Anyone who's ever stayed in a homeless shelter or contemplated doing so knows that there are certain characteristic often seen in such places. One of those characteristics is that people are often expected to take all of their earthly possessions with them each morning when they leave for the day.
Did you arrive with two suitcases? Then you are expected to take both of those suitcases with you each and every morning.
There are some exceptions, depending on where one is staying. At the Dallas Texas shelter known at The Bridge, where I stayed last month, one was allowed to store up to two large bags in what they called "bins". The time I spent there would have been truly miserable if I had not been fortunate enough to snag a bin for myself (thanks to the recommendation of a young man who could see that I was really struggling with the quantities of luggage I had brought with me).
They did a pretty good job of assigning bin numbers to individuals who got them, but the bins were not perfectly secure against theft, and even though my time there was relatively brief, I know of several items which were lost (or more likely, stolen) while stored in my bin. That's in addition to items I lost prior to moving into the Bridge. I lost: A nice blue blanket which had been given to me just the previous day; a Band of Brothers cap with alpha and omega embroidery; a sports jacket which would have been useful for job interviews; and I think one or two other items as well. That's in addition to the most devestating loss, which occurred when I was forced to put my Toshiba laptop computer into a Dallas pawn shop just to raise a few dollars. In theory, I may still be able to get the Toshiba back, if I can repay the pawn shop loan with interest by the specified deadline. But I may need help in order to do that. In a future blog post here, I plan to offer more specific information, particularly in relation to my good reason for wanting to get that laptop computer back.
Back to The Bridge: Pretty much anyone was eligible to get his or her own bin, it was just a matter of good timing. Bins were not always available, since there were more people than the total number of available bins.
Imagine going to a job interview and carrying all of your worldly possessions into the interviewer's office. Perceptions are very important when seeking employment, and I find it hard to imagine that one would not be enormously handicapped when applying for work under such circumstances.
Of course, being homeless does not necessarily mean that one cannot afford to rent a storage facility elsewhere. (Apartments tend to cost a lot more than storage units.) Or one may have a kind and generous friend who will agree to store one's most important personal items for a while, even if that person has no room for one to sleep at night. But it's easy to see how a person can experience great difficulty as a result of such storage issues.
At the Lighthouse Mission where I am currently staying in Bellingham, they handle the storage issue by assigning lockers to people they designate as "residents" as opposed to "guests" (for whom they offer virtually no storage at all).
Currently still I'm considered to be a Lighthouse Mission "guest", so I'm not yet eligible for my own locker, or for my own bunk bed either for that matter.
It should to without saying that I want to go from being a guest to being a resident. Residents are expected to do certain chores from which guests seem to be exempt. I don't mind that idea, as long as my chores are in line with my current physical limitations. I would most likely do well with chores pertaining to the kitchen, or to office work, which is the type of work I have most often done in the past.
The distinction between residents and guests appears to be an accomodation to the limits inherent in the fact that The Lighthouse Mission doesn't have enough physical and material resources to accomodate each person equally.
I would prefer a situation where all who stay there are treated equally, and given equal access to facilities and services, but that would require additional funds and related fund raising efforts, so I am glad at least that they allow me and other newcomers to sleep there at night. Even so, I have heard the phrase "transitional housing" there, and inasmuch as that phrase seems to refer to a more normal situation which would be more comparable to having a home or room or apartment of one's own, that's what I am hoping to get soon. It may be that I can get one through the Opportunity Council here in Bellingham (since I have been on that waiting list for about 9 to 10 years now), or that I can get such housing via disability insurance. To some extent, however, things are still up in the area in that regard.
Meanwhile, I do rent a storage facility nearby in Bellingham, and although I was worried that I would lose it as a result of falling behind on my monthly payments, I met a man yesterday, and he generously offered me some financial help which would at least keep me in that storage room until the end of January 2012. Here's hoping and praying that his offer was sincere. If so, I may survive this experience with minimal personal loss.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Hospital Woes
Recently I went to the Bellingham hospital which treated me after my June 2011 stroke, seeking a place to stay and receive treatment for the scabies I'd picked up at the Lighthouse Mission. To say that they had very little help to offer is an understatement. They kept me long enough to engage in "evaluation" but no longer.Then they sent me back to the Lighthouse Mission. The problems I acquired there remain, and they are getting worse daily. I was not lying when I told them I was feeling suicidal. But I'm not sure that I even have the means with which to implement those "ideations". Economically or physically. I have almost no money left in the bank, and no idea when I can expect any more.
This morning I had to spend almost $2 just for a coffee at The Woods just so I could pee in their restroom. Homeless peole are treated very badly here in America. Try it sometime if you don't believe me.
This morning I had to spend almost $2 just for a coffee at The Woods just so I could pee in their restroom. Homeless peole are treated very badly here in America. Try it sometime if you don't believe me.
Physical Problems
In June 2011, I had a small stroke or "mini stroke" which put me in the hospital for a long weekend here in Bellingham. It was the result of very high blood pressure.
