Compassion is defined as the sympathetic consciousness of others distress together with a desire to alleviate it.  The important facet to the definition is the overt link of the feeling to action.  Both elements are required for true compassion to be exhibited.  Now, I clearly understand the challenges of our daily lives for kids, work, extended family, friends all dominate our waking moments and our emotional energy.  In my own life, I am today trying to balance the relentless forward movement of my father-in-laws Alzheimer’s, my 23 year old’s frustration about his college degree not being worth much in today’s economy, my 16 year old son’s challenge of trying to determine what he wants to do for the rest of his life and how I might pay for his college, my 14 year old daughter just left for Florida with a friend and her family for spring break, my own stress of running a not-for- profit organization and my wife’s stress for all of the above.

I do remind myself frequently that, even with this list of stresses, that fill my day that I am lucky.  I try to view each person I come into contact with as someone who has all the same kinds of challenges that I do.  I try to show them that I recognize their humanity and that they have value.  Further, I try not to become immune to the grim realities of the world in which we live.  Everyday in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, there is a section on page 2 ironically called Law and Order.  Each day, they report on violent crime from the day before and some court action on prior violent crimes.  Just about everyday in the greater St. Louis metro area someone is shot and killed.  Most are unknown to us.  Most will be forgotten quickly from our consciousness.  If we are to be more compassionate, we need to not let the loss of life at the hands of another be forgotten or, even worse, not care in the first place.  The much harder charge is what we do to alleviate mindless violence.  There is no easy answer; but, it is abundantly clear that reducing the level of poverty and increasing the quality of life in neighborhoods is a great step in the right direction.

If a horrific event like the killings of 16 innocent people in Afghanistan by a soldier or the terrible murders in Norway or anything local occurs, we should be moved to compassion, first and foremost, for the lost lives and not to policy implications for our country or our own community.   We can get to the policy work; but, we should not lose sight of the humanity behind the event.

Right now, my middle child, Jackson, is beginning his transition from high school to college.   He is finishing his junior year in high school and he is beginning all the many tasks to get ready for college.   The ACT test is later this month.  Several college visits have already occurred.  He is beginning his college entrance essay to describe who he is and many other assorted tasks are taking place.   Jackson is a topic for an entire blog itself so I will save you all the details and just say I am glad that Jackson has made it this far.   He is just fine with his transition or his evolution to be a college student and a young man.   My wife, however, is nowhere near being fine with this change around the corner.  This transition will be hard.   Every parent and child goes through this development process because it is normal and is supposed to happen.   It is still hard.   The emotions of parenting run deep in my house and, thanks to Jackson, that includes great unconditional love to great frustration for a teenage boy not pushing himself to realize his potential.  Transitions are hard.   This being said, we will get through it and he will be fine.   Mom will eventually be fine as well.   Our attention to the issues that need to be addressed and followed up on will be important in making this transition.

The issue of transition also came to mind recently when I was at a town hall meeting in the City of Northwoods.  Northwoods is one of the cities in our 24:1 Initiative and has been a historically well-kept, middle-class community of single family homeowners.   I was asked to come and talk about the housing development we were doing in the city.   There were a number of speakers before me that covered a wide range of topics that were of interest to the 30-40 people in attendance.  The underlying sentiment that was a thread through the conversations was that this community was in transition.   Transitioning from a pre-dominantly homeowner community to one with a great deal of rental housing.  Transitioning from a solidly middle-class community with established norms of how their community functions to a growing lower-income population that does not know or has not embraced the past way of living in Northwoods.   No one said these things; but, that is what I heard in the comments and frustrations from the residents to the elected officials and staff at Northwoods.

