Today’s blog we find a common retort to the homeless, ’go get a job,’ but have you stopped to think about the complication behind that statement? The statement, not the stereotypes in your heart. There is no job in any city where one person working full time can afford rent. Then you have to add in the curveball of their not being to sleep, eat, shower, wash clothes, and they are suppose to get a job? Oh, then where do they store the money on pay day so that they will not be robbed?
Simply A Note, Howards Vents Frustration
Can I tell you why I am so darn frustrated? It is one of your greatest misconceptions that gets me so frustrated I can hardly speak straight. I am not one that gets upset, it does no good out here, but this one man it makes me frustrated through and through. But Eric here, he helps me, and he has terminal cancer and will not see the end of the year. He lets me vent and speak and its dials down the frustration. We can do nothing but vent, there are no answers for us out here.
Here is what I often hear, “Why don’t they just get a job,” when you see one of inviable ones. You think a job is going to fix the root cause of homelessness? How can it possibly fix the problem when we are trapped in an institution of governmental slavery? Yes, you heard me and my frustration. Think on this for a moment. Oh, by the way, homelessness is not a choice for over 95% of us.
A job would be a great start to the long journey out, but when we are ducking and dodging tickets, fines, and jail for simply being homeless t is really hard to land where and when a job interview will be. Getting a job is only one piece of a very large puzzle to ending homelessness, so my frustration continues.
You say get a job and the problem will be solved, and if I say yes, then your next answer should be, I will help you. I am dealing with things that frustrate me daily in the seeking of food, shelter, water and yes, at times even that hard to find job.
Where do we shower, where do we get clean clothes what about food so that we have energy to word for the works required to hold on to that job? We, the invisible ones, must walk nearly everywhere, so food is crucial. Do you struggle with these issues daily? Or just where to get your favorite coffee? Oh, yeah, where do we sleep without tickets, handcuffs, or sprinklers? See, frustrations.
Let me slow down, Eric always says when I get real frustrated, I talk to fast. Sleep, what it would be like to sleep for a night without fear or interruption. We have a unique way of finding a hiding place, it has to have deep shadows, no light, lots of bushes, away from streets, no sidewalks, no yards, no dogs and no one can know about it, it is almost more scared then church.
You get there in the dark and you get out before dawn and leave no evidence, sleep, no, but you may close your eyes for a few restless hours, frustrating. You work hard to relax, let your guard down, and listen for every little sound, and ready a minutes notice to jump, sprint and run, that is just life.
The great assumption is that we do not was to wok, that we are just lazy, the great unwashed of society, pure bums, but you and your assumptions are wrong. Many of us have odd jobs for small businesses, gas stations, people and other arrangements that allow us to eat and job drinks that we don’t starve out here. In the current rental market, it will take 8 to 9 months of work at the part level that we would be able to get to get an apartment and then we must maintain it. Not an easy hurdle to overcome.
Frustrated, simply frustrated, that you folks believe only to add to the systematic institutional slavey we suffer once we become homeless by whatever means it happens. It is totally frustrating, help would be a better response.
So, Will You Add to the Frustration
OR
Will You Simply Release Answers
