Rescuing with rules

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NICK EICHER, HOST:  Today is Wednesday, October 15th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: helping the homeless.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case from Grants Pass, Oregon, that approved laws banning homeless encampments. Even so, tent cities remain there — and in many other places. That’s because the case resolved only a single legal question. And not others.

EICHER: It didn’t. Nor did it deal with solutions to homelessness. That’s a task left to those with boots on the ground. WORLD’s Jenny Rough took a tour of the Gospel Rescue Mission in Grants Pass and brings us the story of the man behind the mission.

JENNY ROUGH: Brian Bouteller walks down a muddy embankment by Gilbert Creek in Grants Pass, Oregon.

BRIAN BOUTELLER: I’ve seen people in here pooping in buckets, washing their laundry. I mean, we’ve come in here and cleaned out countless bags of trash outta here.

He points to a small encampment in the trees.

BOUTELLER: If we go down there, we might find drug needles. So watch your footing. Look over here. This is a common hideout.

The spot is a stone’s throw away from the Gospel Rescue Mission, where Bouteller serves as executive director. The Christian homeless shelter has 78 beds for men. Sixty for women and children. Many are empty. Bouteller invites those sleeping nearby to stay at the Mission.

Most refuse.

SOUND: [Train running through Grants Pass]

One freezing cold morning he saw two guys camped across the tracks.

BOUTELLER: I said, guys. And they’re all bundled up in their mummy bags. … There’s breakfast over there right now. I could smell you guys before I crossed the railroad tracks. I mean, I can get you a shower. And they looked at me with straight faces. They sat up in their mummy bags and they said, “Yeah, but we’d have to give up all this.”

“This” meaning no responsibilities.

BOUTELLER: And they said, "We get up whenever we want to. No one tells us what to do. I can smoke if want to smoke, I can drink if I want to drink. And that's the life I want."

Bouteller says to solve the problem of homelessness, it’s important to understand the problem.

He says the problem is not sleeping in parks.

BOUTELLER: Nobody’s upset about sleeping. We’re upset about vandalism and drug use and human victimization of other human beings and theft and all kinds of criminal behavior.

He categorizes the homeless into three groups.

BOUTELLER: People who can leave homelessness and want to. People who can leave homelessness and don’t want to. And people who can’t leave homelessness without some kind of subsidies.

Bouteller says Christian ministries are great for those who want to leave the streets. For those who need subsidies, the Mission is currently building homes and he says Christians could do more here.

For those who can leave homelessness but don’t want to, Bouteller sees a real challenge.

Handouts often make the challenge harder.

BOUTELLER: All these people that want to go out and give sandwiches, and medical care, and tents, and sleeping bags to people who are out in our parks living in the mud. And I’m like, give them not homelessness. Give them homefulness. Instead of just going, I’m going to make you comfortable in the mud. I mean, it’s better than misery in the mud, but it’s still not solving the problem.

When courts stop anti-camping bans from taking effect, the challenge becomes harder still. That’s because anti-camping bans make homelessness difficult. So structure becomes more appealing.

The Mission is a high barrier shelter. A resident has to stay sober.

ROUGH: Is this confiscated alcohol? 

BOUTELLER: Yes, yeah.

ROUGH: Syrah. Pinot Grigio. Oh, it’s in plastic bottles, that’s interesting.

Even cigarettes aren’t allowed, though the Mission helps with prescriptions and patches to curb cravings.

BOUTELLER: I don’t think smoking’s a sin. But if you’re not paying your bills, and not taking care of your family, that’s not the time for luxury. Let’s get you to where you’re independent, making so much money that you actually have savings, and now you can afford luxury.

The most difficult rule for many: waking up at 5:30 a.m.

BOUTELLER: If somebody’s been living out on the streets, their sleep pattern is all broken up. They’re up all night. And they’re asleep during the day. I want them to start learning accountability. So they come down for roll call at six. They have to be ready for chapel by seven.

SECRETARY: Ethan?

ETHAN: Here.

SECRETARY: John?

JOHN: Here.

If able, residents work. Bouteller tries to match a person’s talents with a job.

BOUTELLER: This is Chris. Chris is our current chef du jour.

ROUGH: What are you making for dinner tonight?

CHRIS: It’s going to be a cream sauce with ham and peas on shells.

The Mission helps residents set up a checking account, tackle outstanding debts like back child support, and learn money management.

Lights out at 10 p.m. Including electronics.

BOUTELLER: I want them to get back into a rhythm that’s normative. These are the little pieces of the routine that you and I are so used to doing, that we don’t think about them. But they do a tremendous amount to add to succeeding in life and doing well. They add to our flourishing.

Bouteller says it’s incredible to watch a disoriented resident become oriented to a productive life.

BOUTELLER: If the creation mandate for mankind in some way was to take the chaos and make order out of it. Well, here, we’re seeing that happen in their lives here. Even non-Christians who come in and follow the program and even leave non-Christian. They still are blessed by following a Christian way of life.

Critics frame his approach as cruel and coercive. Bouteller doesn’t buy it. One in three residents leave the Mission with a job and housing. Like Eric:

ERIC: I came here. I was an alcoholic. I had been divorced. Lost my job. I didn’t have a penny to my name, I don’t think.

He got clean. Got married. Bought a house. Became a dad. And today, his message to others is: why not give the Mission a try?

ERIC: What have you got to lose? The streets will always be there.

Bouteller says residents like Eric, willing to do the work, become contributors to the community. And so he continues his work too—work that avoids enabling while embracing effective compassion.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough in Grants Pass, Oregon.

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