It’s that time of year again…..

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (1 Comments)
Easy rib turquoise stripe hat

 

 

It’s that time of year again where people give thanks for what they have, then go out and stand in long lines to buy more stuff to add to what they already have! I suppose many will argue there’s nothing wrong with that but for me and what I do, “Black Friday” feeds a frenzy I really want nothing to do with. With our economy still not where it needs to be and homelessness still on the rise, seems to me our money and energies could be better spent elsewhere. In some ways, homelessness has opened my eyes to what I used to be and I learned that there really is a whole lot we are taught to think we need when in reality, we don’t.

I decided that experiences last and mean more than some product made in China or in some sweatshop factory. My kids enjoyed taking bus rides to downtown Seattle to walk around and enjoy the sights for free. We made gifts to each other and put a dollar limit on what we could spend because the whole point about the giving season is to give a part of yourself, something I think our society is rapidly losing.

That being said, I think this year’s season will be an odd one. For one thing, it kicked off with the death of a fellow advocate named Tricia Patricelli. The day after most people celebrate Thanksgiving is when her funeral is scheduled and I’m thinking for her family and the kids she leaves behind, this is a bad start to future holidays. Still, I will remember her for the good heart and soul she strived to be every day.

A recent development in my day to day story is a guy I met via Twitter named Andy Johnson. Andy is the owner of Homeless Beanies and he’s from Kent, Washington!! I asked Andy how he found me and it was through Mark Horvath. Thanks Mark! I got to meet Andy and listened to him talk about his Homeless Beanies business and why he chose to help the homeless in his own way. I have to say I’m impressed. So impressed I started designing hats to be sold on his website which will be featured soon!

I’ve been holding hat auctions on my Facebook page too to raise funds for things I give to homeless during this time of year. Things like handwarmers, tarps, tents and sleeping bags. I’d like to give them permanent housing but for now that is out of my reach so ….I’ll keep helping the best way I can! Maybe a hat doesn’t seem like much but out here, it keeps the wind out of your face and keeps your head warm.

In a way, each handmade hat I make is giving away a part of myself.

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A day of reflection

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (2 Comments)

Today seems like a day of reflection to me and strange parallels with other people’s experiences. Sometimes you gotta let go of the old to embrace the new even though you may not know exactly what that new is going to be. I write this way sometimes because too many people only see a snapshot and erroneously assume that’s how everything is out here. That’s the problem with human thinking, assuming what we don’t know to fill in all the voids of everything we don’t!

With the tragic death of fellow advocate Tricia Patricelli, I am even more acutely aware of just how fragile and sudden life begins and ends. Looking for missing relatives on Staten Island in the wake of hurricane Sandy is another stress factor that lends itself well to sleepless nights filled with nightmares, something homeless people are already living in on a daily basis.

All it takes is one incident to change how you see things and once that line is crossed, you’ll never be the same again. I witness small miracles everyday, some online and some right before me as I walk down the street. As I write this, someone is talking to me on Twitter, a kind volunteer whose Twitter handle is @Honeybee22274. She has taken it upon herself to help look for two relatives of mine, Chris and Mike Tacardon. Last I heard was that they were living on Staten Island and since the hurricane, relatives over here in Seattle haven’t heard from them. What makes an individual go out of their way to help their fellow man/woman/child? What is that spark inside of people that makes them put aside whatever perceived differences there are between us in order to make a stand against apathy? To me, most humans are self interested so behaving outside of that basic tendency is in itself, a thing of wonder.

We all want to believe that somehow, we are all advanced beings capable of so much more yet when you look at the news and watch people in or on the streets every day, the opposite is true. Why do we need some kind of disaster to spur us into compassion for each other? What will it take for us to put away the excuses we tell ourselves everyday and actually do what we already know we should be?

For Tricia, those worries are over but for her family, heartache has begun. It is for her that I wrote the poem that follows…..

