As the title states, I am going to begin writing of different experiences my children and I have come across in our time together without a home. My goal in this is to show the human side of homelessness and hopefully help combat the stigma and stereotype surrounding the homeless community.
Some of our experiences were happy, some hilarious, some outrageous or frightening or even straight up heartbreaking. I hope you'll stick around, and hopefully it will catch on as a tag and others can share their experience as well.
Without further ado:
Every year the CHUM shelter here in Duluth sees over 1,000 faces in need of help. While they cannot neatly split, there are typically three groups. The first group has only been homeless for a month or less. These are the easiest to help. They usually have a recent rental history, even if it isn't perfect, they may still have a job.
The second is the group my trio and I fit in, the chronically homeless, meaning we have been homeless 12 or more months in the past 3 years. Not easy to help, though the most effort goes into this group. Many in this group have mental or physical health issues, are elderly or quite young.
Then there's the third group, who are somewhere in the middle. They of course try to help this group quickly, before they become group 2.
The most important thing to remember is, these are thinking, feeling people. Their stories are unique, their tragedies heartbreaking, their desperation palpable. Never forget. We're real.
What do you see? A doorway? I see a space out of the wind. I see a ventilation grate. It blows out warm air and spaces like this are hard to come by. This morning it was -22° f outside. The shelters are full, it's estimated only half of our homeless community is in shelter.
Places like the one above, while a small refuge from the weather, are patrolled. This one is on the side of a medical complex, the hospital and some offices. The police park between that doorway and the Emergency Room door. Little to no chance of taking advantage of the space for long.
I've taken note of these words on that grate many times, and each time it hurts my heart to read them. Today I saw the orange words added to the black. Two authors making a point together. It's kind of hard to make it out.
It reads: "People over profit. Night is cold as day. Life matters. Cause I got that."
Life is all we have, shouldn't that matter over those corporate dollar signs?
