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Studio Time
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Join us this Sunday, Nov 23 from 1-4 pm for studio time. Come with your creative project, ideas, or just come to play. There is no fee for studio time.
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730 29th St. in Oakland • 2nd & 4th Sundays Ongoing 1-4 pm
When you arrive, call 510-593-4221 to be let in
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Though you are still welcome if you haven't signed up, and if you come regularly, no need to sign up again, but let us know if you can't make it.
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Connecting Experiences
Melissa and Jared were flown to the 2nd Annual Homeless to Housing Justice Summit in New York to be on a panel to share their experiences of homelessness, community, and advocacy. Jared writes about this experience here:
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I first heard about "Kevin Nye the narcan guy" somewhere on twitter. When I looked him up I saw a tweet about how paramedics were cruel to opiate users considering their resuscitation a waste of resources and explaining just how awful that was. I was immediately intrigued by this Spider Man obsessed nerd who somehow seemed to understand what he had never experienced. I then saw he had a book, still on the way at the time I believe, Grace Can Lead Us Home: A Christian Call to End Homelessness. To say my relationship with Christianity is ambivalent is to put it mildly, but I believed he actually meant what he wrote. I reached out and told him about Wood Street's resource fair coming up and asked if he could spare some books. He enthusiastically sent a few along with stickers, one I still have on my laptop and I look at for inspiration from time to time. When I cracked open his book I read it voraciously and underlined and highlighted parts and tweeted at him about it. He seemed to appreciate it.
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A year or two later he informs me he's writing another book. Sweet! And then he asks "would you like to help edit it? I would like your perspective" and I'm super excited! He offered to pay too, but just getting to be a part of Rescuing the Mission: Renewing and Reimagining the Christian Call to End Homelessness was both an honor and a joy! A few months later I get a message about this event in New York, and I learned later it was Kevin who asked if I could join. I was happy to finally meet him in person, to shoot hoops with him and count down the last shot, which he occasionally scored. More than me, but it was a part of his soul while mine is just simply connecting.
Which was what my time in New York was all about. Connecting. With pastors and parishioners, people who knew things were amiss but only had a few pieces of the puzzle. Hearing about how RLUIPA has had trouble finding footing in court was an eye opener for me, while hearing "We might be homeless, but that doesn't make us community-less" was eye opening for others. "Cross pollination" was how Kevin and I came to describe it.
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Speakers from the 2nd Annual Housing Justice Summit, including Melissa and Jared.
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It was also a deeply healing experience for me. When I sat up front and talked about my lived experiences, I felt and knew I had to express and expose my deepest and most vulnerable spiritual trauma. I sobbed before I could even eek out a word I was so afraid. It was not something you share unless you feel a special kind of safety, which I felt there with Aaron, Melissa, Kevin and those who I would come to know over the days, Christina, Rashida, Pastor John, Brian, Ron, Jeff, Dorothy, and others whose warmth and gentleness inspired me deeply to learn to trust again when part of me had been so hurt that trust itself felt like a mistake. What began with sobs ended with, as Arron put it "laughing with mom." A part of me began to heal that day.
I never really knew much about the Presbyterian Church before then. The event was put on by Presbyterian Church USA, not to be confused with the Presbyterian Church of America who are much more conservative. Among the presentations involved was a movie from their film house focused on amplifying the voices of the marginalized with their new film Evicting the American Dream which I highly recommend for helping people begin to understand how homelessness can happen to anyone, and why it's so terribly prevalent in some places, such as red lining and loan refusals, plus legal issues with landlords and how evictions are held against people.
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Kevin and Aaron also both gave keynote talks along with unveiling the National Faith Coalition to End Homelessness, which aims to do just that. Aaron himself said that "if every church in Hayward took in two people, everyone would be off the street." And with Oakland's Encampment Abatement Policy looming on the horizon, such actions are going to become necessary just to preserve life. Which reminds me, Pastor John, who wrote a book I'm currently reading Building Belonging: The Churches Call to Create Community & House Our Neighbors, told me he spoke with some churches here in Oakland to get inspiration for his book. "Black Churches have been ahead of us with actually housing their neighbors," he said. I hope all churches in Oakland will open their hearts and doors soon since otherwise Mathew 25:45 would be the only fitting passage emblazoned over their doors, truth be told.