I am still dealing with those problems. It is affecting my sense of balance in a negative way, especially when I try to tote luggage; but also it's affecting my typing, which has always been fast and accurate in the past. I managed to type the preceding sentence only after a great deal of struggle just now. I am starting to realize that it is approaching the level of a physical disability which affects my ability to do my work for employers. Dittto for the kind of physical work I might do for the kind of jobs one might get from Ready Temp and the like. It's a most distressing realization. It seem to have a lot to do with finger strength and also with accuracy of placement. I am noticing it on the computers here at the Bellingham library. There is a very noticeable numbness in my fingers.
If I had to be disabled, I would rather be disabled in a way which wouldn't affect my ability to blog and do other things online. But I may not have a choice in the matter.
Other issues, such as the fact that I now have a serious case of scabies thanks to sleeping at the Lighthouse Mission in Bellingham for the past week or so, compound the difficulty. Regarding my hand, being put out in the cold this morning created a bit of minor frostbite in my hands. That may be affecting the typing too.
I really need some serious ongoing help, probably in the form of monetary disability insurance payments.
I am still dealing with those problems. It is affecting my sense of balance in a negative way, especially when I try to tote luggage; but also it's affecting my typing, which has always been fast and accurate in the past. I managed to type the preceding sentence only after a great deal of struggle just now. I am starting to realize that it is approaching the level of a physical disability which affects my ability to do my work for employers. Dittto for the kind of physical work I might do for the kind of jobs one might get from Ready Temp and the like. It's a most distressing realization. It seem to have a lot to do with finger strength and also with accuracy of placement. I am noticing it on the computers here at the Bellingham library. There is a very noticeable numbness in my fingers.
If I had to be disabled, I would rather be disabled in a way which wouldn't affect my ability to blog and do other things online. But I may not have a choice in the matter.
Other issues, such as the fact that I now have a serious case of scabies thanks to sleeping at the Lighthouse Mission in Bellingham for the past week or so, compound the difficulty. Regarding my hand, being put out in the cold this morning created a bit of minor frostbite in my hands. That may be affecting the typing too.
I really need some serious ongoing help, probably in the form of monetary disability insurance payments.
Monday, December 5, 2011
My Current Situation
The last time I entered a blog post here, I was down in Dallas Texas, and I was kind of stuck there as a result of financial problems. I had not yet managed to make it down to Italy, TX in order to visit with the folks at the Monolithic factory.
Since that time, I have managed to take the Greyhound bus to Waxahachie, TX, from which I took a cab ride to that factory, where I met with a person named Gary Clark. The meeting failed to produce the results for which I was hoping, but Gary was a nice guy, and he paid for one night's stay at a motel there, so that I wouldn't end up even more broke than I already was, and so that I would not end up having to sleep outside that night. He also gave me $200 so that I'd have money with which to partially purchase a bus ticket back to Bellingham, WA. I still had to wait until my next direct deposit payment of unemployment insurance into my Chase account before I'd have the rest of what I'd need for that return trip on Greyhound, which is why I had to stop over in Dallas instead of buying a ticket directly from Waxahachie to Bellingham, but fortunately, by the time I'd returned to Dallas, that payment to my Chase account had been made.
Of course, the return trip was almost as tiring as the trip down there had been, and once I found myself in Bellingham, I still faced housing problems comparable to the one which had sent me on that trip to Texas in the first place. Everett Barton, the Bellingham resident with whom I'd been staying earlier, was no longer in his house, so staying with him was no longer an option, so I ended up having to move into the Lighthouse Mission, a homeless shelter on Holly Street in downtown Bellingham. My first night there would be a blog post in itself, and while my second night there wasn't quite as bad, it's clear to me that my priority list has got to include addressing the financial situation quickly so that I can move into a more normal place of abode. Suffice it to say that it was a long walk to the Lighthouse Mission, during which I ended up urinating on myself because most places with public restrooms were closed; and I spent the evening listening to the guy sleeping on the mat next to mine as he vomited on himself two or three times. Not my idea of fun, and probably not yours, either! But I survived.
The trip to Texas was costly for me in some respects. I ended up having to pawn my laptop PC just so that I'd have a little money while in the Dallas area. I am hoping to be able to quickly earn enough money to pay off that loan in its entirety, and to pay the pawn shop to ship the laptop PC back to me in Washington. If I can't raise that money, I will very likely lose the data I had on that laptop PC, since I had so little advance notice about the need for the money from the pawn shop that I wasn't able to use the normal procedures in order to back up that data prior to putting it into the pawn shop. (They basically hold one's product hostage when using it as a means of assuring that the loan will be repaid, so they can't give one the loan money and then let one temporarily use that product in order to back up the data or go online.) It wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't care about the data files on that computer, but I do, because I was hoping to sell prints made from those graphic files in order to raise additional needed funds. The data means more to me than the computer or the software on it. Both of those things can be easily replaced (albeit at some expense), but the original data files are another matter.
Well, that ought to give a brief overview of my current situation, although it doesn't cover the entire story by any means.
I used the show facilities this morning at the nearest YMCA, and I'm feeling a bit fresher now. I'm basically trying to think clearly about what my next steps should be. Among other things, I plan to go back to the offices of the Opportunity Council in order to assure them that I still want to remain on their waiting list for housing. I've been on that list since last February, and I'm hoping it won't be much longer before my wait will pay off. I also hope to speak with someone there about my intentions of tapping into the funds Starbucks donated to the Opportunity Finance Network, in order to start my own business here. I'm not relying solely on that plan in terms of income; I still need employment, obviously, and working as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army may be very useful in that respect, so that I can earn the money with which to pay off that pawnshop, and also so that I can pay the December storage fee at Sunset Storage, so that I will not lose those items. (Staying at the Lighthouse Mission would be a lot more stressful without the ability to store some of my personal possessions at Sunset Storage.) I also plan to use computers available at the library and at Job Source in order to engage in an intense search for a job.
