90 Days

In 2012, the One Night Count showed 2594 homeless people without adequate shelter

A yearly 'One Night Count' of the Homeless in the Seattle and King County area's
 is coordinated by Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness in coordination with other local social service providers.

EXIT DATE

January 24th I entered a 90 day homeless shelter for women, (without children), and yesterday my 90 days was up, (April 24th), and I had to pack up and leave. This was NOT an easy thing to do as I wasn't able to land any other housing and it was back into my car to live. As alone, forgotten and isolated I felt landing back in my car to live, I know I am NOT alone - there are many just like me. Just as homeless, just as clean and sober and just as stunned to find themselves unable to afford a roof over their head.

Being in the shelter was a blessing.
 It offered me a safe haven to rest my weary head and escape the winter cold. I was ever so grateful and always will be. After living in my car having a hot meal and a warm bed every night made me feel like royalty but the reality of my situation was not anything to dismiss. Meeting regularly with my case manager to discuss constructive life goals, (housing, finances, medical issues), was a must and something the shelter expected us to be sternly dedicated towards. There were phone calls to make daily, housing applications to fill out and financial matters to tend to. The shelter I was in held up to nine women. Not especially big, but large enough for us that we didn't feel trapped with one another Our case managers offered us more than guidance and sound council, they gave us a sense of dignity and respect, restoring our confidence and faith in the future.


Friendships form and it was a learning experience for me in the shelter.
A couple women were new to the Seattle area, traveling here from other states with a dream tucked under their arm for a new start in life. Unfortunately they found themselves in a situation where their dreams were dashed and the most "Livable City", (Seattle), turned out to be a cold, chaotic place that didn't embrace them with the enthusiasm and grace that they had so innocently anticipated. The downtown shelters house the most chronic drug and alcohol addicted along with the severely mentally unstable. It's a scary experience for someone clean and sober to mix with the most damaged and destitute population of Seattle's homeless. Finding a path to a decent shelter like the one I was in is NOT easy and then finding an open bed can be even more difficult as the waiting lists are very, very long.


The 90 days rip by real quick!
When you first arrive it feels like an eternity ahead to get yourself together and after all the despair and turmoil of being homeless, an almost euphoric mood takes you over and all is good in the world. All is good, but I was still faced with the looming cloud of being homeless, in a wonderful shelter, but still homeless nonetheless. I witnessed the women who arrived before get to their exit dates and I celebrated with them when they were fortunate to find continuing shelter elsewhere, (never did see any of my shelter friends get a place of their own), and I shed tears when one of them had to leave and go back on the streets. 


Little did I know I would end up one of those women leaving after 90 days to live in my car,...again. And how VERY blessed I am to even have a car! The majority of homeless women don't. It's not that I did anything wrong in regard to not finding housing by the time my 90 days was up. It's a simple case of "supply and demand". There just isn't enough shelter out there to fit the demand/dire need for it. 


I know when I left the women behind me started to get that concerned look that they too, might end up like me and the only advice had for them was to not neglect the daily calls out to the other shelters, to not put anything on the back burner and most importantly, keep the faith. 


One of the hardest realities for me to accept was learning that the more clean, sober and law-abiding you are the less priority you have in getting housing. It was stated to me, by someone who works for the homeless, that the more of a threat and/or burden a person is to society, the more priority the have in gaining housing. This would be single women with children, the mentally unstable and those with alcohol/drug addictions. I gladly step aside for women with children, kids need a home. And I don't mind that the mentally unstable get housing before me either, they need a stable environment as without that not only are they a thread to themselves but a threat to the public. But when it comes to drug addicts and alcoholics, no, I don't agree with taking a back seat to them getting priority over me. I was naive in thinking that living a clean, sober, law-abiding and hard working like would benefit for something if ever I was in dire need, (like being homeless), but I guess it doesn't.


I will be blogging more about my time in the shelter and how my experience being homeless is effecting me and what steps I am taking to find a place to call home.

We have come dangerously close to accepting the homeless situation as a problem that we just can't solve.

~Linda Lingle

Coming Together

The Creative Heart Is Never Homeless

I am presently living in a homeless shelter. Yep, it came down to that and I am very fortunate to have a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in - Praise Jesus!

