Life on the street can be very hard on the feet for many of our neighbors without permanent housing.
Yet on the Thursday before Easter in Santa Barbara there is an interfaith tradition in which the feet of the homeless are washed and garnished with new shoes and socks. This pampering is the Annual Homeless Foot Washing, and it will celebrate its fifth year this Thursday at the Veterans Memorial Building on Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara.
It is a large, festive community event with more than a dozen social service organizations, about 100 volunteers and more than 250 of our neighbors on the streets participating. Given that a continental breakfast is served and a healthy lunch handed out, it is a little bit like Thanksgiving in April!
The foot washing takes place on Maundy Thursday, the day on which, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. As with other springtime festivals, there’s an emphasis on the regenerative powers of rebirth. We hope to help some people make vital connections with outreach workers and service providers so they can begin the process of getting off the street. The new shoes are symbolic of that fresh start and new beginning we hope to initiate.
The event reconnects the local community in an intimate and humbling way. The act of washing one another’s feet transforms both parties. For volunteers, it rekindles compassion for some of the most weary and displaced people in our city. For the people having their feet washed, it demonstrates that someone really cares. As the two parties bond, they are reminded of the importance of simple acts of kindness.
Through these simple acts, the stereotypes that both groups have of each other are broken. The volunteers report learning about the diversity of people on the streets, including many who work, have families and do not use substances. Those on the streets report learning that more “housed” people care about their plight than they thought.
Clergy from many different faith traditions, including mainline Protestant, Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Unitarian and Jewish, will say or have said prayers at the event. The Rev. Jon Lemmond, a pastor at Montecito Covenant Church, instructs the foot washers and helps create a holy tone to the setting. Medical professionals from Doctors Without Walls will triage any medical issues and ensure the sanitation of the foot washing.
Some of the social service providers that will be at the event include Noah’s Anchorage YMCA Youth Crisis Shelter, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara, the Pacific Pride Foundation, the Legal Aid Foundation, the Independent Living Resource Center, Santa Barbara County Public Health’s Health Care for the Homeless, Restorative Policing, Parish Nursing, the Safe Parking Program and the Veterans Administration.
While amicable chitchat fills the foot washing room, one can feel the deep contemplative mood of many of the foot washers and their recipients. Some people even break into tears at the overflowing of love that permeates the event. I was initially surprised that many people truly loved washing feet and were reluctant to give up their wash stations to other volunteers.
In 2008, while working as a social worker for WillBridge of Santa Barbara, I came up with the idea of having a foot washing. I wanted to create an event that would alter the way “housed” people perceive those without housing. I believe that the stigmatization that those without permanent housing face is one of their greatest challenges, a sentiment recently endorsed by Sarah Miller McCune, local philanthropist and founder of SAGE Publications, at a meeting of the Homeless Activist Luncheon in Santa Barbara.
Let me share how I got the idea for the foot washing. One Saturday morning in the winter of 2008 while riding my bike from Stearns Wharf to the bird refuge, I noticed all the happy people enjoying a pleasant day in the sun. Joggers, parents with strollers and tourists on rented bikes made the bike path particularly crowded that day. The volleyball courts were filled with college kids, and two groups of Latino men were having a soccer game.
As I walked around the bird refuge afterward reflecting on my morning ride, I realized there were many people I had failed to notice. As a street outreach worker, I had previously met many people who camped out at the dunes between the Cabrillo Bathhouse and the public restrooms. I learned that many of these folks were not doing well and avoided going to shelters and other service-providing agencies.
Overrun by trauma or the stress of living on the streets, or overcome with emotional anguish and self-medicating with various substances, some of them carved out a meager existence in these mounds of sand, semi-hidden from the world. I wondered whether or not anyone was in the dunes that day, and decided to look more closely on my way back.
Walking my bike along that stretch of Chase Palm Park, I counted 11 people who seemed to be camped at the beach and clearly visible from the bike path. Several of these people I had even met before doing outreach work. Reflecting further on my morning ride, I wondered how often the “housed and doing relatively well” fail to notice those who are suffering and living on the streets? If I as a street outreach worker could simply “not see” these folks, I imagined many others also don’t see them.
The fast pace of modern life has created blasé attitudes and selective perceptions in which we almost unknowingly avoid noticing those who are suffering. I wondered what could be done so that we might see the suffering all around us. The idea of having a foot washing for our neighbors on the streets came out of that morning bike ride. I decided to create an event that would alter the way “housed” people perceive those without housing.
There is a new spirit of change in the realm of “street life” in Santa Barbara. Many of the key players are transitioning into new roles. Many of the old institutions are morphing into new shapes. An influx of new ideas and new people is changing the scene of the politics of homelessness in Santa Barbara. Many of us are facing the new reality that smaller budgets mean that volunteers must now play important roles in all nonprofits.
In its small way, the Santa Barbara Homeless Foot Washing symbolizes the new beginning that we hope to offer those on the streets as they begin towards moving toward self-sufficiency. It is a great community celebration!
— Wayne Mellinger, Ph.D., is a sociologist teaching at Antioch University Santa Barbara. His blog, “Doing Modernity,” examines how domination and hierarchy are achieved in everyday life.