Here is a true story. Identifying information has been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.
For the last six years, Grace Baptist, a small church in Austin, Texas, has had a significant portion of its campus empty. The church used to run an orphanage there that helped hundreds of children. Because of some challenges, the orphanage couldn’t continue to exist in the church. The church has been trying to rent the property out so that they can receive some income to help out.
A few months ago, Oasis of Care, approached the church to rent their space for a few thousand dollars per month. The church was excited not only because of the monthly income it would be getting but also because Oasis has a vision that they can support. Oasis is a homeless ministry that provides free lunches, a place to shower and refresh, clothes, and other help to homeless people. Oasis has been helping hundreds of homeless people at their old location, and when their lease was up, the landlords told Oasis that it couldn’t renew the contract. Oasis had to find some other place to rent. Grace Baptist was thrilled to help because they saw the opportunity as God-sent, one that will be a win-win for them and Oasis.
Grace also saw their partnership with Oasis as an opportunity hundreds of homeless people who come to Oasis to get food and other help to find them and perhaps sometimes come to worship. They saw a potential evangelistic and mission value in the deal. Their church attendance was dropping, and so they saw some hope in the partnership.
At about the same time that Oasis was signing the lease with Grace Baptist, Oasis connected with a local physician group that ran a free Street Medicine program (SMP). Grace decided to offer three of the ten rooms they were leasing to the SMP so that the doctors could come in and establish a free clinic. Such a clinic would provide free healthcare to everyone in the community around the new Oasis center at Grace Baptist, especially to the homeless people who were coming there to eat.
The SMP saw the opportunity that a partnership with Oasis would provide. Oasis was providing office space for their free medical clinic to them free of charge. In addition to that, they will be able to offer free medical care to all the homeless people who will be coming to Oasis for free food. That was wonderful because many homeless people wouldn’t come to get free medical care but would come for the food.
After signing an agreement with Oasis to start a free clinic in rooms donated to the SMP, the leaders of the SMP applied for a grant to cover the costs of delivering care. The grant donors were excited to hear about what the SMP was trying to do. As it was planning to award grants to cover the costs of running the free clinic for one year, the district authorities who would be awarding the grant required that the leaders of the SMP have a meeting with the local community leaders because they too had applied for a grant from the District to do something similar. Perhaps, the two could find ways to partner together, and both would receive their funding from the district.
The SMP was excited to go and give a presentation about their work to the local leaders. Mid-way into the talk, Alice, a local single mother and homeowner in the community, raised her hand to speak.
“We are so happy that you are bringing free health care and mental health to our community. God knows that this community needs that kind of help. How do you plan to handle the influx of, to say it politely, people with troublesome pasts that will come into the community? Do you plan to hire security?”
The SMP shook their heads “no” in response.
Charles, the chairman of the local committee that manages the area, spoke up. “I didn’t want to bring this up, but since it has been brought up, let me explain what she means. What Oasis is doing presents some serious challenges to the local community. Last month, we invited the Director of Oasis to come and listen to these issues so that we could find a way to solve them, and she stormed out of the room in anger, leaving us in the meeting.
Before Oasis came, there were a few people in the community who had drug problems and some mental issues. But the members of the community knew who these people were and knew how to deal with them. When Oasis came, it brought in hundreds of people who do drugs, and many of them don’t end on the Oasis premises. They also roam our streets. This area is a residential neighborhood, we have children, and people live here. Even though we love to help homeless people, we also know that many of them do drugs and have mental problems. Because we live here, it is not an easy challenge for us to solve.”
Alice quietly spoke again, “I’m scared for my children. Our children used to walk to the bus stop and take the bus to school. But it’s getting challenging. Recently, a homeless man was seen trying to give drugs to one of our children at the bus stop. They are not supposed to go to the bus stop. It’s only been a few weeks since Oasis started operating in our community, yet the insecurity is palpable.
When Oasis was confronted with these concerns before they opened, the director said she was going to hire security guards to protect the area and the bus stop to make sure that these homeless people didn’t roam the area. They haven’t kept their word and seem to have no intention of doing that.
Worst of all, because Stephanie, the director of Oasis, stormed out of the meeting, the community leaders don’t know who to talk to. She is unapproachable and doesn’t want to talk.”
Keisha, another single mother, spoke up, “Three months before Oasis moved into the neighborhood, I spent my life savings and purchased a home in the neighborhood for $150,000. I wanted to give my kids a place to live, and I intended to sell the home in a few years. The value of my house has reduced in half since Oasis moved into the area because of the crime that it has brought. We have little children and property here and should have a say in what happens. It’s not the few drug dealers in our community that we are afraid of. We know those and are working to find ways to deal with them. The problem is the hundreds of strangers who do drugs and have mental problems that are now roaming the streets of our small community. They roam the streets, making our area unsafe.”
The SMP leaders had not thought about these things. They were shocked to hear the concerns of the community. As homeowners and parents, all the SMP leaders understood perfectly well the concerns that the local community was having.
This true story illustrates the varying interests and complexities that can be involved when people try to do charity work.
- There are the interests of Grace Baptist
- The interests of Oasis of Care
- The interests of the SMP
- The interests of the local community
All these interests are important.
And remember that this situation is not unique to those doing nonprofit work. You will find that every party you work with or encounter has interests. To be successful in the long run, you have to do your homework well and identify all the stakeholders, bring them to the table, uncover their interests, and try to find a solution that is a win-win for all. The win-win cannot merely be for a few of the parties involved. It has to be a win-win for all the parties involved.
