The Overnighters
A recent documentary on PBS, titled "The Overnighters" captures a story about a thousands of workers migrating to North Dakota to find work in the oil business. Instead of finding jobs, many are left with no work and find an extreme shortage of housing. A pastor at a local church saw this problem and looked to his own facilities to realize that he had a large amount of under-utilized space that could provide sleeping arrangements for many workers in need. He welcomed many workers into his makeshift dorm and provided counseling along with food. Despite his positive intensions the neighbors became fearful of these "could-be dangerous" men occupying their local church and parking lot. The local government also began to pass ordinances deterring people from sleeping in any type of temporary housing, may that be a shelter, a vehicle or a tent. This documentary provides a view into social injustice and an example of a justice, along with issues of scarcity occurring not far from home in a small American town that many can relate to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x7m3S60-l0
Workers living in the church parking lot.
This is a difficult situation- on one hand, what the pastor is doing is an amazing and optimistic thing. But on the other, he is becoming a crutch in a way to these people by providing temporary housing and not pushing them to find jobs and more permanent living situations. Legislators must find a balance that supports these type of people without becoming a crutch for them.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that temporary housing is a crutch, as I personally know people who have lived in places like the Salvation Army and now have their own homes and jobs. For instance, at the Salvation Army in Greenville, those using the housing must be out during the day, looking for work. The housing is offered with counseling, job assistance, education opportunities and people using it must stay clean/sober and meet other requirements. People come looking for a roof over their head, but end up getting back on track to being self-supporting through the assistance they otherwise wouldn't get. It sounds like this pastor is doing something similar by offering counseling, not just housing and also practicing what he preaches.
DeleteAlthough I haven't seen this documentary but I agree with Lillian. Although the pastor must be having good intentions but maybe this is the beginning of what they call as slum development, and if higher authorities do not take action against this it may explode to a unmanageable proportion.
ReplyDeleteI see the actions of the neighbors and local government as discrimination more than social injustice. Although I did not watch the documentary myself, your description of "could-be-dangerous" insinuates they had done nothing wrong and were just taking advantage of a good situation provided to them. Here, I think the government acted too quickly and made life much more difficult for people who were just seeking temporary housing. Nothing in the your post suggested that they were taking advantage of this housing in any way.
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