How in six weeks a group of complete strangers created a community through a Belong Circle and then began organizing on behalf of the unhoused community of Rydin Road.

*Lea is the executive director of Collaborising.*

Lea Murray has a lot on her plate. As the executive director of Collaborising, she is engaged in many projects in Richmond and beyond — from encampment cleanups to community gardens to civic meetings — to fulfill the organization’s mission: “Working together to eradicate racism and homelessness we rise to create a more just and harmonious society.”

She founded Collaborising in 2017. “I asked God for an opportunity to advocate and this fell into my lap. We are just trying to truly love our neighbors.”

Yet in October she accepted an invitation to be part of a Belong Circle, a four-week small group process coordinated by Faith in Action East Bay (FIAEB) that focuses on “relationship building, storytelling, naming, and repairing harms across race, class, gender, and language, and taking…prophetic action to make change.”

Led by Nancy Taylor, the group connected so successfully that when one of them became ill, the rest stepped in with home-cooked meals and assistance. In the meantime, having learned more about the mission of FIAEB, Lea approached Payton Silket, FIAEB Belong Circle coordinator, with the possibility of getting support in advocating for better allocation of resources from the City of Richmond for the houseless community at Rydin Road. He suggested she engage her Belong Circle and they jumped right in.

“That’s the power of Belong,” Payton said, “complete strangers that within a month are taking care of one another and are now partners in fighting for justice.”

“That’s the power of Belong,” Payton said, “complete strangers that within a month are taking care of one another and are now partners in fighting for justice.”

The Belong Circle attended a December Richmond City Council meeting and all spoke for more responsible use of funds for Rydin Road relief. They returned again for the January meeting. For Christmas, the group adopted a family living at Rydin Road and presented them with $625 for the holiday season.

“I had no expectation that folks would join me in Collaborising,” Lea said. “I expected to meet new people and hopefully learn something new. I expected to talk about race and bridging differences. My experience has totally surpassed my expectations. I now have companions in the work.”

Our Neighbors at Rydin Road

What was originally a Belong Circle is beginning to take shape as a Local Organizing Committee (LOC), a group of power-building leaders that create systemic change. LOCs are the basis of FIAEB work. Group meetings have also included six residents of Rydin Road and Richmond City Council Members Gayle McLaughlin and Eduardo Martinez.

*Rydin Road neighbor Jessi with Earl, a volunteer who picks up and delivers food donations to Rydin Road.*

One of Rydin Road’s powerful advocates is also a resident. Jessi Taran has lived at Rydin Road for a year and has evolved into a spokesperson and caregiver — taking care of neighbors as well as overseeing donations of food and medical supplies. She has a master’s degree in philosophy and is a trained martial artist and massage therapist. She frequently volunteers her skills in diplomacy and physical wellbeing.

“I want people to understand that there are broken people here. They weren’t born that way,” Jessie explained. “People here have been hurt more badly than normal people can even imagine. There is extraordinary trauma.”

Jessi believes her community needs to be shown what responsible behavior looks like and then be rewarded for it, not hated for the consequences of that trauma. She also believes it is irresponsible for the society at large to blame people on the lowest rung, who do not have the power or resources to effect change.

Her perspective as a resident has inspired lots of ideas. She sees an opportunity to create an eco-village that could be a research project on sustainable living. The project would include new technology that transforms organic waste into fuel for cooking and generators. She believes it would also give people purpose and change the whole dialogue around the unhoused. She hopes researchers and universities will step up to engage such a project.

“There is too much waste,” Jessie said. “Wasted people, wasted minds, wasted energy.”

She affirms Rydin Road as a healing community. “We are helping and healing each other, becoming attached and are not so isolated. In trauma, bonding becomes broken and the only way to fix that is to form bonds.”

Jessi also points out that homelessness is a part of our history. “Pilgrims who left their homes, nomadic tribes, cowboys on the range, pioneers crossing the country, hobos on the railways, the enslaved newly freed, soldiers after the Civil War…our country is the history of homeless people. All of these people fundamentally changed, created history. Jesus was itinerant. Moses wandered the desert for forty years. Some of the best people to ever exist were homeless.”