The experience has been an ordeal to put it mildly, but I really have no choice but to try my best to survive and even thrive through the experience.
More information to come...
Please pray for me.
Since that time, I have managed to take the Greyhound bus to Waxahachie, TX, from which I took a cab ride to that factory, where I met with a person named Gary Clark. The meeting failed to produce the results for which I was hoping, but Gary was a nice guy, and he paid for one night's stay at a motel there, so that I wouldn't end up even more broke than I already was, and so that I would not end up having to sleep outside that night. He also gave me $200 so that I'd have money with which to partially purchase a bus ticket back to Bellingham, WA. I still had to wait until my next direct deposit payment of unemployment insurance into my Chase account before I'd have the rest of what I'd need for that return trip on Greyhound, which is why I had to stop over in Dallas instead of buying a ticket directly from Waxahachie to Bellingham, but fortunately, by the time I'd returned to Dallas, that payment to my Chase account had been made.
Of course, the return trip was almost as tiring as the trip down there had been, and once I found myself in Bellingham, I still faced housing problems comparable to the one which had sent me on that trip to Texas in the first place. Everett Barton, the Bellingham resident with whom I'd been staying earlier, was no longer in his house, so staying with him was no longer an option, so I ended up having to move into the Lighthouse Mission, a homeless shelter on Holly Street in downtown Bellingham. My first night there would be a blog post in itself, and while my second night there wasn't quite as bad, it's clear to me that my priority list has got to include addressing the financial situation quickly so that I can move into a more normal place of abode. Suffice it to say that it was a long walk to the Lighthouse Mission, during which I ended up urinating on myself because most places with public restrooms were closed; and I spent the evening listening to the guy sleeping on the mat next to mine as he vomited on himself two or three times. Not my idea of fun, and probably not yours, either! But I survived.
The trip to Texas was costly for me in some respects. I ended up having to pawn my laptop PC just so that I'd have a little money while in the Dallas area. I am hoping to be able to quickly earn enough money to pay off that loan in its entirety, and to pay the pawn shop to ship the laptop PC back to me in Washington. If I can't raise that money, I will very likely lose the data I had on that laptop PC, since I had so little advance notice about the need for the money from the pawn shop that I wasn't able to use the normal procedures in order to back up that data prior to putting it into the pawn shop. (They basically hold one's product hostage when using it as a means of assuring that the loan will be repaid, so they can't give one the loan money and then let one temporarily use that product in order to back up the data or go online.) It wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't care about the data files on that computer, but I do, because I was hoping to sell prints made from those graphic files in order to raise additional needed funds. The data means more to me than the computer or the software on it. Both of those things can be easily replaced (albeit at some expense), but the original data files are another matter.
Well, that ought to give a brief overview of my current situation, although it doesn't cover the entire story by any means.
I used the show facilities this morning at the nearest YMCA, and I'm feeling a bit fresher now. I'm basically trying to think clearly about what my next steps should be. Among other things, I plan to go back to the offices of the Opportunity Council in order to assure them that I still want to remain on their waiting list for housing. I've been on that list since last February, and I'm hoping it won't be much longer before my wait will pay off. I also hope to speak with someone there about my intentions of tapping into the funds Starbucks donated to the Opportunity Finance Network, in order to start my own business here. I'm not relying solely on that plan in terms of income; I still need employment, obviously, and working as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army may be very useful in that respect, so that I can earn the money with which to pay off that pawnshop, and also so that I can pay the December storage fee at Sunset Storage, so that I will not lose those items. (Staying at the Lighthouse Mission would be a lot more stressful without the ability to store some of my personal possessions at Sunset Storage.) I also plan to use computers available at the library and at Job Source in order to engage in an intense search for a job.
The experience has been an ordeal to put it mildly, but I really have no choice but to try my best to survive and even thrive through the experience.
More information to come...
Please pray for me.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Life at The Bridge
This blog post would be too long for the amount of computer time I have at the Dallas Public Library if I were to chronicle the incidents which led from my brief residence at Dallas International Street Church to my move last night to the homeless shelter known as The Bridge (which is located just a few blocks south of the main Dallas library). Suffice it to say that I am now staying at that shelter as of late yesterday. In order to contact me, people will need to use the contact information at http://www.mdhadallas.org/the_bridge.aspx. It's an undesirable situation, but them again, the same thing could be said with regard to staying at any homeless shelter. At least the mattress was reasonably comfortable last night. And they allowed me to put my larger suitcases into a storage bin assigned to me, so I don't have to lug them all over downtown Dallas, which would be a real hardship. The food there is also fairly good, although the food was better at the Lighthouse Mission in Bellingham, WA on the one time when I ate there.
