Christina Densmore
ARISE for Social Justice
Springfield, MA
When I became homeless in 2003 it was as if I had stepped into a whole new world with a completely new set of rules. Who would’ve thought that the homeless in America of all places could so easily be swept under the proverbial rug? Of course I never gave them a second thought either until I became one of them. That’s what changed my life…becoming homeless I mean. My senses became more alert if you will. I became more sensitive to the feelings and well being of the other members of my homeless community. I’ll never forget the day that I looked at my friend Donna and said that something had to be done and she told me that you’d never get them to help themselves. I felt hopeless in that moment. I knew for sure that the government should be helping in someway, but after only a few weeks of being homeless I knew the reality of that thought was vastly different.
“I knew for sure that the government should be helping in someway, but after only a few weeks of being homeless I knew the reality of that thought was vastly different.”
I was one of the lucky ones at first. When I first became homeless I was able to stay with my brother who lived in a building for the disabled and elderly. He wasn’t supposed to have people living with him though. After a couple of months his neighbors were beginning to catch on that I was staying there and so to avoid him getting in trouble or worse evicted I left. Truly homeless for the first time in my life I wouldn’t have known where to turn if it hadn’t of been for the soup kitchen that I went to on a regular basis. “The Warming Place” had opened because of two deaths that winter and took in the homeless. Based out of the basement of three downtown churches it wasn’t ideal by far, but it was “home” if you will.
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. It was when the warming place came to its last day on Mothers day of 2004 that I realized that Article 25 was a nice thing, but no more reality than Star Wars or The Care Bears. With the closing of “The Warming Place” many homeless were left to make their bed in doorways and on park benches.
A few others and myself were lucky enough to find a place in the offices of Arise for Social Justice for the night. That night they were holding a meeting and it was there that we decided to take action and the following day a tent city we called Sanctuary City sprung up on the lawn of a downtown church. Approximately 400 people stayed at Sanctuary City in the six months that it was opened. It went from May of 2004 until early November of 2004 when “The Warming Place” reopened. Since it reopened we have had meetings with city officials who asked if we would reopen Sanctuary City. Our response was simple yet clear: “We don’t want to, but it the city isn’t going to take care of the homeless we will.” Since than “The Warming Place” has remained opened.