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Thursday, December 6, 2012

SPECIAL HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 6/12/12

UPDATE ON MR. LE (pronouned ‘lay’)
Our old Vietnamese gentleman, as he turned out to be, is still living next to Depot Road. Team Le is actively working to find solutions for him. Finding translators, as we did so easily, due to an outpouring of support from many of you and from our Vietnamese community in Gainesville, wasn’t the solution, since Mr. Le’s inability to speak is medical. We have a whole team of people working to find solutions for him. Among other strategies, his picture is circulating throughout the Vietnamese community to see if anyone recognizes him. I’ll keep you posted.
MIDWINTER FESTIVALS OF LIGHT
I believe them all to be sacred, and to have many meanings. Last weekend I had a profound experience, in this regard. For the first time, I saw the 1969 movie “Midnight Cowboy.” This may not seem to be a sacred or festive topic, but it is. For those of you who have never seen this movie, it is about a destitute male hustler (Jon Voigt) and a dying thief (Dustin Hoffman) who live together in an abandoned building in New York City, and take care of one another. It is a story about love and the essence of family. It was so important to me because it showed forth in full what I have only glimpsed, among people who, even in the homeless community, are often thought of as ‘the dregs of society.’ I think it has something to do with all the masks falling away. When there are no more pretentions, when everything is gone, what is left, is love. This is what we’re celebrating.
Happy holidays to everyone!
arupa

Saturday, December 1, 2012

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 12/1/12

NEEDED: SOMEONE WHO SPEAKS LAOTIAN
A Gainesville resident alerted us to the presence of an elderly Asian man who is living behind a power block in the Depot Ave/6th Street area. She is very concerned because he’s old and speaks no English. She thought he might be Vietnamese, so Pat and Father Bui from St. Patricks visited him. Father Bui says he is Laotian. This man needs help and is very ‘help-able’ - friendly, cheerful, and accepting of help when it’s offered. We would like to be able to steer him in the direction of getting services, but first we have to be able to communicate with him. Please email me if you know of anyone who speaks Laotian and would be willing to help, or if you can think of any strategies for finding such a person.
CHRISTMAS STOCKING UPDATE:
All over town there are veterinarians and Unitarians and all manner of folk stuffing Christmas stocking for our homeless brothers and sisters. If you are bringing a large number of stockings, drop me an email and let me know – ballpark – how many. That’s probably unneccesary, but I’m afflicted with hyper-vigilance, and it makes me happy to have a guesstimate of how many stockings there will be. If you need to bring stockings to Home Van Central, let me know that also, and we will make the arrangements. We are going to need a few toys also, since there are about 7 children, in the 6-12 age group, boys and girls, whose mothers depend on us. Toys can be dropped off at Home Van Central.
Thank you for all the mylar blankets donated! We now have a supply that should last the winter.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE....
Last week, as I watched video footage of people clubbing each other over the head during Black Friday stampedes, I realized how grateful I am to be part of the Home Van family – for the homeless people who inspire me with their patience, courage, and goodness in caring for each other, for all the volunteers, the donators, the people who pray for us and those we serve, the soup makers, the allies in the Homeless Coalition, the GPD and ACSO folks who help us out – the church and civic groups who are there for us, the UF students, the pharmacy volunteers, those who care for animals, the creators of mitzvahs – too many to remember. I am blessed to know you. Because of you I’m not a depressed, alienated sad sack, as I surely would be without you. May our tribe increase!
Peace and love to everyone,
arupa
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water,Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, and games. Call 352-372-4825 to arrange for drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks made out to Citizens for Social Justice, Inc., earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/
THE HOMEVAN IS A PROJECT OF CITIZENS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, INC. (FDACSREGISTRATION #CH35643). A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE.REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.
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Sunday, October 28, 2012

