On March 3, 2016, Associate Minister Rev. John Edgerton testified on behalf of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, on their legislative lobby day, at the Massachusetts State House. Rev. Edgerton spoke in support of declaring a homelessness state of emergency, calling on lawmakers to take immediate actions to help stop the crisis and save lives.
Esteemed elected officials of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, my name is Rev. John Edgerton, I am minister at Old South Church on Copley Square and I thank you for the opportunity to address you as a body. On Wednesday, January 27th, early in the morning, a man died on the steps of my church. It was an unseasonably warm night, he was dressed warmly, and was lying beneath one of the ubiquitous gray blankets you can see draped across a dozen people on the short walk to the Boylston T station. He had done what he could to protect himself, and he died alone on the steps of my church.
So what are we to do as a church? We have to do something, a man died on our front steps, something must be done! We have redoubled our efforts in outreach to unhoused people we know and people who have recently gotten housing and still need support— we have redoubled our outreach to people like Darren and Joe and John and Kara and Danny and Donna and Shawn and Dan and Daiwon, we’re providing caring community where they know they’re valued. We’ve deepened our partnership with common cathedral and Emmanuel Church to expand daytime warming center #BostonWarm. In partnership with the Ignatian Spirituality Program we’ve expanded the number of recovery programs specifically designed for unhoused people. We’ve expanded our partnership of support of City Mission’s Homelessness Prevention program A Lift Up. We’ve redoubled our efforts, and this committee can be forgiven if before now you have not heard about our efforts. I’m under no illusions about the extent to which my church can address the crisis of homelessness in Massachusetts.
My church is like a weathervane in the face of a hurricane. A weathervane can tell you which way the wind is blowing, but it can’t stop the storm.
It is a heart breaking tragedy that a man died on the steps of my church. But he is not the only unhoused person to die on the streets of Boston this year and I fear that he will not be the last. He was found lying under one of the ubiquitous gray blankets you can see draped across a dozen people just on the short walk to the Boylston T station. Before that morning I had never had occasion to look closely at one of these gray blankets. I had never noticed before that each blanket has a three inch square tag in the corner stating that it is 30% wool and 70% man-made fibers. I had never noticed that these blankets have a name, it’s printed on the tag. They’re called disaster blankets.
My church is not powerful enough to fundamentally improve conditions for unhoused people. You are the ones who hold that power. You are invested and entrusted with the power and resources of the Commonwealth. Your voice carries enormous weight and echoes far beyond the walls of this building. I implore you on the basis of the love of humankind to declare a state of emergency.