Columbia’s War on Poverty: There is always a crisis
OK, so here’s the thing about poverty … there is always a crisis.
And guess what? When there is a crisis, it is almost impossible to focus on anything else (but you have to, because you have no choice, because you have kids or a job or any number of other things that you can’t just ignore).
For our neighbors facing poverty, there is always a crisis. For those of us trying to help them, we need to be ready to help with that crisis.
Every day, people walk through the doors of The Salvation Army, Voluntary Action Center, the Food Bank, and so many other great agencies because they are facing a crisis large or small.
Just the other day we had a gentleman stuck in Columbia, trying to get to a drug rehab center in another state, with absolutely no money to get there. Fortunately, we were able to help him, including giving him some warmer clothes because it was really, really cold.
Speaking of the cold, Columbia, as a community, has been facing a crisis for a few weeks now because the temperature has dropped so drastically. We are seeing single-digit temperatures, which means even more people than usual need to get inside.
How is it we are seeing more people? Are they just magically appearing because the temperature changed? Well, in part there are more people who need to get inside because they have been sleeping in camps of people facing homelessness, and it is so cold that tents and other makeshift shelters just do not work.
That’s right. Here in Columbia. People are living in camps.
So, with the camps and the extreme cold, even more people than usual need to get inside, which means Columbia needs more space and beds, which means everybody involved has to pull together to help solve the problem, and we do. We do our best.
What do we do? Literally, we find all of the space we can and we start setting up what we used to call “cold cots” (an unfortunate name that does not sound like where any of us would want to sleep, so we are trying to get people to start calling them “warm cots”!).
Columbia is setting up warm cots in the old Wabash Bus Station. The Salvation Army is setting them up practically anywhere we can find space in our homeless shelter, The Salvation Army Harbor House. Thank goodness, Room at the Inn is up and running, providing warm beds in various local churches all over town.
Together, we are solving the deathly cold crisis for an awful lot of people, and we will continue to try to get better and better.
Cold is the crisis now and soon enough there will be something else. There will be another crisis for the poverty services community, and there will be something else for individuals and families facing poverty.
What we can do is get better and better about working together to address and, every once in a while, truly solve the problems. What YOU can do is get involved. Give your time, money and talent to causes meant to address poverty in immediate and long-term ways.
There is always a crisis, and there should always be someone ready to stand up and help get through it.
Major Curtiss Hartley is a leader of The Salvation Army in Mid-Missouri, with facilities in Columbia and Jefferson City. The Salvation Army provides a wide range of community services to address poverty and other issues, seeking to rebuild lives and create lasting change.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia’s War on Poverty: There is always a crisis
