[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 140 (Thursday, October 9, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1989-E1991]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 RESCUE MISSIONS DESERVE OUR ATTENTION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NEWT GINGRICH

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 9, 1997

  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I want to encourage my colleagues to read 
the following article from Policy Review by Rev. Stephen Burger.
  On May 30, I had the opportunity to visit the Atlanta Union Mission, 
a private, faith-based rescue mission. The Atlanta Union Mission serves 
men, women, and children throughout the city and in part of a 250-
member International Union of Gospel [IUGM]. During my visit, I 
listened to participants of the mission's program, who talked about 
their experiences. Many of them stressed that they had been through 
other programs in the past, and eventually relapsed, but that the Union 
Mission had been effective in dramatically changing their lives for 
good. The key to this effectiveness, was that the mission stressed a 
Higher Power, and recognized the benefits of faith in counseling and 
rehabilitation programs.
  Collectively, the International Union of Gospel Missions represents 
the sixth largest charity in the United States. Last year IUGM missions 
provided more than 30 million meals, 22 million pieces of clothing, and 
11 million beds to homesless men, women, and children.
  I would encourage my colleagues to visit a rescue mission in their 
districts in the near future. Although most of these missions receive 
very little, if any, Government funding, they have proven to be the 
most cost effective, dollar for dollar, and, most important, they have 
the highest success rate in drug treatment and rehabilitation. As Rev. 
Stephen Burger has written, the approach that rescue missions take 
toward helping the homeless become productive members of our society 
deserves our attention.

                  [From the Policy Review, Oct., 1997]

                    Arise, Take up Thy Mat and Walk

                        (By Rev. Stephen Burger)

       Spend a little time in virtually any city in America and 
     you'll see them--in doorways, under bridges, poking through 
     trash cans, begging for loose change. They are America's 
     homeless. They no longer wear the face of the 55-year-old 
     alcoholic man; they look more and more like young crack 
     addicts, battered women and children, prostitutes, gamblers, 
     and AIDS sufferers. On any given day, about 600,000 people 
     are living either on the streets or in shelters trying to 
     stay alive.
       Americans are a compassionate people. But traditional 
     approaches to the problem--promoted through government 
     initiatives and many private charities--have been so 
     ineffective at treating the fundamental causes of 
     homelessness that we must reconsider what it means to help 
     our neighbors in need.
       Many government programs assume that homelessness is simply 
     the absence of four walls and a roof. Usually it is not: The 
     lack of affordable housing, though a problem, is not why most 
     of these people have no permanent address. Most people in 
     trouble economically have friends and families whose homes 
     they could share temporarily if they choose to. The level of 
     government spending on the problem likewise leaves deeper 
     issues untouched. There are more than 60 separate federal 
     programs that provide some form of help. The federal 
     Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) now 
     operates homeless shelters and drug rehabilitation programs 
     in every major city in the United States. But the rates at 
     which the able-bodied homeless graduate to independence from 
     these programs rarely rise above single digits.
       America used not settle for this level of failure. If 
     anyone can testify to that, we can.
       The International Union of Gospel Missions--whose staff 
     members often emerge from the ranks of the formerly 
     homeless--has been helping the destitute break the cycle of 
     dependence since 1913. Last year, our emergency services and 
     long-term rehabilitation programs helped 14,000 homeless men 
     and women achieve self-sufficiency. These were not ``easy'' 
     cases. Thousands walked into our doors addicted to alcohol, 
     heroin, crack cocaine, and other drugs. Many have been 
     prostitutes, or veterans who couldn't adjust to civilian 
     life. Many have committed crimes, served time in prison, 
     and failed other rehabilitation programs.
       Our experience teaches us that America needs nothing less 
     than a reformation in the way we think about homelessness. 
     Many traditional and government-funded approaches fail not 
     for lack of money but for a deficit of vision: They do not 
     treat the whole person. They neglect the familial and moral 
     aspects of a person's life. They refuse to challenge the 
     homeless person's fundamental way of thinking. Says Rev. 
     Mickey Kalman, the executive director of City Rescue Mission 
     in Oklahoma City: ``The philosophy of government homeless 
     programs is to respect and protect lifestyles that produce 
     homelessness.''
       Most significantly, these programs ignore the central 
     dimension of the problem--the spiritual. After more than 35 
     years of trying to help homeless people with every imaginable 
     problem, I cannot escape this fact: Men and women who walk 
     away from their jobs, their families, and their homes do so 
     because, fundamentally, they are turning away God and His 
     claim on their lives. But government funded policies, by 
     definition, must exclude this vital dynamic from the 
     discussion. It is a prescription predestined for failure.
       Not only are government approaches not working, but 
     government regulations continue to impede or thwart the most 
     innovative programs. Labor laws, zoning issues, licensing 
     requirements are all getting in the way of private, 
     religiously based efforts to deliver effective care. 
     Authorizing block grants and returning power to the states 
     will not by themselves make much of a difference, because 
     it's state and local governments that throw up some of the 
     most egregious obstacles to our faith-based shelter programs. 
     Moreover, much of government's regulatory itch is aggravated 
     by blindness to the moral and spiritual causes of 
     homelessness.
       What follows are some of the dynamics of change: We make 
     sure that these elements are present in all of our 245 rescue 
     missions in the 210 cities in which we operate nationwide. 
     Though our missions offer various educational, job-training, 
     relational, and other skills, these three principles 
     establish an ethical and religious foundation without which 
     all our other efforts would amount to nothing.


