Mental Health and Homelessness
This is Arthur. These pictures were taken during a conversation I had with him the other day while we ate breakfast outside FMS. Arthur gave his consent for all pictures and information shared in this article.
If you didn’t know Arthur and passed him on the street, you might be scared. There are times when people who do know him might be scared. He is often aggressive, loud, animated, and angry. He uses dangerous substances. He’s committed sins to which most of us will never be able to relate. Volunteers at FMS who know him well believe he has schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, at the very least.
This article isn’t meant to make you feel safe around Arthur. It isn’t meant to convince you that God has called you to directly serve Arthur and people with similar habits and attributes. It is meant to illuminate Arthur as a human being, one who still needs love, support and help, from somewhere. Christ died for all of our sins. God loves all of us. He desires for all of us to be reconciled to Him. All people matter to God. Do all of them matter to us?
I asked Arthur if I could sit down, eat with him, take pictures and get some information for an article. He said yes and, without prompting, proceeded to tell me details about his life. Growing up in Cameron, Texas, Arthur had a very traumatic childhood. From the age of 6 to 15, he was severely abused by his adoptive father, physically and emotionally. Despite showing his mother and other family members the explicit evidence of his abuse, nobody did anything to stop it.
To spare you the unsettling details, I will leave the summary of his story at that. Arthur recounted instance after instance of terrible experiences at the hands of those who were supposed to love and protect him. Each time terror and tears would creep into his eyes at the thought of his own memories, he quickly subdued them with loud, angry outbursts.
I think most of us would agree his anger is justifiable, but it’s obvious he has never learned how to control his anger, nor how to deal with the trauma of his childhood. As you can imagine, the effects of that unaddressed trauma on his mental, emotional and spiritual health has contributed to even more trauma and negative circumstances in his adult life.
This is a glaring example of how mental health affects the experience of poverty and homelessness in our community, but it’s far from the only example. Spend any amount of time volunteering at Feed My Sheep or similar non-profits, and you will see, over and over, people who suffer from obvious mental and emotional conditions. Often, they have turned to illegal substances in an attempt to deal with their conditions, only to cause a terrible cycle, with the addictions and the illnesses exacerbated by one another.
How do we help someone in that condition? Could Arthur keep a job if we get him one? Could he take care of a house if we bought him one? Could he consistently make the responsible decisions in the best interests of himself and others if we gave him money to live on every day? I would say no. At least, not the Arthur that sat across from me at breakfast. Not in the place in his life where he is now.
Those are the problems we are addressing with our newest facility. In partnership with Vista Community Church, Temple Bible Church, and First Baptist Temple, FMS is launching a new, non-profit mental health and addiction recovery facility, the SunRISE Center.
The RISE in SunRISE stands for:
Reduce Death by Suicide and Overdose
Invite to the Gospel Community
Safe in Mind and Body
Encourage Sober Living
Run solely on donations and volunteers, the SunRISE Center will offer mental health services free of charge to anyone who needs it.
The SunRISE Center is poised to make a substantial impact on the lives of those in our community by integrating comprehensive services to address mental health and addiction. By offering specialized counseling, therapy, and access to resources for individuals battling these circumstances, we seek to provide a supportive and nurturing environment for those in need. By directly targeting the root causes of homelessness, the SunRISE Center is an essential step towards transforming the lives of people who need it most.
While the SunRISE Center is in its beginning phase, there is still great need to be fulfilled for us to be successful. As with all areas of FMS, the SunRISE Center relies entirely on the support of our community.
If you are interested in learning how you can volunteer your time to help us achieve our goals, please click here.
If you feel led to donate, please click here.
Thank you!