The web site says they offer mail services, so anyone wishing to send financial help to me can do so in care of that facility.Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (located at The Bridge), 1818 Corsicana, Dallas Texas 75201 . Tel: 214 670 1101 . Info@MDHADallas.org
I can also be reached, as usual, at mwp1212@gmail.com., as long as I can continue to go online at the library. I also have been told that the shelter has its own library with internet access. How that compares to the library, I do not yet know.
The shelter also offers help to folks seeking employment. Also health care, a laundry and more.
They offer a small packet with toothbrush and toothpaste, and a little bit of soap, but I think I am going to have to step out and go to the dollar store I visited the other day in order to buy another towel. How I lost the first towel I bought, I do not know, but it was just $5, and I should be able to handle that expense since I put my laptop into a pawn shop. Needless to say, I'm unhappy about that, since I highly value the laptop (and the data on it). But at least there are these computers at the library.
The Bridge seems to have problems holding onto necessities such as toilet paper. I am not normally in the habit of swiping toilet paper from public restroom facilities, but one does what one has to do, and I am not going to run around with a smelly behind.just because The Bridge can't keep its basic supplies in stock.
They have rules, such as the very important rule that one cannot stay out past 10:00 p.m., but that is somewhat understandable considering that one is fortunate in a city with the population of Dallas to get a bed at all.
I do wish I had a blanket, but I was able to keep somewhat warm last night with the two sweaters I was wearing, even though the top sweater had seen better days. I'm told that the Salvation Army will be paying a visit to us tomorrow, and they may donate some clothes or blankets.
I have an issue with my unemployment insurance payments, which were being sent via direct deposit to my Chase account. But Chase totally closed that account just a couple of days ago! I may have to contact IDES to get them to mail the payments directly to me in care of The Bridge.
Any financial help anyone can send to me at that shelter will be greatly appreciated.
The web site says they offer mail services, so anyone wishing to send financial help to me can do so in care of that facility.Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (located at The Bridge), 1818 Corsicana, Dallas Texas 75201 . Tel: 214 670 1101 . Info@MDHADallas.org
I can also be reached, as usual, at mwp1212@gmail.com., as long as I can continue to go online at the library. I also have been told that the shelter has its own library with internet access. How that compares to the library, I do not yet know.
The shelter also offers help to folks seeking employment. Also health care, a laundry and more.
They offer a small packet with toothbrush and toothpaste, and a little bit of soap, but I think I am going to have to step out and go to the dollar store I visited the other day in order to buy another towel. How I lost the first towel I bought, I do not know, but it was just $5, and I should be able to handle that expense since I put my laptop into a pawn shop. Needless to say, I'm unhappy about that, since I highly value the laptop (and the data on it). But at least there are these computers at the library.
The Bridge seems to have problems holding onto necessities such as toilet paper. I am not normally in the habit of swiping toilet paper from public restroom facilities, but one does what one has to do, and I am not going to run around with a smelly behind.just because The Bridge can't keep its basic supplies in stock.
They have rules, such as the very important rule that one cannot stay out past 10:00 p.m., but that is somewhat understandable considering that one is fortunate in a city with the population of Dallas to get a bed at all.
I do wish I had a blanket, but I was able to keep somewhat warm last night with the two sweaters I was wearing, even though the top sweater had seen better days. I'm told that the Salvation Army will be paying a visit to us tomorrow, and they may donate some clothes or blankets.
I have an issue with my unemployment insurance payments, which were being sent via direct deposit to my Chase account. But Chase totally closed that account just a couple of days ago! I may have to contact IDES to get them to mail the payments directly to me in care of The Bridge.
Any financial help anyone can send to me at that shelter will be greatly appreciated.
Monday, November 21, 2011
When It Rains, It Pours
As I write this, I'm sitting in the McDonalds near the Martin Luther King Jr. DART Train stop in Dallas, Texas. They do have Wi-Fi, and when one is actually in the store, it seems to work fairly well. But I look forward with trepidation to the prospect of going outside and walking over to that station to catch the bus back to the Dallas International Street Church. It is raining ferociously outside, and I have no umbrella or rain jacket. Plus, the church floor (on which I have been sleeping recently) tends to get really cold anyway. I am almost completely out of money, and it seems likely that I'm really going to have to beg and plead, just to fill my stomach until I get my next payment from IDES (Illinois Department of Employment Security).
I guess some would call me a coward, because such things tend to frighten me. I want to live a comfortable life, with a minimum of insecurity. That has not been the case for quite some time; if anything, things seem to be getting even worse.
I wanted to be a man of faith. In theory, I admired such men. But the reality is turning out to be something I never anticipated when I was a younger Christian. It's been said that life is full of tests to one's faith, and that's an understatement.
Of course, it could be worse. At least no one is firing bullets at me. That's something to remember on Thanksgiving, I guess.
Well, my battery is getting down to 18% remaining, which means I don't have much more time online. Time to turn off the computer and see if I can get a trash bag with which to cover the computer in an effort to protect it from rain damage, before walking over to the bus station. At least I still have a little bit of money on my DART bus pass.
I guess some would call me a coward, because such things tend to frighten me. I want to live a comfortable life, with a minimum of insecurity. That has not been the case for quite some time; if anything, things seem to be getting even worse.
I wanted to be a man of faith. In theory, I admired such men. But the reality is turning out to be something I never anticipated when I was a younger Christian. It's been said that life is full of tests to one's faith, and that's an understatement.
