Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 05/19/21

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. As the psalm says, Donald Whitehead believes God was with him during the depths of his five years of homelessness and credits divine intervention in his rise toward the heavens, including his current perch as director of the National Coalition for the Homeless and host of the upcoming Voices of Homelessness podcast. He is paying it forward by utilizing his bone-chilling experience on the streets to advocate for a community he believes too often is treated as invisible or – if they are noticed – are looked down upon.

JWK: You were announced as the new director of the National Coalition for the Homeless last year. Your resume is particularly interesting because it actually includes five years of experiencing homelessness firsthand. Can you tell me about that?

Donald Whitehead: Sure. I experienced homelessness in the early nineties. It was after a divorce. I also, at the time, suffered from the complications of the disease of addiction. My life just kind of spiraled down to the point of (where) I was living on the streets of Cincinnati, Ohio.

JWK: Was this a drug addiction?

DW: It was. I’m the son of an alcoholic who actually died as a direct result of the disease of addiction…We know that it passes down through generations and, unfortunately, it passed down to me.

JWK: So, how did you eventually come out of that situation?

DW: What happened to me – and I do see this as a divine intervention – is I ended up in a shelter that had a treatment program. I’d been in denial for a very long time but I was able to get some help – and much needed help – at that shelter. They had a six-month treatment program which I enrolled in.

JWK: How did you, from there, get into advocacy for the homeless?

DW: One of the interesting components of the program I was in was that it was a program that actually provided the opportunity – actually it was a requirement – that, if you received services that you would give back in some way. My decision to give back was to give back to (what) at that time was the Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. So, I worked there for about five years and then I did move onto the national scene. I started out as a volunteer and then I was able to move forward.

JWK: A lot of people come at a problem like this perhaps very sincerely in their intent to help – but with a degree in hand and, perhaps, a sense of being a little above it all. How has actually going through homelessness yourself affected your work with the homeless community, including in your job now?

DW: It gives me a rather unique perspective because, in addition to my (homeless) experience, I’ve also had the experience of being a service provider.  So, I have this kind of triple set of experiences that really can lend itself to making policy decisions about what’s needed on the ground as opposed to those who kind of see advocacy from a ten-thousand foot view. My experience has been on the ground – operating shelters and transitional housing programs and doing case management and outreach, the full gamut of services. That allows me to see what actually works as opposed to what works theoretically…without (taking into account) the kind of intricate details that may cause a program to fail.

JWK: You’re also a writer.

DW: I’ve written many studies. I just recently did some work on racial equity debt out in Maricopa County. I do have a business as well called Racial Equity Partners. I’m one of the co-founders…I also wrote a book. It’s an autobiography. It’s basically my life story. The title of the book is Most Unlikely to Succeed…I was very successful in my younger life. I was class vice president. I graduated in the top ten percent and (was) voted most likely to succeed. I played sports (and was) prom king. I was sort of meeting all expectations for my parents but, at the same time, struggling with addiction – eventually succumbing to the downward spiral. (The book) gets into that but I think, more importantly, it also offers some strategies for people to be able to get out (of the cycle). It was written to and for people who are struggling with whatever. It could be homelessness, addiction, abuse – all of which I’ve had periods that I had to deal with those issues. It also gives what I think are some really sound solutions to them.

JWK: Your life sounds like it could be a movie.

DW: I’m actually working on that right now, as well. It’s still in the very early stages of script development. I’m working on a treatment with a group in Atlanta, Georgia. We just started that process within the last month (or so).

JWK: You’ve also been an actor.

DW: I’ve acted in six movies – (almost) seven. (With that one) I wasn’t smart enough to wait until it was my turn to get on screen and so I left. That movie ended up winning (four) Oscars. It was called Traffic…Then I did six independent films after that. For one, I actually won an Emmy. The show actually won five Emmys but I won one of the individual Emmys in a performance category. It’s a regional Emmy. The movie was a thirty-minute (Showtime) short but I have an Emmy on my shelf at home. The movie is called Open the Sky.

JWK: And, adding to your eclectic resume, you’ve also performed stand-up comedy.

DW: I’ve done some comedy – opening for big acts like Monique and Cedric the Entertainer…A few other people, some big names, some not. The comedy’s a hobby.

