HUMANITY MAG WINTER 2017 EDITION REV 12.11.17

H U M A N I T Y M A G A Z I N E
into storage, and purchased a new car with
nowhere to go.
Can you tell us about a day in the life of a
homeless person?
It’s actually boringly normal for the most part.
Wake up, find a bathroom, wash up, brush
teeth…etc. Go eat breakfast. Run errands, find a
way to not be homeless. If there’s nothing to do
just hang out, go to the library, a movie. Take a
nap. Eat lunch. Sit around and wait for the day to
be over please. Dinner. Find a place to settle
down, find a bathroom, change clothes, sleep.
There was no real reason to stop normal habits.
How did you deal with the logistics of
homelessness? Where did you shower? Where
did your mail go? What did you do with all your
‘stuff’?
In the beginning mail went to my aunt’s house,
then a P.O box, then an office that offered services
for homeless people. Home Base of the shelter
offered showers. But before that there were hotel
rooms, and before that we made due with park
bathrooms. Our stuff went into storage for the three
years we were homeless. During the fourth year we
had a late payment and they auctioned everything
from our two-bedroom home off for $400. We got
$98 of it. We stayed in one area, where my school
was located, until I graduated.
Did you ever live in a shelter? What was that like?
I had school from 7 to 2:30 during the week, so I
was occupied. My mom sat in the park mostly,
waiting to pick me out. At 3:30 the shelter opened
its doors, which lead to another 3 hours of waiting
before the first 50 of us were loaded onto a bus with
padded mats and garbage bags full of blankets and
the like.
The drive to the churches was usually between five
minutes to one hour, then we’d unload and eat the
dinner the churchgoers had prepared after letting
them pray at us (no really, I love Jesus personally,
but these people prayed AT us, every time)
We ate mostly meat and potatoes but there were a
few places that served us nice things, like pasta,
casserole and vegetarian options. After that there
was more cleaning, moving of objects, then the 50
sometimes plus of us would stealthily battle from
a spot to sleep. No one wanted to sleep next to the
snorers or the booze-reekers or the insomniacs or
the ‘monitors table’. After a few months my
mother and I got a hang of it. Lights out at 10pm
and on again at 6:30 am. More cleaning. Maybe
breakfast, depending on where we were staying
that night, loading the bus, driving back to home
base which closed at 7:30 am. Then we were left to
fend for ourselves for the rest of the day.
What do you think are the biggest
misconceptions about homelessness? Or
homeless people?
* That homeless people can just up and get a job
because it’s way more complicated than that.
Especially when you have limited clothing and
nowhere to really rest and a shelter that closes its
doors to anyone not there by 3:30 pm every day.
* That homeless people can just save money.
Like it’s that simple, like living doesn’t require
what little money, if any, they get.
A Voice for the Homeless www.HumanityMag.org 9