Of course, it could be worse. At least no one is firing bullets at me. That's something to remember on Thanksgiving, I guess.
Well, my battery is getting down to 18% remaining, which means I don't have much more time online. Time to turn off the computer and see if I can get a trash bag with which to cover the computer in an effort to protect it from rain damage, before walking over to the bus station. At least I still have a little bit of money on my DART bus pass.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Stuck in Dallas
Last week I found myself in a predicament. I'd been living in Bellingham, Washington for the past year, with a Facebook friend named Everett Barton. He was a fellow Christian who had learned about a project of mine, which I called the Christian Arts Initiative. He had also learned about my having been recently evicted from my 11 x 14 room at the Lawson House YMCA, where I had lived for the past 14 years. For the vast majority of that time, I'd worked in various office jobs, and I'd paid my rent, usually on time. But as you may know, the economy of our nation of the United States of America has really gone into the dumper (especially during the past year or two), and a lot of folks have lost their jobs. If they weren't making huge amounts of money to begin with, it doesn't take very long for such people to fall behind on their rent or mortgage payments.
In my case, it was the rent payments that caused my eviction from that YMCA. When I lost my most recent job, I was successful in applying for unemployment insurance benefits, but the benefit amount awarded to me just wasn't enough to enable me to keep up with the rent. That's why I found myself, in late 2010, discarding a lot of personal possessions, and travelling across the upper part of the country in a Greyhound bus, whereupon I met with Everett and began sleeping on his couch with his little white Jack Russell terrier curled up at night between my ankles. I attended Hillcrest Chapel, Everett's church, with him on Sundays. I also spent some time, on Tuesdays for a while, attending a Christian men's fellowship group called Band of Brothers.
Right after arriving in Bellingham, I came to realize that I wasn't out of the woods by any means. Everett's own home had been foreclosed, and while he'd managed temporarily to avoid being kicked out of that house (which was in a sad state of disrepair), it was clear to me that it wasn't likely to be long before that happened. In a sense, my fate was tied with Everett's fate insofar as housing was concerned. The checks I got from my unemployement insurance enabled me to pretty much pay for my basic food and living experiences (thanks in part to the fact that their monthly bus passes in Bellingham were only $23, compared with about $70 a month in Chicago). I even managed to save enough money to buy a laptop computer, which I knew I would need for the purpose of seeking a job, since the library there only offered one hour a day on the computers, six days a week. But I didn't find a job.
That was due, in part, to the fact that I spent too much time trying to make connections related to my dream of starting (or rather, continuing) a project I called the Christian Arts Initiative. Bellingham is a very artistic town, and it seemed feasible to me that such a ministry would be successful. I frankly believe that it would have been, if I'd succeeded in procuring support from Everett's church. But I didn't procure that support, not because the church leaders ever gave me any principled reasons for opposition to the project, but for reasons which seemed mostly related to their dislike of my communication style, which they found to be too verbose (as I later discovered). I frankly thought, and still think, that that was a pretty lame reason, based on arbitrary criteria which had no biblical basis of which I was aware. But the facts were what they were, and it was futile and pointless for me to argue.
It didn't help that in June 2011, I had a stroke which put me in the hospital for several days. The period after that was spent learning just to get around on the cane I got from the Lion's Club. I'm able to walk without that cane now, but I'm still feeling the effects of the stroke, in terms of the negative effect it had on my equilibrium (sense of balance). Fortunately, the type of work I normally do (mostly office work) does not require great equilibrium.
Especially after the stroke, I spent a fair amount of time browsing the web with my laptop computer, looking for possible solutions to my two related problems pertaining to my need for a job and my need for housing. I'd gotten myself placed on a waiting list for housing via the Opportunity Council, but I was getting more and more signals from Everett and from the Opportunity Council, strongly suggesting that I was unlikely to get housing through that organization soon enough to help me before my stay in Everett's house came to an end. (I couldn't afford to wait until February or later.) The thought of being forced to move into a homeless shelter was a source of additional depression for me, because while I knew that Bellingham had a relatively nice shelter known as the Lighthouse Mission, I'd learned from them that they could offer nothing much in terms of help with the extra storage I would need in order to avoid having to throw away materials pertaining to my plans for the Christian Arts Initiative. I'd created a lot of artistically creative work with my camera and my computer, and also (earlier, in the 1990s) with the keyboard instruments I managed to acquire for a short period of time. It would be a major setback to have to give up those CDs I had burned because I couldn't afford a place to store them.
For obvious reasons, I developed a fascination with different housing and shelter options for folks in predicaments such as mine. One of those options involved the cabins being manufactured by Monolithic, a company in Italy, Texas. Relatively speaking, those cabins were quite inexpensive, in comparison with more conventional homes. Moreover, I learned that Monolithic was looking for sales reps to help them to sell the units, which could be shipped to nearly any location in the continental United States, and maybe even elsewhere, after being completely built there in Italy. I reasoned as follows:
Sure enough, when I got to Dallas, I found that my money was already starting to get seriously depleted. At that rate, I'd be "broke" (and maybe literally broken) in no time. I stayed in a motel room after arrival, because three solid nights of trying to get rest on a constantly moving Greyhound bus had me feeling exhausted and in need of a REAL bed! But then I started to get scared when I saw just how little money I had in my account. On Sunday morning, I therefore called a cab, which delivered me to that church (Dallas International Street Church, a/k/a DISC) just as they were about to start their worship service.
