Embracing a Catalytic Imagination
This is my first blog entry since the early days of launching the Uffizi Mission Project and beginning my friendship journey with people experiencing homelessness through a small meal sharing started at Pershing Park in 2005. The work went wonderfully unnoticed for years, and no one was clamoring for any time spent with me at the time. I didn’t have any training or an agenda as I went to Pershing Park with a few friends and our spaghetti, salad, and bread. Pulling together $60-80 and purchasing the same spaghetti, sauce, and bread each week – we were always surprised that our street friends welcomed us every week with open arms, and the community grew over time from a dozen or so to 70-80 every week.
It's now approximately 20 years later – and though I appreciate those early days of friendship building and the importance of having every myth I held about homelessness demolished, I am happy to say that I can imagine better days for the most vulnerable in our County. As I moved from the “Spaghetti Man,” to the near ominous Homeless Czar (a role no one should ever entertain!), I surrounded myself with agencies and people who would be determined to end homelessness rather than settle for any other vision of “managing homelessness.” And yet, homelessness remains in Santa Barbara County, even though there are hundreds of us pulling together to increase outreach, holistic services, dignified shelter experiences, and housing.
The truth is this: “No one wants to be impacted by homelessness.” So why do we settle for any reality in which homelessness still exists?
I think it is a problem of the imagination. I think we can end local systems of injustice through “embracing a catalytic imagination for the whole neighborhood.”
Catalytic imagination began for me on the Eastside of Santa Barbara. In 2014, no one could agree on how to address homelessness around Milpas. After attending six months of meetings with law enforcement, city officials, and business owners, I offered a solution. It was my belief that everyone experiencing homelessness did not want to be without a home. Rather than arguing weekly about it, why don’t we come together and help get ten individuals housed in one year? It’s a long story – but you can read about its beginnings here. At the end of one year, we helped get nine chronically homeless individuals housed. Note that all these individuals had turned down all services until they worked with our team. The whole community was able to celebrate this together, and nine people were no longer experiencing homelessness.
Individual by individual, agency by agency, community by community – we need to envision what our neighborhoods would look like if justice were enacted in unison. It’s not up to a czar, government agency, non-profit, faith community, or any set of superheroes.
Our biggest challenge comes from who sets the vision – who says what can or cannot be done?
As I get the opportunity to work with a good number of college students, one of my questions I often ask is, “Do you remember a dream you had for yourself or for those you knew who were the most vulnerable when you were a kid?” I am trying to re-awaken the child – the dreamer. And I usually find that inside each one of us, we know there can be a better, more equitable world for all of us, and we can determine a role for ourselves within that story.
Each of us has something we want to see change in our local neighborhood. Can you imagine the end of something locally that makes you the most unsettled? Can you see the agencies and people who might unite around your “impossible dream?” I think it starts there.
And this is something I am doing myself with big plans for our neighborhoods.
Ending women’s homelessness in Lompoc. Ending the sex trafficking of children in Santa Barbara City.
So, join us and embrace your catalytic imagination!