There are 9 women in the shelter and we are given 90 days to stay there. With the help of the shelter's caseworkers, we have to commit to a daily search to find permanent housing. Most low income permanent housing is a 3 to 7 year wait and the homeless usually end up in "transitional housing", which can give a resident a full year of shelter and help. It's a daily commitment of making calls and filling out applications - by no means is being in a shelter relaxing and worry-free. Not everyone in the shelters find somewhere to go by the time their 90 days is up, landing them back on the streets. Being homeless is a daunting trial of reaching inside the weary soul and extracting faith from hopelessness.

Amazing

The women I have met and other homeless people I heard and read about are nothing short of amazing.

They break the stereotypical mold of the dirty, disheveled alcohol/drug addicted street bum, shining bright with intelligence, life experience and creativity. They are college graduates, past business owners, artists, musicians, writers, educators and tireless volunteers of the community.

For many of the homeless searching out shelters it is the first time they have ever been faced with not having a place to call home and they are scared, depressed, confused and even angry. Suddenly faced with a need so basic, the homeless discover real quick that society reveres their plight as nothing more than an annoyance and find themselves labeled as being "lazy", "irresponsible" and "uneducated". Granted there is a population of homeless folks that are crippled because of alcohol/drug addiction and mental illness and unfortunately it's that population of homeless that society has the most run in's with. I'm not going to walk up to you outside a grocery store and ask for money. As a matter of fact if you were to see me get out of  my car in the grocery store parking lot next to yours or stand behind you in the check-out line it would never even occur to you that I'm a homeless person. But I am!  

Sad thing is when people don't know I'm homeless they are quick to welcome me into conversation and even into their busy world but as soon as they find out I'm homeless I become someone they don't want to break bread with or have around their children. 

It's attitudes and assumptions like these that I want to see change and change SOON!

Building Bridges

I have an idea and in the next few days I'll be sharing here and exploring what I am hoping to make happen.

I have met so many wonderful, creative and intelligent people that it just so happens are also homeless and I want society to meet them. I also so want to introduce the idea of the homeless having an opportunity to shine and step up from the dark shadows of the homeless streets and into the light of having hope.

Home, Sweet Home

Welcome To My Home

Yep, the vehicle above is where I live - it's a 2002 Mercury Sable that just reached 50 thousand miles on it this past November. I've owned it since July of 2006, (inherited from my Mother after she passed in June of 2006). The pix above is not MY car, (got it off the Internet), but it looks exactly like mine. It's in great shape and I would just as soon die in my car than sell it or trade it in for something else.

This isn't the first time I've had to live in my car-

I also lived in it when I lived in California. That was Thanksgiving 2008 and I was actually working at the time. I only lived in my car for a week back then, but it left me feeling just as dismal as it does this time around. But as dismal I may feel being without a home and also a job, I am so VERY blessed to have a car! Most people would be quite shocked to find out just how many people are living in their cars and most of these people that do are clean, sober and going to a job every day! They're no different than you except for the fact that for whatever reason, they can't find affordable housing.

WHY?

I just don't understand why society chooses to be so indifferent and apathetic towards the homeless?

First, I want to define exactly what indifferent and apathetic means -

- in·dif·fer·ent -

Definition of INDIFFERENT

1: marked by impartiality : unbiased

2 a : that does not matter one way or the other

b : of no importance or value one way or the other

3 a : marked by no special liking for or dislike of something <indifferent about which task he was given> b : marked by a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern for something : apathetic <indifferent to suffering and poverty>

4 : being neither excessive nor inadequate : moderate <hills of indifferent size>

5 a : being neither good nor bad : mediocre <does indifferent work>

 b : being neither right nor wrong

6 : characterized by lack of active quality : neutral <an indifferent chemical>

7 a : not differentiated <indifferent tissues of the human body>

 b : capable of development in more than one direction; especially : not yet embryologically

- ap·a·thet·ic -

Definition of APATHETIC

1: having or showing little or no feeling or emotion : spiritless

2 : having little or no interest or concern : indifferent

So there ya have it -
indifference and apathy are basically siblings to one another, going out into the world hand-in-hand keeping a safe distance from compassion, empathy and actively caring about the homeless as they straddle the fence of impartiality. They neither condemn nor condone. They don't dismiss nor do they engage. And they certainly don't/won't embrace the homeless nor will they blatantly exclude them, (although some folks do exactly that).