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 10/28/12

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE CUPCAKES AND TENTS!
We had hundreds of beautiful cupcakes, many awesomely decorated, for our birthday party. Everyone had as many cupcakes as they could possibly want, and we even left a few for the gang at St. Francis House. It rained, as it did for our first birthday party. I had a few wistful thoughts, thinking of that party. There were so few homeless people then that we were a family, gathered on the stage of the plaza. I even forgot it was a ‘homeless event’ as we circulated around talking with one another. It was like any family party.
We also got in some wonderful tent donations. We have not met our goal of a tent for everyone, but we’ve made a start. Give us a tent if you can.
TOUGH MONTH....
This past month at Home Van Central was quite a challenge, in ways connected to our mission and also to what the old Vermonters called, ‘the deefugilties of life.” More deefugilties than usual. But we got through it and we’re all still here. The month kicked off with a sharp and ongoing spike in the number of people coming to eat with us. For the first time in years, we ran out of food, twice, before everyone had eaten. When I brought my paperwork in to the food bank, on how many people we served each week, I mentioned that a 20-30 person spike looks bogus – it isn’t supposed to happen that way – but that it truly had. They told me that every group walking through their doors were telling the same story – a sudden, large and sustained spike in the number of people coming for service. We have increased the soup we take out from 5 to 7 gallons and also increased sandwiches, eggs, granola bars and, when possible, fruit. The spike is still having an impact, though. Before late September, we gave out a lot of seconds and even thirds, and some people took food for their lunch the next day. Now we have to pay attention and be less generous.
MYLAR EMERGENCY BLANKETS
We are now accepting Mylar emergency blankets for the winter. They can be bought, in small quantities, at WalMart or Sports Authority. There are an abundance of places online that sell Mylars in bulk. The best deal I found was at http://www.medicalsupplydepot.com/Professional-Supplies/Patient-Comfort_2/Emergency-Blankets.html?itemNSId=10252?utm_source=nextag&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=datafeed&utm_content=10252 where you get 120 mylars for $85 and no shipping or handling fee. There are many places where you can get 10 or 20 packs of Mylars and they are all pretty good, except stay away from Amazon.com. They are over-charging. Thanks to your generosity last winter, I have a startup supply. Pat and I are going to do a little Mylar drive-around at 5:30, since the temps will dip into the 40s tonight. We give out hundreds of these blankets over the winter. They are waterproof, can be carried in a pocket, and keep people actually warm, since they work by holding in body heat. They are a great blessing.
It is sad to realize that we are going into another winter with many hundreds of people living out doors. I can remember thinking in 1997 that this could not go on much longer – that a situation so cruel and barbaric would surely be addressed soon. Cold night shelter can accommodate a small fraction of the people who have no home. I fear that a recovery, if there is a recovery (anyone out there feel recovered?) is not going to include the poor and homeless people, who are not even a part of the discussion.
CHRISTMAS SOCKS!
The Home Van’s annual Christmas party for the homeless community will be on Thursday, December 20 at 6 p.m. next to downtown plaza, in the little parking lot on the east side of the civil courthouse. As most of you know, the community makes Christmas stockings for the homeless people. We used to collect these stocking in advance, but the number of people involved has become so large, we have no place big enough to store the stockings, so people have been actually bringing them to the party. People who can’t do that, can come by Home Van Central, the day of the party, or a day or two before if necessary, and we will put their stockings in our hauling van. Here is how you make a Christmas stockings for a homeless brother or sister:
Buy a pair of white sweat socks. Roll one sock up and put it in the toe of the other. Fill the stocking with Christmas goodies and tie it off. Suggestions for filling the stockings include: chocolate bars, Vienna sausages, reading glasses, pens, stamps, envelopes, small stuffed animals, small notebooks, paperback books, candles, batteries (double and triple A) gloves, over-the-ear caps, scarves.....
One important caution: Do not put money in the stockings. Money is wonderful, but the problem is, if some people get money in their stockings and other people don’t (as would be the case), it is just too painful, especially since Christmas comes at the end of the month when no one has a dime.
love and blessings to all of you,
arupa
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, bug spray,Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, and games. Call 352-372-4825 to arrange for drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks made out to Citizens for Social Justice, Inc., earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/
THE HOMEVAN IS A PROJECT OF CITIZENS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, INC. (FDACSREGISTRATION #CH35643). A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE.REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.

