wfn.org | ELCA Women's Triennial News

[George Conklin <gconklin@igc.apc.org>]

July 12, 1996

 HOUSE PIN' CREATOR WAS ONCE HOMELESS
96-WO-09-AH

     MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- Lucinda Yates originated the "House Pin" and
the concept of selling "wearable art" to aid the homeless.  She is
uniquely qualified to advocate for homeless people, having been
homeless for two years.

Yates told her story to the Third Triennial Convention of Women of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America meeting here July 12 under the
theme
"Proclaim God's Peace."
     Yates has moved from homelessness to operating her own jewelry
business,
"Designs by Lucinda," in Scarborough, Maine.  "Community involvement is
vital to a whole and healthy self," she said.
     Fourteen years ago Yates found herself in "the unusual situation" of
being homeless because of "a divorce, the Reagan administration and
the choices I made" -- unusual and unexpected, she said, because of
her "normal, middle class background."
     "I spent many nights under bridges, trying to sleep while 18-wheelers
were roaring  overhead.  I was held at gunpoint and raped by two men.  I
lost my baby for two years to the care of my ex-husband.   I was
completely without resources," she said.
     Yates tells her story "not as a warning but to help you think about
how people can get from where I was to here."
     "Women and children in our country are in poverty.  Not only the
poverty of possessions, though that is the most obvious poverty, but
poverty of inspiration, imagination and a leading spirit.  Inspiration,
imagination and spirit will reveal the direction for change," said Yates.
     If the opportunity to change society does not appear, then offer
shelter and a kind word, she said.  "We must submerge ourselves in
hope and begin the work only each individual can do."
     After establishing her business Yates tried to become involved with
agencies serving the homeless, but she was rebuffed.  The House Pin
project allowed "a beginning and a connection to the past in a healthy
way -- a way to help others -- and that is God's peace."
     House Pins are handcrafted for sale by organizations to benefit
homeless people.  The success has led to the creation of Book Pins and
Music Pins.  Women of the ELCA is using the sale of Book Pins to aid its
literacy efforts.

                             -- 30 --