"Gets Stuck"

Night 4
January 18, 2017

"Gets Stuck"

L is 43 and homeless by choice.

This was a new concept to me. I am sure that others with more experience in this world have come to this realization, but for me this was hard to understand. I'll start by saying L was awesome. He didn't exactly come across as a homeless man and I was surprised at his story. L comes from Queens, NY and has been homeless off and on since 2011. "The first time I was homeless was back in 2011."
My conversation with L was great! He let me in on some of the scary truths of what is taking place. In his personal situation; he also (remember Mike) had just had a major fight with his girlfriend and was kicked out of his apartment. Instead of turning to family members that live with in a reasonable distance, he chose to be homeless. He knows several of the people around by name and he loves the sense of freedom that comes with the experience. L is an addict. Clean now, but an off and on again struggle with pain pills continues. I asked him why he makes this choice and he tells me that like a lot of people he just "Gets Stuck" from time to time. He'll be the first to tell you he does not cope well with problems. Homelessness gives him the time he needs to recover from his negative feelings and thankfully he claims that the situation does not direct him towards his prescription pain medicine habits. This is not uncommon in the homeless community. Unfortunately many people fall subject to addiction during this time and it makes an exit strategy much more difficult. To throw some radically unofficial stats at you, he estimated 80% of the 20 or so homeless people around us in the park are currently addicted to drugs excluding alcohol. I dug a little deeper. How do homeless people pay for drugs? First of all they are very resourceful. Food stamps, government checks and gift cards given by local organizations provide this resource. Often upon leaving a shelter, the shelter will pass out $10 gift cards to local restaurants. A $10 gift card might be sold for $5. (This is the type of things I wanted to learn with this experience and am thus so thankful for L's willingness to share).

Brace yourself this part is terrible: drug dealers often pose as homeless people to stay the night in these shelters where they prey on the broken and addicted homeless community. He has heard of dealers driving up in nice vehicles, park off-site and walk into a shelter. L knew several people around, remember Mike from yesterday?--this is a community.

L has never spent a night on the street and is extremely thankful to the many great local organizations that make that possible.

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Two great girl friends of mine contacted me to bring sandwiches and cookies down to the park for lunch to distribute. Uhhh ya of course! I was so exited about this, but was surprised to see that there wasn't even a need. An observation the ladies did not miss.  Mission 615 buses a large number of people to a special dinner on Saturdays and two women brought a trunk full of killer chicken plates to the park as well. There was food everywhere. Much of it nicer than what you or I would typically eat. Kudos to Nashville.

I spent the rest of my afternoon at the Nashville Public Library and then had to report to work for the night. YES I finally justified taking a shower for the sake of my co-workers! It was glorious.

-Matt

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