Tip Over

Things have been fairly well lately, but that's because of the kind angels who donated to us to cover the tip over expenses.

What's “tip over” expenses?

That's where you're going along paying the routine bills - barely - by doing that usual middle class American budgeting trick of "paying whichever vendor says they're about to turn something off first" and while juggling all that, you see the property taxes are due.

Or a refrigerator starts breaking down.

Or even as little as seeing that an oil change is due on the car.

For millions of Americans, this is what savings are for.  Kind of.  You see, by "savings" I mean where they dream of saving up $10,000 for their kid's college or that dream vacation they've been speaking of for years, but then as soon as a few hundred dollars is saved, something comes up.

So no matter how many years go by, they never have any savings.  Then someone in the 1% on TV can smugly talk about how the key to middle class prosperity is if "they'd be smart enough to save".

Sorry, straying off topic!

For us, while we're in that position, it’s more because of the size of the task being undertook.  Two properties are being maintained, one being still fixed up, and four men being aided at a time.

However, one of the points of our mission is not simply the providing of a home, but to aid those who stay in avoiding their own tip over points.

You see, while it's obvious when you hear it stated, the "tip over" point for people is lower the further down they are socially and economically.  We're all mostly aware of how that works among those in the middle classes, as described above, and how in their case they rely on networks of friends or some sub prime credit cards or some “tide over” payday loan.  A "tide over" to avoid the "tip over".

With those who have wrestled - and lost - to alcoholism and addiction, they have, if we're meeting with them, already tipped over.  But the frightening thing is, there is always another "tip over", at least until you are dead.  A house holder can tip over to a renter.  A renter can tip over to a friend’s couch.  And the from the couches they can tip over to the shelters, and from the shelters they can tip over to the streets.

And in easily over 80% of the cases, alcoholism and addiction is a part of this process.

Those we meet have tipped over, and lost everything, but finally went to detox and/or rehab.  And starting with pretty much nothing to their name, no family or friends who are up for helping any more, and about 90 days of sobriety, they have nothing to rely on but homeless shelters or halfway houses.  Including sober living homes like ours.

We're specifically here for the alcoholic and addict, and I've been in their shoes myself, having had nothing and no one due to my own past active alcoholism.

When they're took in, the thing to guard against is another tip over.  Anything that lets them fall back down to the couches or streets.  Voluntarily or involuntarily.

Now voluntary I can't do much about, though I try.  A guy decides that $50 for a week of a place to stay is not as fun as spending $50 on booze and crashing on the couch of a stewbum "friend", and besides some pleading, that's his call.  Likewise if $50 is to be spent on some crack to smoke at a crack house or under a bridge.

I can reason, I can cajole, I can do that pleading.  I can have books and pamphlets available.  I can give rides to AA meetings.  The house itself is one and a half blocks from an AA meeting place that meets several times a day.

I can even do some clever stuff that tends to encourage them not to tip over by how I arrange the program fees.  Changing from a monthly fee to a weekly - and collected on Fridays - made a positive difference in likelihood of any relapsing.

Yet in the end, voluntary tip overs are still beyond my control.

Fortunately I can prevent the involuntary.  "No ID" comes up a lot.  Both with guests and with those who have heard about me helping and need that, too, even though they are not guests.  I then let guests or non-guests use this address to get their birth certificates mailed to.

And drive them to and from the Social Security office and hospitals for medical records and back again.  And drive them around to various churches and charities that may sometimes aid in paying the fee for a State ID down at the DMV.  Or a driver's license, if they are fortunate enough to still be able to drive in spite of whatever DUIs are often on their record.

Without these, the guest is quickly "tipped over".  Without a place to stay while getting all these, without a mailing address, without even a ride, they'd have no hope of job or other programs.  And from being a recovered alcoholic who can potentially rise, they'd tip over into "street person who can't rise, but can only panhandle and drink".