They aren't dummies at DISC, and seeing me arrive with two suitcases and a small book bag (for my laptop computer) made them aware that I needed some hospitality, without the need for me to say so.
I've therefore been sleeping on the floor of their sanctuary for the past several days. (It wasn't horrible at first, but last night I didn't even get a mattress, and it was very, very uncomfortable and cold.) HINT: Someone needs to donate some proper inflatable mattresses to these folks pronto! Enough for at least ten people or so.
Unfortunately, they seem to be under the impression that I came so that I could become a permanent or semi-permanent part of their rehab program. Technically, it's true that I am temporarily homeless, but provided that Monolithic accepts my proposal that I become one of their sales reps, I anticipate that I will soon have a roof over my own head, back in Bellingham, and I will be in a position to start selling their products to the people of Washington, British Columbia and Alaska. (See explanatory notes below.) I figured that traveling to Italy would enable me to learn everything I'd need to learn in order to properly represent Monolithic and its products, and in order to handle the technical details related to such sales.
Monolithic candidly told me in an e-mail that they would not be able to pay me a salary above and beyond my sales commissions. If I had no income at all, that would be a deal breaker, but as I said, the money I was getting from unemployment insurance while I still lived with Everett in Bellingham was enabling me to feed myself. Plus, they have great food banks there, although I didn't often use them because Everett (bless his heart) was a bit of a hoarder, and he was already bringing home so much food from the Food Bank that there wasn't any room for my own food bank stuff there as well! The unemployment insurance checks should continue to come to me until around May 2012, so my primary concern financially is persuading Monolithic to furnish me with a cabin (for housing and sales purposes), and raising the funds for the return trip to Washington, so that I can start selling those units. (Needless to say, we'll also need to find and legally acquire property on which to place the cabin once it's in Bellingham.)
Sunday night, the folks from the church where I'm staying (the Dallas International Street Church) took a bus load of people to a revival service at another church (the Fountain Church of the Living Word). Amazingly, I met and made connections with a young man (named Shaun) who seemed to respond very positively when I told him about my epic journey to Italy. I audaciously suggested to him that since he had his own car, he might be able to drive me down there in order to finish doing what I came here to do. He seemed to be open to that idea, so I am going to go back to that church this afternoon in an effort to follow up on that meeting.
If not, perhaps the Monolithic folks could send someone to Dallas to pick up up and take me down there. From what I've seen, there doesn't seem to be an affordable commuter train or bus I could take to and from Dallas to the town of Italy.
DISC (the church where I am staying) still seems to be under the impression that I am there to participate in their discipleship/training program. It's a very good program, from what I have seen, if one is currently struggling with the sort of issues more commonly associated with homelessness (such as alcoholism and drug addiction), but that doesn't even remotely describe me accurately. If I end up in the same place in life that most of their graduates end up in, I will regard that as an enormous setback, not as a victory!
Please pray that my progress will resume, and please pray that my current hosts and benefactors will not take offense when I say, "Thanks but no thanks" to their attempts to impose a schedule on me which will hinder that progress.
Also, I can see a possible scenario (which I may describe in a future blog post) where my association with Monolithic would prove to be a huge blessing for the DISC ministry. After all, they clearly need additional housing units for the homeless, and they recently received a donation (on a piece of rural property east of Dallas) of a 34 acre plot of land suitable for placement of additional buildings in the form of Monolithic cabins.
They've already built a Life Skills training and ministry building there, and it ostensibly includes or will include housing, but I foresee growth for their ministry, and I think they are going to need more homeless housing there. (Maybe then folks wouldn't be forced to sleep on the floor of their sanctuary, the way I've had to do.) I believe that the smart folks at Monolithic could be persuaded to donate or at least lend several cabin units to the ministry, in exchange for the promotional value they would receive if they capitalized on the situation with the use of videos, press releases, groundbreaking ceremonies attended by state officials with impressive credentials and so forth.
By placing one or more Monolithic cabins on that piece of land, the men and women of DISC could operate as sales reps for Monolithic, and thereby receive that 6% sales commission every time they sold a cabin. Even 6% sales commissions on their least expensive unit (about $15,000) would be a substantial payment of about $900, which is a whole lot more than they're likely to get in the offering plate in a month of Sundays from a congregation consisting mostly of homeless people or formerly homeless people.
They could also offer lodging in those units, during special events such as church retreats, and they could earn money from fees paid by people able to pay such fees.
In other words, it could be a win/win scenario for all concerned.
FYI, I am posting this blog post in order to make it easier to clearly communicate, both with the folks at Monolithic and the folks at the Dallas International Street Church.
In my case, it was the rent payments that caused my eviction from that YMCA. When I lost my most recent job, I was successful in applying for unemployment insurance benefits, but the benefit amount awarded to me just wasn't enough to enable me to keep up with the rent. That's why I found myself, in late 2010, discarding a lot of personal possessions, and travelling across the upper part of the country in a Greyhound bus, whereupon I met with Everett and began sleeping on his couch with his little white Jack Russell terrier curled up at night between my ankles. I attended Hillcrest Chapel, Everett's church, with him on Sundays. I also spent some time, on Tuesdays for a while, attending a Christian men's fellowship group called Band of Brothers.
