BOSS Holiday Drive Delivers Comfort in a Tough Year

It can be easy sometimes. It can be easy to complain about staying in your house, even when millions of Americans are just days away from losing theirs. It can be easy to complain about a Zoom lecture, and forget that over 40% of students are failing in some states — not to mention those with disabilities or without internet access. It can be easy to say ‘I don’t need a mask’ and ignore the healthcare workers that spend birthdays, Thanksgivings, and Christmases in isolation. 

But ‘easy’ isn’t a luxury shared by so many in our community. Take a 37 year-old from Oakland for example: someone who had struggled with homelessness. An ex-con, already facing an uphill battle to find a job, or cast a ballot, or be seen as just another person. A person who society had left behind. Or more accurately, someone whom society never really cared about in the first place. Despite this, he found employment early this year. He got temporary housing. He finally got his life together. And then he got COVID-19. He eventually recovered, only to find that society had left him behind again. He recovered to find that his job wasn’t waiting for him; a similar experience to so many workers with COVID — their employer doesn’t see the benefit of paying someone who is in the hospital. He recovered to find that his temporary house had burned down. His car now doubled as a home, holding all of his possessions and all the memories of getting his life on track. Alone, he lived out of that car, because his two young kids were relocated to other housing with other relatives. 

As the federal ban on evictions ends on January 31st, 14 million households face a similar situation. How many cars will serve as shelter? How many strollers will carry a family’s last possessions out the door of their home? How many children will be condemned to a life of homelessness? 

“Head-Royce is only a couple of miles away from reality, physically,” Nancy Feidelman, Director of Community Engagement, reminds us. “The problem is that so many of us exist in totally different worlds.” That is one of the reasons why the School holds an annual gift drive for Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS). And it might be why the holiday drive is so much more important during the pandemic. “It is often when the country experiences something catastrophic where we all can see the deprivation and the injustices in our society,” says Gwen Austin, the director of BOSS.“We see how fragile our society really is, and we haven’t done enough to prevent some of the [conditions for poor people].” 

It is those societal issues that BOSS helps underprivileged people navigate. They find jobs for felons. They find homes for the homeless. They provide people with essential services, so they can have an opportunity to jumpstart their life. 
Although Head-Royce’s drive will not lift anyone out of poverty, Austin admits, the gifts still serve a useful purpose. “Christmas is about giving… and [giving] an underprivileged child a gift makes them not feel like there’s something wrong with them because they are poor,” Austin says. “[It] enhances their spirit…knowing that someone actually cares about them” — a sentiment shared by the senior leader of the holiday drive, Burdine Atherton. “This year has been really hard for everyone, and we want to do whatever we can to bring them a little bit of joy,” she said via email.

“This drive is philanthropy — a one time thing. There’s no problem with that, but it’s definitely just a feel-good moment,” says Feidelman. “There’s still so much more structural change we need to accomplish, and for that, we need continued involvement .” It can be easy to look past this reality for so many philanthropists. But the federal eviction moratorium ends in 2020, and a child who receives a gift on Christmas morning could end up without a home just a month later. Or maybe, at best,  in two months when California’s own ban expires. This societal fragility — where the line between being homeless or not is just a temporary law — is exactly what BOSS is trying to rectify.

For Feidelman, true change begins at the top. “It really starts in politics,” she says. “If you want to make change, then you have to get yourself involved.” She points to the critical Georgia Senate runoffs as a good place to start. “Postcarding, phone banking. Those are all good ways to impact our country.”

“[We need to] design national disaster recovery policies intended to provide relief to local governments,” a manager at BOSS suggested. Either way, everyone involved acknowledges the importance of Christmas presents, but realizes that change is bigger than just one gift.

 “Poverty will never go away, but we, as a society, have a responsibility to help as many people as we can, so they can live healthier and more productive lives,” says Austin. That man — the ex-con with a burned house and no job — he exemplifies that. With the help of BOSS, he recently found a job and a new house. And after months apart, he was reunited with his family. “It’s been one historic year for this man,” the manager said. But that’s what can happen if we all just dedicate a bit more time of giving back to our community.