The leaders of Northwoods have been trying to address the issues raised and nothing mentioned was a surprise to them.   The challenge of this transition is that the city does not have the resources to quickly address these changes financially or from a municipal toolbox standpoint.   What I mean by the municipal toolbox is that, if you never had to address a large number of rental units and some questionable behavior by a larger portion of your population, you do not have the tools to address them.   Transitions are hard.  Northwoods, like so many other communities who have faced this exact transition, have seen people leave the community and property values stagnate.   These two factors, coupled with absentee landlords, make a response to this transition hard.   It is my hope that Beyond Housing, through our 24:1 Initiative, can continue to work with Northwoods to develop a new plan, a new thinking about how they manage this transition.   Like with my son Jackson, if there is a plan and the follow-up to make sure the plan gets completed, then good things can happen in Northwoods.   Transitions are hard; but, we can work through them.

I want to repeat the words of Robert Kennedy when spoke to young South African students in 1966;

“We can perhaps remember that, if even only for a time, those who live with us are our brothers.   That they share with us the same short moment of life, that they seek as we do nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness winning what satisfaction and fulfillment that they can.   Surely this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal can begin to teach us something.   Surely we can learn at least to look at those around us as fellow men.   Surely we can work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.   The answer is to rely on you.”

Trayvon’s life deserves that we try to live up to this ideal.   It is up to us.   Please do what you can each and every day.

Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg.   I want to raise another issue related to this tragic story – gun violence and children.   In their recently released report “Protect Children, Not Guns 2012”, the Children Defense Fund told us that in the most recent two years reported, 2008-09, that 5,740 children died due to gun violence.   That would be one every eight hours or three each and every day!   How can we let this happen? Again from the report, between 1979 and 2009, over 116,000 children have died due to gun violence – that’s three times more than the number of brave soldiers who died in Vietnam.   I am almost at a loss for words as to how this can be.   Where is our outrage?   How can we standby and not act to bring an end to this mindless violence against our children and in our neighborhoods?   I fear that the news cycle for the death of Trayvon Martin is coming to a close and we have not learned much.   Please don’t let the shocking facts above and the memory of Trayvon and all the other children killed by gun violence go past us without raising our hands to demand change.   Everyone should DO SOMETHING beyond becoming outraged!!   What will you do?   Beyond Housing doesn’t have all the answers; but, we are great listeners.   Respond to this blog and share what you are willing to commit to doing.   Extraordinary results often come from ordinary people.

This notion of perceptions came to my mind when I saw and heard two separate things in the last week related to the work of Beyond Housing.  First, I stop by the Save-A-Lot grocery we own in Pagedale about twice a week just to check on it.  I have done so since the store opened in July of 2010 and will continue to do so.  The store is always clean and the parking lot is well maintained.  Those rare instances when they are not, I reach out to our partners and any issues are quickly resolved.  This fact about our grocery store in a low income community jumped out at me when my wife and I went to the big Target store near our home in Richmond Heights.  The store is in a large mall with a Bed, Bath & Beyond, Trader Joe’s, World Market, etc.  The parking lot had trash strewn about including empty beer bottles, half eaten food and other miscellaneous things.  When you walked in the store, the entry was also littered with trash.  So, here is the upscale mall where the folks with money shop and it quite frankly looks terrible.  Now I know the traffic is much higher in this mall but that is no excuse for the way it looked.  Just as it would be true to say that simply because our grocery store is in a low income community it should not be a mess either.

The perception of the cleanliness of our store would largely be negative and the opposite true for the Target store.  The reality of what is true in neighborhoods and families can be hard to find; but, we need to keep on open mind and keep our eyes open as well.

The second issue of perception that came to my attention was while I was attending our after school program at the Pagedale Family Support Center  I was visiting, as I try to do every few weeks, to see and hear from the kids, their families and my staff.  The kids were great with energy off the charts, laughing, playing and simply having fun.  Our staff, as always, was caring, compassionate and set great examples for the kids.  As I was leaving, a mother and her two kids were walking out at the same time.  I had not spoken to the mother; but, as I walked to my car, I heard her ask her kids “what did you do to be productive today?”  One of her children responded; but, I did not hear what they said.  The mother once again in a cheerful way said “No, what did you do that was productive today?”