This gets tricky sometimes, as we ourselves require ID.  For liability somewhat, but also because if something goes wrong, it's good to have an actual name to report to the hospital or police or loved ones.  But usually we can work with a copy of an arrest report or mug shot or probation papers or other such items.  We’re one of the few places that will do that.

It always surprises some that you can’t just show up at a homeless shelter, you need ID.  And for some street people, they don’t know how to go about getting it, or have no one who cares to aid them in getting it, and so are trapped.

How else can guests get "tipped over"?  Oh, mostly stuff that discourages effort.  If jobs aren't falling into place at once, or if something they were working on gets put off.  So we try to aid in getting them to interviews or helping with resumes or sharing tips on who may or may not be hiring.

Or we can aid them in signing up for school and filling out loan application forms.  Or introduce them to the local plasma donation center, always good for some sure fire weekly cash.  As is pointed out to each guest, our program fees are deliberately set low enough so that one could afford to stay here simply by donating plasma each week.

Court is another big "tip over" threat that we try and keep from harming them.  Court appointments can be here in Springfield - or three counties over.  We can aid with rides, with advice for what to expect in court, and in procuring a button down shirt, tie and slacks for their appearance.

Judges and DAs are meaner if you show up in jeans and a t-shirt!

And conversely, they are nicer if your Program Supervisor shows up with you to put in a good word about how you’re working and striving to do better.  The biggest things judges, prosecutors, probation and parole officers want to see is “stability” and “progress”, and if we can offer evidence of those, it helps the guest a lot.

I could go on all day about the number of things that can tip over a guest, and the importance of being right there for just in case any of those things come up.  Sometimes it's as little as the gift of a tie, pre-knotted! Other times a ride of a few hours to visit kids not seen in months.  Or a reference.  Or a bike.

Not having a place to stay that is safe is thus an obvious tipping over event and one that we are here to prevent.  And that is known by everyone.  But the point of this article is that it's not just about the house and the lights.  That there are other tipping over events, and for that it's more than a house that is needed.

It's care and concern.  And being johnny-on-the-spot as much as one can be.  And being ready at 3am, 7am, noon, 6pm or midnight to respond.  And it’s a willingness to get burned a lot of times in the hope of “the one” that really will be serious, and really will be helped.

And you have to tell yourself that even when someone burns you and blows you off, that at least you gave them that chance, and a bit of safety and comfort and hope for awhile, on their journey to recovery...or death.  And really, isn’t that what life is all about for any of us at any level?  Giving a bit of hope and help to those we can?

I remember when I was homeless and had no one.  It would be difficult, if not impossible, to convey to you how that felt.  A feeling of despair not helped by knowing of your own responsibility for that.  I first decided that I never wanted to feel that way again.

Then I decided that I’d as soon see no one else feel that way either.

Branded for Life

It's the year 1516 and a stranger walks into a village in England, though it could have been a village any where in Europe.  He seeks out employment from a local smithy, who looks like he has more business than he can handle.

He's willing to work for little more than room and board, though for that day and age, more compensation would have usually been expected for such a skilled craft.

The blacksmith, no fool, holds out a hand to shake on the deal.  The stranger hesitantly reaches out his hand, whereupon the smith grabs his wrist, pulls him forward and turns his arm so the stranger's palm is showing.

A "T" is shown, plainly and obviously branded upon the stranger's palm.  The "T" is for "thief" and can be for as little as bread stolen to feed a child, or as "much" as a pheasant poached on the King's preserve.

The smithy shakes his head and doesn't even have to tell the stranger to move on.  He already is moving on.  Hoping that perhaps in the next town someone will finally take a chance on him, and wondering what he can forage for in the woods that night to tide him over.

Barbaric, true.  And utterly un-Christian, as it showed a society that while giving lip service to Christianity and the concept of self-improvement and redemption, was making sure that any sin once committed would forever be paid for, over and over, and never be escaped this side of the grave.

And what is really sad about that?

That the practice continues 500 years later in the United States of America.  You can find it on any job application that asks if you have ever been convicted of a crime, with the lying disclaimer that a "yes" answer will "not necessarily" bar you from employment.  Spoiler alert:  It will.

