The Day I Lost My Faith in Humanity: Abstract Edition

The recurring "Day I Lost Faith in Humanity" posts we routinely have such sport with around here tend to share a common thread. That is: "humanity" is mostly taken in its literal form; that is to mean, "people." Let's face it: there will never be a lack of source material for this feature, as human beings have what seems like a bottomless well of stupid upon which to draw. There will always be another schmuck who does something so confoundingly moronic, so stupefyingly thick-skulled that we can't help but load him up into the funny-cannon, and use him as schaden-fodder for our detached amusement.

But then I read this article, and it forced me to consider an alternate interpretation of "losing faith in humanity":

Lender Forecloses on Homeless Shelter

This building is home to over 700 people who have nowhere else to go. At least, it is for now.

A new lender has foreclosed on the massive homeless shelter run by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, which must come up with $500,000 to stop foreclosure. Bob Cramer, chairman of the board of the task force, confirmed Wednesday that they had received a foreclosure notice this week, and the group has a month to come up with more than half a million dollars to pay off the overdue loans.

Cramer said the task force had been trying to renegotiate the loans it had with Mercy Housing, a nonprofit lender in Colorado, and the Institute for Community Economics, a nonprofit in Massachusetts, but the nonprofits chose to sell the loans to a group called Ichthus Community Trust, which foreclosed.

"The balloon note was due over a year ago but I think it is important to note that all the interest has been paid through February," Cramer said. "We were trying to work it out."

Oh, for CHRIST'S SAKE.

Look, I'm not saying that any institution should be able to get away with not paying their bills. And I'm not saying that a bank should not have the right to foreclose on an entity that defaults. All I'm saying is, procedural by-laws of black-and-white business conduct are one thing. And common motherfucking human decency is another.


To begin with, it's a goddamned homeless shelter. So I'm sure it's hardly as though they're operating with a surplus budget. Second, they're legitimately doing their best. If they hadn't paid a red cent since the Clinton Administration, sure. Out they go. But the Director has been doing his utmost to at least pay the interest owed.

And last, there needs to be some common sense applied to the fact that, again, IT'S A FUCKING HOMELESS SHELTER!

To put a finer point on it, just try to imagine, if you will, the following hypothetical scenario:

You're Marvin Dithers, 47. You used to be a tradesman carpenter in the Atlanta area. The work was mostly steady, and you did okay. But then the recession hit. Construction ground to a halt. And not only were there no new homes being built, but there were countless people getting booted out of existing ones because their sources of revenue support had dried up.


You held on by your fingernails from savings, and the charity of family and friends for awhile, but times are tough. Everyone's hurting. So eventually, you, too lost your home. Sure, you'd tried to work with the bank, but they'd rather sit on countless parcels of property they'll never sell than take any less than the exorbitant interest fees they feel they're entitled to.

So, you'd stayed with friends for awhile, and looked for work where there was none, hoping to get back on your feet. But you eventually started feeling like a burden. You couldn't exactly make out the tense, hissed kitchen conversations between your friend and his wife after they thought you were asleep, but you definitely heard "Marvin" more than once. So, you collected what was left of your meager belongings, got up off your buddy's couch, and swallowed your pride. Then, you trudged off to the homeless shelter.

It wasn't so bad, really. People there were mostly in the same boat, and they supported each other. Once a week the lady from the career center came by, and handed out a few applications. She was harried and overworked (after all, there are 700 folks in this shelter alone, and she's got a few more to get to this week), but she was available in case you needed résumé help or a letter of recommendation. The beds were a little lumpy, but better than a steam grate. And the food wasn't gonna win any awards, but you got to eat. It was a little Spartan, more than a little industrial, but it was a safety net. Somewhere to go for a little while. This would do until the opportunity presented itself to rebuild a better future.


Then one day you came back from handing out applications to surly fry cooks half your age, and there was a big foreclosure notice posted on the front door. Your stomach lurched in a sickening dive-roll to the left and down. Oh, no. not again. Not HERE.

The people inside wore tired smiles under their red-rimmed eyes. How could this happen, you ask? They explain that they're trying, but money is tight, and the bank is unsympathetic. And that's when you remember the bank. The bank, which probably collected a metric shit-ton of TARP money, and then added the number to its Q4 profit outlook rather than lend it back out. The bank, where the men in $500 suits shoo you away from the marble columns by the front door. The bank, the place where what's left of the newspapers can't stop reporting that record bonus payouts are taking place...The same newspapers that serve as bedspreads for a few of your less-fortunate friends.

The bank...which had bought the troubled loan that had previously underwritten the operating costs of the shelter from a non-profit lender called, "Mercy Housing."


"Mercy," indeed.

Look, I know this is more than a little moribund and heavy-handed for what's ostensibly a humor portal, but FOR FUCK'S SAKE. "The Day I Lost My Faith in Humanity" has taken on an extra layer of meaning for me today. Because while it's easy as pie to single out one moron and hold him up as a paragon of idiocy, using him as evidence of why the human race is a hilariously doomed gaggle of barely-evolved primates only 2 chromosomes away from hurling feces at each other, it's another thing entirely to lose faith in the entire abstract concept of humanity. Because, confirmed cynic though I am, one of the only things that rocks me to sleep at night is the admittedly-idealistic notion that people are basically good, civil, and compassionate. That deep down, when the dust settles, we really do give a shit about each other. That no matter what, everything's going to be okay.

So, fuck you, "Ichthus Community Trust." Fuck you upside-down, sideways, and in your ear. It shakes me to the core to think that there's not at LEAST one actual soul-possessing human being on your entire Board of Directors that had the stones to stand up and express even the SLIGHTEST reservation about looking at a building that provides 700 homeless people a place to go and the barest of dignities and essentials...and then taking even THAT away from them.

But most of all, fuck you for making me consider the duality of the term "humanity." Because, in doing so, I'm led to yet another phrase with plural meaning, in as much as it applies to both you, and the people you just put back out on the street...

"I don't know how they're gonna sleep at night."