 

Place of peace

 

Today

The sky lit a smudge for you

In misty clouds of grey

I stood beneath them and

Let their tears wash mine away

And even though I

Walk among many

They aren’t saying much

So I listen to the echoes

I keep telling myself because

Some times

They’re all I have left

But

Tomorrow breathes a promise

I intend to give to you

It is a place of peace

Resting deep inside of me

 

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Clever uses for Clover

Posted by Carey Fuller in Foraging | Homelessness | Survival | Uncategorized - (0 Comments)
Red-clover

 

How many of you have passed by clover growing wherever it can find a comfortable spot? It will quickly take over a garden or lawn yet it is one of the most valuable “weeds” you can come across. Red and white clover are not only nutritious but are easily recognizable as most children go bee catching in patches of it!! The two types of clover I am referring to are Trifolium Repens (White clover) and Trifolium Pratense (Red clover). You can find either clover growing almost anywhere!

Dried clover flowerheads and seeds can be ground into a flour or flour stretcher. Roots are best cooked and make an interesting addition to a stir-fry. Flowerheads are often used to make a nice tea and the leaves of clover can be used raw in salads (the younger the plant the better if you’re going raw) or cooked like a potherb green. One of the best “wild” salads I ever made used the leaves of young clover, dandelion, nasturtium and a few clover flowers topped with sliced boiled egg and real bacon bits! Sprinkle on a light viniagrette and enjoy!

Clover is high in protein, minerals and vitamin C! Clover is also a valuable cover crop as it has a bacteria growing among it’s roots that fixes nitrogen to soil just like beans and peas which it is related to. Beekeepers also appreciate clover as it makes some of the best honey I’ve ever tasted!

Did you know…..

In the book “The African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional recipes and Fond Rememberances From Alabama’s Renowned Tuskagee Institute”, there’s a recipe called “George W. Carver Salad” that uses red clover?

Clover can also be made into medicines and wine

Here are some links for recipes and medicinal uses of clover:

http://www.liveandfeel.com/medicinalplants/clover.html

http://www.squidoo.com/trifolium

http://www.livestrong.com/article/165738-red-clover-medicinal-uses/

http://www.hungrybrowser.com/phaedrus/m0825M08.htm

http://rosesprodigalgarden.org/recipes/redcloverrecipes.html

 

 

 

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Saying goodbye to We Are Visible

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (4 Comments)

Nobody said goodbyes were easy but sometimes they’re inevitable. Leaving We Are Invisible to pursue local issues was bound to happen sooner or later and for me, now is a good time.

Homelessness in Seattle and surrounding areas isn’t getting any better as some would have you believe. We can use budget cuts as an excuse to do as little as possible to house our vets, families, youth, disabled and elderly yet I find it interesting that money can be found for other projects that don’t save lives. We have an epidemic that continues to be ignored despite the obvious rise in poverty.

To me, the community does a better job of taking care of itself than any politician, city council or state agency. I have seen first hand how one person can influence and impact the community they reside in despite city interference and outright obstruction in some cases. The best way I can help my community at large is to teach them how to survive because let’s face it, things are about to get a hell of a lot worse and it will be awhile before it gets better.

Our economy is crumbling. Too many mayors are reactive instead of proactive so get ready for increased criminalization of the poor and don’t be surprised when you see an expansion of your local police departments. Unless better opportunities become available for people to make a living, fear and paranoia will become rampant and I’m sure you all can imagine what the end result of a society in crises will be.

Just to be clear, I am not leaving social media, I’m just saying goodbye to We Are Visible. I still support Mark Horvath and what he does for the homeless arena and I wish him all the best for the new We Are Visible site coming soon!

My time with WAV has been a good run and I look forward to whatever the not so distant future brings!

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The not so plain plantain

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness | Uncategorized - (2 Comments)
Greater plantain

I think everyone should know basic survival skills no matter where on this planet they happen to be. A good start would be to learn how to identify edible plants and where they grow as well as at what time of year you’re most likely to find a particular plant. On my last post about wild edibles, I talked about the lowly dandelion. There’s another edible found in yards that people ignore is the common plantain. There are two types, the broad leaf and lance leaf (plantago major and plantago lanceolata for you botany majors) shown here:

You’ve probably walked past this plant and thought it was just a weed but this plant is much more than a seemingly annoying weed. You can eat it fresh or cooked like a green but if you eat it fresh like in a salad, collect young leaves before the flower spike appears. After that it gets a rather “green” taste not to mention that the older the leaves get, the more stringy it gets! Plantain is high in vitamins A, C, and K as well as potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, zinc and copper. It’s high in fiber and contains what’s known as phytochemicals like allantoin, glycosides, phenols, salicylic acid and tannins. Plantain has also and still is used for medicinal purposes and I will post links at the end of this blog for the reader to check out for themselves.

