Tag Archives: Homeless

Keep the focus on you

Get on your feet, Homelessness, Job search/Job prospects, Motivations, OUR BEST POSTS, Thursday posts, , , ,

(Originally published 09/15/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.  Reblogged 06/25/14.)

Teddy is an old man. He wears a rosary around his neck, and never fails to “testify” in chapel. “I talk to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost every day,” he says. Every time there’s an altar call, he runs right up there to get born-again — again. Five times a week, he’ll do that.

He got barred out a year ago for selling someone oxycontin.

Friday night 09/07/12, he came back. He insists to everyone that he’s never been here before, and said he wants to get into the program.

Aside from those things, he hasn’t changed at all. Still all the same empty religious talk.

Sunday night he said he changed his mind about the program. They require you to sign over all your benefits, and he’s not willing to do that. That tells me you don’t want to get well.

I get bad feelings every time I see him.

———— ♦ ————

Sitting outside waiting to be let in, Wednesday 08/29/12 Fallon and a couple other guys I don’t like too much got into reminiscing about how this shelter used to be, years ago, before the renovation. This upset me.

Continue reading Keep the focus on you →

How I became homeless

Bible, Homelessness, Thursday posts, , , , , , , , , , ,

This is the second of three posts about entitlement:
07/12 – “Entitlement(s): Attitude and policy”
Today – “How I became homeless”
07/26 – “When needs are met”

This is a long post. One may want to avail oneself of a navigation resource here.

———— ♦ ————

I don’t write about easy things.

At this writing, a more immediate question is how I’ve stayed homeless, which has prompted no small amount of anger and depression in recent weeks.  The short answer appears to be that I’ve stayed homeless the same way I became homeless.

Continue reading How I became homeless →

Pull your pants up.

Get on your feet, Homelessness, Thursday posts, , , , , , , , , ,

(Originally posted 05/27/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.  Reblogged  03/19/14.)

Sunday, May 27, 2012

I wasn’t going to mention this, but then this happened at the shelter.

This might not have happened at a different shelter.

For about a week, this young boy’s been coming here who keeps one hand on his pants at all times. If he didn’t, they’d fall down completely. Normally his drawers are all showing.

I don’t know how many times they asked him to fix his pants, but tonight they finally told him if he doesn’t fix his pants he can’t come in.

If you wear your pants hanging off your butt to put yourself outside the mainstream, congratulations.

It works.

You’re not welcome in the mainstream.

You may not be welcome at the homeless shelter, either.

talk show host, on air talent, radio talk show, the homeless blogger

Work

Get on your feet, Homelessness, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, , , , , , , , ,

(Originally posted 05/18/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged  02/12/14.)

To get from Point A to Point B, you must move.

At this moment, as I write this, I am living in a pit.

I am homeless.

I face a choice: do I want to get out, or stay here?
Continue reading Work →

Jesus: born homeless

Homelessness, , , , , ,

At Christmas, Christians celebrate the event in which they say God became a human being.

Without this event, according to traditional Christianity, there would be no salvation, and no hope for you and me.

What is called “incarnational theology” tells us that Jesus’ power to save and competence to save both derive from the incarnation — God’s having become a human being.

By virtue of the incarnation, God obtained first-hand experience of everything we human beings have to deal with — all the trials and tribulations we go through from day to day.  In Jesus, God came face to face with physical suffering, pain, bitter cold and burning heat; hunger, anger, lust and love.   The Bible does not tell us all the details of Jesus’ life, but I am convinced he went through it all.  There is no circumstance you can come into, that he hasn’t faced.  Thus he can be present to you, no matter what your circumstances.

In the spiritual (emotional) world also, there is nowhere Jesus hasn’t been.  He can be present to you no matter where you “go” emotionally.

God is with you and for you at all times.

Believe it.

(Originally posted 12/25/13.)

Taking off for the weekend

Homelessness, , , , ,

The mission principally serves two groups.

First (in too many ways) are the “clients,” 450 men enrolled in the 12-month residential drug-and-alcohol treatment program; for which reason they are commonly called “programmers.” Each of them has a permanently assigned bunk and some form of closet space, and can use the mission as a mailing address.

