When the homeless become homeless
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Powell's Books
Have you ever walked out into a parking lot after a ball game and looked around the vastness and not been able to find your car? Or after shopping and walked the rows and been sure you left in somewhere and it was simply not there? I have. It was an absolutely horrible feeling. I had security called. I was sure someone had stolen my car. It turned out that I had simply parked on the other end of the store and when I entered the mall it was foggy and I was confused. But can you imagine how it must feel to walk out and not find your car for real? It happens to people all the time. Their belongings are stolen. They file police reports, describe their belonging, file insurance claims, might actually receive something back.
NOW, try to imagine, just for a few minutes, that the only thing you own is what you can carry and the little bits you have managed to scavenge together to put together as a new 'home' somewhere under a bridge, or in an alley, or down a riverbed embankment. It's not a castle, but it is your home. You spend the days gathering recyclables and working to put as much money together as possible to try and get yourself back off the street. At the end of the long day you go back home. But when you arrive there ... it isn't there. Someone has determined that this is not a suitable location for 'the homeless' to live. They need to move on.
So, now I ask you ... what happens when the homeless become homeless?
- Login Or register To Post Comments
- Send To A Friend
- Share With:
Raymond Mallette says:
Too Close to Home
Brenda,
In 2004, I lived in Cape Coral, Florida. I was running my own cabinet business out of my garage. Following the hurricanes I was so busy I had to quit a part time job I had working with Home Depot. In 2005/2006 it was like someone flipped a switch, there was no work. A new water system was installed, without choice of the residents. Taxes and insurance went up. My baby was born with Down Syndrome and mom had to stay home and give up working. We, along with 4000 others, were facing foreclosure. We left Florida, let the house go to a short sale and went to Maine where I felt sure I could make my woodworking thrive. Wrong! It was worse...what little savings we had plummeted. The winter got very cold. There was no wood back-up and the oil had gone stupid high in price. Thanks God for my sympathetic sister. By the end of 2008 we were unable to pay rent. We had to leave. We put everything in storage. Loaded a car and what we could fit into a tow-behind 4 x 8 uhaul trailer. A friend was letting us move in with him in Florida. (talk about extremes).
I got hired in November and finally thought things were turning around. I was laid off in January of 2009 due to a lack of work. I haven't worked since. I thank God I decided to go to school online and had a small refund from the grants and loans. Enough to move to Denver. This time it was without the Tow-behind. Only what we could pack in the back of the blazer. Ownings were dwindling. We lived in two different campgrounds and one night I stared into the fire and said to our friend who had been laid off as well, and decided to make the move with us, "we're homeless. We have tents...but we are..in essence...homeless."
The night got quiet. We pondered your very question. What if we made a trip to a store and came back to find everything gone? Then what?
I write these words in response to you from an apartment that our friend was able to rent using some of his school loan, as he decided to go back to school here in Denver. I am still in school myself diligently struggling to find work. I write every day in hopes we will pull ourselves out of this mess. I thank God every day that we at least have this bedroom out of the weather. I have this laptop, with the help of Colorado Technical University, and it never gets time to cool off.
I will never in my life, no matter how far I am able to climb back up the proverbial mountain of success, ever take for granted, the three basic needs.
Your question is one I have asked and I really liked the way you wrote it. Very well said. People should never have the attitude that it can't happen to them. In a business seminar I once went to I heard the speeker say, "be careful how you treat the sweeper, someday you may be working for him." To the question you and I have, I'd take the same approach and say, "be careful how you treat the homeless, someday you may need to bunk with them."
Be well Brenda.
Raymond
Brenda Youngerman says:
Amen I believe you are on of
Amen
I believe you are on of many Raymond and unfortunately you are what I call the 'invisible layer' of society. Thankfully you do have a room, but yes, it is intereting how life has a way of pulling the rug out from right under your feet!
I wish you well...
Brenda