As a food, plaintain leaves, seeds and roots are edible but the roots are mostly used for medicinal purposes. Even the immature seed stalks can be eaten by parching them and grinding them into flour but you gotta have a lot of time on your hands to try that as gathering enough to make a meal is labor intensive! Try biting into the green seed stalks and see if it tastes “nutty”. If you can’t find young tender leaves to try raw, you can still use the older leaves in a tea or just boil them to make a green soup “stock”. As with all wild edibles, make sure you collect them from places that haven’t been sprayed with chemicals or in areas dogs have been allowed to run free in, I think you get what I mean! Also as a precaution, whenever trying new food, always try a little first to see if you have any allergic reactions to it. I haven’t heard of anyone being allergic to this plant though but you never know!

Cooking plantain doesn’t take long so don’t overdo it! You can pretty much use it just like spinach or just steam it and add a little butter over the top and whatever spices you like. Me? I like to saute them in a little olive oil, garlic and diced onion but that’s how I treat most greens anyway, lol! A sprinkling of a little fresh lemon juice is nice too! Another nice thing I do with plantain for a main dish is to cook it slowly in a pot with smoked bacon and a pinch of sugar just like you do with collard greens only you don’t have to cook it as long! Try experimenting with it and see what you can come up with according to your own tastes. Enjoy!

 

http://www.kingdomplantae.net/commonPlantain.php

http://www.livestrong.com/article/430791-the-health-benefits-of-the-plantain-leaf

http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/placom43.html

http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/kings/plantago.html

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Another day in the life “out here”

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (1 Comments)

Nobody said that dealing with homelessness is easy and that goes for both the homeless and the service providers trying to get people into a better life. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes most folks don’t realize and because of that, assumptions are made that there’s resources to help the poor when in fact, there really aren’t. Local organizations and faith based groups do their best to meet the need but everyone out here knows they can’t.  It’s because of that fact, individuals try to get involved in their communities by helping the folks they interact with on a daily basis but beware! You might incur the wrath of not so compassionate neighbors or local politicians who think that status quo policies are the only ways in which to help people.

I run into that every day of course but I don’t let it stop me because my experience tells me to keep doing what I’m doing but there are times I run into what I call “dry spells”. This is when donations run low or stop all together. In a perfect world, I’d have childcare and a job to pay for what I do without having to ask for donations. Hell, I’d have housing for crying out loud but the reality is that I don’t and these little part time jobs and occasional odd jobs do not pay for childcare nor are they enough to get us out of homelessness so while I’m out here, why not make a difference where I’m at?  I don’t think folks realize how much of my own money is spent on providing basic survival items to folks that aren’t being provided elsewhere but that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? Besides, if local orgs and faith based groups could handle all the folks now asking for help, I would think common sense would dictate that they would’ve done so by now and if so, there wouldn’t be all these homeless people milling about with nowhere to go.

Every day, I find a homeless senior, unaccompanied youth, vet, cancer patient, single parent or disabled person living out of their vehicles, under bridges, in the woods, at the airport, around bus stations and under railroad trellises or on river banks but unless major funding comes in to local groups to get them out of homelessness, they will live and die where they’re currently at. That’s a thought always lurking in the back of my mind for myself as well.  When I found out about that mother of five in Skyway that committed suicide because she couldn’t get help when she needed it, I wonder about how bad things will get before people take homelessness seriously enough to actually get involved in doing something about it.