I need to keep in mind that, but for the program, most of them would be homeless.

Second (in too many ways) are the “guests,” no more than 60 homeless men on any day, who are provided accommodations overnight; for which reason we are commonly called “overnighters.” We must vacate the premises no later than 6:00 a.m. daily, cannot leave anything behind, and cannot return until 3:00 p.m. We cannot use the mission as a mailing address.

Note the distinction between “clients” and “guests.”

At the end of the work day one day last week, I walked toward the parking lot carrying my two heavy bags. Programmer W____ P__ came toward me, walking in the opposite direction, and said, “Bill, you look like you’re taking off for the weekend!”

I said to myself, even programmers don’t get it.

He can take off for the weekend; I can’t. I have nowhere to go and nowhere to come back to.

The way he saw me is the way I look all the time.

(Originally posted 05/10/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.  Reposted 01/15/14.)

talk show host, on air talent, radio talk show, talk radio, the homeless blogger

Giving it all away

Homelessness, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, Squalor, , , , ,

At work on Tuesday 05/08/12, the radio station they had on the PA played Genesis’ “Giving it all away.”

People see things different ways given their personal circumstances.

I know nothing about Phil Collins personally. But in all likelihood, were he to “give it all away” as he understands it, he would probably have a lot left.

Not I.

All I own is the contents of two heavy bags. Giving it all away would be a simple gesture. And afterwards, I would have nothing.

———— ♦ ————

That afternoon, as usual, as soon as I got to my bunk I sat down and got out my medications for the evening. The guy assigned to the bunk above me was a newcomer, real clean-cut, a Jake Pavelka lookalike.

“Got any goodies in those pill bottles?” he asked.

“No,” I answered.

“It’d been cooler if you’d said yes,” he said.

As usual, I put my meds back in my zipper bag when I finished, and, as usual, I locked it.

Because of guys like him.

(Originally published 05/09/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.  Reposted 10/30/13, 12/29/16.)
talk show host, on air talent, radio talk show, the homeless blogger

Aromatherapy, Millet and Celebrities

Clippings, Homelessness, Local media, , , , , , , , , , ,

(Originally posted 12/23/13.)

In the past, I’ve seen many print ads that use the word “aromatherapy.” They seemed to me only to be selling fragrances, and I didn’t see the point of using that word.

Light endorses the Bach Flower Remedies. I’m skeptical.

Continue reading Aromatherapy, Millet and Celebrities →

The Rich and the Rest of Us

Homelessness, Media, National media, Poverty, , , , , , , , , , ,

(Originally posted 04/18/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.  Reposted 12/11/13.)

From a flyer announcing a presentation tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Enoch Pratt Free Library:

Record unemployment and rampant corporate greed, empty houses but homeless families, dwindling opportunitites in a paralyzed nation — these are the realities of America, land of the free and home of the new middle-class poor.

In The Rich and the Rest of Us, award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West, one of the nation’s leading public intellectuals, take on the “p” word — poverty. They challenge all Americans to re-examine their assumptions about poverty in America — what it is and how to eradicate it.

I cannot attend that presentation, even if I wanted to, since as of 3:00 p.m. I must head back to the shelter to stay in for the night.

I know little about Cornel West and nothing about Tavis Smiley, but I do know something about poverty. I do not believe it can be eradicated. Thus any analysis that supposes that it can, is mistaken at its core.

talk show host, on air talent, talk radio, the homeless blogger

(2) Obstacles to my prosperity

Homelessness, Job search/Job prospects, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dan Rodricks complained that a recent Baltimore City ordinance on panhandling failed to address “the underlying issues.” He has failed to address them either; so, I thought I would. Here are those I personally see:

CHECKLIST

✓ TREATMENT ON DEMAND. Drug and alcohol treatment needs to be available on demand. This doesn’t affect me personally, but does affect panhandling — and prostitution, petty theft, shoplifting, smash-and-grabs, larcenies, and in fact all crime of any type. It’s not just traffic fatalities — half of all crimes are committed while someone is either intoxicated or seeking drug money. Continue reading (2) Obstacles to my prosperity →