What works against the homeless is the stigma attached to being homeless -
most people still adhere to the belief that the majority of homeless folks are drunkards, drug addicts, filthy dirty and basically rather dangerous to be around and the sad fact is, yes, some are just that. But many of them are no different than you or me, living in cars like mine above!!

Sure, society slows down long enough to toss out some spare change and offer up bed mats and sandwiches, but the majority of the working class don't even want to see the homeless let alone sit down and talk to them or let's take it even further, offer them a place to live.

Ask the average person on the street how they view the homeless and how they feel about the plight of the homeless and you'll meet with furrowed brows, frowny scowls and impatient cynicism. People just don't like strangers intruding upon their safe space and asking/begging for some spare change or a couple bucks. They don't want to contribute to a drunk's next bottle or a drug addict's next dope score!

I don't blame them, neither do I.
 And some homeless people are even kinda scary, their hands might be unclean with cuts and sores, their tattered clothes, ill-fitting, not washed in ages, dull, dirty hair not combed and they can be kinda pushy at times too.
I've been alarmed by a few in my lifetime as well.

Things is -
there is a new face of homeless out there and it's an honest, hard-working clean and sober face with hands just as empty as the not-so-clean hands that belong to the drunk and druggie. These new homeless have children as well and just like me, they never, (in their wildest dreams), thought they would end up without that safe haven that so many people take for granted.... called H-O-M-E.

 I am going to keep on writing about it and working on solutions to present to someone, somewhere, some time down the road to hopefully turn things around. The government has turned it's back and the churches are literally breaking their backs to meet the need and many just can't!

The answer is in affordable housing and with so many empty homes and businesses out there -
there is a solution/hope, (if people want it bad enough).
If we would just get off that fence of indifference and explore the possibilities we might find a way to safe-gaurd YOUR plight against homelessness in the future.

And I'm not talking about hand-outs here, I'm talking about a hand UP!!!

And that is what this blog is dedicated to -
the HOMELESS and I shall devote as much time, energy and faith as needed to opening people's diverted eyes and shut up hearts to joining together and bringing the new homeless back to a place they can call HOME!!



A New Face

It wasn't my intention to neglect this blog but the truth is I found myself homeless.
Just goes to show it can and WILL happen to anyone!
Plus my computer died, (fried mother-board), so I do what I can at the library and count my blessings that I can at least live out of my car and look for employment here, (the library)

Face It
There is a new face among the homeless that not too many people want to see.
It's the face of me and God forbid, it could be the face of you.

Faces of folks that are clean, sober and hard-working.
Faces that sit next to you at work, stand behind you at the grocery store and drop their kids off at YOUR children's school. There is a crisis Americans are battling with now that (seems to me), is getting swept under the proverbial rug and "ignored" as easily as social disease. People prefer to live in their little safe bubbles, not even acknowledging that we are faced with a housing crisis.
As long as they're comfy, they just don't give a care and choose to label the homeless as drunk, drug addicted and do-nothings, (lazy). Used to be if a person REALLY wanted to work all they had to do was get out there and apply anywhere and everywhere. Not the case anymore as jobs are NOT easy to get and the older you are, the harder it can be. And compound that with the crisis of affordable housing being non-existent and you get a person like me - falling through the cracks into a state of homelessness and despair.

This Could Be You Someday

 - November 12-20, 2011: National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week -

It is estimated that in the next three years homelessness in the United States could increase by 5 percent, or 74,000 people.



The Big Picture
While circumstances can vary, the main reason people experience homelessness is because they cannot find housing they can afford. The main behind this inability to acquire or maintain housing is the scarcity of affordable housing in the United States – particularly in more urban areas where homelessness is more prevalent.



By The Numbers:
There are 643,067 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States.
Of that number, 238,110 are people in families, and 404,957 are individuals.
17 percent of the homeless population is considered "chronically homeless," and 12 percent of the homeless population - 67,000 - are veterans.



Poverty Rates
Under the new Supplemental Poverty Measure, poverty among the elderly rose to 16 percent from 9 percent, mostly because out-of-pocket medical expenses were so high.


Data collected from: National Alliance To End Homelessness