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by Connie Lu and Dee Gray/PNN
Dusk - the streets are quiet except for a few passing buses and the occassional car. I am walking up 3rd street towards the Third Baptist Church to attend a neighborhood meeting about the shelter at the Church, or what my editor calls - a meeting about NIMBYISM (Not in My Backyard)
On my way, I pass by a few homeless men, who
are patiently and quietly waiting for the shelter at
Third Baptist Church to open. I ask them how I could
get into the church and was kindly directed around the
corner to an open door
I arrive to find my co-worker Joseph Bolden, staff writer and
photographer for POOR Magazine/PNN, in the second row
of chairs at the Third Baptist Church. The room
itself is spacious with an old piano in the front and
several doors along the white walls decorated with a
few posters and bulletin boards. I look down at the
dark red carpeting with gray grid lines and begin to
notice the muffled sounds of footsteps coming from
upstairs. I hear quick feet scurrying above, I
imagine the pure innocence of small children running
freely in laughter. I also hear the applaud of an
audience as it penetrates through the walls of the
church from a nearby room and flows into where I await
for the Alamo Square neighborhood meeting to begin.
The neighbors of Alamo Square, located in District 4
of San Francisco, invited Matt Gonzalez, who is on the
Board of Supervisors for their district to express
their concerns about the homeless shelter in their
neighborhood during the meeting. The shelter is
located in the Alamo Square district (near the Western Addition) at Amos
Brown's Third Baptist Church. The meeting begins with
Gonzalez approaching the front of the room, as he
opens the meeting up for questions. The residents bring up several
issues and concerns, which are then addressed by
Gonzalez. Then the issue of the homeless shelter is presented.
As the discussion about the shelter begins, I remember the men outside who gave me directions, despite their polite
mannerism towards me, I still expected to hear only
complaints from the neighboring residents about the
homeless being unwanted nuisances because
unfortunately that's how they're perceived.
However, Arla Ertz who lives close to the shelter at Third
Baptist Church begins by voiceing her compassion for the
homeless during the meeting. She explains, "Poverty
is a serious crisis. I would really like us to be
compassionate. I find the homeless to be very
respectful. I don't experience any noise from them."
Prior to the meeting I had spoken with another shelter resident, who stayed at a different shelter near Third Baptist Church. She
agreed with Ertz and explains, "I was treated well at
the shelter, and in turn, the homeless residents respected the neighbors."
Another resident of the Alamo Square neighborhood
named Steve Crosley said, "I am not so much bothered
by the homeless people themselves, but I feel that the
church should be more open about discussing the
shelter with the community."
Then Joseph from POOR Magazine suggested that we invite Amos Brown, Pastor of the Third Baptist Church, to the meeting so the neighbors could
voice their opinions about the homeless shelter since
he was actually present at church, but just not at the
meeting. However,Joseph's suggestion was not taken
into consideration because Captain Fagan of the SFPD
defended Pastor Brown, claiming that the invitation would
not be appropriate because it would not give Pastor Brown
enough prior notice. Matt Gonzalez then closes the
issue of the shelter by suggesting, "It would be a
good idea to call Brown to invite him to discuss the
issues about the shelter before we go any further."
Currently, there are several contradictory issues
surrounding the shelter at Pastor Brown's church because he
has been very outspoken about his views against the
homeless. The whole time he was a SF board supervisor he voted against all civil rights issues regarding issues of homelessness and poor people. Yet he decided to open a shelter for the
homeless at his church. In addition to this paradox,
Ertz explains that the shelter, which is scheduled to
close by the end of June is an "illegal shelter"
because Brown does not have a permit to run it either.
After the meeting, I spoke with Arla, a warm-hearted
woman who notified POOR Magazine of this meeting in
the first place due to her concern for the growing
Nimbyism in her neighborhood. She spoke with concern for the
homeless residents of the shelter in her calm and soothing voice.
My desire to understand the source of her compassion leads me to
asking her why she cares for the homeless. She
describes her job as the Program Director for
"Draw Bridge," which is an art program for homeless
children and how she was raised and taught to be
empathetic.
I leave the meeting and the afternoon sun has faded into a dark night sky. I walk past the shelter. I listen for the supposed noise claimed by the neighbors. Once again, I hear nothing but the occasional car and my quickly approaching bus.
Letter to POOR from Arla Ertz
I really appreciate the interest of the POOR staff, and I appreciate your following up on this issue. I went to another meeting on Wednesday. It wasn't a meeting of the neighborhood association, but of "McAllister Neighbors." These are folks who live closest to the Third Baptist Church, not the whole Alamo Square Neighborhood Association (ASNA) group. This meeting was specifically for neighbors concerned about the shelter.
This was the hardest meeting of my life so far, I think. I had no allies in
that room whatsoever. I found it disheartening to be so unheeded and to see
that I live among people whose classism runs so deep, yet they are clueless
about it and simply think they're right and that naturally everyone should
live like them. Anyway, I'm attaching the minutes of that meeting for you.
I notice that nothing I said appears in the minutes. It's like I wasn't
even there. I thought I presented myself very diplomatically and swallowed
a lot of things for the sake of maintaining a dialogue. However, at one
point when I proposed talking with the people at the church and inviting
someone from the Interfaith Council to be present, a woman there said, "Why
negotiate against yourself?" She said we must advocate to shut the shelter
down so the city will learn to do these things right. Another man lectured
me, saying we must advocate the same. I said I'd go a step farther and
suggested we advocate for housing that's affordable to poor and homeless
people and then they wouldn't even need shelters. The whole group
simultaneously shouted me down at that point.
Anyway, you get the idea. And as well, they rejected the idea of Matt
Gonzalez conducting mediation sessions. They said Amos Brown won't talk to
Matt Gonzalez.
Thanks again for your interest and help,
Warmly,
Arla
For more information you can contact them at:
Alamo Square Neighborhood Association
P.O. Box 15372
San Francisco, CA 94115
Phone: 552-0673 (Sue Valentine, president)
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