I have never asked my kids have they been productive!  How was their day, sure but never were you productive.  The reality of this mother’s caring and sincere participation in her children’s educational life is in stark contrast to the perception that parents in low income households do not actively help their children in school.  It is so easy to allow ourselves to not challenge the stereotypes that are perpetuated about so many things, including low income communities and families.  This mother, like so many others we serve, has an unwavering commitment to her children and is doing her part each and every day.

Even someone like me who has been in the field for over 25 years can slip into inaccurate perceptions if I am not careful to pay attention.  Just this weekend I planned to get the oil changed in my car and go to our Save-a-Lot to buy some groceries.  I knew there was a Jiffy Lube not too far from the grocery store.  As I planned my trip, I thought would an oil change place somewhere else be a better choice, maybe the one near my home in Richmond Heights?  What was I thinking?  The guys at the Richmond Heights oil changing place were somehow better?  How foolish was that?  These are cookie cutter places with the same procedures and prices.  So, I went to the Jiffy Lube on Hanley and Page Avenues and the staff there was polite and professional.  Yes, they did offer to change all my air filters and bunch of other things that I politely said no to.  It was a great lesson for me to stay aware of my own perceptions about people and places.

I urge all of us to not let the misperceptions of things we don’t know cloud our willingness to understand and experience those things.  We may just find that the reality is probably much different.

My peers from the National NeighborWorks Association and senior staff from NeighborWorks America concluded that not enough people care about our work in large part due to our own messaging.   The members of Congress, philanthropic leaders, local officials, community residents and John Doe citizens need a better sense of not only what we do, but why we do it and why it matters.

The work of Beyond Housing and the hundreds of not for profit organizations across the country is about creating a place to call home and HOME MATTERS.   Home is where we all go at the end of our school or work day.   Home is where our families create their dreams, share their stories and work through their struggles.   Home is the place that nurtures the hopes and aspirations for all of us.

By building homes for both homeownership and rental, by making good loans to families so that they get their part of the American Dream, by helping community leaders tackle the problems in their neighborhoods, by fostering economic development and creating jobs, by providing services to children, seniors and everyone in between, the housing and community development field creates homes and HOME MATTERS.

Everything above constitutes the human reasons why HOME MATTERS.   Now here are some economic reasons why HOME MATTERS.   For every 100 units of housing developed:

• Over 120 construction jobs are created.
• 30 annual recurring jobs are created.
• Almost $8 million in local income and over $800,000 in local taxes are created during development.
• $2.4 million in local income and $441,000 in local taxes are recurring.

Further, the health benefits of living in a decent and safe home include you and your family being:

• 19% more likely to have the food you need each and everyday.
• 28% less likely to be seriously underweight.
• 35% more likely to be considered “well” on a children’s health index.

Finally, when we create HOME, we know that we prevent overcrowding, frequent relocations and having families live in substandard conditions.  All of these facts greatly enhance a child’s academic success.  HOME MATTERS.

The last point I want to make is why we do what we do.  Why do we create HOMES?  The field I work in believes that:

• Every child deserves a place to call home, a place for them to be safe, be loved and dream the biggest dreams possible.
• Every family deserves a neighborhood that is one of their choosing and provides the quality of life they envision.
• Every community has the resources to create the quality of life they all want for themselves.

We believe these things because without pause, without equivocation, without hesitation, we know HOME MATTERS.   We hope you do too.

