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When you think about someone who tirelessly serves the less fortunate and specifically the unhoused community, some may think of Mother Teresa. For me, it’s Marla Bautista. Marla is a writer, speaker, and philanthropist who is on a mission to end homelessness. In sitting down with her, I hoped to get an update on the nonprofit, The Bautista Project. I was intrigued to learn how we can collectively support the homeless going into the summer and PCS season as I personally planned to purge and give a lot of things away. I was shocked to hear a cry from the homeless community that was a welcomed twist. One that I believe many military spouses can relate to and appreciate.
“Meet our needs and stop giving from your convenience.”
The thought of sending our purged items to those in need is noble and can help, however, we must also keep in mind the unhoused community’s true needs and help them be empowered to help themselves. Marla breaks down common myths regarding this community and shines a light on three ways we can support the true need within the homeless community.
Q: Let’s talk about you. What is the mission of the Bautista Project and why do you so passionately serve?
A: After my experience with homelessness, I decided that I would spend my life giving back to people in need so my husband and I started the project. We founded it in 2016, and our goal was to end homelessness. I know it sounds like a lofty goal, but it’s actually really achievable. There are a lot of systemic issues in America that tend to make it harder to achieve. But it’s still possible!
Q: What are common myths around the homeless community?
A: There are a lot of myths that come from us [Americans]. One negative connotation towards unhoused community members is that they are violent. As we just saw with the recent killing of Jordan Neely, sometimes they’re just in need. The way you perceive that need may not be the ideal way. Someone asking for things doesn’t give you the right to kill them and it doesn’t make them violent. A lot of times that perception comes from things we see in movies which may not be true. But in all the years I’ve worked with unhoused community members, I’ve never faced any violence from any of them.
Another myth is that unhoused community members are homeless because they have mental health issues. Some do, however, many unhoused community members actually obtain mental health issues from being on the streets, or they’re exacerbated from being on the streets. A lot of us individuals who are not homeless experience anxiety and depression. If that were something we were experiencing while we were in the house, it would be exacerbated to possibly bipolar, schizophrenia, or paranoia, when unhoused. So we have to have empathy when we’re approaching our friends who live on the street because a lot of them are actually in fear for themselves. A lot of women on the streets are assaulted by non-unhoused community members. Abuse breeds mental illness.
Another myth is that unhoused community members are alcoholics or drug addicts. I can say a lot of times we do encounter individuals that may be intoxicated, but no more than the people in our everyday lives. There are so many functioning drug addicts and alcoholics amongst us, but because the unhoused are not currently productive members of society, we ostracize them for their behaviors. A lot of the behaviors that they have, we have the privilege to do inside of our homes. So they go often unseen.
I always ask people to imagine having to sleep on the streets for the first time. Say, you walk to your downtown location and imagine having to stay there all day, and then at night you have to sleep there. Would you be able to do that without being drunk or high? I probably wouldn’t go to sleep at all. I don’t care how many days I was out there. And if I didn’t go to sleep for a number of days, guess what that will start to breed…mental illness. So if you imagine all these things that are connected, that breed negative consequences, whether that is impending addiction, or whether that is impending mental illness, all of these things are interconnected.
Q: What would you say are your goals given these compounding concerns?
A: My goal with the project is to help our friends be seen and heard. It’s for me to be a voice for them and to empower them to do better for themselves because that’s what we all want to see. It’s so easy for us to say. “Oh, I see a homeless person. Why don’t they just go get a job?” Well, that’s an easy out, but how many jobs are out there that even we are not getting?
So imagine all the obstacles that I don’t have, that they’re jumping through just to get a job. It’s even harder for them to get a job! When you’re putting in 130 resumes, they’re putting in 130 resumes. And what? How many callbacks did you get from your 130 resumes? Luckily you have financial security. Whether that be through your spouse or other sources of income. Unfortunately for them, they don’t have that security.
My goal is to empower them to do better for themselves. One of the ways that we do that is by providing for their basic living essentials. Which is providing food and physiological needs like transportation vouchers and clothing items. The reason why we do this is because if you have a bus pass, you can go to the doctor, or even go to a job interview, or you can go see your family. So all of these things matter. You can go to a soup kitchen down the road because you can make it there.