In an economy of more available workers wishing work than there are jobs, of course it will!  A company is looking at 100 applications for each job, and what easier way to whittle down the number of interviews needed to give than setting aside the 33% that will have a record?

And what person doesn't know that finding a person's brand - er, "record" - is just a mouse click away?  For free in some cases, for the most minimal of fees in other cases.

Even in the cases where a company might be inclined to give a chance, our courts make that impossible, as civil courts would be quick to grant relief to any who sued over being hurt or robbed by an employee with a record.  Why then would a corporation take a chance?

We live in a nation that has a larger percent of it's citizens in jail or prison than any other nation in history.  More than China, more than Cuba, more than the former Soviet Union or Nazi Reich.  Yes, really.

Each person who suffers prison, or even "just" jail, has two punishments.  The one named and the real one later.  The punishment named is light - a night in jail, at the least, and maybe 5 years in prison at the most for non-violent crimes.  Sometimes even probation, a fine or community service.

Upon their release, the second punishment kicks in, and that is where in a society based mainly on the concept of "those who do not toil shall not eat", they are forbade from toiling at any meaningful job they could care for - and many less meaningful jobs that they soon enough find themselves eager to be gave a chance at.

Nearly one out of three Americans now has had some kind of arrest, and a good many of those have records of some crime or the other, most small, many victimless.  This has created a vast class of the underemployable or unemployable that face hardship quite unimaginable to those who have never been branded by the internet.

It is true that each affected obviously made a poor choice in the past, though sometimes it was not so much a poor choice as just being in the wrong nation for any kind of error in judgment. 

We live in a nation where not only can you have a record for a "crime" that had no victim, you can in too many cases be made to plead out to a crime you did not do because the prosecutor is threatening a far worse punishment if you take it to trial.  It's a Russian Roulette, where you can plead out an get "just" probation for a thing you didn't do - or let it go to court, and if your public defender is valueless (and they always are valueless) you'll go up for years. 

Myself, I have three misdemeanor convictions, and while one was my own sin/crime, two were ones that were false and could have been fought were I to have had any ability to hire a private attorney.  Admittedly alcohol, stupidity and such put me in positions where I could have that happen, but it was wrong for that to happen to me all the same. 

Too many others find themselves in that position - where if they had money for a private attorney, they could confidently say, "I'll take the trial", but without one they know that it would be suicide to do anything but take the plea.

So they take the plea, and get a lesser sentence for that which they did not do - and then face a lifetime of difficulty in the simple act of seeking work to live.  This isn't a secret.  It isn't denied.  Those who run the system have no difficulty in admitting this.  It is not solely the complaint of alkies and druggies trying to duck responsibility.  You can hear of this from judges and lawyers and police, too.

I have watched this branding come to be and become iron-clad in the course of my own lifetime, and I am only 47.  I have seen how pre-internet, nothing but a felony could in any way impact your chances of getting a job, and even in those cases, simply moving to another state would let most have a second chance.  The glory days of infinite chances or renewal and redemption, which honestly, was a part of what made this nation so special.  That any man could - by right - wake up, grow up, and start again fresh. 

Later, after the net, my first misdemeanor was not too large an issue, though many jobs were closed off almost at once.  By many, I refer to the professional type of jobs where people are "upper middle class".  I still had my same IQ and education, but I could almost hear the 1,000 doors closing for that first plea.

Still, though, in the nineties and noughts, there were still many places not entirely adverse to a misdemeanor.  Yet as the years progressed, and the access to records became cheaper and more instantly available, it got worse and worse.  Background checks, once reserved for Top Secret security clearances or positions of fiduciary trust involving millions of dollars, became so routine that even janitors and deliver boys would be given a check more thorough than the FBI would have done in the eighties. 

Part of it being worse for me personally was having a second misdemeanor, but honestly, for awhile in the noughts, that second one still wasn't keeping me from a lot of the blue collar jobs.  Nor was the third - not at first.

