Homeless: Heard
The following are quotes from homeless people who spoke Tuesday at a forum to collect information for the Guilford County Task Force on Ending Homelessness. The Task Force’s administrative assistant was there and took “official” notes, but I wrote down as much as I could, too, because I want the voices of our friends on the street to be heard. I am resisting the urge to comment, edit, explain and editorialize. This is their perspective:
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“Shelters are kicking people out and we’ve got no job. [Shelter] staff talk like you’re beneath them, but if you say something back you’ll be sleeping outside.”
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Speaking about a shelter that charges $10 per day but only allows residents in at night:
“I’m not paying rent to stay on the street all day. They throw you out [in the morning].”
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About a West Virginia day center for the homeless (we have no day center here):
“You get an (mailing) address, and you can do your laundry.”
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Addressing the $600K spent on homelessness annually by the City of Greensboro:
“There’s more homeless services done by the churches than the City, so where’s all that money going?”
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“You can’t get a job if you have the wrong clothes for the interview. And when they find out you’re homeless or in the shelter, they find a reason to fire you.”
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“[Employers] will hire you and say it’s 40 hours, but then they won’t work you full-time. And they need to pay more than $6.00 an hour. You can’t pay your rent that way.”
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“Doing a criminal background check keeps people from getting a job.”
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“Food’s being brought into the shelter for us to eat and then it’s being taken back out the door by staff in grocery bags. We see it happening.”
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“[Local political leaders] need to live with us one night. Let them lose their homes and jobs and bank accounts; they’ll go crazy.”
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“The shelters need to get qualified staff.”
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“I stopped focusing on what the shelter was doing and started looking at what I was doing. I started seeing the shelter as a blessing. It was a place to eat, to get three meals I wouldn’t have had otherwise, a place to lay my head. I was not letting my pride get in the way. I’d go to the Salvation Army thrift store and get clothes, and go get that job. A lot of homeless people don’t have the skills to go get jobs. Now I’m trying to develop a men’s class, be a coach, hands-on. Some of us have disabilities that won’t allow us to work. Sometimes we’re in places because we choose to be. There is a way out.”
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“Some things are first: Where am I going to lay down at? Where am I gonna eat today? Those are daily things we have to contend with. Then things like, where am I gonna wash my clothes? If we could get all that taken care of, then we could worry about a job.”
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On the attitude of the public:
“It’s OK to be homeless as long as we don’t see you.”
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On complaints about homeless people being in a downtown park:
“It’s a city park. We live in this city.”
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On the need for more resources for the homeless (mental health, social services, etc.):
“Why are these people homeless to begin with? Had I been able to get some counseling instead of the means I chose… I didn’t have proper resources. I needed help getting back up.”
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“I had to recover from two surgeries in the street. I had already been to the shelter in Greensboro and used up my time and I couldn’t go to the shelter in High Point because my doctor is in Greensboro.”
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One woman described an experience with a faith-based homeless service provider in another city.
“At the church, they had pews in the middle labeled ‘homeless shelter.’ I didn’t go back.”
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“Ask the City Council to hang out and sleep and eat with us for a night or a week. How many people are gonna leave their warm, snuggly homes to go sleep on a cold slab of concrete? And #1, you’re already trespassing. And you got nothing except your stuff stashed in a bush. You got a blanket that you stole – that’s another charge. When I’m about asleep, it starts to rain. Now I’ve got to find someplace to sleep inside. And I got to pee. Now you’re breaking and entering. Not ’cause I want to. But the police don’t care what you got to do to get through the night. I’m just trying to survive. We are you without a job.”
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“I was downtown with my friend. She was real sick. I had my own cup and I went in this restaurant and asked for some water for her. They said it was 75 cents for water. And I had my own cup. 75 cents for water! I didn’t have it.”
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“I take Lasix. It makes you have to pee all the time. But there’s nowhere to go. And if I pee outside, I get arrested.”
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“There’s a lot of condemned housing in this city. Give homeless people minimum wage to help renovate those houses and have affordable housing for the homeless. People working a minimum wage job would prefer working on a house they might possibly get to stay in. Kind of like Habitat. You got people walking around the street with lots of skills. Y’all could put together a whole crew.”