spaces there must be alternatives and military style evictions to nowhere are not acceptable. Often those who are turfed by force lose everything, including momentoes of their past. 

In the article he draws attention to the sculpture sometimes referred to as Panhandler Jesus, which is outside Saint Stephen. It is another arresting work by CanadianTimothy Schmalz and as with another of his sculptures, Homeless Jesus, there are nail prints in the hands as a reminder of the Crucified One (in the feet of Homeless Jesus). One of our daughters lives in Toronto and has passed Panhandler Jesus many times yet still has the jolt of seeing this person with hand extended.

In the article Bishop-Stall observes: 

Then, last December, Panhandler Jesus was thrown in jail. Or at least that’s how it looked. Somehow, overnight, a wrought-iron cage had been placed around him. 

As it turned out, this was an act of protest by the church and the artist against the criminalization of homelessness. And the statue’s imprisonment was meant to coincide with the arrival of a police-escorted work crew, along with one of those giant-clawed machines of excavation and demolition.

We put the image of Panhandler Jesus from the Globe on our fridge as a reminder of all those displaced and discarded people who have "no crib for a bed" in a stark, unsentimental way. I don't want to forget or become numbed to this tragedy, at Christmas or any time of the year. Jesus of manger and cross is there.