Monday, September 10, 2012

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 9/10/12

THE HOME VAN TURNS TEN!
On September 26, 2002, the Home Van went on it’s first driveout. United Church of Gainesville gave us our seed money and our first socks and peanut butter. Kelli Brew loaned us the van used by the Catholic Worker’s Breakfast Brigade. We started out assembling 15 bag dinners for each driveout. On Thursday September 27, we are having a birthday party in the downtown plaza, in the little parking lot on the east side of the Civil Courthouse, right next to Bo Diddley Community Plaza. We will be there right around 6 p.m. EVERYONE IS INVITED! Please come and join us. If you want to bring a treat to share with our homeless friends, that will be great. If that’s not convenient, please bring your selves. I’m always telling the folks that people all over Gainesville care about them and give us donations to help them, so this will be a time to show your faces and schmooze with the whole family.
I found the poem I wrote for our first birthday party, which was held on stage in the downtown plaza during a big rain storm. I’m reprinting it here. It will be a treat for the old timers on the list, who will remember many of the folks I mention.
One year later, “the homeless,”
discussed like a herd of unruly cows,
to be moved to a new pasture, for municipal convenience,
scatter across our less-blinded vision until we see
Opie 12-stepping through the woods,
Otis, silent like a Sufi saint,
Marcus, who loves sardines,
Arthur cursing the government,
Candy raising rats in her car,
Eric studying beetles in the woods,
Eva, taking a bath out of a plastic pail,
George, whose clothes always look like they’ve just been ironed,
Jerry, the leader of his tribe,
Charlie, of tattered magnificence,
Pete, his new hat decorated with feathers and Spanish moss,
Bulldog and Blaze propping each other up while they
enjoy a concert in the park,
Denise and Victoria sleeping in their car on winter nights,
Charles yelling, “I want a pen and a notebook. Do you think I’m stupid?”
Renatta eating canned fruit with such relish,
Donna in her scarlet dress dancing on the downtown plaza,
Ed tipping his hat as he says, “Pray for me, I need a miracle.”
Robert the vegan refusing new shoes because he’s finally found a job -
For all these, not cows, people,
and many more, Creator we thank you,
as we find our souls waiting for us along the path to South Camp,
just off Williston Road.”
None of us are the same people were were back then. The homeless people have been our teachers – of courage, patience and grace. Thanks to them we are better people than we were.
You may wonder if we still know the people mentioned in the poem, and how they are doing now. Opie, a Vietnam vet, joined AA and overcame a very serious drinking problem. Later he moved back to Arkansas. Otis, who used to be an electrical engineer at GRU, still walks through the streets of Gainesville, making his silent rounds. He started this practice after his wife died, for reasons known only to himself. Marcus had a spiritual awakening, after many years of being a homeless crack addict. He has been living in his own apartment for over a year. Arthur, an old Vietnam vet, was the philosopher king of the homeless community. We found him sitting on a park bench, on one of our first driveouts, and I whipped out my little notebook and asked him what he needed. “A living wage and affordable housing would be nice, “ he said in a genial snarl. Arthur got a room at the old Anchor Lodge, and did not die on the streets. Eric is a rogue entymologist who lives in the woods and studies bugs. He has published in several scholarly journals and occasionally receives a small grant. Last time I knew he was studying glow worms. Candy, a school teacher, has been living inside for the last few years. Eva was a kindergarten teacher who lost her bearing after her child died at 18, and wound up homeless. She did have her own apartment and was reunited with her family before she died. Bulldog and Blaze I don’t know, except they are not here anymore. They were quite a couple. We helped Denise and Victoria get housing. One of them was in a wheelchair and on disability and the other had a job at Burger King. So far as I know they are still doing well. Jerry was a Native American and a Vietnam vet. He loved the woods and taught survival skills to other homeless people. When Jerry died the choir of the church he attended came to the downtown plaza and sang, “I’ll Fly Away.” I looked up and saw a very large bird winging across the sky overhead. Old Charlie, another vet, got into housing before he died. Pete ended up in a nursing home, where he died. Charles has overcome his addiction and is in housing. Renatta is still homeless, but has a very nice partner, Huck, who cares for her. She takes care of homeless cats. Donna married a wonderful guy, himself homeless at the time, and they have been living in an apartment for the last few years. I don’t know Ed’s housing status. He has hoarders’ syndrome, along with other psychiatric conditions, and has a hard time hanging on to an apartment. He once electrified the Gainesville City Commission by telling them that the Mayor of Hawthorne had kidnapped him mother. I still see him around sometimes. Robert the vegan got his disability and so far as I know is no longer homeless.
As you can see, the homeless community is a cross-section of humanity.
TENT CHALLENGE
When we cut back to one driveout a week, I took advantage of the money we saved to buy a few tents each month. I have been inspired to set this goal: that every homeless person will at least have a tent this winter. This is something we have never achieved, and winters are times of great suffering. If you can, give us a tent. One person at a time, we can do this! The tents we buy are $50 at places like WalMart, and can accommodate two people.
Vitamin B12
I learned from a recent Dr. Oz show that the homeless community is a textbook example of a community at severe risk for Vitamin B12 deficiency, which causes a myriad of problems, including chronic tiredness and mental confusion. So, we are hoping for donations of this supplement. Such donations can be given to us or to the Helping Hands Clinic at the First United Methodist Church downtown.
love and blessings to all of you,
arupa
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, bug spray,Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, and games. Call 352-372-4825 to arrange for drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks made out to Citizens for Social Justice, Inc., earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/
THE HOMEVAN IS A PROJECT OF CITIZENS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, INC. (FDACSREGISTRATION #CH35643). A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE.REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 8/19/12

