H.O.M.E. Word – A blog from Project H.O.M.E.

Reggie Cintron, who has survived many storms, gives back to the Project H.O.M.E. and to the broader community in a variety of ways.

Reggie Cintron has been a member of the Project H.O.M.E. community for almost six years.  He shared his life story at a recent fund-raising benefit hosted by Wolverton & Company.  He is a gentle and caring soul, and contributes in many ways to our work and mission.

My name is Reginald Cintron. I am a native of the city of Philadelphia.  I was born here and lived here all my life. I come from a poor dysfunctional family and was in and out of foster homes; however, I managed to graduate from Benjamin Franklin High School.  Soon after my father passed away, my mother left home to take care of her sister who was very ill.   So she turned the house over to me. I am the oldest of three siblings – I have a sister and a brother. My brother moved out to stay with his girlfriend who just had his baby boy, and my sister was pregnant and decided to move out and stay with her boyfriend. Therefore I had the responsibility of managing the house by myself.   I worked various jobs to finish paying the mortgage on the house.

Around this time in my life, I started to hang out in the bars and drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes to relieve the stress, and later on I started using drugs such as crack cocaine. I was unable to keep a job because of my substance abuse.  Soon I was not thinking clearly and got myself caught up with the wrong people.  This led to my making wrong decisions. My drug addiction progressed, and soon I was selling drugs out of my house. This resulted in jail time, and I lost my house and almost lost my life.   One evening, I was shot twice by drug dealers during a robbery attempt.

This critical moment in my life had a tremendous affect on my mental state. I knew something was wrong with me because I had thoughts on just giving up on my life. However I started to think about my childhood days when my grandmother would take me to church with her. Back then, I had been taught to pray to God.  At that moment, as an adult in desperate trouble, I did just that: I got down on my knees and started praying to God, asking him to forgive me for the wrong things I did and save me from this dreadful situation.

Before my third incarceration, God answered my prayer. During this time I was homeless, living on the streets and in crack houses.  I did not like the shelters, but occasionally I had to stay there just to use their address. One day I started to reach out and seek help for my depression. I went to the hospital, where they gave me a referral, and I managed to get on welfare and receive health benefits as well. I used the referral to see a therapist who was in her internship at Girard Medical Center. I explained to her what I was going through, and she suggested that I enter myself into a rehabilitation facility for my drug and alcohol addiction and get treatment for my depression. I followed her instructions.

I vividly recall on my second visit, she told me about Project H.O.M.E. and said would help me get into their St. Elizabeth’s recovery house for men after I completed the in-patient rehabilitation program. Sure enough, after I successfully completed my stay at the rehab, I was discharged to St. Elizabeth’s recovery house for homeless men.

I rejoice and thank God for this exciting moment in my life, because I knew this is where my recovery journey would start. However, I had to go through another storm: I received a bench warrant for not appearing in court. Somehow, my message to the probation office did not reach the court system about my being in the rehab, and I was arrested after two weeks at St. E’s.  I later found out that I had a new probation officer who did not know anything about me. I did ten months up on State Road.

I kept in contact with the St. Elizabeth staff about my recovery plans to return. I stayed busy in the prison and worked two jobs, attended typing classes, and went to church services every evening, which started my personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  After my discharge, Project H.O.M.E. received me with open arms, another wonderful moment in my recovery journey. Project H.O.M.E. provided me with an abundance of services, such as case management, peer leadership, and addiction counseling.  I also participated in educational opportunities and the workforce development program at Project H.O.M.E.’s Honickman Learning Center and Comcast Technology Labs.  I was even able to take advantage of St. E’s Medical Clinic (which provides services regardless of insurance) and Project H.O.M.E.’s Advocacy and Public Policy department, which works to change policies that have an affect on homelessness and poverty.

Most importantly of all, Project H.O.M.E. gave me employment through their Employment Services department. I utilize these services, and currently I have a part-time job in the Development Department as an office clerk.  Moreover, I was recently hired as a part-time support staff person at one of the residential sites.  I also volunteer by helping set up the auditorium for meetings and trainings at the Honickman Center.  I have a third part-time job as a Certified Peer Specialist, which is a specially trained position in which I act as a role model for persons in recovery and for staff.  I assist program participants in identifying their abilities and strengths, and teach them how to utilize personal assets for advancing in their own recovery process; through it all, I am willing to share my own recovery experience (while being aware that each person’s road to recovery is unique). This is one of my ways of giving back what was given to me during my early journey in my recovery process.

With the stability in life that Project H.O.M.E. provided me, I have become a member of my church choir, through which I promote the gospel in the music ministry. I’m single and a father of three children who are now adults, and I have three grandchildren.  I will soon be moving to Connelly House, a collaboration between Project H.O.M.E. and Bethesda Project, which will welcome 79 formerly homeless men and women into new permanent supportive homes at 12^th and Ludlow Streets in Center City.

I’m grateful for what Project H.O.M.E. has done for me.  Today, I know there are great things in store for my future. I would like to give thanks to all my case managers, support staff, my peers, coworkers, and friends who were there for me during my times of crisis. I also like to give special thanks to our co founders of Project H.O.M.E., Sister Mary Scullion and Joan Dawson McConnon, for their hard work to end homelessness and poverty and to enhance the quality of life for everyone in our communities and in the city of Philadelphia. GOD BLESS!

Today’s posting is taken from a recent talk given by S. Mary Scullion, Project H.O.M.E.’s co-founder and Executive Director.

