Perspectives

When I first heard of Father Joe's Village (FJV), a local homeless non-profit, the descriptions ranged widely between scores of praise and simply unflattering comments. While I didn't have any first hand experience, the negative rumors hinted that the large agency was pushing its weight across the homeless community.

FJV undoubtedly had a substantially larger operating budget than any other program, which it used with great efficiency in serving the homeless. However, since it was an agency competing against the same funding sources as those of the smaller (and usually less efficient) programs, the organization made a few enemies. The method of rewarding funds seemed like a self perpetuating cycle where grants with money get more money and a Catch 22 for those that don't have money. Anyways, that's another topic entirely.

Before I go further, let me give some background information. I work for a homeless non-profit agency (RTFH) that felt the pressure of competing with FJV for the same funding source. We had a homeless management information system (ServicePoint) that was in competition with their database (CSTAR). The problem was that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) only wanted one report (which would require only one database or a lot of work merging data between multiple databases).

When I first worked at RTFH, I avoided the politics as much as I could simply because I knew I didn't have the stomach for it. I'm not sure exactly what transpired, but whenever my agency would meet with FJV, it seemed physically and emotionally draining on everyone involved. Even though I had never dealt with any of the staff at FJV, I felt for my coworkers, whom looked so exhausted after each meeting. I continued to hear more rumors and a part of me began to build resentment against the giant agency.

My first encounter with some of the FJV staff was at Atlanta, Georgia. After a day of HUD conferences, we happened to run into each other at a bar. I sat down and had my first opportunity to talk with them. I was genuinely surprised. They seemed like very nice people and it dispelled many of the rumors that I initially heard. It's easy to talk about a stranger behind their back, but it's difficult to do when you have a face to a name.

As time passed by and large staff turnover happened, I inevitably worked more and more with FJV's staff. After a couple years of working together, and from what I've personally seen, their staff were always professional, kind, patient, and good natured.

An exemplary example of their character was at a committee hearing that questioned the capabilities of RTFH to complete its contracts in a timely and accurate manner. We had no executive director, a part-time (although very amazing and knowledgable) associate director, and three full time IT staff (with only one that had an IT degree and whom no one had more than two years experience). One of our the IT staff was just hired. Our reports in the past did not have a good reputation. The situation looked very grim.

The smart business move would have been to capitalize on your opponents when they're down on the ground. Without our small agency, FJV's CSTAR database could have taken over all of our city/state/federal grants, received a lot more money, and it would have been a lot less work for them (since no data merging between systems would be required).

However, FJV and their staff did just the opposite; in the spirit of cooperation, they offered to fill in the technical expertise that RTFH lacked, handed over the work that they tediously created, and trained RTFH staff on how to use/modify their reports. At that point, I worked with them long enough to understand that they were genuinely good people, yet I was still slightly shocked at the kindness of their actions.

I'm not here to promote an agency or a program. What does this mean to me personally? When I look back, I can't believe that I believed some of the things I heard. I feel a bit of shame buying into the rumors. Rumors seem to start and usually have just enough of a hint of truthfulness that it becomes dangerous.

I sometimes forget that life is just so different. This isn't the movies. There's no black and white, no good and bad. It's more complicated than that. There's just different perspectives, and sometimes, our perspectives are wrong. I guess that's what makes us human. We all make mistakes and we all try to learn from them.