WATER AND BUG SPRAY ABUNDANCE
This we’ve had - thanks to many individuals and several groups in the community, including The Friendship Center, the devotees of Satya Sai Baba of the University of Florida, The Alachua County Homeless Coalition, and Holy Trinity’s Downtown Ministry. This is the first summer we have not encountered any heat-related illnesses in the downtown homeless community or serious skin infections from bug bites. Many of our friends out in the wood have asked me to tell you, “Thank you and God bless you!”
___________________________________________________________
Throw out the life-line across the dark wave,
There is a brother whom someone should save;
Somebody’s brother! O who then will dare
To throw out the life-line his peril to share?
-Edward S. Ufford
The VA social workers, that’s whom. This beautiful old song comes to mind when I think of the work being done by the VA social workers. The VA, in conjunction with the Alachua County Housing Authority, set a goal this year to get every single homeless veteran in Gainesville into housing. More than half of our homeless veterans are in housing now, and they are working their way through the other half. This success is based on a deep understanding of the challenges faced by homeless vets. The social workers – Taylor and friends – aren’t sitting behind desks waiting for vets to hear about the program and come in to apply. They are walking through the woods, week after week, finding veterans and talking with them and helping them to overcome their obstacles their fears and suspicions, and then guiding them through the process of qualifying and moving in to housing.
Some homeless veterans have grudges against the VA and don’t believe that any good can come to them from that source. Others are afraid to leave the only home and support group they’ve had for many years. Some don’t feel worthy, like Clifford, one of the first Vietnam vets to be served by the Home Van. When we talked to him about housing he said to us, “A tent in the woods is all I deserve after what I did in Vietnam.” One of us gently asked him, “How old were you when you went to Vietnam?” “Nineteen,” he told us.
The VA social workers understand all this. They don’t make just one trip to visit a homeless veteran and invite him into the program. They go out every week, for as long as it takes. They are community heroes.
CHAPLAIN NEEDED
The Home Van has an opening for a chaplain, or possibly two chaplains who would share the duties. Ideally, a chaplain comes along on every driveout, first to the woods and then downtown. Their job is to circulate among the homeless people, offering friendship and, if requested, spiritual support. I often tell a new chaplain, ‘Look around. If you see someone off by themselves who looks like their dog just died, go over and talk to them’. The chaplain visits homeless people in the hospital and sometimes, as they build relationships with people, go out to the woods to see someone who has a special need. As near as I can tell, most homeless people seem to be Protestant and evangelical. Our past chaplains have come from a variety of religious backgrounds. It doesn’t matter as long as he or she has a heart for people.
THE NEWS FROM THE WOODS
ASHLEY
Thanks to several folks in the Home Van’s extended family, Ashley is having the best birthday he’s had in many years. He received a tent big enough to stand up in, an air mattress, a tarp, a Coleman stove and a Coleman lantern. Every week now when he comes to the van he has a smile on his face. He asks me to thank all of you. I don’t think he realized before now that there’s people who care about him. In September, when his 80th birthday comes up, he will get a cake and a few other goodies.
“JAMES”
James, as you may recall, was bitten by an alligator earlier this summer. When he made the bad decision to swim in Sweetwater Branch, alligators and all, he had fallen off the wagon after a long, valiant attempt to overcome a serious addiction. I am happy to tell you that now he has made a full recovery and has been accepted into the Honor Program at the VA. This wonderful program offers housing, counseling and many other kinds of activities for veterans battling addiction.
“PEG”
One of our van volunteers was a little stunned when Peg came to the van for services. She went to school with Peg’s children, and remembered Peg as a good mother of the ‘soccer mom’ variety. The company Peg worked for went out of business as a result of the Recession, and her many attempts to find other employment failed, as it so often does for people over fifty. Finally she lost her home and ended up in the woods. Like James, help came to her in the unlikely garb of misfortune. Her dogs contracted a serious and highly contagious skin disease. The folks from St. Francis Animal Hospital helped her out, both with treatment for the dogs and with with getting rid of and replacing her tent, clothing, and any other amenities the dogs had come into contact with. They became involved in her life and one of them gave her a lead that led to a minimum wage job. Now – TA DA – she is going to start nursing school this fall. I love happy endings.
BIG WOODS CLEANUP!
With the help of a construction dumpster from Solid Waste Management, the Williston Road Campers are doing a major woods cleanup. Keeping the woods clean and beautiful is an ongoing project for them.
Peace and blessings to all of you,
arupa

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, bug spray,Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, and games. Call 352-372-4825 to arrange for drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks made out to Citizens for Social Justice, Inc., earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/
THE HOMEVAN IS A PROJECT OF CITIZENS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, INC. (FDACSREGISTRATION #CH35643). A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE.REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 7.1.12

THANK YOU FOR THE WATER!!!!
Blessings on all who have brought us bottled water and donated money to buy water! Thursday we were able to leave 8 extra cases of bottled water out at the Williston Road Camp. The folks out there have my phone number and will call when they are running low. This is the group most far removed from sources of water. Last summer we almost lost two of them to dehydration, in combination with the other health challenges that most of them have, so it is not hyperbole to state that we are working to save lives. We would be hard pressed to keep it up without your help. The Civic Media Center is also passing out water, and I suspect other groups around town are doing this outreach as well. When I was running a food pantry I learned that a lot of people, many of them elderly or very young, are living in homes that don’t have the utilities turned on. If you know of other folks who are helping to keep people hydrated, let me know. I will acknowledge their efforts here and encourage people who may live near them to donate water to them as well. You can also leave water at the downtown plaza, for people to stash in their backpacks. It is never a problem to find someone who will carry the water from your car. Take a knife or letter opener with you and cut the plastic covering off the case of water before you leave. Otherwise, it only takes one jerk to pick up the whole case, stick it in his bike basket and take off.
HARD TIMES/GOOD TIMES
There is a lot of talk, some of it coming from my mouth, about what hard times we are living in. True enough. Still, from a spiritual perspective, we are living in the very best times of all, because we are being brought out of our comfortable, high tech, nests in order to care for one another. Spiritual teachers from all traditions and philosophies have expressed that we are in the world for one reason and one reason only: To learn how to love and care for one another. We have been given an extraordinary opportunity to learn how to actually live that idea. Meher Baba, the Indian saint who died in the early 1950s, said that the year 2000 would be the beginning of the Time of Chairos (Chaos) and that during such extreme times the gates of Heaven are thrown wide open and tens of thousands can walk through. I don’t think it much matters what our personal spins are about what that means. If we learn to live in love, we will be in a new and wondrous land, right where we are. I will close this homily with a quote from Swami Beyondananda: “There is no key to the Universe. But here’s the good news – it isn’t locked.”
ASHLEY
My friend Ashley, a man of few words, said to me Thursday. “Miss Arupa, I’m going to turn 80 in September. Do you think anyone would give me a tent big enough to stand up in?” I would like to make this birthday wish come true. If no one has such a tent to donate, I may go all wild and crazy and buy one. Ashley is around six feet tall.
Peace and blessings to all of you,
arupa
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, bug spray,Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, and games. Call 352-372-4825 to arrange for drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks made out to Citizens for Social Justice, Inc., earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/
THE HOMEVAN IS A PROJECT OF CITIZENS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, INC. (FDACSREGISTRATION #CH35643). A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE.REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.