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." Matthew 25:45
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Legal Clinic
On October 19th, Dee led the Mobile Free Legal Clinic for Unhoused People, with support from Braided Bridge and Homebridge Connect participants Barbara, Melissa, Michelle, Kim, and Frank as well as many other supporters from National Lawyers Guild, UC Berkeley, USF and UC Law students, the Homeless Action Center, Wood Street Community, California Poor People's Campaign, Con Amor, and Stillo Barber Shop.
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The clinic served 50-75 unhoused people with assistance with legal advice, property claims for belongings lost in sweeps, reasonable accommodations requests for people with disabilities facing sweeps or needing other support accessing housing or services, and connecting with a public defender for people needing to resolve a criminal complaint. The Homeless Action Center helped people sign up for health insurance, EBT, and gave assistance with obtaining ID's from the DMV. People also were able to receive clothing, haircuts from Stillo Barber Shop, food, and homemade juice from Con Amor. Gratitude to all who supported with their time, donations, and loans of chairs, tables, canopies, and other supplies.
We are organizing to support more legal clinics in the future. Please use the donation link at the bottom of this mailing to help us continue this work!
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Jared's Testimony
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The shelter I live in has heat, a private bathroom, food. Physically I'm fine.
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But no one can visit me in my room.
I have a place but no space to share.
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The psychological torture of this exact position is hard to articulate to those unaffected.
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It's more than just lonely.
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It's a wholesale rejection of the validity of my feelings.
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I am not a person, I am a thing to be placed.
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All because I'm not allowed the human experience of "come spend time with me in my room."
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But I should be grateful I have anything. Because I'm not a person, I'm a thing to be placed.
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Homelessness always boils down to being less than process. Always.
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"But it's safer/more efficient/saves energy/saves space. You should be grateful the city spends a dime on you."
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Always. Less. Than. Process.
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I'd rather be back at 1707.
But that was destroyed.
My choice is be swept and invalidated.
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I'm not a person. I'm an object you'd rather forget.
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Active Love: The Law is Love
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The practice of active love flows from the core principle that “The Law is Love.”
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In a legal context, a law is a rule or set of rules that provides the fundamental framework for addressing or preventing harm. It defines what constitutes harm, what obligations parties have in avoiding harm, and what response is made when harm happens. In science, a law describes attributes of the way the universe functions, as in the laws of gravity or thermodynamics. Spiritual laws prescribe what is right or moral. People often believe them to be associated with their specific religious beliefs, yet there are many consistencies across the boundaries of different faiths. The statement, “the law is love,” works on all of these planes: legal, scientific, and spiritual.
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Love Is Always in Relationship
One who loves, always loves another. Love operates in relationship. To evaluate and choose your actions through the law of love is to center yourself on relationship. It means asking, “which actions can I take to facilitate stronger, healthier relationship? Am I engaged in any actions that separate relationships or make them toxic or harmful?” Actions that move stakeholders towards healthier relationships contribute to justice and peace.
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Love and hatred
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that chooses in that process,
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to avoid looking lovingly, critically,
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and thereby they are unable
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and beauty of this creation
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through no effort of our own."
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"Have I said this before?
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I should always ask myself,
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the beauty and the ugliness?”
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“should you pursue this path?”
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Here is what I’ll say to you:
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“So that, hopefully, before I pass,
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before I leave this earth plane,
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I will have learned to love
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Studio Use
Extended studio time is available. Reply to this email to make arrangements.
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Joining In, Supporting
If you're able, we welcome support whether financial, participatory, or both. Donations help to keep the studio open and assist people living on the streets and land in Alameda County. We are a 501c3 organization and are deeply grateful for your support. If you'd like to join our work, reply to this email to let us know. Also, we welcome you to closer involvement with our community, whether that is through creative projects or collaborations, through work in support of unhoused neighbors, or through development of our spiritual connection and offerings. Please feel welcome to talk to us about becoming a member of the community.
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Recipients of this new mailing include past donors and workshop participants, members of Braided Bridge, participants of Homebridge Connect, people familiar with the starting of Braided Bridge, and a couple of close friends. If you are on this list and didn't want to be, please do feel welcome to unsubscribe and accept my sincere apologies. –Kim
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