                            The Faith Factor

       It is very difficult to overstate the importance of the 
     spiritual aspect of this problem. Spiritual renewal is the 
     fountainhead for personal transformation.
       Enoch Walker was married and had a child he loved, a job he 
     enjoyed, and a house in Washington, D.C. Then he began 
     abusing alcohol and drugs, what he calls ``the great 
     removers'' in his life, because they became

[[Page E1990]]

     more important to him than his family and friends. Soon his 
     wife left him, taking their child. He became so abusive that 
     even his dog left him. He lost his job, smashed his car, and 
     started living on the streets.
       Walker went through several rehabilitation programs. He 
     doesn't know the precise number because he doesn't even 
     remember some of them. Yet each time, he slipped back into 
     addiction. ``When I was functional, I would put on a nice 
     three-piece suit and go and get the good jobs,'' he says. 
     ``But it was like putting a three-piece suit on a fish. 
     Nothing would happen on the inside.''
       Then he checked himself into the Gospel Rescue Ministries 
     of Washington, D.C. There, he received not only mental and 
     physical counseling, but something else--spiritual guidance. 
     As he says, ``They reached my heart and . . . gave me an 
     awakening.'' He has now been clean for three years, and is a 
     self-employed carpenter with two other men working for him.
       Walker's story is important because his background is so 
     typical of America's homeless population. Homeless advocates 
     are quick to point out that many of the homeless suffer 
     serious or acute mental illness. They are correct. There are 
     no easy answers for how to help heal these people and restore 
     balance and normality to their lives. Many of them may never 
     leave an institutionalized or group-home setting.
       The mentally ill, however, do not make up the majority of 
     the people who walk into our centers. About 80 percent of the 
     homeless who enter the City Mission in Cleveland, for 
     example, show symptoms of substance abuse. At our Mel Trotter 
     Ministries in Grand Rapids, Michigan, perhaps 90 percent 
     struggle with addictions that have helped spawn and sustain a 
     whole set of destructive attitudes and behaviors. There is 
     simply no way to get at those behaviors without first helping 
     the addict break his or her addiction for good. Most 
     government and traditional shelter rehabilitation programs 
     are notoriously poor in curing addictions. Many do not even 
     try.
       But those that do suffer from a crucial flaw. Although 
     grounded in the best of intentions, federal programs by law 
     can only administer to mental and physical maladies, not the 
     spiritual. Any homeless programs that receive federal funds 
     ``must provide shelter and other eligible activities in a 
     manner free from religious influence,'' writes Michael 
     Stover, HUD's assistant general counsel for the Rocky 
     Mountain region, in a 1995 legal brief. ``It may not 
     provide religiously oriented services to persons using the 
     homeless shelter and must not hire only persons from a 
     particular religious persuasion.'' There it is; an 
     explicit rejection of faith as the crucial component of 
     change. This is why the overwhelming majority of our 
     mission directors steer clear of government funding.
       We've seen countless people wander into our shelters with a 
     mind-wrenching addiction to crack cocaine; for example, and 
     it's obvious to us that it takes more than physical and 
     mental counseling to break that grip. Simply telling that 
     addict to eat his vegetables and study the multiplication 
     tables just isn't enough. Ask any of our mission directors, 
     many of whom have 20 to 30 years experience helping the 
     homeless. The spectrum of addictions and difficulties from 
     which the homeless suffer have no long-term care outside of a 
     heartfelt commitment of faith.
       ``Skid Row is not a geographical location,'' says Kalman, a 
     former drug addict. ``It's a heart condition. Unless you 
     change a homeless individual's heart--not just his mind and 
     body--he will remain homeless.
       For this reason, all of our missions instill in homeless 
     people the reality of a God who loves them, cares for them, 
     and wants to help change them. In our view, based not only on 
     our theology but on our experience, it is Jesus Christ, not 
     any program, who transforms a man's or woman's life, who 
     gives them the strength to summon the courage to break their 
     destructive habits.


