Last week Glasgow City Council were met with significant
opposition from local residents when they announced that they were planning to
accommodate 40 homeless men in Burnbank House, Burnbank Gardens. The
accommodation is currently being emptied of its elderly residents in
preparation for the conversion. It’s a
two year temporary solution to allow the local authority to build purpose built
premises in Possil.[i]
The local residents have expressed their concerns that men
with drug and alcohol addictions and many with criminal records will be located
right next door to young families the elderly and single women.
Take a moment and consider how you would feel if a homeless
unit for 40 men was built next door to your house? What is going to be the
impact? “Will there be a rise in petty
crime, drug use and maybe violence. Will I go out alone at night, will I go out
at all?” It may even affect the value of your house on the open market.
Would you advocate the installment of metal studs outside your accommodation if
it prevented rough sleepers?
I’m assuming that nobody deliberately moves into a street or
area because it has these services. However whenever people speak about homelessness, everyone
agrees that a certain amount of supported accommodation is required.
Where should it be located then? Do we need an Alcatraz
style solution in the middle of the Clyde? Do we want to see ghettos in the
city marked out for addicts and the broken?
Interestingly enough Jesus makes such a deliberate move. He
comes to a cesspit of sin and destruction and lives with us. Eats with us,
laughs with us and weeps with us. He dies and is raised to life for us. He does
it all when he deliberately moves to be with us – we call it the incarnation.
We find hope in “God with us”. It changed the early
followers of Jesus, and it changes us today. In being present with us, what we saw, heard and
experienced changed us. A remarkable love and acceptance of who we were, and
understanding of our brokenness and a refusal to leave us broken.
So here’s an uncomfortable challenge to a church parish or
Christian community. Who will
deliberately invite the local authority to build a homelessness unit in their
neighbourhood? Who will support it and engage with those in it. Who’s willing to see the potential in
people?
People Make Glasgow – so the banners tell us, and they
really do, every one of us. Not just the nice people that we’d invite in for a
meal, everyone. Those caught in addiction make Glasgow, those who sleep rough
make Glasgow, and those with mental health issues make Glasgow. However, if we
haven’t already, we’re in danger of creating two Glasgow’s.
