Copyright Augusta Free Press
“It’s easy to preach compassion for the homeless when it’s someone else’s neighborhood on the line,” the letter from an “anonymous” AFP reader scolded us, on what the letter-writer referred to as our “so-called ‘news story,’” about the controversy being generated by literally one couple in the Tree Streets in Waynesboro that doesn’t like the church next door actually practicing what the book they call the Bible preaches. I put the word “anonymous” in quotation marks because, come on, it’s literally one couple in the entire city that is trying to get St. John’s Episcopal Church to close its doors to local people experiencing homelessness. ICYMI At risk? Tree Streets couple want homeless out of their Waynesboro neighborhood Waynesboro: Neighbors disagree with couple’s efforts to push homeless out Waynesboro: Church turnout shows people want to help homeless, not send them away Waynesboro pastor: Unhoused need to be seen and heard, not dismissed as ‘scary’ The “anonymous” letter claimed – as the letter to neighbors that the single, solitary couple that has a problem with this, Michael Jacobs and Michelle Weeks, the latter a local veterinarian, were brave enough to sign their name to – the existence of “statistics” that “show that a large percentage of homeless persons suffer from mental illness and drug addiction.” Fun fact: actual “statistics” show that “mental or behavioral health disorders and substance abuse are many times outcomes of experiencing homelessness,” not the cause. Pardon the interruption: “anonymous” was just warming up. “A simple internet search,” “anonymous” tells us, “reveals the facts: there is clear evidence of an association between homelessness and increased risk of crime, particularly property crime.” If you do a “simple internet search” of the search terms “homelessness” and “crime,” near the top of the first page of results, you will be given a link to a National Institutes of Health study that tells you people experiencing homelessness “are more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators,” with that study citing a separate Justice Department study showing that “approximately half of PEH surveyed reported being victims of violence, compared to 2 percent of the general population.” Adjust the search terms to include the word “property,” and you get a study from Oxford that tells us homeless encampments, which is not what we’re seeing at St. John’s, but anyway, are “not associated with any increases in property crime – very close to zero.” And again, what they’re doing at St. John’s is not homeless encampments – it’s opening the church to people experiencing homelessness. You know, doing what churches are supposed to do. Quoting Jesus himself: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” In case you missed it in Sunday school, yes, Jesus, himself, a person experiencing homelessness. Jacobs, Weeks and “anonymous” would close the church down the street to Jesus, because they’d assume the Son of Man was going to steal something off their front porch or take a crap under a tree in their backyard. The real issue here is made clear in both letters. The letter to neighbors signed by Jacobs and Weeks mentions “property values,” as does the letter to us from “anonymous,” which takes the concept a step further, citing concern over “depressed property values.” “To frame this issue as a heartless couple versus compassionate neighbors is both unfair and uninformed,” “anonymous” wrote, in support of Jacobs and Weeks. “It ignores the verifiable evidence of how unmanaged homelessness adversely affects a neighborhood – and it misrepresents the legitimate concerns of residents who are simply trying to protect their community.” St. John’s opening its doors isn’t “unmanaged homelessness,” whatever that is; and “the legitimate concerns of residents” are actually “the xenophobic fears of two fake Christians.” I can say that from experience; I lived next door to Jacobs and Weeks for eight years; our final interaction with them came in 2017 when they complained that the Pride flag we flew from our front porch was a problem for their property value. “If you really believe in your cause,” “anonymous” concludes, “don’t just virtue-signal from across town. Welcome the homeless to your neighborhood. Welcome them next door to your house. And welcome the consequences, too – the noise, the trash, the safety risks, the property decline.” You can tell these folks are the brand of fake Christian that thinks Jesus died for their sins, sure, but mostly, for their bank accounts. “Otherwise,” “anonymous wraps up, “it’s not compassion. It’s hypocrisy with a halo.” Bruh, “anonymous,” man, zinged me there. I mean, I’m not the one who bought a house next door to a church trying to tell the church to close its doors to the least of us and still trying to pretend to be a righteous Christian, like the letter writer’s obviously very close friends. For that matter, these types of “Christians” are the reason why I left that religion years ago – somewhere around the time my former next-door neighbor told us that our support for people being driven to mental illness and suicide for being who they are was a problem for his property value – and never looked back.