“I’m one of the few Americans who is truly sympathetic to sweatshops really because of the time I spent in Asia and seeing the way they became an avenue for people to ride the escalator up and that they provided a lot of employment for people, which tended to be wretched jobs, but usually not as wretched as working in a rice paddy or in construction jobs or selling cigarettes in the street or, you know, a million other jobs that tend to be available. My fear has been that the hostility to sweatshops has meant that manufacturers don’t go to Africa. I mean, Africa’s problem isn’t that it has sweatshops; it’s that it doesn’t have any sweatshops. And typically, the only thing worse than a sweatshop is indeed no sweatshop at all, no employment whatsoever.”The only thing worse than sweat shops is no sweat shops – wow! I don’t think many of us would have ever come to that conclusion. It is just hard to understand a topic like this unless you, as Kristof has done, can get close to it. Close enough to feel the oppression of a sweat shop but also close enough to understand that in the context of that community, it is indeed a move forward. This does not mean in any sense that a larger more humane solution doesn’t need to be found. But in the short term, sweat shops may have to do. This is not an easy conceptualization to get one’s head around. So I began to think about the not quite as serious work that Beyond Housing does day in and day out.

In particular, I was reminded about my own perceptions about payday loan shops and corner markets in our 24:1 Initiative. When our work began in 24:1 and I started really seeing all the parts of the Normandy School District, I was shocked by the number of payday or title loan facilities in our footprint. There are 32 of these non-traditional lending shops in the 24:1 Initiative’s footprint compared to 3 regulated banks. My first reaction to these places, that in some cases charge up to 400% interest, is that they should be wiped off the face of this earth. How terrible these people are taking advantage of the people who live here. What I have come to find, upon being close enough, is that while I do not abide by the usury business practices of some of these places, they serve a purpose that no other entity is performing as of today. These places provide liquidity otherwise known as cash to hard working families that just don’t have enough resources from paycheck to paycheck. These families have few if any alternatives when they are in a bind for a car repair, food, rent, utilities or whatever challenge faces them on a regular basis. Until we find a real alternative to these “money changers”, we cannot remove them from our communities. They serve a purpose today– the only thing worse than a payday loan is not having access to a payday loan for emergency cash. Tomorrow, I want to see products like the ones at the St. Louis Community Credit Union that recognize the situation families are in and work with them to bolster their credit and get into more mainstream products. When we complete the construction of our four story, 42 unit senior building with a new full service Midwest Bank Centre facility, my hope is there will be more opportunities to leave the “money changers”. The closer I got the better I understood.

The other revelation I had in my early tours of the 24:1 footprint was the large number of “corner markets” throughout the area. During this period, we were finalizing the financing for our soon to be built 16,000 square foot Save-A-Lot grocery store in Pagedale. I became a bit of a “food desert snob” where only full service grocery stores were good enough and these corner markets with high prices and extremely limited fresh foods just needed to go away. Again, somewhere done the road I would like to see this happen, but not right now. These stores, like payday lenders, serve a purpose in the communities they reside in. For instance, if you do not have a car and live let’s say 1.5 miles from the Save-A-Lot, how would you get there and back? Walk three miles total and the second 1.5 with a bunch of heavy bags? So where can they go? The corner market, the same market that has been in the community for years. We met an owner who gives some longtime customers credit if they need it in an emergency. Again, these corner markets serve a purpose today. I wish everyone had access to easy transportation and a full service grocery store nearby. We are working on making that happen in the future. Today, however, that is not the case. As I get close enough to better understand, my perspective deepens.

Here is a quick recap of the four things the settlement can do:

$17 billion
To homeowners, with the bulk of it to be used for principal reductions.

$3 billion
For refinancing the mortgages of underwater borrowers.

$1.5 billion
For payments to consumers who lost their homes to foreclosure.

$2.6 billion
To states for foreclosure prevention.

$750 million
To the federal government.

Here is the rest of the story:

The settlement only covers loans owned by the five big banks (Bank of America, JP Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi and Ally Financial) which is somewhere around 15% of all loans. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA own a majority of all the other loans and are not a part of the settlement. Who out there knows who owns your loan? Not who you send your payments to – that is your servicer – who do you actually owe? There is an extremely low chance that it is who you signed the loan papers with because they sold your loan right away.

