Friend of the Mission
Beyond Simple Shelter
Providing the Right Help for Those
Who Need It Most
“Oh sure, the Mission does good things, but they don’t help the elderly or folks with disabilities! That’s why we need a new low-barrier shelter-Mc-thingy! And that’s why we should pay for it with our taxes!” they confidently proclaim in front of the City Council. The following day this message gets posed to me as a question with a concerned tone, “Is it true that you don’t help old people with disabilities?” First, let me express an exhausted sigh… and then let’s walk through the answer.
Start by defining your terms. What do you mean by “elderly” and “disability”? While the annual average age of our program participants is 41 years old, at the time of this writing I have 13 clients over the age of 60, the oldest of whom is 76 years old. So, I’m guessing that either we are talking about people much older than this or someone simply made up yet another “fact” about the Mission that isn’t actually true. In my book, the term elderly means anyone who qualifies for a senior discount at Sizzler or receives AARP coupons and that handy carrying case for their silly magazine. I’m pretty sure that number is 55, which even makes me officially in the club.
And what is a disability? I currently serve a gentleman, over 60, who is vigorously battling cancer and serving all 55 of our male residents in our kitchen with one arm in a sling. You should hear him get fired up when people complain about being sore or tired. In the last two months we just graduated one fellow who spent most of each day with us in a wheelchair into his own apartment, and another we were able to help land into an adult foster care home that could care for his mental health needs (and he is 75!). We have worked with folks who had neck surgeries, back surgeries, countless hernia surgeries, broken legs, foot surgeries, and the list goes on. So what are we talking about?!?
The dirty little secret…
Let me fill you in on a reason that people who hurl unfounded and undefined charges against the Mission do so. It’s because if they were to get really specific about the details of a particular person that they have in mind, one that they know we would turn away because we are unqualified to offer them reasonable care… they also are offering as a solution something that is significantly below what this person needs. An elderly person who is outside of our ability to properly care for because of their age is also outside of the ability of any low-barrier shelter. It is shocking to hear anyone associated with the medical community suggest placing such people in the same housing as people who are actively using drugs and alcohol.
People who need adult foster care or medically assisted living should never be housed in tents or a low-barrier shelter. The same is true for those who need housing for folks with debilitating mental illness. These people simply become victimized and traumatized by the actions of those addicted to drugs and alcohol or have their needs neglected because they are physically unable to properly care for themselves. Put simply, a homeless shelter of any kind is completely inappropriate for some people, not because they don’t deserve shelter but because they deserve and require significantly more than simple shelter. It’s not because we don’t want to help everyone, it is because we recognize when someone has needs that exceed our ability to help.
So, while there are in fact people that the Mission turns away due to our inability to provide proper care for them, the solution will never be found in a building defined as “low barrier”. Offering such a thing is like offering shoes to a man with no legs… and your amazing resume and good intentions doesn’t make the gift more usable. What needs to be done is to help get the elderly and disabled, those outside of the scope of care that a Mission can provide, into the organizations that already exist who are eminently qualified. Adult foster care homes, senior assisted living homes, and medically assisted living programs already exist, and maybe as a community our fundraising efforts should be focused on scholarships for entry into or expansion of such programs.
As Keith Cunningham might put it, “We should build the machine to fix the problem that is, rather than building one to fix the problem that isn’t.”[1]
[1] Keith J. Cunningham – The Road Less Stupid
Another Success! – Frank’s Story
Frank came to the mission at the ripe old age of 75. He is a cantankerous yet sweet Italian man who instantly had rumors flying around the mission of him being a member of the mafia family. He would smile and laugh but never say enough to fully dispel the possibility. He had a history of drug abuse with marijuana and methamphetamine, which led to stories of quite a wild life. Frank was well liked by all, despite his often gruff personality. One day he was convinced that someone had stolen his phone charger, and he said in his gravely voice, “When I catch them I am going to break every bone in their body!” A slight over reaction over an 8-dollar phone charger, but Frank is a black and white kind of guy.
It was not too long after Frank came to the Mission that it became clear that his physical and mental health were declining. He was missing things often, having confusion about days, times, and locations. One day he was on the phone with medical transport to try and get a ride to his room, when it was just upstairs because he was in the lobby of the Mission at the time. He also complained of chest pains and struggled with breathing which sent him to the hospital at least a dozen times. The other issue is Frank had nowhere else to go, or family connections to assist him in receiving help and the Gospel Rescue Mission way of life and standards was becoming hard to follow for Frank.
