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'You always have the poor with you'

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By Times staff | Saturday, September 06, 2008 |

John Lewis Community Services may be crumbling, but its mission will never go away.

“For you always have the poor with you,” Jesus said, according to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John.

The Davenport agency seemed to be at the cutting edge of social services, obtaining millions in federal and state grants to assist homeless and mentally ill Quad-Citians. It came under fire, too, from those who believed the agency’s tactic — not its mission — wasn’t sustainable.

Time proved those critics correct. The failed tactic was building more shelters and homes through grants without a reliable stream of operating funds. When the grants stopped coming in, debts and taxes went unpaid.

The failed tactic involved no succession planning. Fundraising essentially stopped after the resignation of the program director.

Now lenders are lining up to obtain what they can from the shelter, cafe and homes that were part of the John Lewis operation.

The lenders will get their share. They’ll reclaim the properties used as collateral on the loans. The employees will move on to other jobs.

Those homeless Quad-Citians won’t be going anywhere. They’ll stay right here as they always have. But they won’t be getting shelter, meals, job training and counseling John Lewis was supposed to provide. Instead, they’ll do what many homeless people do: They’ll hide in the margins of our our society, begging handouts from friends, acquaintances or strangers. Some will plunge deeper into substance abuse and poverty. Some will resort to crime.

All of this will continue to cost our community. Some will show up in jail, others in hospital emergency rooms, requiring services far more expensive than anything provided by John Lewis.

Like John Lewis’s failed tactic, this, too, isn’t sustainable.

One thing we can say for sure is they won’t be entirely abandoned. The 50 civic leaders who gathered last week form a core of Quad-City commitment coming from area churches, social service groups, hospitals and governments.

We’ve already seen the power of this commitment. When John Lewis closed its food site, a Christian ministry program of The Vineyard church stepped in and was joined by a wave of volunteers from all faiths.

This job is much, much bigger. We’re heartened to see this new group exhibit leadership in assuming our community’s responsibility.

Most organized faiths are clear on that responsibility. The Quran says, “Let there become of you a community that shall call for righteousness, enjoin justice.”

Our thanks to those who aren’t walking away, who won’t leave our most vulnerable residents to the jails, emergency rooms or worse.