See the problem? Big news, big headlines, help is on the way until you make probably four or five calls and find out that your loan is not covered. So the $20 billion of the $25 billion set aside for principal reductions and refinancing is only for a small segment of the country’s loans. In addition, now follow me on this, the $17 billion paid by the banks will go back to the banks in the form of principal reductions on loans they already have. Let me repeat, the banks will be paying themselves to complete principal reductions – thereby deriving benefit from admitting to wrong doing. I understand they are still paying out $17 billion. However, stated plainly, they broke the law and are settling to avoid the potential of prosecution and an even bigger payout – but are essentially paying themselves. Maybe I’m just not smart enough to understand high finance.

Here is the insulting part.

The $1.5 billion for payments to those who lost their homes to foreclosure will average around $2,000. So you lose your home, possibly in an illegal manner, the place where you raised your children, your piece of the American Dream, the biggest investment you will ever make and now those that took this away from you want to give you $2,000. Really? Under a fairness doctrine of sorts wouldn’t it make more sense to find out who actually should not have been foreclosed upon and really pay them? What I mean is that a number of folks who are eligible for the $2,000 really could not afford their home anymore due to job loss and loss of income. There are, however, a lot of families who should have been able to stay in their homes and justice says they should be paid far beyond $2,000.

Here is salt in the wound.

Yesterday Missouri’s Attorney General announced the settlement and how it would impact Missourians. The $2.6 billion for states to prevent foreclosures apparently will be used in Missouri to fund the budget shortfall for public education. Huh? We just announced a national $25 billion settlement for fraudulent foreclosure practices that has greatly harmed Missouri families and communities. So of course the great leadership in our state would take the $44 million share we get and try to prevent as many foreclosures as possible, right?

No, sadly the needs of public education seem to be the only and highest priority. Public education is obviously important for a state, but the great economic impact of preventing foreclosures will build the tax receipts for local schools in a dramatic fashion by increasing the tax base without raising taxes.

We need to find a way to meet the multiple needs of our community and not pit two worthy needs against each other.

Those are the words from President Obama during the State of the Union address to all of us.  It struck me that the essence of our country is the opportunity to live a successful life – no less, no more.  We all want a realistic chance to live comfortably and raise our family without unbearable daily challenges.  Today this chance is not afforded to all Americans.

This past Sunday I visited Mt. Beulah Missionary Baptist Church in Hanley Hills to announce the naming of Beyond Housing’s new senior building just up the street in Pagedale.  It will be named the Rosie Shields Manor in honor of the late wife of Rev. E.G. Shields.  I then went to the Save-A-Lot in Pagedale.  Beyond Housing built and owns the store and has a long lease with Save-A-Lot.  As I shopped at the store, as I do every week, I always check the store and ensure that it is clean and good looking.  It was.  When checking out, I noticed a woman in front of me asking the checkout person if she could leave her basket in the store as she took several bags with her.

When I got to my car I saw the woman walking with her two bags.  I asked if she needed a ride.  She said yes to my offer for a ride.  I took her a full mile home to her house in Wellston.  She walked to the store and was going to have to walk back to get the rest of her groceries for her family.  That’s four miles total walking distance!  How far do you walk for your groceries?  How many steps from your car to the store?

I don’t know her whole story; but, no matter what it is she should not have that type of challenge just to feed her family.

We understand that some folks can’t get to the store due to lack of transportation.  That’s why we built the store along a major transportation route.  But what happens when you have to choose between taking the bus and food for your family?  She deserves better. Work hard, play by the rules and you can have a successful life.  Our nation should live up to that mantra.  Let’s make this happen for all of us.

Over 200,000 families were going to have a paycheck coming into their households. Imagine what this could mean for them. That money could keep that family in their home and avoid foreclosure or eviction. Losing your home through foreclosure is one of the most stressful and emotionally difficult things for a family. While getting a job and that paycheck does not immediately make all the problems in your life go away, it does let you breathe again. It allows your children to stay in their schools. It hopefully prevents a family from draining whatever savings they may have and it avoids the extremely challenging question of where does one live if they have lost their home or have been evicted.