JWK: Do you talk about homelessness in your act?

DW: I do. I talk about my own homelessness. (One) joke is about thinking I was selling drugs – but really I was selling the drugs to myself. So, I kind of make light of that particular part of my life that was just a really horrible experience.

JWK: There’s that Alan Alda line from Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors – “Comedy is tragedy plus time.”

DW: The humor is a part of the healing process…I also have done some Christian comedy as well.

JWK: Your more serious gig is, of course, as director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. How’s that going?

DW: It’s going really well. We’ve actually raised funds at a level that we hadn’t seen before. So, I think people have embraced my leadership. More importantly though, we have been able to get homeless people involved in some of the planning that the federal government does on homelessness. I have formerly homeless people who are doing technical assistance – commonly known as TA providers. They’re helping to write some of the regulations around the COVID vaccine and emergency shelters. There have been just some really important developments in that area. We’re also working with the CDC. There’s always been talk about people with lived experience and expertise being a part of the decision-making process. Well, now it’s actually happening and that wasn’t the case ever before – certainly not to the extent that it’s being done now. So, I am incredibly encouraged by that.

I also had the opportunity to work on President Biden’s homeless policy team during the campaign. I was able to provide some firsthand information to that part of his team that worked on the response to homelessness.

JWK: Speaking about the COVID vaccine, is it getting to the homeless?

DW: It’s getting to the homeless not as quickly as we would hope but it is getting to homeless people at a snail’s pace. We would have hoped that homeless people would have been prioritized. In a few communities they are but (in) most communities they’re kinda at the bottom of the totem pole. It’s very dangerous if you have people that are kind of in a nomad lifestyle, if you will, moving around from place to place. If they are not vaccinated then it could spell danger for people in the community at large.

It’s complicated things because many of the people who are on the verge of becoming homeless, they kind of live on the margins. They work at jobs that just pay a little bit above minimum wage or (are) at minimum wage. Those positions are the ones that have been affected the most by COVID. So, now you have a lot of people who are facing eviction and a lot of people who are unemployed also. That has been quite a challenge.

JWK: Is the situation on the southern border complicating the situation – both in adding to the overall number of homeless and regarding the spread of COVID?

DW: We haven’t seen an impact from the border situation. The numbers people that are Latinx or Hispanic have stayed steady. One of the reasons is that many of those individuals will not enter into the homeless system for fear of some sort of backlash.

JWK: What are your thoughts on how the media portrays homelessness?

DW: The media portrays homelessness in a way that’s completely inaccurate…It really does a disservice to those of us that are working on the issue…Usually the images are of people that really aren’t representative of the population. One of the largest (groups) is women and children. You rarely will see them (portrayed in) the media. The people you typically see are panhandlers or substance abusers who make up a small portion of the population. You never see the person who is delivering pizzas or working in retail or the people that even have jobs that are considered respectable mainstream jobs in factories or people working in the banking industry. The range of people is pretty typical of the general population. So, there is a lot of disinformation or misinformation or misguidedness – almost fake news, if you will – when it comes to how people are portrayed. Every once in a while there’s a great heartwarming story about someone experiencing homelessness but that’s a rarity.

JWK: And what is your advice for individuals when they encounter a homeless person? In New York, for instance, it seems like you can’t take five steps in Penn Station or Grand Central without someone asking for a handout. People want to help but they can’t help everybody. Do you have any thoughts on how people can respond in a thoughtful and reasonable way?

DW: Well, I would say you have to make that individual decision yourself. You know, always do it in a safe way…My suggestion is to give to organizations or volunteer at organizations (that) provide some sort of buffer as they give so that they are able to do it safely. If you do give, things like socks (or) masks are really good…People can always give to the National Coalition for the Homeless. We work with many, many agencies. We are always open to receiving support either from a monetary perspective or from volunteerism or whatever people want to do. There are a lot of different places where help is needed. We can guide you…or we can receive directly.
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Finally, some RESPECT. The official trailer for one of the most highly anticipated films of 2021 is finally here. Director Liesl Tommy’s Aretha Franklin biopic RESPECT is set for release on August 13th, 2021. The film’s stellar cast includes Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Mary J. Blige and Marlon Wayans.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11