burningbush

Living at the Triage Low Demand Shelter is very much like jail or being in a crisis stabilization unit. Food and cigarettes are our top priority. We spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting for the bus. Waiting for access to medical care. Waiting for next meal. Waiting for next smoke break. Waiting to go to bed. Lights out is 11 P.M. , and we are awakened promptly at 6:30 A.M.. I am usually already awake. I don’t sleep much. I snore and my roommates kick or shake my bunk bed so I will stop. This severely interferes with my R.E.M. sleep. Last night we had no air conditioning. The shelter is run by the Salvation Army but you wouldn’t know it. We are controlled by lazy sadists that are more like Roman soldiers than followers of Jesus Christ. Most of the black employees ( The homeless are mostly white) are fat, lazy and sadistic. Just lifting their arms to give you your phone, (We are only allowed our cell phones for 15 minutes at a time during smoke breaks) seems to wear them out. All...

This morning at the shelter after my breakfast of OJ, 2 cold pankakes and a bowl of generic cheerios,  I rushed to board the short bus and visited the Dept. of Children and Families, otherwise known as the food stamp office. Although I applied and was approved for foodstamps, DCF requires that you call in for an interview. I attempted to call in for several days with out success . The primary number just rang and rang with out even identifying itself as DCF, nor was there any voicemail. The second number was so overloaded by extraordinary high call volume that it routed to a small business somewhere in Florida. They were very irate about receiving calls bound for DCF.  Because of the overburdened phone system, I had to take time out form my ongoing job search to visit DCF in person. They were nice enough and able to interview me within a reasonable amount of time, however they were clueless to the fact that their phone system had a problem. Gov. Rick Scott the corpo...

In my adventure in homelessness I have been wishing I could videodocument all I have experienced. Obviously I cannot do this as it would infringe upon the rights of others. I have met some really interesting characters. The vet missing a foot. The prostitute from Boston (I'm not a howar I'm a prostitute!!) The high school alumni (Yes someone from Cypress Lake Senior High School class of '78 is also in the shelter with me. - Thank you Lee County Public School system) The crack whore. The Movie Star. The Rock Star. The formerly rich loving husband and wife. The Millionaire. The Vietnamese immigrant who does nails by day and plays classical piano by night. These are real people I have come to know and love. All are homeless. UPDATE: In my haste to post from the Public Library yesterday I negected some important Achtypes: The (literally) Starving Artist. The Athlete

The Buzzcocks  - I need It has been a long time since I last posted, Febuary in fact. Things are not going as I had hoped they would. I am currently homeless . It is not what you think. I have met many homeless Veterans. If you saw a pic of any of the people I have met you would never know they were homeless. They are the most positive people I have ever met. Many are suffering from alcohol and other addictions problems. I am not. I have been clean for five years. I need a job.   (Are you listening Mr. President???)  I wish someone (besides me) would write a article about all the formerly middle class Americans that are now homeless as a result of our dying economy. The "experts" are saying the economy is growing again because banks are lending. They have bad data. They are unaware of how many people are living off the grid.  For the first few days at the Triage low demand homeless shelter I slept on a cot. I had access to bad fo...