When Terry Lynch was an undergraduate at Georgetown University, a homeless man in his neighborhood died of hypothermia. The death spurred Lynch to visit street heating vents around the city, taking food and blankets to the homeless people that slept there. He wound up starting a shelter at Calvary Baptist Church — volunteer work that led to his job as director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, where he has worked for 27 years. An oft-quoted figure in D.C. politics, Lynch makes a habit of touring the city on foot, looking for people who need help or neighborhoods in disrepair. “That’s my hobby,” he says, “to fix the town.”
Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
I consider myself to be Catholic. I appreciate its commitment to values, commitment to a credo, commitment to a way of life.
Does your Catholicism inspire your service work, your desire to “fix the town?”
Absolutely, I wouldn’t be in this job if it hadn’t. My faith directly impacted my life professionally. I always thought of in the Gospels, Jesus’ call to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, aid the poor. That was a driving force for me — the Gospel message of service to those in need.
Many families see crime, crumbling infrastructure and poorly performing schools in D.C. and decide to move to the suburbs. But you and your family have lived in D.C.’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood for 30 years. Why is it worth investing the city?
A number of reasons. First and foremost, because it’s the nation’s capital, and in a lot of ways, the world’s capital. And if we can’t make Washington, D.C., work economically, ethically, socially, then we can’t do it anywhere. The more you pour into the city, the more you get out of it. Being in the city and helping it, you experience such a diversity of cultures, experiences, life situations, which I have found to be very rewarding. The neighborhood I live in is a microcosm of the city, in terms of different cultures, different opinions, different views. It’s one of the reasons why I chose to live here.
How has the plight of the homeless in D.C. changed over 30 years?
We fortunately have moved away from barracks-style, poorly managed warehousing of the homeless, to trying to individually deal with families and-or persons in a way that moves them to housing. We’ve turned to helping them return to independence and self-maintenance. Number two, over the last three years homelessness also moved from primarily being those suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, along with some special needs such as endangered mothers and children. Now more economic circumstances are making people homeless.
Everyone faces that dilemma of whether to give cash to homeless people begging on the street. What’s the right response?
I’m not sure there is a right response. That’s a personal decision for everyone to make. I never give money; I give a person my business card and say, “Come and see me.” My experience is that most persons unfortunately instead of using the funds for food, spend it on a drug or alcohol abuse problem. We have tremendous numbers of food providers to homeless people in the city. So I discourage giving cash. I think the best thing to do is refer them to a well-known social provider.
You work across denominational lines in the Christian community. Do people get along?
There’s a lot more agreement than disagreement. I think people see, because of headlines, a lot of tensions, whether it’s a situation in Northern Ireland or the Middle East or Europe. But I’ve actually found there to be a tremendous amount of agreement between faiths on justice and service issues.
What made you get so involved in D.C. politics? And what does faith have to say to city politics?
Politics is one avenue for effecting change. If you have good politicians, they will improve city services. For example, I think we’ve seen a dramatic change in policing in the city. I think the former mayor hiring Cathy Lanier and using community policing and technology, that’s one of the reasons the homicide rate has plunged. And we can do even better. Politicians of integrity and value can fix the public domain to better serve the needs of the city.
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
Family means so much. How you treat, how you cherish, how you support, how you help, how you live with your family is critical to your integrity and your life’s value and worth.
– Liz Essley
