Why You Shouldn't Pay for my Substack
A general word about how I operate here and elsewhere
I was so reluctant to turn on this feature.
When you’re writing about homelessness, the last thing you want to feel like you’re doing is *profiting*. It feels icky to write about the ways that forces of indifference, oppression, and ignorance clamp down on those most on the margins, and then to ask people to give me money instead of them.
On top of that, many of the people who read my work and are most interested in helping address homelessness are not wealthy themselves. They’re the types of people who themselves would rather give their money away than store it up for themselves. When churches reach out to me to come speak, they are rarely the ones that have big budgets for out-of-town speakers, who can pay my travel costs or any sort of speaker price. Typically, the people and churches that want to hear and learn from me are the ones that would rather use that money to do the work of ending homelessness.
And that’s why you shouldn’t pay for my Substack if you can’t or just don’t want to. I understand, and I don’t want you to, either!
It’s why I decided, when I reluctantly checked the box to allow these options, to not put any content behind a paywall. As much as it’s within my control, I want my content to be fully available to the people who want it and will be putting it to good use.
Nonetheless, some of you are paying, and want to. And I’m immensely grateful. Here’s my commitment to you:
As it regards money, I am not interested in ever living more than comfortably.
(What a weird word for this—I tend not to make comfortable choices, as you can tell by my vocation)
I recognize this is a moving target and varies by so many factors, but I ask for your trust in this, and welcome your challenge if you think I’m not living up to it
If I exceed this standard through doing this work, I will communicate to my paid subscribers here that I no longer need this source of income and give people the option to redirect their funds, or else I will donate them myself.
I will continue doing this work with anyone as affordably as possible, even at my own expense
Whether it’s writing content here or elsewhere, traveling to do workshops, consultations, and speaking engagements, I will continue to keep my prices low and flexible
I have never had to say ‘No’ to a request because of money, and I hope to keep it that way
A brief example of this happened last weekend.
Folks in Charlotte, NC (Hi, Joe!) had been talking to me for a long time about coming out there but it was tough to get the momentum/finances to get me out there. After several months, I had received a flight bonus through Southwest and saw an opportunity to utilize it. I reached out to the Charlotte folks and said, “If I went there on my own dime, could we put some stuff together?”
They were thrilled, and put together an incredible weekend for me. (I can still feel their warmth and excitement and genuine love for me and their unhoused neighbors almost a week later.) I used my flight bonus, booked the cheapest flights, and the best reasonable hotel deal I could find. I was blessed by one church with an honorarium for speaking, and sold several books. It was an incredible confirmation every single hour that I had made the right call.
I still “lost” $600.
(And it was worth every penny.)
This is my commitment—I’m going to keep doing stuff like this as much as I can. I’m blessed to have a paying day job, to have (some) speaking engagements that are able to pay more than breakeven, and to have a few paid subscribers here. So far, that has made it possible to never say no to opportunities like Charlotte.
So for those of you can and want to be paid subscribers—thank you. And know that your money is helping my work get where it needs to go.
Thank you for reading. Talking about money is hard. And awkward. But so is talking about homelessness, and you all are still here :)
kevin