As I headed for a nearby Starbucks one recent morning to fortify myself with some iced java, a man pulled up in a motorized wheelchair and positioned himself about 10 feet away from me.
As I neared the door of the store, he asked me for money.
My thoughts whipped back to an interview I’d had in late 2006 with Milt Matthews, pastor of From the Heart/Back to Basics Church in Forestville. His church caters to the homeless, so I asked for advice on how to treat the numerous panhandlers I encounter around town.
He — and several of the formerly homeless folks in his congregation — told me that most of the people on the streets are not truly hungry. There are so many food-giveaway programs in town, no one who really needs food has to do without.
The pastor emphasized that the homeless need to be treated like human beings.
“Next time you see someone out there with a sign, you think, ’What an opportunity for life,’” he told me. “Spend some time with the brother. Ask him, ’Why are you here? Do you want Jesus? There is a better life, you know.’”
Being that I was one of the multitudes who simply throw a dollar at a homeless person without so much as looking them in the face, that made me think. I decided to engage the man in the wheelchair.
A quick glance revealed he seemed paralyzed from the waist down but had plenty of arm movement. I once had a quadriplegic housemate who had found a part-time job with the county, so I knew job opportunities existed. The federal government has disabled-hiring programs and 7 percent of all federal employees are disabled in some way.
“Can’t you find a job?” I asked him. “I know there’s stuff out there, but you need to look for it.”
I tried to keep my tone friendly and kind, but the man just glared and indicated he was not able to work.
“Oh, but you can,” I said. “It’s really possible, and there are things out there for you.” But my words were going nowhere, so I ducked into the store. When I exited, the man had wheeled himself down the sidewalk. But when he spotted me, he raced back, yelling out insults. I took off.
Later, I called Mr. Matthews, whose church has since relocated to Landover, and asked him what I’d done wrong.
“They’re in a certain mind-set,” he said of street beggars. “You don’t know what’s going on in their minds. We approach them on our level, with the way we think. But they don’t think that way.
“We wonder why they’d stay in a shelter. It’s filthy, it’s nasty and stinking. But you can’t put that question to them right away.
“When people ask why they’re not making a living, the first thing they feel is condemnation. So you just have to talk to them. They have to see you’re real people. That takes four or five conversations.”
His church has come up with a play, “Crying from the Street,” starring formerly homeless people, so the issue is fresh to him. He doesn’t give money to panhandlers “unless we have a relationship with them.”
“I have to know you’re really doing what you say you’re going to do with that money,” he said.
I thought of the woman in a Home Depot parking lot who hit me up last week with a hard-luck story about needing gas money. With the economy going south, many of us will need to know what to say as more jobless people hit the streets.
• Julia Duin’s Stairway to Heaven column runs Thursdays and Sundays. Contact her at jduin@washingtontimes.com.
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