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.
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