Q: So what have you learned while working each day with the unhoused community?
A: One thing that we noticed was that there were so many amazing people in this world that want to help. For instance here in Tampa there are so many churches and groups that provide hot dogs and spaghetti dinners and all the hot foods that these [unhoused] individuals need. So much so that food they are throwing away! I remember receiving a message from an unhoused individual. He said, “We’re homeless, not hungry.” And I was like, Wow!
I was blown away because I realized… you’re right. Everybody’s handing you a plate of food and you’re saying I need somewhere to live. I need to go to the doctor. I need shoes on my feet, and we’re like you need food. Here’s the spaghetti dinner. How was that the same thing? We don’t expect to be helped like that. So when we’re talking about helping people in need, we want to help people with what they need help with. Not what we want to give them. Giving shouldn’t be convenient for you, the giver. It should be something that actually helps the person who it’s being given to.
Giving is not convenient. Giving is giving.
Q: How does the Bautista Project make a difference in the lives of those who are unhoused?
A: We do provide meals, but the meals that we provide for individuals are shelf-stable meals that they can eat anytime. They’re in need. We want to make sure that on Tuesday night, when there’s no church group out there, or there’s no happy family giving out meals, that they can still eat. So we provide snack packs. We actually give them an MREs, and we give them a gallon- sized Ziploc bag that has a bottle of juice or sparkling water in it. It has 2 granola bars, a tuna kit or a tuna pack or ravioli with a pop-up top so that it’s something that they can easily open with their fork. No matter what day or time it is you can have a meal and that’s really important to empower individuals, because it’s up to them to eat this meal when they’re hungry. Not me giving you 10 plates of food when I feel like it, but you being able to eat whenever you need to. When we give you a bus pass, we give you a bus pass so that you can go to a soup kitchen or doctor or therapy when you need to.
Q: I love that you broke out 3 myths of the unhoused community, and I love that you are giving us a new perspective of how we need to meet the need and not just what is convenient for us to give. As we think about how we can get involved during the Summer, what are 3 ways that we can actually help by partnering with your project to really meet the need and not just do a feel-good for ourselves?
A: I love that! Well, you can meet the need in the biggest way by donating. You can donate to The Bautista Project by going to our website thebautistaprojectinc.org. You can also donate by purchasing items from our Amazon wish list. Helping us helps them.
Another thing you can do is buy gift cards. I love buying things, but I’m about empowering other people, and that’s not just the unhoused community. I want to buy you a gift that you want. Me buying you a toy that you already have is unnecessary. Me buying you a shirt that you don’t even like is unnecessary. I’m gonna give you a gift card. You can easily find them as you shop on Amazon, in Target, Walmart, Starbucks, or McDonald’s. All of those places sell gift cards and you can get a $5-$10 gift card. Give them the gift card and say, “You know what? Here you go. I don’t know what you want, but this empowers you to make a choice.” This gives them the freedom of choice. To go buy what they want. If they want to go to Target, and instead of buying some food, they want to buy Band-aids; let them. If they want to go into Starbucks and buy a Mocha Frappuccino instead of getting a cup of water, let them! Some days I NEED a Mocha, okay! That’s a feel-good for myself. If that makes me feel better for 5 min of my day, then let me have that. Give them a bit of happiness by doing that. Empowering. Giving them the freedom of choice, empowers them.
The next thing is, be kind! Be kind if you can do nothing else.
Don’t disrespect anyone else. Treat people as you would like to be treated. My children go out to the streets with us. Everyone in Tampa, all of the unhoused community members know my children. My children feel safe around them. Why? Because my children are kind to them and they are kind to my children. I don’t worry about my children’s safety because I know them and because I’ve taken time to get to know them. I am able to trust them. Often we are in fear of the unknown. Get to know somebody and that fear that guards you will drop so fast because those people are somebody’s mom, somebody’s grandma, somebody’s dad, somebody’s big brother that they haven’t seen in years. Those are our family. Those individuals are family members, they’re friends, and they deserve your kindness.