Nate

This morning, while I was driving to work, I got a text from one of the guys at our Showers of Blessing Homeless Resource Center:

We have a man who made it into the quiet room with assistance from others. I am not sure if he will be able to leave on his own. Someone will need to be able to assist with this opportunity. Thanks.

When I arrived 10 minutes later, I didn’t immediately see him. But, ten minutes later I was talking with our shower monitor when he stumbled i. He could barely walk, and was generally a sight to behold. His face was covered with a scraggly beard. He was wearing pants that were shredded and were about to fall off. He was clearly older, although given life on the streets it’s sometimes hard to know exactly who are seniors and those whose bodies are wearing out after a hard existence. As he walked down the fellowship hall floor toward the shower area, he looked at me and shouted.

If Ira North were still alive there wouldn’t be any liquor stores in Madison!

Ira North had been the preacher of Madison Church of Christ when it was one of the largest Churches of Christ in the nation. He was a fiery preacher, but he was also a political force to be reckoned with. And Nate remembered the day when Ira ran Madison during the days when Madison somehow maintained a balance between wealthy farmers and music business folks and blue collar factory workers.

We got Nate over to the seating area, signed him in, and I left him to wait for his shower, with him shouting behind me “Did you know Jimmy Snow?” (Jimmy Snow was a pentecostal preacher who many years ago was the pastor to Johnny Cash and Chris Kristofferson. If you have lived in Nashville as long as I have, you would have definitely known who Jimmy Snow was.).

An hour or so later I went back to check on things. Our shower monitor told me that he’d been in the bathroom for over an hour and she wasn’t sure what to do. I went in and found him sitting in a stall, putting on his clothes. “I fell,” he said. “Are you okay,” I asked. “Yes,” he said, “but it took me a while to get back up.” I told him to finish getting dressed and five minutes later he came out with socks and shoes in hand. We had been able to give him some new clothes, and we when asked what to do with the old ones he told us to throw them away.

One of the things that happens during our Showers program is that we have staff from Nashville’s Office of Homeless Services (OHS) present to enter folks into the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). HMIS is the hub of Nashville’s Coordinated Entry program of housing referrals to agencies throughout the city, so getting Nate into the system was crucial for him if he were to have any hope of getting in a housing program. So, I helped him put on his shoes and guided him to the other end of the room to talk to a OHS staff member. I went and found an old wheelchair, because he could barely walk, and when I came back he was finished with the interview. So I loaded him in the wheelchair and guided him to the parking lot.

We sat and talked a bit. He was 66 years old he told me. He had just been discharged from the hospital. He was an alcoholic. No, he didn’t want to go to rehab. No, he really didn’t want to quit drinking. No, I won’t go to the downtown shelter (it’s not safe, he told me). Yes, he had been living in a program up in Gallatin and they were probably looking for him. But, when I called that program later in the day I learned he had been kicked out a few weeks earlier because he wouldn’t comply with the rules to not drink on the property.

This is a man who can barely get around, and who really probably can’t take care of himself. And, I had to look at him and tell him that while I could give him a couple of blankets, but there really weren’t any other options for him. He was going to have to spend the night on the streets. And, honestly, given where he is mentally and physically, the chances are greater than average that he will die on the streets.

“What about Adult Protective Services?” I hear some folks asking. “Aren’t they supposed to deal with the elderly who are at risk?” That was certainly my thought, but when you go to their site to make a report you learn that “self neglect” cases are not investigated and the best that they can do is give a list of resources for assistance — places like our church where our hands are tied.

“I though you had a housing center in your church,” others will ask. “Why couldn’t you take him in?”

Yes, we actually have two transitional housing programs at City Road Chapel, one for 14 individuals and another housing 4 families with kids. But these programs are funded by the city, and entry into these programs comes through a city-wide “coordinated entry” program of referrals, which rarely moves quickly. In Nate’s case, our program for individuals is on the third floor of one of our buildings and their are no elevators. Simply put, he’s not in a place to navigate three flights of stairs.

Yes, we do a lot. But we can’t meet the needs of everyone needing assistance. So, more often than I would like to admit, I have to tell folks that I don’t have immediate options for getting them off the streets. All that’s left is the downtown shelter — and folks simply refuse to consider that option.

And, looking Nate’s face and hearing him talk about the fiery preachers he loves, my hearts breaks just a little bit.

Nate made his way down to the Assemblies of God church down the street (after I gave another homeless friend a Walmart card to help him) and slept last night on their porch. He’s in the system for referrals, but there is no way to know when he might actually be able to get in a program. And, given past experience, he probably won’t last very long in most of the programs in town. It will be a revolving door of folks trying to help someone who really isn’t able to do what needs to be done to get off the streets.

And, someday, I will get an text message that Nate is the latest friend to die on the streets.