There are first times for everything. The first time I drove a car, first time I broke my leg, first time I ate sushi, first time I went to work, first time I was fired -- and I'll never forget my first kiss. 'Firsts' are memorable parts of life and growing up.
Well, the same goes for that first night spent on the streets or in a homeless shelter. The first time you're homeless, the intense feelings of fear and uncertainty are impossible to forget.
I recently started working for a seasonal homeless shelter in Glendale, California. My job is to monitor a bus pick-up five nights a week. On New Year's Day, a girl in her early 30s showed up, and it was clear that it was her first night homeless. She looked so alone and scared. She told me she lost her job a few months back and was living with friends, bouncing from couch to couch, until all welcomes had run out. She called 2-1-1 (a phone number for social services) and the operator told her about the winter emergency shelter.
If you've never been homeless, it's tough to describe that first night sleeping on the street. The fear and disillusionment are almost paralyzing. You just go through the motions, but at the same time you're beating yourself up for being in this situation. It is very surreal because no one ever thinks they will become homeless. No one.
I'll never forget my first night. All of a sudden and without warning, I found myself homeless in Koreatown near downtown Los Angeles. I was sober, but I had no money, no place to go and no one I could call for help. I was officially homeless.
This was all new to me. I had no homeless training. I had no clue how I was going to survive. Just six months earlier I had a well-paying job in the television industry, overseeing syndicated programs like Wheel of Fortune. But now, I was the one who had suddenly landed on bankrupt. The irony was painful.
I decided to walk from Koreatown to North Hollywood, mainly because I knew the neighborhood and was comfortable with the area. I walked 11 or so miles to the valley. By the time I arrived, it was beginning to get dark, so I started to think about where I was going to sleep. I decided to try a park close to my old house where I used to play my conga drum on hot summer days. But when I arrived, I noticed gang members hanging around in the dark, so I moved on to another location.
Photo: Zoomar
I continued walking to park after park. I just didn't feel safe in any of them. My feet were becoming swollen; I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I knew that the worst crimes in the city -- muggings, beatings, shootings -- happened at night to people living outdoors. I knew that when you sleep outside, you are vulnerable to just about everything. I was scared. Probably more scared then I have been or ever will be.
I think it was around 3 a.m. when I finally found a park near a small shopping mall in North Hollywood. It was empty, and the first place where I felt safe enough to lay down. Exhaustion quickly set in and I closed my eyes. I don't remember how much time had passed -- maybe 20 minutes -- when, suddenly, all the water sprinklers went off. I just laid there in disbelief, soaking. It's impossible to describe the mixture of fear, anger, vulnerability and, well, homelessness I felt as I lay there.
Today, it's easier for me to laugh at that bit of misfortune with the sprinklers. But the deep memories of pain and loneliness from that night will always be with me.
Those of us who work in homeless services can usually spot someone fresh to the streets. It's usually not their clothes or hygiene, but rather the look of fear and confusion on their face. The young girl who showed up at the winter shelter on New Year's Day was scared. Luckily, there was a new female volunteer working that night. When I left the shelter, I noticed both of them sitting on the homeless girl's cot, talking.
I wish I knew how her story ended, but as of last night the girl has not returned to the shelter.
Sadly, thousands of people experience their first homeless night each year. No matter what circumstances led to their homelessness -- eviction, foreclosure, unemployment, addiction, mental illness, domestic violence -- being homeless for that first night is painful. Now imagine a personal crisis has hit, and you no longer have access to money or a place to stay. It is now your first night homeless. What would you do?
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I would like to ask Mark Horvath: If you did these four things, to the max, would you have been homeless?
You need a job to get a place and you need an address to get a job. I house/cat/and snake sat, couch surfed and then spent nights in the back of my truck in the shell. I turned in my clothes to a cleaner so I could teach every morning dressed in slacks and a collared shirt. The kids never knew. I have been teaching your kids for 7 years now, and I also tell them to get educated and learn the facts before they speak from a position of ignorance.
gifted end and in the employ of a 100 bed mens' shower and resbiet, on the "fringes" of
Salt Lake City proper; Is that it can be a "shot in the arm" for Faith-Based Iniatives to
ralley eccumenically in the care of the "least of these my Brethern". It requires Woman's
Auxilary groups where tithes and offerings are permissable to provide quiltwork and pillows.
Pajamas, towels, soaps, hair-wash and various sundries available through Good-Will and/ore
the Salvation Army Thrift. Commercial hotels/lodging goods & availabilitys, versus buying retail.
A good size investment could be actuated through an Army/Navy Surplus warehouse outlet
for the aquisition of wooden/canvas "cots".
A reputable "home-town" laundryette could make real, a commercial size Whirlpool/Maytag
washer and dryer, for linnen and soiled bedding tasks.
The staff/caregivers should be runumeriated for service rendered and not expected to live
on "the dole", from State coffers, and thus maintaining some semblence of an honorable
"Work Ethic". From expeirence. Winter/Spring/Summer/Autumn, It should be a "dusk to dawn"
operation. Shying away from the "Fellow-Travelers" urge to "idle" precious time better spent
looking for "spot day labor", reading a good book at the library, and/ore giving back the gifts that
He/She has been blessed with. Above all, staying "medication-complient" as needed!
Afghanistan is not the longest war the U.S. has ever engaged in - the War on Poverty is.
Tim
http://fademi.blogspot.com/
Only difference is that the resources to fight this war are dwindling every year, while more money is being poured into the military industrial complex.
Please remember that one of the best things you can do for the homeless is to acknowledge them, smile, say hi, and treat them like they are human. If you want to see what its like, sit on the street near a homeless person and notice how everyone just happens to be looking away when they walk past.
uh, okay little boy.
While more and more people become homeless, we have the top 2% making record amounts of money. The majority of the corporations in this county pay no income tax, and we have watched the redistrubition of wealth go from the poor and middle class to thes top 2%. While this is happening we hear Republican and Conservatives wanting to give the corporations and the Rich more tax breaks while they destroy every safety net to help the poor and middle class.
We read story after story about people who have traded down in income just to survive and those lucky enough to be treading water scared that they could be next.
If we are the Richest Nation in the World, why do we have so many homeless? Many of them our children. We have heard so many Right Wing Pundents slam the homeless telling us that it is the homeless person's fault that they live on the street, the was start to have a callous attitude about them. We are watching the destruction of our middle class but we are also watching the fight for our moral compass
It was humanities need to be social that allowed it to survive and climb to the top of the food chain.
It was humanities need to be social that led to the rise of cities and countries.
It was humanities recognition that being social brings safety and comfort.
We humans can not make it alone, it is not in our nature. That is why solitary confinement is one of the worst punishments dealt out to our imprisoned. The need to socialize is such a strong part of human nature it is against the law to isolate a person for too long a period. To do so results in sickness and death.
It is time to throw off the chains of political correctness and embrace the warm arms of our fellow humans. We need each other, we thrive off each other and we have to stop pretending we don't see others suffering. The "everyman for himself" way of thinking will always lead to conflict and way. The "Love all others as you love yourself" way of thinking leads to a loving, caring, robust humanity.
I used to be a social worker, and the things people told me about what happened to them were heart breaking.
I recall the first time I saw someone going through a dumpster for food. It is a feeling I'll never forget, ever. It kills me when I see it happen. We don't know what these people are going through. We don't know what each of these people has gone through. It's incredibly sad.