Habitat: Rest in Peace by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy In a recent issue of the Ebb and Flow, I announced the formation of a consortium of congregations here in Santa Monica which were coming together to work in partnership with Habitat for Humanity to build town homes for the working poor here in Santa Monica. Those congregations were St. Augustine's, First Presbyterian, St. Paul's Lutheran, First United Methodist Church and the Santa Monica Congregation. (Reform Jewish). The five homes were to be built at the intersection of 19th and Pico and the groundbreaking was to have been held on March 29th. Indeed, the last issue of Ebb and Flow contained the announcement of the groundbreaking with the word "Cancelled" hand written in red under it as we heard of the cancellation of this project the day we were mailing out the print issue of the newsletter. This decision to cancel was made after the choir concert held at First Presbyterian Church last month which was held to announce the beginning of this project and raise some funds towards the work. The acronym of this joint effort would have been SHIP: The Santa Monica Habitat Interfaith Partnership. Habitat had been working on this project for some five years. Their decision to pull out of Santa Monica is the right one as the cost of the project had spiraled out of control over the last few weeks. Good stewardship demands that funds be spent wisely and when more people can be given a home for fewer dollars elsewhere in Southern California, it is difficult to justify building fewer homes in a more expensive area just so that you can say that your response to this housing crisis is "inclusive and comprehensive." In their written statement, Habitat writes: "For more than five years Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles has worked towards the goal of building affordable homeownership opportunities on our site in Santa Monica. It was after several thoughtful conversations taking into consideration the changing economic realities of our supporters and the lack of economic viability of this site as designed, that by mid-March our Board of Directors made the decision that we can not move forward with the development of this site. The leaders of this organization take very seriously their responsibility to our donors and partners, and after careful consideration this tough yet critical decision was made. The decision was ratified by our Board of Directors on March 25th. This was a disappointment to many of us because we have envisioned working side by side with wonderfully committed partners and we have invested hundreds of hours of staff time to make it work." Although it is tempting to lay blame someplace (the City of Santa Monica has long been viewed as a place impossible to build in because of restrictive building design requirements which add thousands of dollars to the cost of work and for timelines and approvals which often delay construction endlessly); the reality is that it may be no one's fault. But the tough reality is that the Westside − and including the City of Santa Monica − has done little to make this area affordable and accessible for lower income people, whom we welcome to serve us in our best restaurants and clean up after us in the best of hotels but whom we do not welcome to live with us in community. I spoke briefly with a checker at one of our local food markets and, in response to an off handed comment about her commute to the bagger, I asked her where she lived. When she said "Pomona", I was shocked. That's at least an hour away if there's no traffic (and when has there been no traffic). And so while we are saddened and disappointed about not being able to move forward with this project, we should be even more frightened about what this says about our community and our region when average middle class workers: school teachers, firemen, police officers and nurses; cannot afford to live in our community: something is lost. That Habitat, as the most skilled of all the agencies in our land at finding a way when there is no way, could not make this work after five years of planning, gathering volunteers and donors; then no one short of government working for "the common good" will make it work. The feast day of Dr. Martin Luther King was celebrated on April 4th. It was the fortieth anniversary of his death as a martyr, which the Christian community rightly celebrates rather than his birthday. Dr. King said: "We are caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied to a single garment of destiny. What affects one directly, affects all indirectly. As long as there is poverty in this world, no man can be rich…" These five congregations are committed to working together in outreach and mission as people of faith across denominational and faith tradition boundaries. We are challenged about how we might honor God and honor one another by serving the poor and hurting among us and we know that God will make a way for that to happen if we remain open and connected to one another. There will be another day. But in the meantime, we lay this failure before the heart of God and ask God's forgiveness for our hardness of heart and our lack of imagination and creativity as American citizens and as people of the Covenants. Copyright © 2008 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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