Holdays

Over the past several months I've painted a grim picture of the sorts of homeless people I've met and who are out here. While it is all true, there are many other homeless people out here who are just as kind and caring as your best friend. I even know several myself and I hope I am to others.

Unfortunately the bad sort of homeless person is also the one who seems to get all the attention and it is true that most of the homeless are of that sort.

The ones that seem to drop off the radar are the good sort. All they / I wish to do is to get along and survive without all the drama. Just because we are not "in your face" as are many of those others we tend to be missed.

I've said this before and I will continue to say this. Get to know us. Yes you will run into many of the less than desirable people out here but if you are persistent you will eventually find one of us. We do appreciate the help. We appreciate you.

btw the photo above is the Homeless Christmas Tree located on I-30 just east of Beach street.

The holiday season is upon us. The homeless people will be getting increasingly active doing whatever they do. The lines for food, clothing and whatever else is being provided will be long...

There is a class of homeless person who you will mostly not see very often. He or she will avoid the crowds. He or she mostly stay to themselves.

For some of them it is just their way. For others it's by choice.

After a while living out here on the street you get extremely tired of dealing with all the people. Standing in line only to find out that 20 others have jumped in front of you. Going to find something only to be disappointed again. It's not the fault of the people who provide the service, it's the overwhelming number of people taking advantage of them whether they need the service, food, clothing and whatever else or not.

Even I have gotten extremely tired of dealing with all the people. I seldom try to go to Unity Park on Saturdays any longer or out on Lancaster Ave when people give out various things. It's not worth my while any longer. I see far too many homeless people getting things they don't need except just to have or maybe to sell. I'm tired of standing in lines seeing all those people in front of me or jumping in the line.

Maybe I'm sounding bitter about things during this holiday season and truthfully I'm not bitter at all. I am realistic about how it is and generally do something else for the things I need or I will just do without. It's easier to be happy and enjoy the season by not dealing with all those others than it is to get angry, frustrated and bitter.

I'm going to ramble on about some things again in this post. I seem to do some of my best postings when I do it this way.

I've painted a rather poor picture of most of the homeless people that I've met and known over the year that I've been out here. Believe it or not there are a few of us who are actually trying to move up in our lives if only we had a bit of a helping hand. That's part of the problem and the fix is not very simple either.

A few of us, myself included, are actively looking to find work or a way to support ourselves in order to leave the shelters and camps where we live. The unfortunate part of this is that you, the person who wishes to help, do not know whether we are serious or not. On more than one occasion I got the distinct impression from different people and even some case managers that I was just another homeless person who was out for whatever advantage that he or she could gain. Just like first impressions, that is a mistake on many levels.

I know you wish to help. But you also don't wish to make a mistake. Now here's where it starts getting hard. In addition to what you might normally do to help the homeless whether it's volunteering at a shelter or feeding them meals or providing clothes, how about trying to get to know one or two of us on a more personal level. Talk to us. Granted you will find many who are truly looking for the advantage I've spoken of many times. But if you are persistent eventually you may find one of us who is truly looking to move up in the world.

Once you do find this one person, if it's possible, take him or her under your wing as it were and turn that person into your own personal project or if that's not possible maybe make it a group project with some people from your church or social organisation. Help him or her find work and a place to live. But don't stop there. Keep in touch with them. Some of us will stumble along the way and with continuing long term support which could be something as simple as a phone call or short visit once in a while can go a long way toward getting someone like me off the street and back into the mainstream.

Truly that's my goal. To get off the street and into a position where I can support myself. The problem as I said is getting that help to start me going again. I've spent years fixing some of my more obvious personal problems. I've managed to work out the addictions I'd had. I, as have some others, just need some help making the next step.

Make friends with a worthy homeless person as a goal for the holidays or as a New Year resolution. Help get that person off the street and self sufficient. Then help them when they stumble. Who knows, maybe he will pay it forward and do the same for another homeless person himself.

Thanksgiving update

I just got back from the food bank after walking for 1 1/2 hours and waiting in line for 3 hours. For all of that I've got almost everything I need to do a nice Thanksgiving day meal. I plan to take some around to some of the other camps in my area because there are a few folks who just do not wish to deal with the churches and shelters for a Thanksgiving day meal. Truthfully, I don't blame them for the most part. The biggest problem with going to one of the churches or shelters or even a street mission is that there will just be too many people. While the people who put on these wonderful dinners should be applauded and congratulated for all the work that they do and the time they invest to help others on holidays like this there are just too many people to deal with.