                           A Moral Incubator

       Hand in hand with faith commitment is the sustained 
     determination--both from shelter staff and the homeless 
     themselves--to stay clean, hold down a job, or save a 
     marriage. The homeless need and environment in which they are 
     challenged to acknowledge and consistently renounce unhealthy 
     behaviors; otherwise, they won't acquire the practical or 
     emotional skills they need to succeed.
       Mouthing a religious commitment is not enough; there must 
     be actions to match. Our shelters insist not on perfection, 
     but on repeated, good-faith efforts to change. And with god's 
     grace, and a disciplined environment, they do. ``We not only 
     place responsibility on our clients.'' says Rev. Carl 
     Resener, the executive director of the Nashville Union 
     Rescue Mission, ``we demand that, as a condition of living 
     at the mission and participating in its programs, these 
     men and women change their destructive habits.''
       This is one reason our shelter programs span several 
     months. It gives the homeless time not only to rid themselves 
     of their addictions, but also to build a foundation of faith, 
     education, and social skills necessary to succeed in life. 
     Consider our Regeneration Program at our Miami Rescue 
     Mission. Rev. Frank Jacobs, the executive director, oversees 
     an eight-month recovery program for 130 men. Bible study is 
     mandatory. The men commit to memory biblical passages--they 
     call them ``arsenal verses''--that address behavioral 
     problems such as drunkenness, laziness, and theft. The 
     mission also offers a three- to four-month period of daily 
     instruction on coping and social skills, with a heavy 
     emphasis on relapse prevention.
       Listen to Raymond Nastu, a drug addict arrested more than 
     80 times for offenses ranging from drug possession to 
     brawling. He checked into the Bridgeport Rescue Mission in 
     Connecticut. ``I should have been dead so many times I can't 
     keep track of them,'' he says. But the mission's strict 
     regimen and climate of tough love turned him around. ``I 
     never had people care about me the way they do here, and that 
     gave me the hope and courage to believe I could change.'' 
     Today, Nastu is drug free and works as a carpenter.
       Now compare that to some of the larger shelters in the 
     country that place virtually no conditions on their 
     residents. The results have not been pretty. Take the Mitch 
     Snyder Shelter, in Washington, D.C. It is named after the 
     homeless activist whose 1983 hunger strike prompted the 
     Reagan administration to renovate a Federal building so that 
     it could be used as a homeless shelter. As documented by a 60 
     Minutes expose, this shelter has been a haven for the selling 
     of crack cocaine and liquor, as well as misuse of charitable 
     funds and general corruption.


                           Friends and Family

       Our missions place a heavy emphasis on rebuilding 
     relationships to one's family, friends, and religious 
     community. Positive relationships are a vital link between 
     the homeless and lasting rehabilitation.
       ``We don't always want to put our clients back with their 
     old friends because sometimes the old friends are the 
     problem,'' says Rev. George Verley of the Union Gospel 
     Mission in St. Paul. ``However, the worst thing in the world 
     is for them to be alone, so we teach them to establish 
     relationships. It's vital that they have this 
     support structure when they leave us.''
       This is probably one of the most overlooked elements of 
     most traditional and government-funded shelter programs. The 
     homeless typically are treated in utter isolation; little 
     attempt is made to reconnect them to family members. Yet when 
     caregivers don't know a person's family background, it often 
     becomes much more difficult to discern the most effective 
     ways to help.
       Many shelters, fearful of crossing church-state lines, do 
     not even introduce the homeless to religious communities that 
     could offer support. The Salvation Army shelters are a 
     noteworthy exception here, but the majority of shelters have 
     no process for helping a recovering addict plant roots in his 
     or her community.
       There may be no more important step for a formerly homeless 
     person, however, than to be grounded in a community of 
     caring, committed individuals. Listen to Enoch Walker again: 
     ``If you do not have people surrounding you who care about 
     you and give you unconditional love and give you the time 
     that it takes to work yourself through it and work with you, 
     I do not really see too many people who can make it.'' The 
     pressures of life, the temptations of the street, the siren 
     call of old habits--all can easily prove to be too much for 
     the men and women struggling to get back on their feet.


