Jul 23, 2022
Jim McCammon talks about unhoused persons in a small affluent Northern California community. Working at "Reach For Home," Jim goes out into the field and meets unhoused, at risk, people where they are. He has been doing this day after day for years.
A pastor in a previous professional career, Jim recounts Jesus' words: 'the poor will always be with us.' From this statement, Jim deduces that we may never find 'a solution' to poverty and unhoused people nonetheless, we must attend to them bringing comfort and connection - much as any humanitarian will do. Inside a charity or government sponsored program for homelessness there must be empathy as well as strategized solutions. Jim sees much of his work in the former - providing empathy and understanding. Connection, curiosity, trust are powerful gifts to unhoused people who don't receive these gifts from established areas of society.
Jim delves into estimates of how many homeless are in his work area. Are numbers growing or shrinking? How much resources are applied? What's it like to sip wine in wine country but see homelessness? How many unhoused are willing to sign forms to be housed? Difficult questions, difficult answers.
Without consent, strategy - no matter how good - will not work. What's a person to do? Jim explains his thoughts based on his empathic work.
Pierre and Maureen query Jim on the details of the unhoused ecosystem of food, money, transportation, mental health, family connections to better understand unhoused challenges at a detailed level.
Our interview winds up with Jim's prior career as a classically trained clarinetist at the Oberlin School of Music, playing with orchestras and ballet companies.
Meet Jim McCammon - humanitarian to the unhoused telling it like it is. Let's not sugar coat this.