Restoring Dignity in Tent City

Beyond Burritos & Blankets - RESTORING DIGNITY in Tent City

The growing tent city under I-37 is impossible to miss, with as many as 100 tents and temporary shelters for the homeless. Is the best way to love our neighbors to offer burritos and blankets?

No. Love does the hard work of holistic care to restore dignity. The Church must lead the way towards more comprehensive care for our neighbors.

Tent city robs dignity, as further seen in increases in homicides, substance abuses, mental health problems, and horrific realities for women. A social worker also discovered a six-week-old child in tent city during the coldest weather without anything on his little feet and legs. The Church cannot be content with tent city. We must prayerfully consider what it means to be a blessing to our neighbors.

First Presbyterian Church has been working collaboratively to leverage assets and optimize impact for our neighbors beyond basic necessities. We are working to establish networks for substance abuse recovery, housing, social workers who access benefits, job training and placement, and physical and mental health care.

A wonderful example of collaborative care from Tuesday, March 16: FPC helped host a collaborative outreach to our neighbors - Love Does. We provided food and relationship as well as help, hope, and the opportunity for holistic healing by introducing our neighbors to partners who can truly help. CAM hosted Love Does on their property, and more than ten organizations were present to provide collaborative care for our neighbors.

During our 175-year history, FPC has loved our neighbors through very serious struggles, from the aftermath of wars to casualties of the great depression. Today we can do better than burritos and blankets in blessing our neighbors. We work for a day when each neighbor has “his or her own vine and fig tree,” and the opportunity to live the dignity God has designed for all humanity. God showed up to love us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is what Love Does. We must show up to truly love our neighbors, divesting of ourselves for the restoration of their dignity.

REV. A. MITCHELL MOORE

Associate Pastor for Young Adults and Missions