                        The Government Albatross

       We know that these and other principles are crucial to 
     effectively helping the homeless help themselves. Though we 
     don't expect the people we serve to pay us a dime--most 
     couldn't--that doesn't mean we have no expectations of them 
     ``There are two root causes of homelessness,'' says Rev. Mike 
     Edwards from the Los Angeles Mission. ``Lack of relationships 
     and lack of responsibility. Re-establishing a sense of both 
     is key to our long-term success.''
       Success for us means much more than feeding people and 
     keeping them safe, as important as those objectives are. Our 
     aim is to help people break their addictions, learn basic 
     life skills, and become honest, productive members of their 
     communities. Over the last few years, we've conducted 
     internal studies of our programs and the results are truly 
     encouraging: The vast majority of our missions achieve 
     success rates of more than 50 percent, with many achieving 
     success rates of 70 or 80 percent. That means that most of 
     the people who graduate from one of our programs become 
     independent; a few slip back into old habits, but most 
     remain addiction free, employed, and connected to family 
     and friends.
       Our success is also reflected in support from our 
     communities. Eight years ago, the cumulative budgets of the 
     210 U.S.-based member missions in the International Union of 
     Gospel Missions totaled $50 million. Today, IUGM counts 245 
     missions as members, and their cumulative budgets add up to 
     more than $300 million. The overwhelming majority of our 
     programs are funded privately, through individual donors, 
     churches, and corporate sponsors. We don't require or expect 
     government to lend a hand--and it hasn't.
       Nor do we expect government to get in the way of our 
     efforts--but it has. There are several areas where government 
     bureaucrats have been unsupportive or downright hostile to 
     rescue ministries' efforts. These include labor laws, zoning 
     issues, licensing, surplus food distribution, and disaster 
     relief.
       Most of their objections stem from their reading 
     (misreading, actually) of the First Amendment's religion 
     clauses, designed to ensure citizens' basic religious 
     freedoms. To which we respond: If we want a person to be 
     truly free, that person must first be free of drugs. This is 
     the promise rescue ministry fulfills.

[[Page E1991]]

