Honoring Steadfast Homelessness Advocates

On Monday, June 5, 2006, the St. Paul Area Coalition for the Homeless (S.P.A.C.H.) awarded two of our fellow advocates the Greg Horan Lifetime Achievement Award.

Both Bret Byfield and Jim Anderson were recognized as people who have done outstanding work for 10 years or more helping the homeless and/or low-income people.

The award is meant to honor those whose work has gone largely unrecognized and who deserve some well-earned praise.

Currently, Jim is the Planning Specialist for Homeless and Low Income Services and Refugee and Immigrant Services for Ramsey County. Bret works as an Outreach Worker with Ramsey County ACCESS Program, currently focusing on a police-provider pilot project. Through this project, human service providers and police serve as partners to help try to address the psychosocial and legal issues facing those without homes.

We wanted to put both Bret and Jim in the spotlight to honor them for their inspiring and motivating commitment to this work.

The Homeless Report: What did you think your “lifetime achievement” would be when you were growing up?

Jim Anderson: Tying my own shoes. I grew up with limited goals.

Bret Byfield: I had no conception of what my lifetime achievement might be. I was more survival oriented.

THR: What has continued to drive you and make you passionate about your work?

BB: The people save your life every day. When I get lost, and lose my joy, it is always someone who says or does something so beautiful that it makes your tiny little self wake up and realize the beauty, courage and nobility that surrounds us always. And drinking that nectar sustains us always.

THR: What do you see as the most important piece of your job? How did you become involved in the work that you do?

JA: I was originally hired on by the County in 1992 as the refugee and immigrant planner. I had spent a thoroughly unplanned 10 years working with Southeast Asian refugees in Thailand so it seemed like a pretty good fit. By 1997, the refugee flow into Ramsey County had withered to a trickle and when the Homeless Services Planner left for another job, I volunteered to take that on. Since then, I have been learning on the fly. Fortunately, there are a lot of really wonderful mentors in our community. The most important task I am involved in is trying to build the community and political commitment to end homelessness.

THR: Do you think your accomplishments thus far have been enough for a lifetime or do you have more plans for the future?

BB: We’re all out here just trying to dance ballet while wearing galoshes. I want to keep on dancing.

THR: Who has been your inspiration? Who would you give this award to if you had to pass it on?

JA: Wow, that is a tough one, not because I haven’t been inspired, but the cast of characters on the giving end of the inspiration is so large. I am particularly awed by the dedication and skills of the street outreach workers and, maybe more than anything else, having my name on the SPACH plaque with Bret Byfield is the sweetest of all. I have been inspired by the folks in the X Committee who, while dealing with the awesome task of rebuilding their own lives, have applied their hard-earned lessons to the goal of helping others make the same journey. Now that is very cool. Beyond that, I have an e-mail distribution list of a couple hundred folks, each of whom have demonstrated an almost supernatural patience and endurance by not insisting on being removed from that list.

BB: We are blessed in our community to have dozens of dedicated, lifelong wagon pullers. I am honored to be among their number, and feel like any number of them would have been more obvious choices for this award than myself. I am especially honored to have been awarded this award alongside Jim Anderson, who pulls a mighty, might wagon compared to my little gravel bucket.

THR: What are your interests/hobbies when you are not working in this field?

JA: Travel, particularly to any place that is new and different, has always been a way to stoke the fires. In my next life, I will be an itinerant world traveler with a beat up backpack full of great paperbacks and a passport with 50 pages of visa stamps.

THR: Could you highlight something you’re currently working on that you’re really excited about?

BB: I’m excited about helping create new trust and communication between correctional and human service partners. We are learning that we have far more in common than not and that our individual jobs are made easier and more satisfying by way of our mutual cooperation. Further, it is our mutual clients who benefit most through our continued collaboration.

THR: How do you plan to celebrate this award?

JA: I thought I might purchase the winning powerball ticket, end homelessness, and buy that beat-up backpack. Short of that, I may have to hit a hole-in-one at the Coalition golf tournament.