So with that in mind I started doing a small version of  the Thanksgiving celebration for some of my neighbors who did not go out. Last year I fed 4 other camps nearby and this year it looks to be the same number of camps just different people.

Thanks to the Community Food Pantry for the food box this year and to all of the people who were involved in obtaining and distributing the food.

I hope all of you have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving holiday.

Update

Well I've been kind of busy these last few months and haven't had the time to work on any new posts so instead I'll just ramble for a few minutes here.

We've got Thanksgiving coming up and as I did last year I hope to find enough supplies to make a supper for myself and several of my neighbors. Some of the people around here just don't do the shelters or churches for meals and so when I have the extra I do share. Last year I literally cooked all day over a fire making a turkey and all the fixings. Then we had turkey stew for a couple of days afterward.

I've been pretty busy lately mostly making trips to one of the food banks every week, then I'll spend a couple of days each week collecting aluminum cans. For about 8 or 10 hours of walking over 2 or three days I'll collect enough to make around $4.00 sometimes more. On other days I do volunteer work and touch base with various people just to stay in touch and network a bit. Some day one of my network contacts will come through for me and have information on a job or housing.
I'm always on the lookout for ways to help myself get a job, get an place to live that's not a camp and just make a little money for the necessities like fuel for the stove to cook with and heat the tent, candles for heat and light, food of course plus all the other things that I don't get from food banks or other sources that are needed or useful. I can really make that $4.00 stretch!

With the holidays coming up I wish to say to all of you who read these posts that you are all appreciated and that I hope you all have a great holiday season.

Homeless Abuse

In the past I've talked about how some of the homeless people abuse the system and abuse the kindness of others. This post is about abuse of homeless people by otheres.

Homeless people are abused and taken advantage of on an almost daily basis. We've all heard about individual abuses of homeless people from time to time. Abuses that are committed for the perverse enjoyment of others or hiring a homeless person for a menial job and then not paying a reasonable wage.

Of all the abuses of the homeless that are the worst are homeless service organisations or even some Christian Ministries who are set up as non-profit organisations but in fact are really a business taking advantage of homeless people. Using the homeless people they claim they are serving as examples of the good they are doing when in fast all that they are doing is acting as something similar to an amusement park or zoo. Taking in donations and using little to actually support the homeless people they serve but giving the people making the donations the feeling that they are actually helping. For a price they take the people making the donations out to certain homeless hangouts, shelters or camps just like a visit to a zoo except the donations go mostly elsewhere.

It's entirely possible that most of these organisations did in fact start out with helping, feeding or clothing the homeless as their primary goal but later became somewhat corrupt. Where supporting the homeless became secondary to supporting the person or persons running organisation.

The Camps

If you have been a regular reader of these blog posts you have heard me talk about my camp and my situation. Truthfully my situation is not a typical homeless camp. I've had to plan on being here for a while. In other words to be patient. Getting work or finding a place to live will not happen very quickly. So I figured that it would be best if I do what I can to be as comfortable as possible.

On the other hand, the vast majority of homeless camps are not very much to look at. After the rain we got last Saturday I went around to some of my neighbors camps to see how they made out. Of the three camps I visited not a single one was able to keep completely dry. In fact two of the camps were pretty much soaked. It's not that they could not do whatever it took to keep a dry camp or a reasonably comfortable place to live as I have it's that they can't or won't do anything about their camps. That's part of the homeless mindset. While it's dry and pleasant there is no need to make an effort and when the weather or conditions change for the worse then it's too late to bother. In many cases it's all about self gratification. All money or anything of value is used for their addictions, alcohol or drugs. For others, they just don't think that far ahead. In those cases they have other issues and mostly live day to day.

Helping some of these people out may work but in all honesty, probably not. I once gave a neighbor a large tarp and latter found out that it got sold to someone else. This happens more often than you might think. I'm not trying to discourage anybody from trying to help these guys out but I am trying to give you an idea what really happens.

Colder wetter weather is on the way. Some of these guys will need help, some will try to help themselves and others will give up. It's all in the mindset.