Creating Faith-based Collaborations for Real Change: The Santa Barbara Homeless Foot Washing as an Ideal TYPE

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The Homeless Foot Washing as an Ideal Type for Faith-Based Action

Santa Barbara City Councilman Grant House tends to the feet of a visitor during WillBridge’s Fourth Annual InterFaith Santa Barbara Homeless Foot Washing at the Veterans Memorial Building.

At a recent community forum addressing issues of social justice and homelessness, I briefly discussed the Santa Barbara Homeless Foot Washing, an event that I conceived and am now preparing for its third incarnation. The forum was sponsored by CLUE—Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice—a local nonprofit organization on whose board I serve.

I have been thinking about whether some of what we have learned through the Foot Washing might provide a model for other faith-based efforts addressing homelessness and social justice.

Sociologist Max Weber used the concept of the “ideal type.” An ideal type is constructed by bringing together significant characteristics of a particular social phenomenon. It is not intended to describe every individual case, nor does “ideal” mean morally perfect or desirable. Neither is it a statistical average. Rather, an ideal type emphasizes certain important characteristics so that we can better understand and compare actual cases.

I do not mean to suggest that the Santa Barbara Homeless Foot Washing is itself “ideal,” much less perfect. We have learned through trial and error, and we continue to learn. But several elements of the Foot Washing might be worth identifying and preserving as we think about other faith-based events intended to serve homeless people while advancing social justice.

1. Make the work genuinely interfaith.
Try to create programs of action that bring together people from a wide range of spiritual and religious backgrounds. Homelessness is not the concern of one denomination or tradition. It is a community concern, and our response should reflect the breadth of that community.

2. Make helping people move forward central to the event.
The core of the event should facilitate people moving forward with their lives. This requires the involvement of street outreach workers, social workers, case managers, and others who understand both the people being served and the systems through which assistance is provided. An event should create connections to resources that can continue after the event itself is over.

3. Do not create a false opposition between social change and charity.
Social change should remain a central goal, but charity is not necessarily a bad thing. Give people practical things they need—socks, shoes, sleeping bags, food, and other necessities. Many people living on the streets have virtually nothing and depend upon community support for basic survival. Meeting an immediate human need does not prevent us from asking why that need exists in the first place.

4. Recognize the enormous diversity among homeless people.
There is no single “homeless person.” The population includes street kids who travel from place to place, veterans, poor families, people temporarily out of work, young adults leaving foster care, seniors, people with physical and mental disabilities, and people struggling with alcohol and drug problems. Effective events therefore require collaboration among people with different kinds of expertise.

5. Reach beyond the shelters.
Make a special effort to reach people who are service-resistant and those who have lived on the streets for long periods of time—the chronically homeless. These are often among the most traumatized people in the homeless population and among those most in need of sustained support. The people who stay in shelters do not represent the entire homeless population. If we wait for everyone to come to us, some of the people most in need will remain invisible.

6. Offer spiritual support without coercion.
Faith communities have something distinctive to offer: spiritual encouragement, companionship, hope, and opportunities for spiritual counseling. Offer these things freely, but do not force religion down anyone’s throat. Service should never be made conditional upon religious participation.

7. Create opportunities to break down the division between “us” and “them.”
Involve parishioners directly and create ample opportunities for conversation. Some of the most important moments at an event like the Foot Washing occur when people who might ordinarily pass one another on the street actually sit together and talk. Create environments in which stereotypes can begin to fall away and the categories of “us” and “them” become harder to sustain.

8. Design the event around the realities of life on the streets.
Be prepared for people arriving with bags, shopping carts, bicycles, wheelchairs, dogs, and other possessions. What may look like clutter to an event organizer may constitute virtually everything another person owns. Hospitality requires designing the space around the realities of the people being welcomed rather than expecting them to fit conveniently into ours.

9. Listen. Be present.
Listen to people. Do not assume that because we have organized an event we already know what they need. Recognition, acknowledgment, human presence, and love may be among the most important things we have to offer. Sometimes the first act of service is simply treating another human being as someone worth hearing.

10. Be prepared for crises.
People living on the streets often exist very close to the edge. Physical illness, psychiatric crises, addiction, trauma, grief, conflict, and simple exhaustion can suddenly become urgent. Organizers should anticipate this and have people available who know how to respond appropriately. Many of the people who come through the door are simply holding on.

Taken together, these principles point toward something more than a charitable event. The goal is not simply to distribute shoes and socks, nor is it to use homelessness as an occasion for religious evangelism. The deeper possibility is to create a temporary community in which service, social justice, spiritual care, and human encounter come together.

Perhaps the most important element of the Foot Washing is contained in the name itself. Washing another person’s feet is an unusually intimate act of service. For a few minutes, the ordinary hierarchy between the person who “helps” and the person who “needs help” becomes harder to maintain. One person kneels before another.

That does not end homelessness. It does not replace housing, treatment, employment, income, or structural change.

But it can change the relationship from which we begin.