November 9, 2006

By TIMOTHY HARRIS

Saturday after next brings what is perhaps the most important event this year for those of us seeking to end homelessness. The Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness and the Church Council of Greater Seattle are teaming up with United Way to sponsor “Making the Ten Year Plan Real,” a working conference to put some teeth behind good intention.

We at Real Change believe — along with Martin Luther King and other social justice visionaries — that if your idea of social justice organizing is to educate the powers that be and hope they do the right thing, you’ll be waiting for a very long time indeed. Ending homelessness is about ending poverty, and ending poverty will always be about building for power. The sad truth about poverty is that one person’s misery is another’s profit margin. Good will and social programs alone are rarely enough to change that equation.

King County’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, among most service providers and anti-poverty activists, evokes more eye-rolling than action. We think this is unfortunate. The plan is a strong beginning to a coalition strategy for united action, and if we can get past a certain institutional reticence to strategies that threaten power, the possibilities are endless.

Join us at Mount Zion Baptist Church on Saturday, June 10. See http://www.thechurchcouncil.org/making10yrplanreal.html for details. Registration is still open. Be there.