Panel speaks out about homelessness

By: Grace Kim /The Daily Cardinal - April 4, 2008 Speakers from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless speaks about the common misconceptions of homelessness.

[Fred]

I watched my Church work for months with a homeless fellow, trying to make him feel welcome and with friends on Sundays - spent hours talking to him while putting up with his bodily stench. I watched the homeless fellow reciprocate by panhandling the Elders for this and that but any donation he received was spent for alcohol. He also tried to panhandle old widows twice his age for money for his "prescriptions." His prescriptions come in bottles marked Taaka Vodka, Wild Irish Rose, and Olde English Malt Liquor which he drained and threw the containers all over the Church property. While dead drunk, recently, he took a bowel movement in the grass at the Church twice. He finally broke into one locked area of the Church and passed out. They finally figured it out after months.

Now tell me some more about homeless folk...

[maelstrom]

I quit my job at a dairy when snow piled up so high that the roof of my house caved in. I ended up living in my car and swung through Boise, ID with a thought of moving back into city life.

Camping on side streets at night near Brother DePaul's house of charity. To get a free meal, you were required to be at the door at 6pm, endure an hour of service that included a guest pastor who would invariably lash the congregation about the evils of alcohol. Then, it was on to the dining room where I was very surprised to have a generous meal served, prime rib!
In the morning, all the tramps would get a free breakfast, some of them registered to sleep the night there in bunks. Across the street was a day labor office, 50 guys lined up to draw a lottery number. If you didn't pick a number less than ten chances were dim and you'd spend the rest of the day at the public library.
Otherwise, you might help someone load a moving van or scrape a house preparing to paint. My life moved along and I left that scene after saving enough gas money to look towards the horizon. But alas, most of the guys would just buy another bottle and sleep in the park.
Its a sickness I know. One guy was in the dinning room one night and cried about his affliction, he knew he was helpless for the power it had over him.
It's sad.

[Robin]

We can not judge the homeless, for like us all, everyone has different issues. Some choice to stay homeless because they have lost hope and faith in themselves and courage to pick themselves up and try again. Others have mental illness issues and have fallen between the cracks of society and have been pushed aside. While there are others who may not have had a supportive foundation with family and friends to help them out when they fell on hard times and they turned to an addition to numb their pain and fears. It is easy to pass judge and find excusses, but it is very hard to stop and lend a hand. Remember, everyone was someone's baby once and no one said, I think when I grow up I want to be homeless.

[Petrifiedhippy]

Fred
You honestly cannot compare 1 individual to an entire world full of homelessness, low-incomers, just plain hungry people. Yea, that was a really bad thing to happen, there are obvious distinctions with street people, who choose to do drugs, alcohol AND LIVE ON THE STREETS. There are people under full circumstance, who never had homeless on their list of things to do in life - I am not yelling, or angry... as I have been involved in homeless-ness for 5 years now. When it happens to you, it is unsurmountable, it's a punch in the stomach... please don't judge all homeless by what you see"panhandling". I didn't panhandle, I am not a drug addict, nor do I drink... quite hoonestly it all happened to be in a day - I was overwhelmed. Now we have full blown recession - I have talked about for years, hig food costs, gas prices, people with housing, car loans, kids, how does anyone budget anymore?