Right after arriving in Bellingham, I came to realize that I wasn't out of the woods by any means. Everett's own home had been foreclosed, and while he'd managed temporarily to avoid being kicked out of that house (which was in a sad state of disrepair), it was clear to me that it wasn't likely to be long before that happened. In a sense, my fate was tied with Everett's fate insofar as housing was concerned. The checks I got from my unemployement insurance enabled me to pretty much pay for my basic food and living experiences (thanks in part to the fact that their monthly bus passes in Bellingham were only $23, compared with about $70 a month in Chicago). I even managed to save enough money to buy a laptop computer, which I knew I would need for the purpose of seeking a job, since the library there only offered one hour a day on the computers, six days a week. But I didn't find a job.
That was due, in part, to the fact that I spent too much time trying to make connections related to my dream of starting (or rather, continuing) a project I called the Christian Arts Initiative. Bellingham is a very artistic town, and it seemed feasible to me that such a ministry would be successful. I frankly believe that it would have been, if I'd succeeded in procuring support from Everett's church. But I didn't procure that support, not because the church leaders ever gave me any principled reasons for opposition to the project, but for reasons which seemed mostly related to their dislike of my communication style, which they found to be too verbose (as I later discovered). I frankly thought, and still think, that that was a pretty lame reason, based on arbitrary criteria which had no biblical basis of which I was aware. But the facts were what they were, and it was futile and pointless for me to argue.
It didn't help that in June 2011, I had a stroke which put me in the hospital for several days. The period after that was spent learning just to get around on the cane I got from the Lion's Club. I'm able to walk without that cane now, but I'm still feeling the effects of the stroke, in terms of the negative effect it had on my equilibrium (sense of balance). Fortunately, the type of work I normally do (mostly office work) does not require great equilibrium.
Especially after the stroke, I spent a fair amount of time browsing the web with my laptop computer, looking for possible solutions to my two related problems pertaining to my need for a job and my need for housing. I'd gotten myself placed on a waiting list for housing via the Opportunity Council, but I was getting more and more signals from Everett and from the Opportunity Council, strongly suggesting that I was unlikely to get housing through that organization soon enough to help me before my stay in Everett's house came to an end. (I couldn't afford to wait until February or later.) The thought of being forced to move into a homeless shelter was a source of additional depression for me, because while I knew that Bellingham had a relatively nice shelter known as the Lighthouse Mission, I'd learned from them that they could offer nothing much in terms of help with the extra storage I would need in order to avoid having to throw away materials pertaining to my plans for the Christian Arts Initiative. I'd created a lot of artistically creative work with my camera and my computer, and also (earlier, in the 1990s) with the keyboard instruments I managed to acquire for a short period of time. It would be a major setback to have to give up those CDs I had burned because I couldn't afford a place to store them.
For obvious reasons, I developed a fascination with different housing and shelter options for folks in predicaments such as mine. One of those options involved the cabins being manufactured by Monolithic, a company in Italy, Texas. Relatively speaking, those cabins were quite inexpensive, in comparison with more conventional homes. Moreover, I learned that Monolithic was looking for sales reps to help them to sell the units, which could be shipped to nearly any location in the continental United States, and maybe even elsewhere, after being completely built there in Italy. I reasoned as follows:
- They would need sample cabins in each location where they sought regional sales representation. No one would want to buy solely from a web photo or a printed photo, without seeing an actual unit.
- These sample cabins wouldn't be needed for sales presentations in the evening hours when I was sleeping. So if the company furnished me with the cabin I would need in order to do my job, I would effectively be provided with an appealing alternative to the homeless shelter, in terms of insuring that I would continue to have a roof over my head, even if Everett wasn't able to keep his house.
- My abilities in terms of communication (including both graphic design and copywriting) would enable me to sell the units to their target market. I would emphasize the superior resistance to damage from natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes. My new knowledge about the fact that the town of Bellingham was very vulnerable to earthquake damage (on account of being within the Cascadia Subduction Zone) would be a selling point.
- Those portable cabins were already being promoted by Monolithic as "worker housing" (which would benefit the numerous fruit farmers in Washington state when it came time to hire laborers for the harvest). And after all, was I not a "worker"? The fact that I was actually living in the unit at night while using it as a sales office during the daytime would drive home that selling point.
- I also wanted to explore the potential for creating inespensive versions of the kind of "floating homes" popular near Seattle, WA and Portland, OR. (It would be relatively simple, or so it seems to me, to set one of these pre-manufactured "dome cabins" atop a suitable floating support.) Such floating homes would be far more affordable than the high prices folks are accustomed to paying. Some go for hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even more. There are even realtors and home owners associations specializing in such floating homes.
- I would also explore the possibility of promoting the cabins at the Bellingham port for the very frequently traveled Alaska Marine Highway (involving a huge and very luxurious ferry), which was just right down the street, a short bus trip from Everett's house. (http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/ contains information about that ferry.) Simply by having a sales rep in Bellingham, Monolithic would gain access to a substantial percentage of the people living or working or vacationing in Alaska.
