Homeless in the path of the greenway: Cotton
Via email, from Action Greensboro:
“… As you may know, Action Greensboro is spearheading a public/private partnership to create a Downtown Greenway…
Construction… will displace those living in this area…”
Cotton
Audrie and I show off the planters Cotton gave us
This is Cotton. She is homeless and lives outside, under a tarp in woods in downtown Greensboro, in the path of the proposed greenway.
Cotton uses a wheelchair, which makes it more difficult for her to get in and out of the camp, which is well off the road. It also makes the temporary day center — up two flights of stairs, with no elevator — inaccessible for her. So she has nowhere to shower or wash her clothes.
Cotton is smart, creative and funny. She turns aluminum cans into candle holders and makes planters out of empty two-liter bottles of Mountain Dew — her favorite soda. She makes visitors laugh as she recalls a recent encounter with a black snake:
“…I stared at him. He stared at me. I said, ‘Listen man, are we cool?’ He said, ‘I’m cool, if you’re cool,’ and then he got out of there!”
Cotton makes planters from plastic soda bottles
But life outside is not all crafts and comedy. Cotton describes, in graphic detail, a brutal nighttime assault by a homeless man who has since left the camp. The attack left her battered, shaken and angry.
She has struggled to find a place to live:
“These WE [winter emergency] shelters are great for people who are good enough to go back into the workforce. What about the rest of us? Stand out in the pouring rain? They hand you an umbrella.”
Audrie (in Cotton's wheelchair) and I (right) talk with Cotton in her camp
The anger rises again, in response to this question: “Cotton, where would you go if you couldn’t live here anymore?”
“I have no place to go. I would look for the highest parking garage in town and you’d be scraping me up off the ground with a snow shovel… My option is misery and more bullshit, or to end it. And believe me I will end it.” — Cotton
October 10th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
[...] is it that a disabled woman and a military veteran are living in the woods in downtown Greensboro? She makes crafts for her friends, neighbors and visitors. He volunteers, helping other homeless people. What are we [...]
October 5th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
[...] it is. She’s tough as nails, but she’s surprisingly generous and thoughtful. (Remember the planters she gave me and Audrie?) She’s funny and real. She’ll make you laugh out loud one minute and bring you to [...]