The Business of Putting Yourself Out of Business

Those who work in the field of homelessness seem to lack any good business sense. They are working in not-very-profitable, burnout-inducing careers that exist solely with the goal of putting themselves out of business. It's an odd question; we know that unemployment often leads to homelessness, so why set out a career with the goal of ending it?

This is a question that I - and perhaps many others - have long struggled to answer. There's something cruel and ironic about working with the poorest of the poor while earning a salary. To take advantage of health and dental benefits while others cannot access life-saving medication. To go out to dinner and choose from a menu of items while others must take what they're given from a soup kitchen.

How do we reconcile these issues in our minds? How do we truly work as good advocates when there is financial security to be had from serving others?

Certainly, there is not an expectation that all who serve the poor and homeless live like Mother Teresa (although, I would not mind living in that world). But revisiting these tough questions should compel us to re-evaluate our priorities, our lifestyle, and our motivation for doing this work. Perhaps we will never find answers to these tough questions, but I don't think it ever hurts to take a good hard look at your motivation for entering this field.

Being an effective homeless activist or service provider will not happen if we continually expound self-congratulatory verbiage or holier-than-thou attitudes about doing the work that we do. Rather, we must humbly acknowledge that this issue is much larger than any one person. Our daily interaction with issues of poverty and housing and mental health should open our eyes to a host of other issues that are all inter-connected. Most important, we must recognize that our ability to make an impact on these issues in our lifetime is directly correlated to our ability to work in tandem with others to bridge the socio-economic gap that has perpetuated homelessness in our society.

That said, if given the opportunity to eradicate poverty and homelessness tomorrow, would you take it?

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