This is an interesting social experiment.
None of us would walk past someone we love if we saw them homeless on the street.
But the people in this video didn’t even know. And they’re just regular people, like you and me.
Have our homeless become so invisible that we don’t even want to look at their faces?
Why?
I was homeless for about 9 months, from November 2010 to August 2011. I have no immediate family and was homeless in a city and state that I had resided in for about 15 years at the time. One of the reasons I didn’t reach out to friends, or more distant family is the shame. I had gone through a bad divorce, where I was psychologically and emotionally abused, during a time when I went blind and started developing health problems. The money from the divorce was used to try and buy another house, during the time the housing market crashed.
Faced with immense physical problems and economic problems did nothing for my psychological state, and I went from having a good life to being hospitalized for 2 months, and being sent to a shelter on my discharge. I was able to salvage my viola and computers (a friend, who’s seen it all kept them for me until I was able to get Disability and move out on my own from the shelter) and I pretty much lost everything else.
There are two things at work here. One is the very fact that no one is safe from being homeless. I have had two careers; high-powered careers in my life and I have always viewed myself as a successful person, so how could this happen to me? The fact is, it can happen to anyone. It didn’t help that there were people who didn’t even know me on Facebook, who said “just pull yourself up by your bootstraps! You can work if you really want to!” I now live in an area that is a mixed-zoning area (after my homeless stint, I took the brave step of moving all the way across the street) which means it is a combination of commercial and residential buildings. The street I lived on (and is now 2 houses away) is a notorious one: Nebraska Avenue, and anything can be had on this street, for a price.
Having been homeless has really left it’s mark. I cannot pretend that everything ended up okay. It didn’t. I’m left with some psychological scars and the inability to drive due to my eyesight. It’s a royal pain in the ass to try and use mass transit in the Tampa Bay Area, but at least it’s not California. Not having any immediate family to help when things got rough was tough as well, and friends really don’t want to associate with what they perceive to be failure. I walk the streets here with an attitude and as I’ve had psychological issues in the past, I use that to my advantage. It will stop anything short of a bullet; I once fought off two muggers by being crazier than they were in broad daylight.
On the plus side, I will more readily jump into a situation when a person is truly down and out. There is empathy and caring. We all know each other and there are good people here. I’ve done everything from run and Indigogo campaign to get a sociopathic thief off the streets to amplify the word on my blog about a child’s leukemia who lives a continent away. I may not have bothered before. No life is too precious; we have our resident hobos here that we look after, and when one of them dies, it hurts. It hurts deeply. Life lived on the streets does not bring a long life expectancy and although there are some who prefer it, because they are either mentally ill and do not want to live in a shelter, or because they love the lifestyle, they are still human beings. We do what we can to try and stem the flow of drugs here, but like any lower-urban class area, it’s hard to do. The best I can do is keep it out of my house, and a time or two I wasn’t too successful with that. Lesson? No more roommates.
So, that’s my story. I think the homeless often go out of their way to BE invisible. They live on the edges and off of whatever society drops along the way. They fall through the cracks. The paperwork for applying for financial aid and food stamps is horrific. You need a goddamned PhD in English just to understand it and that’s deliberate. The state knows it’s audience and doesn’t play to it. They’re trying to hang onto every nickle and dime and it isn’t coming out of their pockets. The Medicare system is even worse, but it’s there. We don’t necessarily have to worry about jobs because we spend all our time filling out paper work, which is a waste. Don’t get me started.
Anyway, a fine blog post and I’m sorry I wrote a book, but anything to do with the homeless strikes a chord with me. It wasn’t part of my life plan, but it happened and if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.
Mary, this is beautiful. We all think we’re so far away from the edge when it’s just a step behind us. Can I post this? Like on the blog? I think it’s something for everyone to think about. Thank you for writing this.