THE HAG HAD A BABY
OR
"DON'T LOOK THEM IN THE EYE"

NOTE: The following piece was written ten years ago. It is as pertinent today as then because of the draconian treatment of the homeless people in Atlanta and the malicious villainies against the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless have only intensified over the last decade. - James Wilson Beaty, Jeremiah 22:16, December 29, 2008.

HAG is an acronym for the Homeless Action Group, the creation of Atlanta City Councilperson Debi Starnes. Recently the HAG had a baby. Neither the birthday of the child nor the identity of the father has been determined. But Downtown Atlanta glimmers with pride and progress, as no one thought the HAG, only three years old, was equipped to perform such a tour de force as the making of a baby. But she did it; a child is born; a son is given; and his name shall be called HAP, or the Homeless Action Plan. That's right, HAP, son of the HAG. And his mother requests that his name never be spoken without her name trailing closely behind: HAP, son of the HAG. Understand that HAP, son of the HAG, was not conceived without purpose like so many babies these days. He was conceived to do something. He has a mission; yea, he has a mission statement. HAP's latest mission statement reads: "To update and expand previous planning to create a 5-year regional action plan which will identify, encourage and develop resources for homeless people and people at risk of being homeless, establishing them in communities where they have extended support systems."

The mission statement raises several questions, grammatical and pragmatical. School children know that every pronoun much have a clear antecedent. The reference of the word "them" at the close of the mission statemtent is ambiguous. Are the "resources" to be established in communities, or are the "homeless people" to be established in communities? Or both? Does the "5-year regional plan" refer to the time anticipated for the plan to be implemented or to the time to be spent "planning" or talking or meeting? If we have learned anything from the HAG, we have learned that she meets. She meets religiously, monthly at Georgia Power in Atlanta without the trace of a homeless person as far as the eye can see. Some veteran providers attend, but the bulk of the crowd consists of HAG camp followers, showing a newfound zeal to help the homeless.

Could the ambiguity of the mission statement be intentional, or is this merely poor writing? The HAG's true raison d'etre has never been admitted and never will be admitted. But dividing in order to conquer is as old as Eden and as obvious as Napoleonic warfare. And dividing providers throughout the community has been the order of the day for the HAG from her inception three years ago. The HAG introduced a new day for funding. Hungry providers, always in need of money, sniff the cooking pot of greens now guarded by the watchful eye of local governments. And the local HUD lights hover in the background like vultures protecting their own. Whenever the air reeks of money, compassionate crowds always follow. If winter comes, can spring be far behind? But the wrenching truth is that committed service providers have had their funding threatened or cut if they were not seated and smiling at the HAG's table.

Setting aside the grammar in the murky mission statement, what could possibly be meant by "establishing them in communities where they have extended support systems"? "Extended support systems" for homeless people? Where are the extended support systems? What are the support systems? How will they be developed? Who will develop them? Are these communities located in this hemisphere? Has one homeless person been consulted by a member of the HAP brass? Do any members of the HAP brass even know a homeless person? Has one "community" opened its magnanimous arms pleading, "Send us your homeless"? Has one hamlet in the region cried out, "We have 'extended support systems;' please send us your homeless"? And most important, has one homeless mother or father gone to the HAG and asked to be "established" where support systems abound?

At the April 13, 1998 kick-off meeting at Georgia Power in Atlanta, the HAP convener, an Episcopal priest, thanked everyone for the great start. He thanked power hitters like The United Way, and especially Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) for the "muscle" it brings to the table. Imagine, if you can, the powerful and resourceful Central Atlanta Progress setting a whole new agenda, just to help homeless people. CAP's newsletter, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, carried the front page story Help for the Homeless! It's a miracle! Can such an about-face be in the offing? CAP? Can it be? Are these the worthies who gave Atlanta the "sanitized zone," the "quality of life" ordinances, the "community court" and the glee-inspiring "urban camping legislation"? Are these the movers who ordered 9,500 arrests of homeless men the year before Atlanta hosted the Olympics? Are these the shakers who applauded their own performance saying, "We have taken back our streets and parks from those people; now we have to make sure we keep them:? Are we now to dream that these quality-of-lifers have quality of life in mind for "those people"?

