What a Congressman Should Be

The year was 1987, the place was Washington D.C. within sight of the U.S. Capitol Building. A group of Congressmen, celebrities and homeless advocates met on the sidewalk to draw attentionto the homelessness epidemic that had spread across the country. The genesis of the modern homelessness epidemic has its roots in the 1980's when cuts to public housing and deinstitutionalization of psychiatric hospitals led to a surge in homelessness. In 1987 there wasn't a large amount of federal money directed toward addressing the problem. President Reagan's goal was to roll back the social safety net. This is where Representative Stewart McKinney entered the picture. He was a moderate Republican from Connecticut who knew that Congress could not continue to ignore this issue. Representative McKinney and other congressmen crafted the Urgent Relief for the Homeless Act which was later renamed the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The Act created more than a dozen programs to provide homeless with services and a billion dollars in funding for emergency shelters, job training and housing vouchers. The puch at the time was for austerity and getting this through Congress was not going to be easy.

The advocates including the Community for Creative Non-Violence and the National Coalition for the Homeless decided to hold the Great American Sleep-Out in March. It was timed to cooincide with the House vote on the bill. More than a dozen congressmen participated. McKinney's doctors and colleagues advised him against sleeping outside on that cold March night. He had been living with AIDS since 1979 contracted from a blood transfusion. It was dangerous for him to sleep outside due to the chance of contracting pneumonia with his compromised immune system. McKinney knew the danger but decided the issue was important enough to risk his life. Two months later he was dead from AIDS related pneumonia. During that two month time period the bill passed through both houses of Congress with veto proof majorities. It was signed into law by President Reagan.

It is of note that McKinney was a Republican. Where are the Republican members of Congress now who are willing to lay their lives on the line for the poor and less fortunate among us? They fear Tea Party challengers who would oust them from their beloved seats in Congress so much they are willing to do anything to keep them? Compassionate conservativism is dead replaced by reward the rich and punish the poor politics. Maybe some of our current leaders should look back at Representative McKinney and determine if there is any cause they are willing to die for.