       Consider the following trouble areas:
       Labor. For years, rescue missions have struggled with the 
     issue of whether homeless men and women who do work in the 
     missions as part of rehabilitation qualify as employees under 
     the Fair Labor Standards Act. In September 1990, the Labor 
     Department determined that the Salvation Army had to pay the 
     minimum wage to clients performing work as part of 
     rehabilitation, unless the Army's location registered as a 
     ``sheltered workshop.'' (Sheltered workshops historically 
     have been places handicapped people went for training, not 
     live-in facilities.)
       After much political and legal wrangling, the Labor 
     Department suspended enforcement pending further study. They 
     policy remains in suspension, but has not been formally 
     revoked.
       Zoning. City and county boards have stopped or interfered 
     with mission programs across the nation. The Denver Rescue 
     Mission is located in an area known as Lower Downtown or 
     ``LoDo.'' This was formerly Denver's Skid Row, an area 
     where the destitute congregated. In recent years, however, 
     the area has been redeveloped and now supports a 
     burgeoning night life.
       That welcome development has had a most unwelcome side 
     effect: City officials have ratcheted up their efforts to 
     curb the mission's work. For example, on cold nights, the 
     110-bed mission used to set up about 40 cots in the chapel to 
     meet the increased need. City officials never raised any 
     objection because it took people off the street. Today, city 
     officials flatly prohibit this practice.
       City officials in Daytona Beach, Florida, have not allowed 
     the Daytona Rescue Mission to locate within the city. The 
     mission has gone to federal court. In Albany, New York, the 
     Capital City Rescue Mission has been trying to relocate in 
     order to expand its services. Recently, the city rejected the 
     mission's request to move to a previously agreed-upon 
     property. Other missions that have encountered significant 
     roadblocks include the Union Gospel Missions of Dallas, 
     Spokane, and Yakima, Washington.
       Licensing. The licensing of faith-based programs, beyond 
     issues of health and safety, has become a major impediment to 
     many missions' spiritual integrity. Licensing has brought 
     regulations such as a ``client's bill of rights'' in 
     Tennessee, which originally included the right not to be 
     presented with religious teaching. (That's somewhat like 
     organizing a football team and including the right not to be 
     touched!)
       Then there is the case of the City Mission in Schenectady, 
     New York. It was cited by New York's Department of Social 
     Services because it prohibited pornographic materials from 
     its facilities. Only after three months of negotiation did 
     the mission and state authorities reach agreement that the 
     mission was within its rights to prohibit pornography.
       ``We determined that on health and safety issues, we would 
     submit to government regulations,'' says Eivion Williams, the 
     mission's executive director. ``But this was an issue of 
     morality--what was right and what was wrong--and we stood 
     firm. And in the end, we wound up getting what we asked 
     for.''
       Food Distribution. For many years, rescue missions accepted 
     federal surplus food and distributed it to the needy without 
     excessive oversight or regulation. In December 1993, however, 
     the U.S. Department of Agriculture mailed a memo to missions 
     in its Western region that stated that USDA commodities were 
     not to be used in meals where individuals were required to 
     attend religious services. This caused confusion among many 
     mission directors who were uncertain how to interpret the 
     new rules. On advice of counsel, some missions have turned 
     down USDA commodities because they believe accepting the 
     food would subject them to federal regulations that 
     compromise religious teachings.
       Indeed, one of the interesting contradictions of federal 
     policy is that schools, day-care programs, and early 
     childhood development classes operated by churches may serve 
     surplus food--even though their programs are grounded in 
     religious beliefs. The government seems to believe that 
     children in religious programs need good food, but homeless 
     in religious programs do not.
       Tonight 27,000 people in America are staying in rescue 
     missions. Each is being fed, sheltered, and assisted. Last 
     year, rescue missions served more than 28 million meals to 
     the poor and homeless. That's enough to provide a meal to 
     every resident in the state of California. Yet each person is 
     also being challenged with hope and opportunity. Our 
     rehabilitation programs involve over 11,500 men, women, and 
     children.
       Rescue missions are poised to continue their dramatic 
     growth and success. Drug rehabilitation programs are 
     expanding to meet the increasing need. Computer training and 
     educational programs are now staples at many missions, 
     providing GED preparation, core curriculum classes, drivers 
     education, and job training. Missions are also setting up 
     joint ventures with local businesses to give reformed addicts 
     on-the-job training.
       Unfortunately, our optimism at the progress of our missions 
     is tempered by the cold realities of the street. The face of 
     homelessness in America in changing. It is getting younger 
     and more female. Children, once a rarity at shelters, are 
     showing up with increasing frequency--and this cannot bode 
     well for American society.
       There are other problems. As Rev. Tom Laymon, the executive 
     director of Mel Trotter Ministries in Grand Rapids, observes. 
     ``There is an aging population in our prisons that will 
     eventually be given back to society. Many will have spent 
     decades in prison. This means a whole new generation of 
     `older homeless' will be out on the streets and in need of 
     our services.''
       Amidst this trend, federal and state homeless and anti-
     poverty programs--devoid of moral, spiritual, or religious 
     counseling--will continue to fail. The answer is not for 
     government to get into the religion business, but at the very 
     least, to get out of the way of religiously based groups that 
     are making a decisive difference in people's lives.
       We have identified more than 100 American cities with 
     populations of over 40,000 that are without a rescue mission. 
     In 10 years IUGM wants to have programs in each of these. Our 
     hope and prayer is that missions around the country will 
     demonstrate the power of a well-rounded program that 
     nourishes mind and body, spirit and soul.


                          ``Hey--I'm hungry.''

       Those involved with rescue missions know the difficulties 
     and dangers of inner-city life. Many, like Mickey Kalman, 
     spent years on the street--drifting, stealing, begging, and 
     doing drugs--until they reached out for help. Kalman, now the 
     executive director of City Rescue Mission in Oklahoma City, 
     was invited to speak at the 1996 Republican National 
     Convention, in San Diego.
       Mickey Kalman's young life centered around alcohol. ``I 
     grew up with drunks and learned to drink,'' he says. He 
     joined a gang. When he wasn't travelling and getting into 
     mischief, he found trouble locally. At one point he pulled a 
     gun on his teacher, threatening to ``blow his brains out.'' 
     By the age of 12, he was on probation.
       Later Kalman got involved with drugs. ``Once I ran away 
     with a shipment of dope, sold it, and hid out in Wyoming,'' 
     he remembers. ``When I didn't have money for gas, I siphoned 
     it out of construction trucks.''
       One day he found himself in Stockton, California, alone and 
     hungry. He'd been living on the streets for the better part 
     of two years. He walked up to the door of a rescue mission 
     and said. ``Hey--I'm hungry.'' The man at the mission offered 
     Kalman some food and some work. He didn't usually get offers 
     for work, but he agreed. Kalman decided to enter the 
     rehabilitation program, where he found faith in God and the 
     power to turn his life around.
       Today, Rev. Mickey Kalman oversees a mission budget of $1.4 
     million, with a staff of 21. Thousands are helped by his 
     mission every year. ``Rescue mission work isn't easy,'' he 
     says. ``It's hard to love some of the people who come to us . 
     . . [but] when they knock, I say, `Come on in. My name is 
     Mickey Kalman. How would you like to stick around and do a 
     little work?' ''

     

                          ____________________