Even now, I’m wondering how long I’ll be able to stay online. My laptop is dying, and my cell phone needs a new battery, a charger or both and without a connection to the internet, my voice will go silent just like so many others do out here. Sure I can try to reserve an hour spot on a library computer but the services there are limited. Then there’s the constant worries over gas, insurance, childcare and a living wage job. I have some new health issues popping up that are directly related to living out of a vehicle but that’s actually the least of my worries right now. They say time is man’s most precious commodity and that’s certainly true out here because most of us are living on borrowed time. Nobody wants to think about whether or not they’ll live to see a spot come up on year’s long waiting lists for housing but that’s what ends up happening out here.

Sure, I could sell the van but wouldn’t get that much out of it and what’s the point of selling your only transportation and shelter? The monies gained by selling it wouldn’t even last a year in rent. People ask me all kinds of questions about how I live out here and to me it’s redundant when I can tell they focus on everything else but the fact that there’s no housing help! I especially enjoy ignorant vitriol from people who live in insulated vacuums because every time they open their mouths, their cluelessness is blatant. To those of you doing what you can to help others I say this; grow a thick skin fast!  Don’t worry about what stupid people say or do because if they aren’t part of the solution, they’re the problem, right?

The point of this blog was supposed to be about asking for donations but with all that goes on out here, one can’t help to engage in the occasional rambling on about what goes on in the daily life of a homeless mother on a mission most people would rather dismiss. Sooner or later, hardships will come knocking on your door. How you handle them depends on who you are, where you’re at and whether or not there’s help when you need it. It is my hope that you don’t lose hope and don’t give up even if the situation seems hopeless.

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The Coffee Can Cooker

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness | Uncategorized - (0 Comments)
Coffee can cooker oven

As you can see from the picture to the left, my daughter is holding up a basic coffee can cooker that I made. Sure you can get fancy and make all kinds of modifications to suit your needs but the whole point of making them as simple as possible for homeless folks is so that they can make them without a garage full of tools or a lot of time! All you need is a sturdy can opener and a metal coffee can or even a large food industry metal can that will serve the same purpose. You just use the can opener to punch triangular holes evenly spaced around the top rim and down around the bottom for ventilation. You can then put charcoal, pinecones or whatever inside to burn as fuel so that you can cook or boil water over. If you have the $ and time and tools, you can also buy grill grate and cut to fit around the top and voila! You got a grill for one! Turn it upside down and cover the bottom surface with foil and you can bake a biscuit or what have you under another can with coals piled on top of it. A coffee can oven if you will!

 

I like to use coffee cans that have a lip on them like the second picture shows. It helps give a pot or frying pan an added surface to rest on and comes in handy when poking a sturdy stick in to lift it to move to another location or to dump out the ashes. If you can cook over a grill, you can cook over a coffee can cooker! Just before stopping to use free wifi, I stopped where some older homeless folks hang out and gave them a few of these babies because I knew they needed something to cook on even if it was just to boil some water, simple things that don’t exist when you are un-housed!

Here’s what an “oven” looks like:

As you can see, I put this oven on a park grill but normally I just carry 2 bricks around in the van to put the cooker on. I used a smaller family sized can of corn for my “oven” but it works great if you don’t mind baking one biscuit or a mini pie. A short fat can would give you more room to bake with but you get the idea. The coffee can cooker in this pic is a little different at the bottom because I cut a flap into the bottom so that I could slide a mini pie tin of coals into it. You can cook off the surface in this model but I primarily use this type for baking only.

Now that you know what a coffee can cooker looks like and how to make one, you can experiment on your own!

Just for fun, here’s a recipe for a basic “cobbler” I showed a bunch of kids how to make:

 

Freshly picked blackberries, about 2 fistfuls full

Some sugar or honey to taste

Pancake mix

First preheat your coffee can cooker by filling a mini pie tin with a handful of hot charcoal briquets, about 4 ought to do it. Slide the tin of charcoal under the cooker while you prepare the cobbler.

I took some aluminum mini pie tins and used a non stick cooking spray before piling in the blackberrys. Sprinkle in some sweetener. Mix enough water with the pancake mix to make a soft biscuit dough. Drop 3 tablespoons of dough onto each cobbler then place on top of your preheated coffee can heater. Carefully place your “oven” over the pie tin, then place 3 or 4 coals on top of the “oven” and allow to bake for about 8 minutes. Gently lift the “oven” up and check on your pie. Let it cook a few minutes more until the pancake mix dough is nicely browned and you’re done!