Friday, May 25, 2012

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 5/25/12

A BIG HOME VAN HOWDY TO SPRINGHILL MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH
Springhill MBC, a church located on Hawthorne Road near Tent City, has created a church in the portion of Tent City that is near the bike trail and the downtown bus depot. We are just thrilled about it, and the homeless people in the area couldn’t be more pleased. They have erected a large tent with benches inside, and put up a ten-foot tall white wooden cross that is cemented into the earth and lit up. They are doing both food and spiritual outreach. This is wonderful! Most of the homeless folks are of the Protestant and evangelical faith, so it’s an excellent fit. They are enjoying the presence of a church and also hope that the ‘bad apples’ amongst them will decide to move elsewhere. I also feel that this is exactly the kind of outreach from the mainstream community that is needed for Tent City to win the respect and support of the larger, housed community.
Springhill MBC also has a long practice of allowing homeless people to fill their water jugs at their outside faucet. In honor of our friends at Springhill I am posting the following poem, written by St. Theresa of Avila, a 15th Century nun:
Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion
is to look out to the earth,
yours are the feet by which He is to go about doing good
and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us now.
St Teresa of Avila
AN ICE CREAM PARTY HAPPENS!
Liz, Diane and I were standing at the second stop, where we serve between 10 and 15 people on a typical driveout, discussing the possibility of having ice cream downtown on Tuesday nights. At that moment an old fashioned Good Humor Truck comes driving by, playing it’s song, the first one I have seen in many years. I reach out my arm and flag it down. There is zero communication between my arm and my brain, because when it pulls over I realize that I probably don’t have enough money to buy ice cream for everyone. I go skulking around to the side window, to see how far I can get. Then our Civil Indigent pulls out his wallet and marches over proclaiming, “Ice cream treats for everyone!” It was so much fun.
WATER
Thank you so much, all of you who brought us water, and please keep it coming. We gave out almost all we had last night. We are already in a serious ‘water stress’ situation.
Love and peace to everyone,
arupa
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, bug spray,Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, and games. Call 352-372-4825 to arrange for drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks made out to Citizens for Social Justice, Inc., earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/

Friday, May 4, 2012

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 5/4/12


ONE AT A TIME....
There hasn’t been a lot of news on the Home Van front. We’re mainly hauling water and dealing with individual crises. Some months back “Curt” at the Williston Road Camp was turned down for hernia surgery. A few weeks ago we arrived out there and Curt stumbled down the fire trail and almost fell into me, whispering, “Help me!” The hernia had ruptured. Standing next to me was Joe Jackson, who was named Homeless Advocate of the Year by the Florida Bar Association a few years back. I asked Joe to take Curt to the ER and advocate for him. By the time we got downtown the word had spread that it was Joe Jackson himself who took Curt to the hospital this time! He was in surgery in less than two hours. Curt and his friends are devout Christians and saw this timing - the presence of Joe to help Curt - as God reaching down to help one of his children. There was much rejoicing. Then last week one of our homeless helpers came to us downtown and said there was a woman with two children and a newborn baby sitting on the sidewalk in front of St. Francis House. Liz immediately went down there and found two mothers and eight children on the sidewalk. She and Nancy took the whole lot of them to a motel and booked them in. The next morning they were able to get a room at St. Francis House and are on the waiting list for the Interfaith Hospitality Network.
What we see and are able to deal with is the tip of the iceberg, at most. I have often pondered a statement I read once in The Talmud: “If you save one person, you save humanity.” In what sense is this true? I think maybe I was assigning the wrong meaning to the word ‘humanity.’ What you save is the quality of humanity, as in compassion. I lost faith in our local leadership when they were shown a video clip of a pregnant woman being turned away from St. Francis House and did not suspend the meal limit. (I believe Commissioner Sherwin Henry asked for a 90-day-suspension but his suggestion died for lack of a second.) That is why we need to keep working with one person and one person and one person, even as we hope that times in general will get better. If we can’t respond to that one person we have lost our humanity. Now, I am no Talmudic scholar, but I think maybe that’s what it means. We must keep on saving humanity, and we can.
WATER!
We are accepting water donations. I hope as the summer wears on, other drop-off places will be named, but we are it for now, and glad to get the water. We need lots and lots and lots of bottled water if we are to keep people alive over the summer.
peace and blessings to all of you,
arupa
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, bug spray,Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, and games. Call 352-372-4825 to arrange for drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks made out to Citizens for Social Justice, Inc., earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/

