We have all seen them hundreds of times. We walk past them on the Corner every day. Sometimes, with a twinge of guilt, we avert our eyes.
Growing up in Wilmington, Del., I became accustomed to the presence of a homeless community. But I was surprised to find that Charlottesville harbors its own significant homeless population. The presence of homeless people in Charlottesville is a major problem for the city and also for the University. The fact that the Corner — and Charlottesville as a whole — is home to the homeless is a blemish on the University’s commitment to the Charlottesville area. As an institution of higher education, the University’s mission is to pursue truth and knowledge, and then spearhead efforts to use this truth and knowledge to correct societal ills. The University must work in conjunction with the city to use the vast resources at its disposal to end the prevalence of homelessness in Charlottesville.
The presence of the homeless in Charlottesville is, to an outsider, unexpected. A 2013 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that there is a “need for more preventative care for the area’s homeless,” and also found that over 230 children in the area are homeless. It is also important to note that while many of the city’s “homeless” population reside temporarily in shelters, they are still considered homeless because they do not have a permanent home. This means that there is a large homeless population apart from the handful of people we all see on the Corner.
The presence of great wealth in Charlottesville, juxtaposed against poverty, accentuates the problem of homelessness. Apart from the University (and all that comes with that, such as a world-class medical center), Charlottesville is home to a sizable amount of financial firms, a healthy population of lawyers and is a destination for countless well-to-do University alumni. The contrast between great wealth and great poverty and suffering is startling.
In my hometown of Wilmington, a Franciscan friar named Brother Ronald Giannone founded an organization, the Ministry of Caring, to combat homelessness, poverty and disease in the city. The Ministry of Caring, founded in 1978, now operates 19 programs in Wilmington, with a focus on halfway houses that provide transitional housing between homelessness and everyday residential living. Giannone has made great strides towards ending the scourge of homelessness in Wilmington. He famously observed: “you can understand [poverty] in Calcutta, but how, in the land of plenty…can we allow even one person to be homeless?”
Where is the Brother Ronald of Charlottesville? I am confident that 100 percent of the population in Charlottesville believes that homelessness is terrible. And yet, I do not see the outrage about this problem that has led to solutions such as the Ministry of Caring.
There are signs of hope. This past spring, the University offered a class titled, “Field Work in Social Enterprise: Reducing Poverty in Charlottesville.” This 12-person class identified three strategies to reduce poverty in Charlottesville: bundling social services to better support those in poverty, boosting employment via social enterprises and creating community asset growth. Identifying these factors is a promising step toward a University-supported strategy to end poverty in Charlottesville.
The University should fund increased student and faculty research into these anti-poverty strategies. Additionally, anti-poverty efforts could benefit from collaboration between the city and the University. At the close of the “Field Work in Social Enterprise” class, the students presented their work to the Charlottesville City Council. It is important to remember that partnerships between the University and city government have greater potential than actions by either institution alone.
The University and the city of Charlottesville also have an opportunity to set an example for the entire United States in the fight against poverty and homelessness. In the 1990s, homelessness was at the forefront of the political and media agendas, but in the tumult following of the early 2000s, with foreign wars and market crashes, the plight of the homeless has largely been relegated to the political background. The situation for the homeless has improved, stimulated by driven individuals such as Brother Ronald, but much more is needed if we as a society are to eradicate homelessness. Because universities are at the forefront of innovation and scholarship, they must also take the lead in solving societal problems. Our University must start taking the problem of homelessness seriously.
John Connolly is a Viewpoint columnist for The Cavalier Daily.
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