Enjoy!

 

 

The lowly dandelion

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (1 Comments)
DandelionSeedhead-web

Ahhh…the dandelion! I always find it amusing when people call this plant a weed when in other countries it is recognized as food and medicine! If you want to make a dandelion salad, pick young plants in places dogs haven’t been in or out of lawns and fields that haven’t been sprayed with anything other than water. Not only is this plant highly nutritious, it’s easily recognizable and all of the plant is useful! I pick first year leaves and wash them with water to make a spring salad. Bigger slightly older leaves make a great cooked green that you can spice up with garlic, onions, a little cayenne pepper and even a little butter! My favorite way though, is to make a dandelion salad by topping the fresh young leaves with a sliced boiled egg and every once in a while, bits of real bacon!

You can also make a dandelion omelet by sautéing chopped leaves with a little butter, garlic and onion before adding your eggs! Did you know that dandelion roots are good for you as a boiled vegetable? Take first year roots, wash and scrub them until they are as white as you can get them, boil them in a little salted water until they are soft. At this point I drain the water out and dump them steaming on a plate and add a dab of butter before I dig in but I’ve noticed that every time I eat dandelion, I feel better.  That could be because dandelion is high in iron, zinc and vitamins A, B, C and D!

Dandelion roots can also be used as a coffee substitute. The trick here is to pick the bigger older plants for their roots but you’ll probably have to peel the outer rind off with a sharp knife first. Wash the roots then chop roots into small pieces. Then you have to cook them over low and slow dry heat or roast them until they turn dark brown. You then have to grate the roasted roots up so that you can use them just like coffee grounds. If you happen to see dandelion’s blue flowered cousin, chicory, you can use its roots in the same way.

If you really want a “wild” salad, add clover leaves and those tiny field daisies to your dandelion greens. You can also add nasturtium leaves and flowers for a peppery taste along with untreated rose petals. Violets also make a pretty addition to a “wild” salad! You can try to make a simple dressing to go with your dandelion salad with the fruit of an often nearby growing neighbor, blackberries! I usually make wine, pies and jams from blackberries but here’s a simple vinaigrette you can try:

Blackberry vinaigrette

2 handfuls of ripe blackberries

Sweetener to taste, just add a little honey or some raw sugar that’s been melted into a cup of hot water

About a teaspoon of balsamic white vinegar (more or less depending on your taste buds)

¼ cup of either vegetable oil or olive oil

 

I’m assuming that folks making this recipe are homeless so if you’ve got a Ziploc bag, crush the blackberries inside it until it’s a nice liquid mess. Then add your sweetener, balsamic vinegar and oil. Close the bag and shake, shake, shake it like a Polaroid Pict-cha! If you want to get fancy and can get ahold of some finely diced onion and other herbs to throw in; even better!

Here’s some more helpful links on the often overlooked dandelion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandelion

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/d/dandel08.html

http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_dandelion.htm

http://southernfood.about.com/od/collardgreens/r/bl30319f.htm

http://www.learningherbs.com/dandelion_recipes.html

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A real guide to surviving homelessness

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (1 Comments)
dandelion-Taraxacum-officinale

The one commonality I’ve seen in a lot of homeless people is the utter unpreparedness they are in when they end up “out here”. That’s usually what happens when in denial about where your life is heading and the all too obvious fact that no one has taught them how to survive without money. Sadly, that’s the kind of mental programming that goes on in a society that places more value on greed and mindless materialism. Even if no one taught you how to live without money, what’s preventing you from learning how? In my opinion, it’s often a blatantly subtle form of mental laziness that comes from living too modern a lifestyle.

I’m not saying let’s all go back to the Stone Age but learning how to live off the land and make the things you need instills self-confidence and reduces fear that comes from not knowing what to do; being prepared goes a long way in making daily living more convenient than it would be if and when you get caught off guard by an unforeseen situation. For instance, how many of you have a survival plan in mind should you end up homeless and there’s no friends or family to take you in for longer than a month or two? Nowadays, getting out of homelessness and into permanent housing will take longer than six months especially if you need childcare and can’t get a living wage job but back to what I was saying….

