Five Weekly Highlights - January 27, 2012

• Katy from SNAP at the Food Bank is now a provider here, helping with food stamps.
• "Sherri" begins her new housing today; she got a Good Luck bag.
• "Stew" and "Renata" moved into their place, they got a Good Luck bag.
• A church group distributed handmade caps and scarves.
• We are now giving out Meals Ready to Eat on Fridays, for the weekend, for their backpacks.  

                                                                   

Protected

           We occasionally hear about the police rousting the homeless, chasing them away from their camps and tents. Certainly that happens now and again, for good or ill, but let me tell you a different story.
            Brian is a thoughtful, sensitive and jovial young man who spends his nights in an abandoned building in the city. He has found a cozy spot in an upstairs room, away from wind and windows. Of course there is no heat, light or water, but he is under a roof. Occasionally a friend or two stays with him, but usually he is alone. And content.
            Brian was describing a recent visit by two officers. They go into the building, trudge upstairs and find Brian. 
            “Hey, Brian.”
            “Hey.”
            “You OK?”  The police look around.
            “Yeah, I’m fine.  Thanks.”
            “We heard there might be some people shooting up around here. Is there anyone else on this floor?”
            “All I know is what’s going on right here.”
            “Fair enough, Brian.  Anyone giving you a hard time?”
            “Nope, but I can take care of myself if I have to.”
            “Alright, you take it easy now.”
            “I will. Thanks for checking.”
            “You have a good night now.”
            And the officers left.
            When Brian told me the story, I was impressed by how gentle and protective the police sounded. Certainly he felt protected by their visit – not harassed, not rousted, not judged or demeaned. 
            That impression has been confirmed by conversations with some of the officers who come into the Center. They know that the homeless don’t have many choices. They know that not everyone wants to stay in a shelter or risk being assaulted outside. A hidden place in an abandoned building is just the ticket for privacy. Of course that privacy can shield dangerous activity, or a young man who is simply trying to sleep safely in a harsh world.

Guests and Clients

            When I speak with providers about the Center, I always emphasize that the homeless who walk in are guests and not clients. Or, to be more accurate, they’re not clients yet.  Once they interface with an agency representative, then they might become a client for that agency.   But for me, my staff and volunteers, the homeless (and near homeless) who come in are always guests.

          What does that mean? It means I can welcome and serve them without worrying about their eligibility for programs. Providers do that. It means I deal only with their behavior inside the Center, without worrying about what may or may not have happened in the past or outside the Center. Police do that. It means I am not responsible for working with them on their future plans.  Case managers do that.

 

            It means I can focus on the moment, listening, responding and maintaining a safe zone that deals with today. Especially if guests want to make a fresh start and get beyond past problems, then today is the right focus. And if guests want to build a new future, that work also begins with doing today right.

      Certainly some aspects of my job require learning from the past and planning for the future; but 95% of the time, working with homeless guests asks me to be present in the present. In a swirling sea of trauma and trouble, it’s a good way to stay afloat.

Five Weekly Highlights

January 17, 2012

• Linda, our Harbor Homes rep, helped two people get jobs!
• Peter, our Goodwill rep, helped a man fix his resume, and he got a job!
• Carol, an agency rep from Serenity Place, started visits to meet with our people around substance abuse.
• Agency cooperation around a client "Dinah" is underway.
• "Tim" - a helpful guy - was able to return home in Missouri.

Unexpected Question

 In my office at the Homeless Center I have fifteen black-and-white portraits hanging on the walls. I took them about seven years ago when I was wandering around in downtown Manchester looking for great faces to capture on film. Some of them were homeless people, and some were people who live or work downtown.  I display them on the walls in order to convey to the homeless here that people like them are part of the general population, that they are not marginalized or invisible people, as some might feel, that even homeless people are worth "immortalizing" in a nice, large portrait.

Over the months I have been here, quite a few visitors and homeless guests have commented on the pictures, and I have heard more than a few stories about the people on my wall. I was some what taken aback, however, when a new homeless guest, sitting in my office for an intake conversation, looked at the pictures and said, "Are they all dead people?"Whoa!

Now, truth be told, one or two have in fact died since 2004, but the rest are very much alive, to the best of my knowledge. This is not a Memorial Gallery, nor is there any sign or marker to indicate even remotely that the portraits are of deceased people. But she did ask, "Are they all dead people?"

So I’ve been thinking. What associations with portraits does she have which would make her ask this question? Where has she been that such a question would seem natural and appropriate to her?　

In many public buildings, City Hall, for example, the gallery of portraits does chronicle history, and many deceased mayors are displayed. But my gallery showcases very ordinary people. So, what was she thinking?

I didn’t ask her, but I am brought up short by the fact that sometimes people look at the same object and draw drastically different conclusions.

Maybe her arrival at a Homeless Center, a new experience for her, feels literally like a dead end.
Maybe she wonders if this is the end-of-the-line for her. Like people who go into a nursing home expecting to leave only on a funeral director’s gurney, maybe some of my people feel like the Center is their last stand.

Since I am committed to the power of hope and compassion in this work, the idea that someone might see this place as a dead end is a powerful possibility, one I need to take seriously.

After all, how can I re-ignite a hope for life if death is on their minds? That newcomer’s unexpected question has become an important question to ponder.

Lazy, you say...

Occasionally I hear people call the homeless "lazy." Let me tell you a story about that.

The tile floors looked grimy, gritty and dirty at the Center. Everyone wanted them cleaned and refinished. But that’s impossible to do during the week unless we worked all night or closed for a day or two. The best bet seemed to be to do the stripping, cleaning, neutralizing, sealing and finishing over New Year’s weekend, since the Center was closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday anyway.

The first task, to be accomplished on Friday night, was to move everything out of the way. All tables, chairs, file cabinets and more had to be packed into small rooms to keep the main floors open. I decided to start the work at 2:30 PM Friday. Since we close at 4:00, I thought maybe I’d get a handful of homeless volunteers to take a couple hours to lug all the furniture away. When I announced the plan, 28 people immediately pitched in to help! The work got done, not in 2 hours but in 25 minutes.

Earlier I had asked for volunteers for work crews on weekend mornings. I hoped for two or three and got six eager workers taking pride in performing a good job at their Center.

These men wanted to work. They have valuable work experience and wanted to show their skills. They did. The place looks terrific.