Friday, March 23, 2012

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 3/23/12

JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON AND JAY

On the face of it, Trayvon Martin and my friend Jay didn’t have much in
common. Trayvon was a teenager from an affluent and well-educated family who
was successfully meeting life’s challenges and had a bright future. Jay was a
homeless man camped in the woods near Williston Road. He was in fragile health
and lived on disability. This is what they have in common: both were members
of disenfranchised and endangered groups in society, since Trayvon was a black
male teenager and Jay was a homeless man. Both were gunned down by people who
claimed a self-defense justification. When I heard that Jay had been gunned
down, in a public area in the presence of witnesses, by a man who was claiming
self-defense, I was stunned with disbelief. Jay was a gentle soul who never
gave anybody trouble, to the best of my knowledge. His severe asthma kept him
from many life activities but he did love to read. He came by my house maybe
twice a month to turn in a bag of books and get another bag. I’d usually make
him a cup of coffee and we would sit and talk about this and that. Who could
feel threatened by Jay?

I testified for Jay before the Grand Jury. I thought that indictment of
the man who shot him was going to be a slam dunk. When the Grand Jury did not
return an indictment I emailed the assistant district attorney in charge and
asked him what in the world had gone wrong. He explained to me Florida’s newly
passed “Stand Your Ground Law,” a law he regarded as abhorrent and that he felt
would lead to vigilante murderers walking free.

Prophetic words. Jay didn’t have anyone to fight for him, but Trayvon
does. I believe there will be justice for Trayvon and, in this justice, there
will be some justice for Jay and for all the Jays and Trayvons who have been
murdered by thugs and vigilantes.

There will be a Trayvon Martin Community Rally for Justice on Saturday,
March 31 at 6 p.m. at Faith United Methodist Church, near the corner of NE 39th
Avenue and across the road from Rawlings Elementary School. For more
information on this rally, you can call the Rev. Milford Griner at 665-4066 or 377-5022. May this rally
be well-attended. We cannot sit by in silence. This is our business and our
concern, as members of the human family.

SPRING AND PEANUT BUTTER

Since the price of peanut butter started skyrocketing, we have received
many, many donations of this essential manna. Thank you so much! Peanut butter
is the fuel that keeps the Home Van running. As for Spring, it is a time of
grace in the homeless community, without deadly cold or heat. On last night’s
run our folks were happy and relaxed and we all had a good time. I also had
long conversations with two old friends who have successfully gotten off crack
after many years of enslavement. One of them has moved into an apartment and
bought himself a fancy little scooter (bright red!) and just came by to show
himself off! The other, who has been off crack for three years, has received a
bus ticket back to Tennessee from his family, who now want him back. Crack is
possibly the most addictive substance on the face of the earth, from what I have
read. I am battling sugar addiction (with varying degrees of success). That
struggle, multiplied a zillion percent, is what it takes to get off crack, but
there are those who do it. I love happy endings!

WATER

The weather mavvens are predicting an unusually hot summer for the
southeast this year. Our ‘not unusually hot summers’ are bad enough. I am
glad the Home Van has gone to one official driveout a week, because we will now
have more time and more money to do water drop-offs at Tent City. If you run
into a sale on bottled water, think of us. It is not too early to start
stockpiling.

Peace and blessings to all of you,

arupa
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water,
Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks,
batteries books, games, personal hygiene supplies. Call 352-372-4825 to arrange for
drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks
made out to Citizens for Social Justice, Inc., earmarked for the Home Van, and
mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at
http://homevan.blogspot.com/
____________________________________THE HOMEVAN IS A PROJECT
OF CITIZENS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, INC. (FDACSREGISTRATION #CH35643). A COPY OF THE
OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE
DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE
STATE.REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY
THE STATE.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 2/25/12

A CONVERSATION WITH MALCOLM

I was standing downtown with Malcolm, who has been homeless since he was a
teenager serving in Vietnam and was convicted on a drug offense and subject to a
dishonorable discharge. We were both watching clouds. I saw a huge, puffy
white cloud with two small, identical black clouds in the middle of it. They
looked like flying saucers. “Look, Malcolm,” I said, “the aliens are coming.”
He laughed. Malcolm loves to talk, and this was his signal. He launched off
into a monologue on God, the Mayan prophecies, and human expectations as
engineered by Hollywood. (Unlike many monologuists, Malcolm is interesting).

“That’s what people expect,” He said, in summation, “Whether it’s the end
of the world, the coming of the Messiah, space aliens, any big change –
Hollywood has conditioned them to expect flying saucers, chariots of fire,
thunderbolts, explosions.” He laughed.

“How will it be? Malcolm,” I asked.

“Get up on a silent morning and watch a flower open,” Malcolm said.
“That’s how it is. That’s how things change, that’s where you will meet
God.”