Over the past twenty years, we have come to see that homelessness represents a complex mixture of many factors: poverty, unemployment, disability, inadequate education, lack of access to health care, addictions, community and family breakdown, personal and social alienation. Any homeless person has his or her own very personal, very unique story.

At the same time, we need to recognize that the vast majority of persons who struggle with homelessness have been affected by some very powerful social forces. The modern phenomenon of homelessness in America has not always been with us. It is not inevitable. It is not an unavoidable side effect of modern urban life. Nor is it unsolvable. Homelessness emerged over the past thirty to forty years because of very concrete social, economic, political, and even cultural forces, which we can identify – and which we can transform. We do not have to accept homelessness. We can talk realistically about ending homelessness – but it will take more than good nonprofit organizations or charity. It will require political advocacy – without which the very supports people need to overcome homelessness will not be available, accessible, or effective. And it will require difficult but important dialogue about social and cultural values.

First, we need to understand homelessness in an even more radical sense – that is, going to the roots. I believe it is no longer sufficient to focus simply or uniquely on the issue of “homelessness.” Homelessness is in part the tip of the iceberg of a broader crisis of poverty and obscene inequities of wealth and deprivation. I believe we are coming closer to the truth when we understand that the phenomenon of homelessness, in both its personal and social dimensions, represents many different forces at work: the failure of an economic system that has left an increasing number of persons dispensable; the failure of an education system which has left far too many people ill-equipped for our modern economy; the failure of health-care systems to provide persons with either effective preventative health care or needed treatment for serious diseases; the breakdown of families and communities, usually under the enormous stress of these other failed systems; and even the corroding of a social ethos of mutual care and support.

At Project H.O.M.E., we believe that the poverty we see in our neighborhoods is nothing short of structural violence. It is not by accident nor, as some suggest, by high incidence of personal irresponsibility that whole neighborhoods are ghettoized and trapped in vicious poverty. Lower North Philadelphia has been victimized by decades of economic and social disinvestment and systemic racist practices, including red-lining. Largely because of political neglect, basic social systems in these neighborhoods – including schools and hospitals — are often in miserable shape, offering the most meager of services. As the job base has hemorrhaged, meaningful economic opportunity is minimal, and families, residents, and communities collapse under the stress of the struggle for survival. Drugs, crime, and family breakdown all exacerbate the alienation and marginalization of these distressed communities.

Underlying these inequities are social choices about priorities and resources. We are in effect creating a dual society: In one society, those deemed worthy are provided with the resources and tools they need to succeed and to flourish. In that society, there is sufficient social investment in quality education and health care, in a well-oiled infrastructure and a humane and well-kept social environment. People have access to genuine economic opportunity and the chance to develop their gifts and flourish.

In the other America, we are assigning people to second-class status. We tell them to make do with minimal resources, shoddy social systems, and the scantest of hopes for a bright future. We leave them to fight over crumbs, to try and survive – as long as they stay in their place and don’t create trouble for the privileged society.

My experience has convinced me that the men, women, and children who sleep on our city streets are a prophetic presence in our midst: they represent a profound symbol to our society, warning us that something has gone radically wrong. We need to realize that what is at stake in our response to homelessness is not just the specific circumstances of men, women, and children who are homeless. It is no less than the very basic health and vitality and quality of life of our entire community.

Ultimately, the issues homeless and poor people face are our issues: decent, affordable housing; quality education; employment at a livable wage; a health care system that meets our needs; healthy communities that nurture healthy families; freedom from discrimination.

At Project H.O.M.E., we stress in our mission statement that all our work is rooted in our spiritual conviction of the dignity of all persons. The men and women we get to know and build relationships with suffer from homelessness, poverty, addiction, and mental illness. Worse, they have felt the dehumanization of a society that stigmatizes and marginalizes them because of their situations and their struggles. We have learned over the years that, in addition to providing effective and professional services, one of the most transformative aspects of our work is simple to affirm a person’s dignity, to stress that whatever their situation, we believe they have gifts, worth, and potential, and that they, no less than anyone else, deserve the chance to flourish in life. We have also learned the amazing truth that in this process we are also affirming our own dignity and worth.

At Project H.O.M.E., we envision a very different society: one in which each person has an inviolable dignity, a sacred and unshakable goodness. We envision a society in which each man, woman, and child is given the opportunity and resources to flourish and achieve his or her fullest potential. We dare to believe that even the men and women who live in our streets and in our poorest neighborhoods deserve the best and brightest future, and that they have gifts to contribute to a healthy and thriving community.

In the Project H.O.M.E. mission statement, we state, “An integral part of our work is education about the realities of homelessness and poverty and vigorous advocacy on behalf of and with homeless and low-income persons for more just and humane public policies.” For over two decades we have engaged in public education and dialogue by:

• Providing statistics and facts about the reality of homelessness and poverty in our city and our nation;
• Exploring the social, economic, and political forces that contribute to homelessness and poverty;
• Analyzing effective solutions and their social impact;
• Combating myths and stereotypes, putting a human face on the issues.

We now want to expand our arena of communication by moving into the “blogosphere.”  Through this blog, we hope to engage more proactively in dialogue, reflection, and education on issues central to our mission:  building solutions to homelessness and poverty, affirming human dignity, nurturing a healthy and secure community, building a just society.  In an era where public discourse is increasingly poisoned by extreme partisan ideologies and demonization of opponents, we aim to redirect social conversation toward constructive and positive concern for the common good.

This blog will feature the diverse voices of the Project H.O.M.E. community, including our co-founder Sister Mary Scullion, staff and residents, friends and supporters.  Such an interesting crew will undoubtedly make for lively and provocative discussion.  Listen in!