- An illuminated ad could also be place indoors at the very popular Bellis Fair mall there. (One ad there would generate a lot of interest, I calculated.) That mall is one of the main reasons for frequent traffic between Washington State and British Columbia. It is also seen by many of the people who pass through Bellingham on account of the Alaska Marine Highway.
Sure enough, when I got to Dallas, I found that my money was already starting to get seriously depleted. At that rate, I'd be "broke" (and maybe literally broken) in no time. I stayed in a motel room after arrival, because three solid nights of trying to get rest on a constantly moving Greyhound bus had me feeling exhausted and in need of a REAL bed! But then I started to get scared when I saw just how little money I had in my account. On Sunday morning, I therefore called a cab, which delivered me to that church (Dallas International Street Church, a/k/a DISC) just as they were about to start their worship service.
They aren't dummies at DISC, and seeing me arrive with two suitcases and a small book bag (for my laptop computer) made them aware that I needed some hospitality, without the need for me to say so.
I've therefore been sleeping on the floor of their sanctuary for the past several days. (It wasn't horrible at first, but last night I didn't even get a mattress, and it was very, very uncomfortable and cold.) HINT: Someone needs to donate some proper inflatable mattresses to these folks pronto! Enough for at least ten people or so.
Unfortunately, they seem to be under the impression that I came so that I could become a permanent or semi-permanent part of their rehab program. Technically, it's true that I am temporarily homeless, but provided that Monolithic accepts my proposal that I become one of their sales reps, I anticipate that I will soon have a roof over my own head, back in Bellingham, and I will be in a position to start selling their products to the people of Washington, British Columbia and Alaska. (See explanatory notes below.) I figured that traveling to Italy would enable me to learn everything I'd need to learn in order to properly represent Monolithic and its products, and in order to handle the technical details related to such sales.
Monolithic candidly told me in an e-mail that they would not be able to pay me a salary above and beyond my sales commissions. If I had no income at all, that would be a deal breaker, but as I said, the money I was getting from unemployment insurance while I still lived with Everett in Bellingham was enabling me to feed myself. Plus, they have great food banks there, although I didn't often use them because Everett (bless his heart) was a bit of a hoarder, and he was already bringing home so much food from the Food Bank that there wasn't any room for my own food bank stuff there as well! The unemployment insurance checks should continue to come to me until around May 2012, so my primary concern financially is persuading Monolithic to furnish me with a cabin (for housing and sales purposes), and raising the funds for the return trip to Washington, so that I can start selling those units. (Needless to say, we'll also need to find and legally acquire property on which to place the cabin once it's in Bellingham.)
Sunday night, the folks from the church where I'm staying (the Dallas International Street Church) took a bus load of people to a revival service at another church (the Fountain Church of the Living Word). Amazingly, I met and made connections with a young man (named Shaun) who seemed to respond very positively when I told him about my epic journey to Italy. I audaciously suggested to him that since he had his own car, he might be able to drive me down there in order to finish doing what I came here to do. He seemed to be open to that idea, so I am going to go back to that church this afternoon in an effort to follow up on that meeting.
If not, perhaps the Monolithic folks could send someone to Dallas to pick up up and take me down there. From what I've seen, there doesn't seem to be an affordable commuter train or bus I could take to and from Dallas to the town of Italy.
DISC (the church where I am staying) still seems to be under the impression that I am there to participate in their discipleship/training program. It's a very good program, from what I have seen, if one is currently struggling with the sort of issues more commonly associated with homelessness (such as alcoholism and drug addiction), but that doesn't even remotely describe me accurately. If I end up in the same place in life that most of their graduates end up in, I will regard that as an enormous setback, not as a victory!
Please pray that my progress will resume, and please pray that my current hosts and benefactors will not take offense when I say, "Thanks but no thanks" to their attempts to impose a schedule on me which will hinder that progress.
Also, I can see a possible scenario (which I may describe in a future blog post) where my association with Monolithic would prove to be a huge blessing for the DISC ministry. After all, they clearly need additional housing units for the homeless, and they recently received a donation (on a piece of rural property east of Dallas) of a 34 acre plot of land suitable for placement of additional buildings in the form of Monolithic cabins.
They've already built a Life Skills training and ministry building there, and it ostensibly includes or will include housing, but I foresee growth for their ministry, and I think they are going to need more homeless housing there. (Maybe then folks wouldn't be forced to sleep on the floor of their sanctuary, the way I've had to do.) I believe that the smart folks at Monolithic could be persuaded to donate or at least lend several cabin units to the ministry, in exchange for the promotional value they would receive if they capitalized on the situation with the use of videos, press releases, groundbreaking ceremonies attended by state officials with impressive credentials and so forth.
By placing one or more Monolithic cabins on that piece of land, the men and women of DISC could operate as sales reps for Monolithic, and thereby receive that 6% sales commission every time they sold a cabin. Even 6% sales commissions on their least expensive unit (about $15,000) would be a substantial payment of about $900, which is a whole lot more than they're likely to get in the offering plate in a month of Sundays from a congregation consisting mostly of homeless people or formerly homeless people.
They could also offer lodging in those units, during special events such as church retreats, and they could earn money from fees paid by people able to pay such fees.
In other words, it could be a win/win scenario for all concerned.
FYI, I am posting this blog post in order to make it easier to clearly communicate, both with the folks at Monolithic and the folks at the Dallas International Street Church.
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