The American Dream Gone Wrong
Volunteer replacing a roof for a widowed women who was battling cancer.
Roofing projects are a constant tension for us at NeighborLink Fort Wayne. We’ve already received 16 request for roof repairs or replacements to date in 2012 and I don’t expect to have that number reduce. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have over 75 requests this year.
Many of the neighbors requesting help are seniors, individuals with disabilities, and families living on either fixed incomes or really low-income wages. These situations are complex and the issues of why this is can’t be accurately identified over a cup of coffee. How to help these folks isn’t easy either.
To be fair, owning a home is a luxury in our society. No one has ever been guaranteed homeownership or even should be homeowners. As an owner of a 100yr old house myself, home ownership is no joke. It’s a never ending consumer of time and resources as you try to maintain it. It’s not a right in our society and having the government responsible to financially care for our properties isn’t what they should be doing either. I get that.
However, in our society homeownership is a status symbol the American Dream is founded on and the very trophy of “making it." The American Dream is deeply rooted in our society that goes beyond socio-economic lines. It’s no surprise to me that individuals will cash in their meager life saving to buy a $8,000 home sight unseen during a tax sale. The thought of never having to pay $500 out of your $800 monthly income for rent seems so freeing. I see families in-debt themselves to nothing more than a shell of a home that will bury them emotionally and financially due to their ignorance of what it actually takes to own a home. There is no safety net for the American Dream, only an anchor for some.
Where the tension builds for me is when an independent senior citizen or a physically disabled individual can thrive on their own in their home, but suffer due to the physical maintenance burden. If only the government would realize that keeping people independent in their own homes was actually a cheaper safety net than having a system that creates dependency. It’s not just the government that needs to realize this, it’s the neighborhood, the church, and the taxpayer. Not only is home maintenance an issue, adequate low-income housing for seniors or disabilities is a bigger deal. It’s often impossibly to offer our recipients a better way than owning their home.
We all need to realize that the $2,000 in roofing materials and a weekend of volunteering is at least five times cheaper than having a home on our block deteriorate to a place of abandonment or government takeover. We are all connected to one another. Our quality of life is connected. My house is worth what my neighbors house is worth and vice versa. Beyond material belongings, a happy neighbor leads to a happy neighborhood which creates a happy city.
The American Dream works when we realize we are all in this together. I wish it was easy, but nothing done for one another ever is. It’s costly. It’s transformative. It’s painful. We have to accept imperfect decision making and an imperfect system. We need to offer grace just like we ask for our own. We have to consider reconciliation for it to work.
The two biggest reasons why roofing projects don’t get done at NeighborLink Fort Wayne are:
- Lack of skilled labor to oversee projects
- Lack of resources to buy materials
In my experience, number two is always immediately eliminated when number one is accomplished. In four years, I’ve never had a project not get done when number one was solved.
Right now I have two roofing projects that have some energy behind them by un-skilled volunteers who desperately want to help the folks asking for help. If you’re interested in participating in making them happen, stay tuned for details and/or leave a comment. If you know a contractor, would you consider compelling them to help out?
I realize I may be over simplifying the issues and solutions in this post, but I do believe simple approaches are where we must begin. I’d love to host a conversation with willing folks about this topic. But, beginning is what it’s all about. Are we willing to begin?
Help NeighborLink re-imagine the American Dream in 2012.