SAYING GOODBYE TO RAY

Ray was among our early Home Van friends out in the woods. He had a fine
campsite on the banks of Sweetwater Branch, back in the days we walked through
the woods delivering food. Ray was a skilled mechanic who worked at the same
job and was married to the same woman for 30 years. All that ended when his
wife died in a truck/pedestrian accident. Ray, who had always been a bit of a
drinker, began drinking hard and heavy. He got into a fight in a bar parking
lot and ended up doing two years in the state prison for assault and battery.
While he was in jail his house was foreclosed on and all his possessions,
including his tools, were seized. So he went out of jail into the Big Empty and
ended up in the woods. He also was in the early stages of Glaucoma. Ray was
angry and depressed and still drinking. He was not an easy guy to help, and yet
there was something about him, a likeableness that shone through the cloud of
‘bad attitude.’ His incipient blindness also made it imperative that he get
help. Various people, including Joe Jackson and Lynn Labauve, began reaching
out to him. Eventually, after a lot of work, Ray got on disability and got an
apartment at Bailey Village. Wanting to give back, he began volunteering with
his friend Desi and the UF Campus Christians to serve Friday night dinners at
Holy Trinity. He became special friends with the Rev. Mark Apple of the
University Church of Christ. All those friendships and connections became
important this year when Ray contracted terminal cancer.

Joe Jackson, and others, had kept up with him over the years. Joe became
his medical surrogate and he and the Rev. Apple saw Ray through his final days
in this world. Goodbye Ray. You had a lot of troubles, and I’m glad they are
over now. We won’t forget you.

WELCOME TO THE SATYA SAI BABA CENTER

The devotees of Gainesville’s Satya Sai Baba Center have chosen to partner
with the Home Van this year in their outreach into the homeless community.
These wonderful folks have been helping us for the past few years, during times
of especially difficult weather, and have donated many blankets, sleeping bags
and other needed items. This year they are going to focus on special needs.
They began by collecting tents – maybe 20 to 30 (I forgot to count). In any
case, it was the largest single donation of tents we have ever received. Their
beloved matriarch, an older woman they all call “Auntie” (she told me her name,
but it did not stick in my brain, as usual) spearheaded the effort to collect
tents. For their next project they are going to gather as many batteries as
possible. This is a great blessing. The continual struggle to have batteries
for flashlights and radios – those items of such great comfort out in the woods
- is an ongoing source of frustration for our homeless friends. We welcome the
devotees of His Holiness Satya Sai Baba and thank them for their kindness and
friendship.

NEWS FROM THE WOODS

The folks out in Tent City tell me that new arrivals out there have become
frequent, and almost all are people who have never been homeless before and
never expected to be homeless. It is a terrifying experience for these new
people. The ones I have met so far have been mainly very young adults, elderly
people, and people who are battling illnesses or disabilities. This situation
is a big challenge for the old timers in Tent City. Many of them are kind
people who want to help the newcomers – help them find a good campsite, connect
with services, and avoid trouble makers. They look out for them as best they
can, but it is becoming a bigger and bigger task due to the large number of new
arrivals.

People continue to work on their individual challenges. James out at
Williston Road has logged four months of sobriety and has earned himself a
sponsor in Narcotics Anonymous. We’re real proud of him and as for him, he
can’t stop smiling!

BOATS OF MINE A BOATING.....

It’s hard to say where all this will end. More and more people move out to
the woods, services diminish. Still, the only response is to get up every
morning and do whatever you can to make the world a better place. All week this
poem by Robert Louis Stevenson has been running through my mind.

“Dark brown is the river,
Golden is the sand,
Flowing on forever,
With trees on either hand,
Boats of mine a boating,
Where will all come home,
Other little children will
Bring my boats ashore.”

-RLS


Peace and Blessings to all of you,

arupa

The Home Van
needs tents, tarps, bottled water, Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly,
candles, white tube socks, batteries books, games, personal hygiene supplies.
Call 352-372-4825 to arrange
for drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of
checks made out to Citizens for Social Justice, Inc., earmarked for the Home
Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made
online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/
____________________________________

Monday, January 16, 2012

Tribute to Pat Fitzpatrick

Dear folks,

As most of you know, last night Pat Fitzpatrick received the Martin Luther King Hall of Fame Award for 2011. After Pat was chosen for this award, Commissioner Long asked me to write a tribute to Pat to be used at the banquet. I am reprinting it here.

Pat Fitzpatrick

I met Pat Fitzpatrick in 1995 when I was volunteering at St. Francis House and he was serving on the Board of Directors there. Unlike many board members, Pat was a ‘hands on’ guy who came to the shelter frequently to help out and to spend time with the clients. He has an almost magic ability to relate to people and immediately become their friend, no matter their social status or how many problems they have. He is always honest with people about the difficulties he has faced in life and never puts himself above anyone else.

In 2002 Pat was one of the founding members of the Home Van, a mobile soup kitchen and sort of ‘free convenience store on wheels’ that goes out to homeless areas in and around downtown Gainesville. I am from New England and, without Pat, I would have felt awkward and standoffish, not knowing how to connect with street people. I just watched Pat. He would walk up to anyone, clap them on the back, and say, “Hey Brother (or Sister) how ya doin’?” with his big, irresistable Irish smile. Thanks to him the Home Van got off to a good start with the homeless folks.

In the years since, Pat has been our rock. There is nothing he won’t do – no matter how difficult or inconvenient, to help out another human being. That first winter of the Home Van was brutally cold. Now there are quite a few church groups who go out on cold nights with blankets, but in the winter of 2002-2003 we were, to the best of my knowledge, the only one. On bitter cold nights, in between our official driveouts, Pat and I would drive around with a load of blankets and two gallons of hot chocolate and look for people who were not in cold night shelter. We would literally be standing at the edge of the little wooded area across from Suwanee Swifty on South Main Street calling, “Arthur? Are you in there? Do you need another blanket? We have some hot chocolate.” Arthur, an elderly veteran, would invite us in, or maybe come hobbling out to see what we had for blankets. We would go all around the area, through parking lots, down alleys, behind dumpsters, finding folks who needed a little extra warmth.