Do you know how to make a fire without matches? Can you find clean drinking water wherever you happen to find yourself? Do you know what plants will serve as food, medicine or weaving materials? Can you build a basic shelter out of whatever you happen to find? Can you make a living without having to kill or rob another human being? Every day you walk on or past plants that are food and medicine but you’ve been led to believe they are nothing more than weeds to be eradicated from an unnaturally maintained yard. How much money could you save by repurposing items you habitually toss in the trash or recycling bin?

As we head into summer here’s a few tips to make your life a little easier:

Take a walk through a park and see if you can identify these edibles: dandelion, broad and narrow leaved plantain, red and white clover, rose hips and depending on where you are; nettles! How many abandoned fruit trees can you find? I have often asked the owners of property with fruit and nut trees for permission to harvest their trees especially when I see fruit rotting on the ground year after year because no one is using the fruit! My nine year old daughter asked me to take a nature walk so that she could learn about plants which surprised me but made me smile. In one area alone, we found red and blue huckleberries, hazlenuts, “Indian” plum, salmon berries, dewberries, abandoned cherry, pear and apple trees, wild roses putting out soon to be delicious rosehips and we even found a wild crabapple tree! Add to this thimbleberries, salal, Oregon Grape, nettles, plantains, clover, chenopodium album which is also known as Goosefoot and Lambs quarters (which can be cooked as an excellent green by the way!) and the list goes on!

I can find edibles in the city too as I have often found Miner’s Lettuce growing under bridges where I thought there wouldn’t be anything! City homelessness is a little different than out in the suburbs and semi-rural areas but many of the same principles apply and I will talk about that in future blogs.

Stay tuned for my next blog as I will include recipes for some of the plants I pick with pics so that you can make a positive identification of the plants shown! Plus, I just may show you how to cook on these coffee can cookers I keep making!

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A City out of Touch; Part 2 by Carey Fuller and Reverend Jimmie James

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (0 Comments)
img0242

The Journey that ended before he began: The death of a homeless child in the city of Kent (Be advised: the attached picture is graphic and may not be suitable for everyone to view)

 

The last time I wrote about Kent, I entitled the piece “Out of Touch While Others Run Out of Time” on the Huffington Post. Sadly, time ran out for Journey Legatee. Journey’s family is one of many in Kent that has fallen victim to homelessness that could’ve been prevented had there been resources available when they needed them. Had the city of Kent approved a resource center/shelter years ago when first requested by various local orgs, the Legatee family would’ve had a place to go and baby Journey would’ve had a chance to live but Kent has always been in the habit of not taking their growing homeless population seriously enough to be proactive about it.

Journey was the name that Billy and Zincia, the homeless parents of Journey, felt was appropriate after their baby was declared stillborn by miscarriage by the attending physician at a local hospital in South King County.  It has been almost a month since Journey’s tragic death. The particulars surrounding this miscarriage are still being investigated by the family at this time, but the “journey” of homelessness, experienced by this family leading to this tragedy, is the inspiration for his given name.  What should have been a time of celebration for this family is now an added burden of grief and loss to the already challenging and overwhelming reality of being a homeless family in the city of Kent, WA.

Billy is telling his story because he believes he will, and must, make it through this period for his wife and family, and he wants others to know the truth about being homeless.  They are still currently homeless and he invites you to take his journey experience of homelessness in what we call the continuing story of a “City Out of Touch”. As a returning community member from incarceration, Billy had made up his mind that he was ready to take a different path from his previous life. Being admitted into a successful transition program in Seattle upon his release, he was shortly relocated from Seattle, by the Department of Corrections (DOC) after only a month and a half, to a clean and sober halfway house in the city of Kent. Here is where the problems began to mount for Billy already facing the challenges of reentry transition.  WA State DOC pays for three months of housing in which Billy qualified, but the Halfway House approved for him in Kent had activity that was detrimental to his sobriety and safety.  Billy had no choice but to request a move to a relative in Kent which he found out had the same activity. In this process he was not able to maintain the rest of his 90 day rent stipend by DOC.   Right before his release from prison, his wife had an apartment with his three children and a job.  She lost the car and soon after was not able to keep her job for lack of transportation.  She was soon evicted just as he was released.  With a pregnant wife, and three children, Billy and his family continued to struggle to find safe housing in Kent.