But sometime in the late noughts and early teens, the trap closed much more - at least that's what I've seen in my own experience.  It has culminated recently in my applying for work at both Walmart and Labor Ready, and being turned down from each, for my "record". 

My record being three misdemeanors, non-violent, all more than ten years old.  And the only one I really did, over 20 years old.  But once you get that first, fighting a second and third is nearly impossible, unless OJ's lawyer is willing to do some pro bono for you. 

There are many reasons for the Liahona Mission that I founded and operate, all involving those who have succumbed to alcoholism and addiction being needful of a second - or 102nd - chance.  This place is a safe and affordable haven for those who have only recently got out of prison or jail, or a rehabilitative program, and want to move forward. 

It lets them have room and board, utilities and internet and a washer and dryer, all for only $50 a week.  This way they have breathing room to build habits of sobriety and look about for such work that is possible to them, and save money to one day get an apartment.

For the most part, in just over two years of having guests, I have seen that if they cannot do construction work, if they cannot get on with contractors, then their chances are greatly diminished.  And involve dish washing at locally owned restaurants (the chains are more picky) or a variety of under the table jobs, obviously mostly involving manual/menial labor.

This tells me two things.  One, it tells me that this is definitely a very valuable service we are providing to those in need who are trying to reform and recover.  If there were not safe places for so little money that donating plasma can pay the fee, many of these men would be reduced to sleeping on a mat on a floor at the one homeless shelter in town, or finding a bridge not being used and sheltering under that.

(So keep supporting our efforts!)

The second thing it tells me is that we need a lot more of the "ban the box" movements that have popped up in some states.  If you look into it, you'll find that at least a dozen states have passed measures to "ban the box".  Or so it seems.  A closer look shows that they simply "delay" when an employer can check on an applicant.

What really needs to happen, and at once, are the following reforms:

1.  Immediately withhold all misdemeanor convictions from the public record, and only have them available to Law Enforcement and the Courts. 

2.  Forbid every corporation and company from seeking to learn of misdemeanors, so that they then can never be sued or otherwise held to be civilly liable for hiring those with non-felony offenses.

3.  Have a ten year rule for felonies, so that after one decade of NO further offenses of any kind, the felony would be as sealed as the misdemeanors - that is, only available to Law Enforcement and Courts.

4.  Forbid corporations and companies from seeking to learn of any felony older than 10 years.  The only thing the box could ask is "Have you been convicted of a felony at any time in the last ten years?"

5.  Make it a crime for any private agency to in any way collect, hold, buy, sell, or distribute any personal criminal data.  By making it the sole province of the courts themselves, it will not only guarantee compliance with the law, but would be a great way of generating more revenue for local courts.  Let them get the $5 to $50 fee for such checks.

6.  Make discrimination based upon a criminal record the same type of crime as discrimination based upon race.  This would put enforcement under the EEOC of each state, and make companies and corporations civilly liable for any systematic prejudices against those who already paid their debt to society.

And yet since those six things are unlikely to happen any time soon, in the meanwhile I again urge everyone to support as best they can any charity - ours or others - that offer halfway homes, sober living homes, group homes and such so that those who have been branded for life can have a place to live where they can figure out how to proceed.  Where they can have time to find those few who still will give them a chance.  Where they can have the time to apply to the one hundred companies in the hopes that eventually one will say "yes".

So they don't have to have that horrible feeling of knowing that they cannot make enough money to have a place to stay, so why even try?  That they don't have time to get everything in order after their rehab is done, so why even try?  That there's no one to give them a seventh - or seventieth - chance, even though they know they're serious this time, so why hit their head against the brick wall of societal indifference?  There's enough stacked against them - yes, due to their poor choices before - including those background checks.

Without group homes of all varieties, there'd be no hope for the convict, the alcoholic, the addict, and all who seek another chance.

The weather is cooler now.  The need is great.  $20 to a person on a corner means money for the liquor store owner or a bump of crack.  $20 to a Home means hope for those who really wish to do better, and need that chance to redeem themselves.