We still go out on very cold nights. Also, we get calls about food emergencies. Someone who is staying in a motel, while receiving cancer treatments at Shands, has run out of food. I call Pat and he comes and picks up a bag of groceries. Just recently, he walked through the woods with me on a cold, rainy day to check up on a homeless man who has sickle cell anemia and bring him some desperately needed bottled water. When someone needs help, Pat is never too busy or too tired (even if he is) and it doesn’t matter how cold or how hot it is – he is always available.

I don’t know what we would do without him!

Arupa Freeman
Home Van

Saturday, January 7, 2012

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 1.7.12

THE WONDROUS PARTY!

I want to thank everyone for the best Home Van Christmas party we’ve ever had! Amazing stockings packed with practical gifts, Christmas luxuries and objects of beauty. Home made cookies, oranges, Santa Claus making the rounds, and the Jazz Bandits playing Christmas carols, belted out by their lead singer, Khali Blount, in a Santa hat. The East Side Jazz Band has changed their name to the Jazz Bandits and they’re terrific. They frequently play Lightnin’ Salvage (behind Satchells).

Last year’s party was chaotic because I asked everyone to bring their stockings to the green van. That was the first year we had asked people to bring their stockings downtown on the night of the party, rather than dropping them off beforehand. I was in a neurotic sweat about whether we’d have enough stockings so I wanted to be in control of the situation to make sure everyone got at least one. We ended up with hundreds of stockings and a giant traffic jam. This year I trusted our beloved Home Van angels and told people they could give out their own stockings. We were out in the woods a little longer than we expected to be, so we got downtown late. I was in another neurotic state about innocent donators milling around in confusion, waiting for my great organizational genius (snort) to arrive on the scene. Well, we pulled in and you folks had set up a line of boxes filled with stockings and people were filing by. Grandmas and little kids were circulating with plates of cookies, and others with bags of oranges. Santa was making his rounds and the band was playing. Perle Mesta herself couldn’t orchestrated a better party.

The homeless folks had a really good time. They are always polite at our events and at least pretend to be having a good time, but you can tell the real thing – they were enjoying themselves.

THE STORY OF “AARON”

One reason we go out to the woods, a reason as important as the food we bring, is that every once awhile we get a chance to pull someone’s bacon out of the fire. Such was the case with Aaron, who moved into the Williston Road Camp last summer. He is in his early twenties, soft spoken, and obviously very well educated. He always came to the van immaculate and well-dressed. A few weeks ago he showed up looking very, very ill. Anna Hall, one of our pharmacists, has connected with Aaron, who is shy, and she was able to find out that he has sickle cell anemia - and a few other tidbits of information – that he is fluent in English, French and Spanish and close to achieving a Bachelor’s Degree. Anna asked us to get Aaron to the hospital. Pat and I went out there and we reasoned and begged and manipulated and threatened – the full range – and he would not budge. The next day Khali, who is an RN as well as a lead singer, went out with us and he had the mojo to get Aaron to the hospital. He sat in the emergency room with him for five hours. When he finally saw a doctor he was immediately admitted. In addition to Sickle Cell he had pneumonia and a serious infection. When he got out of the hospital he admitted that he has a family in Miami who would be happy to have him back. Freeman put him on the Red Coach along with his lap top and books on philosophy. He emailed me when he got there to say that he is safe and healthy and happy and he thanked all of us for saving his life.

I don’t know how Aaron ended up in the woods and probably I never will. Maybe he was running away from something. Or maybe, because he is so young and so outside the box in his thinking and his sensibilities, he decided, like young Henry David Thoreau, to take up life in the woods. Maybe he will write a book about it.

DAN

Dan wanted me to thank you all for the outpouring of help. He got a fine bicycle, a lock, helmet and reflective vest, a brand new dress shirt for job interviews, and several offers of yard work. He carried out those assignments and is now planning to go to Ocala and file job applications there. He is a determined young guy and I expect him to pull himself out of this hole, with a little help from his friends.

THE HOME VAN BEAUTIFICATION AWARD GOES TO THE WILLISTON ROAD CAMP!

The entrance to the Williston Road camp had turned into continuous heaps of garbage, some left by campers they were glad to see move on, and some dumped by members of the housed community looking to avoid paying dumping fees. The folks requested a dumpster and bags for a big cleanup. Joe Jackson has pull over at Solid Waste Management (as one of the homeless guys said, “He has high friends in low places”) so he got a construction dumpster delivered out there and we got a case of bags from Sam’s Club and they cleaned that woods up so it’s like an illustration from a nature magazine.

Happy New Year Folks, and love and blessings to all of you.

arupa
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries books, games, personal hygiene supplies. Call 352-372-4825 to arrange for drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks made out to Citizens for Social Justice, Inc., earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/