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“Homelessness
isn’t a lake to be drained. It’s a river that keeps flowing,” said Brian Durrance, president of A2 MISSION (Michigan Itinerant Shelter System-Interdependent Out of Necessity). And no one denies that this river exists. How to dam the flow, however, is another story. Camp Take Notice, a tent city on Wagner road, was shut down by the state police in June 2012. The state then gave vouchers for one year of housing to about 40 of the 80 Camp Take Notice residents. Of the rest, some were veterans, some were illegal immigrants; whatever they were, they didn’t qualify for the vouchers. But the homeless community living in the tent city didn’t just disintegrate. They searched for an alternative place to set up their tent city. About a half a year ago, on Stone School Rd., they found Mercy House. “It’s serendipitous,” said Durrance on the house, “because frankly, how do you find in the city of Ann Arbor a 3-acre piece of land with a forest on it, on the [bus line], that’s secluded on the edge of town? It just doesn’t happen.” MISSION’s plan from here on out is to open the land surrounding the house to a tent city. The house would serve as a hub where the homeless could come in to fulfill needs like showering, laundry and food. Chris Best is a formerly-homeless man who received housing through SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance), was a resident at Camp Take Notice, and is currently on the MISSION board. He attests to the benefit of the tents and Mercy House. “It allows people respite from life as it is being homeless,” said Best. “A lot of people think that homelessness means that you’re lazy and you don’t do anything. But all day long you’re trying to figure out, where am I gonna get my next meal? Am I gonna get a shower today? Where am I going to put my clothes? Am I going to be able to arrange for a doctor’s appointment? Oh, I finally got a job interview. Where am I going to put my stuff ?” An advantage of tent cities that might initially seem counterintuitive, Durrance added, is that it isn’t comfortable living. “When you live outside you learn to live outside,” said Durrance. “But it’s hard. So after one or two seasons people have the incentive to reach out for help. The nice thing about a tent is that it regulates that flow and there’s a beginning, a middle and an end to it.” While this cycle of the river of homelessness flowing through the tent city and coming out in a far better place might sound ideal, there is a major flaw in the plan. “This particular piece of land that MISSION has purchased was zoned for single family residential use,” explained Wendy Rampson, Planning Manager for the Ann Arbor Planning Commission. “The MISSION 82
the communicator
folks bought the property expecting to do something different, [so] they have to prove to the Planning Commission and City Council that there is a compelling reason to change the zoning, because the zoning was put there to be consistent with the master plan for that area...even though people might agree that there’s a need for this housing.” “I think that the general public thinks that more affordable housing is the answer,” said Sally Petersen, a member of City Council who believes that the tent city is a necessity for homeless people who can’t get affordable housing. “But what I’ve learned is that there’s a rung below affordable housing and these are the people who are really zero income due to issues that, according to them, the system isn’t really providing services for.” “The whole affordable housing thing is a misnomer,” Durrance said, pointing out just how difficult the grips of homelessness can be to escape. “What it means is subsidized housing for those people who qualify… The people that get it are very few and far between. You have to be suicidal. You may even have to live out of doors for quite a while before you qualify. What if you don’t qualify for work or you don’t qualify for SSDI or state funding? You can’t make it to the doorstep.” A tent city, Durrance believes, gives people cheap, accessible, and fluid access to housing, as opposed to having to pay for an apartment or spend years applying to programs that you can’t qualify for. “So it kind of makes me bristle when people say that people choose to be homeless. It’s a very, very unfair characterization,” said Durrance. “The system is working against them in many ways. “We call ourselves the safety net below the safety net. We’re trying to catch the people that fall right through those gaping holes in the existing safety net… I’m willing to accept compromise but I know that there’s a really serious piece of this missing without the tents.” This “safety net” is not just the hope of affordable housing. It also includes the Delonis Center, Ann Arbor’s local homeless center. Again, many recipients of this service, the homeless, don’t feel that it serves the purpose it sets out to. Jimmy Hill, homeless for seven years and currently living at Mercy House, has tried his hand at the Delonis Center. “Don’t get me wrong,” Hill urged, “the Delonis is a good thing for what it’s for. But there’s no way you can totally get on your feet in three months. There’s no way with that time that they give you to get housing, to get a job, to get out,” said Hill. Best, who is transgendered, also struggled with getting a job within these time constraints. “By the time my 90 days [at Delonis] were up I couldn’t get a job because I couldn’t get name legally changed,” explained Best. “Every time I went to a job interview my resume would have a female name on it but I would dress how I felt was appropriate. And that, for me, is where the barrier was. I just couldn’t find a job… Every day you’re going to be rejected by somebody.” A time crunch isn’t the only hurdle to getting a job. Best went to