Frank being briefly interviewed by YouTube influencer Tyler Oliveria after Franks 8th day at the Mission in early 2024. See the entire video on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@grmgp
Men’s Coordinator Bobby Galli did not want Frank to be on the street but knew he could only justify Frank being at the Mission for so long. Bobby was able to get a hold of Adult and Senior services and get all the paperwork going for Frank to receive assistance. This required a lot of time, and Frank was declining quickly. The preliminary evaluation of Frank while he was at the hospital was a good day for Frank. Unfortunately, he has a very endearing personality, so he was deemed healthy and competent, and consequently was not going to receive assistance. However, Bobby was able to plead with their staff and got a follow up interview at the Mission along with another placement coordinator from the DHS office. It started out well, Frank knew the basic information, but after a few minutes and some more pointed questions it became apparent to all in the room that Frank needed more help than the Mission could adequately give him. Bobby and the team then went to work getting all the medical, financial and other details needed to get Frank into an Adult Foster Care home because the paperwork alone was an impossibility for Frank to complete on his own.
Finally, on December 20th just before Christmas and 9 months after Frank first checked in to the Mission, Frank got a new home at an Adult Foster Care house in Medford. He is happy, with his own room and a tv with cable where he can watch Nick at Night reruns of the classic shows he grew up on. It is scary to think where Frank would be without the love and care that the Gospel Rescue Mission showed him, along with the work of DHS. He is safe, happy, and getting the care that he needs in an appropriate way.
Bobby Galli – Men’s Coordinator
MissionView Update!
We are excited to announce that in 2024 you helped us raise over $400,000 for MissionView Village! That means that our generous anonymous grantor has matched what we raised (an additional $400k), giving us the funds to complete the design work and get the site prepared to build upon. This includes getting us the engineering plans through city planning, bringing water, sewer, electricity, and such to each duplex location as well as excavation, paving and foundation work. What a great start we have afforded! If you live in the Grants Pass area be sure to keep watching for site developments as the weather improves.
As this project has gained attention we are receiving more and more requests for details and hearing the often repeated “we need more of these!” Our hope is that MissionView will become a model for creative land use that truly reduces the demand on the housing market while helping many of our seniors on a fixed low income be free from the fear of homelessness. We have funded over half of the total project cost, we have more to go, please continue to keep this amazing project in your prayers!
Scriptural Wisdom: The Path to Healing a Troubled Nation
Christians cannot believe in random circumstances. This is because the Scriptures leave no room for that in our worldview. Even when we don’t understand what is happening around us and we struggle to comprehend a purpose, message or meaning to the events we encounter, a Christian takes comfort in the sovereignty and goodness of God.
This has a profound impact on the way believers experience and endure hardship. It also deepens their common sense regarding the predictability of tragedy surrounding many of our current societal troubles, including troubles like homelessness.
The problem is with how we use the word “can”. We like to say things like, “homelessness can happen to anyone” and while there is some truth to that, what we shouldn’t imply is that homelessness happens randomly. We might just as well say that STDs can happen to anyone, but we all realize that they are the result of a particular behavior. That’s why these things simply don’t happen to just anyone. They predictably follow behaviors that Gods Word tells us to avoid. Consequently, they are not random.
While some tragedies are more difficult to find a direct and specific causality (tsunamis, cancers, wildfires, earthquakes, and such), others are explicitly clear. “Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is honored.” Proverbs 13:18. What is the instruction that must be heeded? Work hard, plan for the future, be diligent, don’t be a drunkard or glutton, and be generous[1]. Living according to these instructions may not prevent tragedies like earthquakes or global pandemics, but they will prevent and even undo the tragedy of homelessness.
These are concepts that aren’t talked about in public discourse because they have been successfully framed as being judgmental, and no one wants to be called that. But these aren’t our ideas, they are Gods, and that is why they are so effective. Nowhere else in the public arena are these basic values promoted or discussed, which is why we are so committed to the teaching of the Scriptures to those who come to partake in our services. These are Christian values and should no longer be thought of as either common or American values. Living in America no longer guarantees that the citizenry has even heard of such ideas, let alone shares them.
The abundance of homeless in our nation is symptomatic of a larger and broader culture that is ignorant of God’s instructions regarding the details of how to live and receive blessing. It is time for the Church to speak healing to our fellow countrymen by proclaiming the truth contained in God’s word. These ideas must be added to the common vocabulary of Christian culture if they are ever going to spill out into the broader American culture. But we can’t speak what we don’t know, therefore it is also time for believers to dig deep into God’s word and familiarize ourselves with the whole counsel of God so that we may faithfully bring healing to our nation.
The disasters of our moment were made for us to glorify Him. They are not random, and we can trust Him in the chaos. He is our firm foundation.
[1] Proverbs 6:6-11, 10:4, 13:18, 14:23, 20:13, 21:5, 23:21, 24:30-34, 28