All of these things are so very real, so very important in the lives of over 200,000 families last month alone! Sure, we can debate that our larger economic recovery needs much more than 200,000 new jobs per month, or who is to blame or congratulate for the number, but do not forget there are real lives behind this data. Further, when we also hear that 44 million families now receive SNAP or Food Stamps, the highest figure ever because they need help buying food each month, that these are real families struggling for the most basic of needs. When we hear that more children are living in poverty than ever recorded, please remember these are real children not some abstract data.

Beyond Housing works each and every day to serve the many families that reach out to us and never lose sight of their humanity. Maybe, if we get a little more support we can make a dent in all the data points we hear about while we continue to help families in need.

Beyond Housing continues to be not only resilient in difficult times but we are actually thriving! As of today, we have over $11 million of construction and rehab underway across our mission delivery systems. This includes our 4 story 42 unit senior building with a full service bank on the bottom floor which is across the parking lot from our grocery store, a ten home for sale development and a six home, for sale rehab project. While that covers the housing part of our name the beyond part includes our after-school program serving over 30 children every day, our first time homebuyers program that will help over 170 families achieve the American Dream this year, our foreclosure counseling work that will help over 800 families stay in their home, or the nearly 100 families that will receive gifts for the holiday season from our Holiday Friends Program, the 115 Normandy High School students saving for their college education in our Viking Advantage Program, our ten day care partners working with the Child Day Care Association in their program Achieving Quality in the Normandy School District and the 24 cities in our 24:1 Initiative that are working together to be more effective and efficient in the delivery of service to the almost 40,000 residents who live there.

Whew!!!! Writing this makes me tired!!! The scale of our work is remarkably parallel to the lives of many families we serve each and every day. The daunting task of raising children, working your job, hoping the car does not break down, hoping day care at the neighbors still works, hoping the ex-spouse/ex-boyfriend does not hassle you today, and all the other real life dilemma’s our families face each and every day is far more challenging than my work. This fact is rarely acknowledged by most folks in our society. Being poor or not being able to take care of your basic needs is simply no fun. The average person doesn’t want a life of struggle and challenge. Rarely does anyone desire a daily existence of trials and tribulations. Yet, so many of our neighbors who live in poverty, quietly and courageously soldier their way through these difficult circumstances.

Our annual fund raising appeal this year was entitled Army of the Ordinary and was penned by our Board Chairperson Rich Ryffel. I will tell you about this great man another time. In our appeal, Rich quoted Bobby Kennedy well over 40 years ago when he toured Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta and was so outraged that he declared “If we believe that we, as Americans are bound together by a common concern for each other, then an urgent national priority is upon us. We must begin to end the disgrace of this other America.” The “other” America Bobby Kennedy was referring to was those who live in poverty. Our appeal letter goes on to say:

“Poverty is a mighty adversary. It fights on many fronts and with many weapons. It is ruthless in its choice of when and where it attacks, showing no mercy to the elderly or children. It does not abide by any rules of engagement. Poverty cheats, it steals, it hits below the belt. It hits us when we are down. It has no shame. Its tactics should anger us and call us to arms.” We conclude our appeal with the following:

“We have no medal to pin on you. Your gift will be its own reward. No contribution is too small to escape our gratitude. You are a hero in the making. But first you must join the fight. Our campaign like all great causes, will be won by the contributions from platoons of ordinary citizens called to greatness by their times. Will you join our army? This Army of the Ordinary, with your help, can do the extraordinary. The battlefield awaits. Choose your front. Join us. We can have poverty in retreat”.

Anyone who reads this, please join us or any other organization that is fighting poverty and its consequences like hunger, underachievement, and preventable illness or crushed dreams. The Army of the Ordinary needs all the recruits we can find. Don’t hesitate, don’t delay.

In the days to come I will post more regularly and share the insights my organization gleans day in and day out as we serve the community. I look forward to seeing you on the battlefield in 2012.

Happy Holidays to all!