wfn.org | House Pin Creator Speaks About Homelessness

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

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.

     For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia
Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956