He tried all the listed and available resources only to find there weren’t any resources to help their real time needs.  After living in a park for four days he finally flagged down a police officer who was able to get him a one day stay at a motel.  He located a minister in Tacoma who came to visit him and paid for a week’s stay in a local hotel.  When I found out about Billy, I rallied help from other advocates to assist the family.  Billy has enrolled for college and will receive a grant in a few months and will receive food stamps next month, but still has no place to call home right now with his family.  He was told by the police,” We can get some help for your family if you are charged with domestic violence.”  During this process of homelessness his wife was rushed to the hospital with pain.  According to the family, some of the medical procedural activity was questionable and the end result was the loss of their son, Journey.

Billy said in an intake interview, “You know, I could have went with some of my former associates and made some easy money and got us a place to live, but I don’t want to live that life anymore.  I have been in and out of institutions since I was young, but now I am going to do it right, so I chose to live in the park than to go back to that life.  After a few days I couldn’t take my family through that anymore and stopped a police officer and asked for help”.

This doesn’t sound like a person who chooses to be homeless, as many residents and officials in Kent believe.  This doesn’t sound like a homeless person who is just strung out on drugs and alcohol, as many people and officials in Kent have stereotyped the homeless. This isn’t an isolated incident of a person who chose to come to Kent to commit crimes or take advantage of Kent resources, (that do not exist for housing), as many in the Kent business and political community believe.  On the contrary, Billy’s story is just one of many in the homeless population that are trying to transition successfully back into the community from incarceration; they end up in Kent, due to gentrification and or collateral consequence, and find the absence of adequate supports and indifference of their needs from the city and community, hence, A City Out of Touch.

This is a city that still sees Kent as the White suburban community it was twenty to thirty years prior and has been unaware of the negative effects of gentrification and poverty. It is unaware that its diversity numbers are mainly due to displaced low income families. This city has a lack of understanding about problems and solutions for homelessness and poverty.  Seattle Times staff reporter, Lornet Turnbull, wrote an article saying “New immigrants are bringing diverse culture to the once white, working-class communities, forcing city leaders and longtime residents to at once embrace and grapple with change.” (Turnbull, Seattle Times, February 23, 2011). The change in Kent includes a growing diverse demographic of the homeless population (families, youth, veterans, women).

This city still has people embracing fear about the homeless.  As recent as April 6, 2012, the Kent Reporter published a cartoon showing three frames, one of Frankenstein with the word “scary above it; one with a ghost saying “scarier”; and finally one with a homeless person saying “Scariest”.  The city of Kent just recently denied a Union Gospel Mission and a local faith community partnership, Kent Hope, access to a viable building to create a homeless day center. The Kent Hope collaboration could have been an option for a Billy’s family and others like Billy, to come and get a breather, take a shower,  make some contacts, release some of the daily stress of homelessness, get some hope and some help.  Can you imagine being homeless and pregnant? Just within the past few months we have encountered and helped several homeless families in Kent with infants, living outdoors.

As I applaud the Kent Hope faith group for working on a long term solution for a day center, I challenge the faith community as well as the city; because right now, someone is being evicted and need a place to stay- today. Right now, someone is being released from prison and cannot afford go back to their old community and need a place to live-today. Right now, someone is going to work every day, but can’t afford the rent deposit or pass a credit check and needs housing TODAY!  And then there are people, like Billy, who has a family with children, homeless, living in Kent wherever they can, children going to school, hiding the fact that they’re homeless and there is no help.  Wake up City of Kent! Let us make sure that the death of Journey may begin a life of hope for housing the homeless in Kent.

As of the writing of this post, I was informed by Billy’s wife that she still has uncontrolled bleeding from the loss of her son. When Zincia lost the baby, she almost lost her life that day as well. As of next week, they do not know where they’ll be but they do know that we, the local activists in the area, will do all we can to keep them from having to move back into a local park and risk losing a wife and mother.

 

 

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