As darkness follows the day, CAP's mindsprings gave downtown Atlanta the "Ambassadors," to keep our sidewalks cleared of refuse. These thinkers are the Samaritans whose Chief of Ambassadors comforted a group of employees in one of Atlanta's leading law firms. He cautioned the group not to look the homeless in the eye. Just call an Ambassador who will call the police, he instructed. And these quality-of-lifers plan support systems for homeless people? Atlanta's local paper quoted a CAP lieutenant as saying he would rather have a toxic waste dump in downtown Atlanta than to have a facility that served homeless people with AIDS. That very person, with the same sensitivity, now watches over the Homeless Action Plan, HAP, son of the HAG. And HAP intends to establish homeless people in "communities where they have extended support systems"?

Acronyms, although ancient, suit best in times like these. We have ARC, BARK, MARK, PARK, BAD, MADD, PAD, SAD, CAP, MAP, RAP, HAG, HAP, HUD, MUDD, SPUD, ACOG, GOG, and MAGOG; the list goes on ad nauseam. Creators of acronyms are often more cute than clever. When I first heard of HAP, son of the HAG, I thought of Thomas Hardy's powerful poem, "HAP." In that terrifying piece Hardy calls God a "purblind doomster" who zaps man whimsically without pity or regard. Do the forgers of HAP, son of the HAG, know their name means "chance, luck, a happening that is usually an unfortunate one"? Surely they know. And perhaps they know that the Scots define "hap" as a covering, a covering like a blanket, something an urban camper might use against the cold.

The street-wise homeless people in Atlanta know that HAG is an acronym for Homeless Action Group. Talking every day with homeless people, I am asked often, "What does the HAG do?" I say, "She meets." Questioners press for more substance; I respond redundantly, "She meets." If the HAG has fed or clothed or sheltered or washed or transported or responded favorably to one homeless person, no evidence exists to prove it. Homeless people flee the HAG, knowing she has spawned seven ordinances that guarantee the criminalization of homelessness. Being homeless in Atlanta marks a person as a potential criminal about to be arrested for being.

And the HAG meets every month to listen for the jingle of money: money, real, imagined or stolen that might be on the way from HUD. However, if an agency, old or new, in the Atlanta area hopes to get funding to help homeless people, that agency had better be in good standing with the HAG, and it had better be seated and obedient "at the table." The process for funding in the 1997 Super NOFA (Atlanta) was as corrupt as the word can define. Rigging guaranteed that $1.3 million HUD dollars were granted to one non-existent entity while experienced providers were drummed out by the HAG's process. The three previous years had seen $14 million go to providers through the auspices of the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. But the HAG tells the tale that disruptive, cantankerous cranks like the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless blocked the money channel. The catch phrase these days is "at the table," i.e. we must have consensus. Everybody from HUD to BUD wants players to smile and get along as one big happy family. Consensus now means swallowing all the draconian abuses of palace politics and all the pallid panaceas of temple theology. A big grin must remain while funding is slashed and reputations are maligned. We are asked to "move to a higher level of collaboration" as the knife twists and while homeless males are ground under the boot of the quality-of-lifers who cry for consensus. And prospects of a fair 1998 Super NOFA are dim if non-existent.

Literary allusions to the HAG are not as obvious as are those in Hardy's brilliant poem "HAP." But they do exist. Chaucer's Knight encountered a witch who was conquered only when given her way. Whitman described a cold sea as an old crone. But the perfect likeness of our HAG comes from the pen of the Italian, Virgil. In Book IV of the Aeneid, he gives us a goddess named Rumor. If ever the HAG had a twin sister, it's Rumor, a large, feathered monster who owns an eye under every feather, a mouth under every eye and two ears beside each mouth. Spreading half-truths and destroying the innocent fuel her every move. Virgil writes, "No other evil was ever swifter."

Unfortunately, the birth of HAP, son of the HAG, does not indicate a lessening of our fiend's fury. Venom that perpetuates itself with the lie lives forever. Just how far HAP, son of the HAG, will fall from the tree of the mother who bore him no one can tell. As an infant HAP is the spitting image of his ugly mother. But talk around Central Atlanta Progress, Atlanta City Hall, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and other bastions of truth has it that the HAG is pregnant again. Technology says it's a girl, and her name is SAP, honoring all who follow her brother, HAP, son of the HAG.