HOME VAN JOURNAL 12/6/13

CHRISTMAS PARTY

 

 I have received many emails from people who plan to come, bringing stockings and sometimes treats as well.  The homeless folks have been asking about it, and are looking forward to it.  It is wonderful that Gainesville has taken total ownership of this annual event.  If Freeman and I ran away to join the carnival (unlikely), this party would go on and would be a terrific event.  See you there!

 

NATIONAL HOMELESS PEOPLE’S MEMORIAL DAY

 

December 21 is National Homeless People’s Memorial Day, when all the homeless people who died on the streets or in the woods during the previous year, are honored and remembered.  We used to celebrate it in Gainesville, but the last few years this event has fallen by the wayside.  This year we are bringing it back.  In the last week, we lost three members of our homeless community:  Michael Johnson, Henry Lee Robinson, and Daniel Adkins.  This year we will have a service to honor these friends, as well as all the people lost this year.  December 21 was chosen by the National Homeless Coalition because it is the longest, darkest night of the year.  Usually this service has been held downtown and only a few homeless people have attended.  On such a long, dark, and often very cold night, homeless people go to bed early to stay warm.  So this year we will have it on the grassy area on the edge of Tent City, where Henry and Michael lived.  This will make it easy for their friends to be there.  We will have a candlelight circle and hot chocolate and doughnuts afterwards.  When we have the details worked out, I will let everybody know, since all of you are invited to join us.

 

THE MAGIC OF ONE-ON-ONE

 

When the Home Van was having major driveouts four or more times a month, the numbers rose to the point where we were doing very little one-on-one outreach except with a few people we knew from older and simpler times.  It was a big loss.  Now we are rediscovering the magic of working with people one at a time.  It also opens up more volunteer opportunities.  Even when all the regular volunteer slots are filled, like the soup ladler and the candle-giver, people can come along just to socialize with our folks.  Simple friendship, conversation, is valuable in itself, and also can lead to opportunities to really help someone.  Liz was speaking with a young woman who finally found a job, after months of searching, but did not have a pair of black shoes, which this job required.   Liz got her a pair of shoes – simple problem, simple solution.  In the absence of one-on-one contact, people can spiral downward for lack of a small piece of help at the right time. 

 

One-on-one contacts occasionally help in a major way.  A few weeks ago, Ellen Allen, the Good Neighbor Society, who devotes herself to individual outreach, discovered that “Cary,” an elderly homeless woman who had been convalescing at a local medical facility, had apparently disappeared off the face of the earth. The story of how we found Cary and what it took to get her back, is long and complicated, so I will just hit the high points here.  Cary had been transferred to a group home in Ocala.   Cary’s longtime partner and best friend, “Mark” wanted to talk to her and maybe even go up and visit, so various people tried to call Cary, but were given a runaround every time.  I did an Internet search on the facility where Cary was living, and discovered that the owner/manager was up on charges for elder abuse, and had been in trouble with the law and with DCF on and off since 2000.  Her most recent arrest was last July, with charges still pending.   Ellen and I went up to Ocala to see Cary and, if need be, bring her home, and discovered that the house at the address of record, was empty.  A neighbor told us that the Sheriff’s Department closed the facility down due to severe problems.  We called the phone number again, first being disconnected and then being told that Cary had left two weeks ago to stay with relatives in Orlando.  Cary has no relatives in Orlando.  After a lot of help from a lot of people, including DCF, we got Cary back.  She is with Mark again and is doing fairly well.  In this situation, a potential tragedy was averted. 

 

We are in the time of the midwinter Festivals of Light and Hope.  May all of you be blessed!

 

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.

 

 

 

HOME VAN JOURNAL: NOVEMBER 2, 2013

COMING FULL CIRCLE:  TWO STORIES FROM PISTOL ALLEY

 

Since the nation’s economy went south, the Home Van is serving an increasingly broad demographic of people.  In the early years we were a mission to chronically homeless people.  That first winter we were out delivering blankets one night and one of our friends told us that there were a group of people living in a  house in Pistol Alley who had no utilities, no food and no blankets.  Pistol Alley runs behind North Main Street Publix, so we headed over there.  The scene we found was unlike anything I’ve ever encountered before or since.  Some twenty to thirty people were milling around in front of a small house and in the backyard, where someone had built a bonfire.  These people were so intoxicated that they were staggering in blind circles, some babbling and some screaming.  Their eyes were entirely blank – no one home behind those eyes - their souls in hiding.  It is the first and only time in the course of doing this work that I have felt scared.  We did talk to a couple of people who hadn’t quite reached that point, a man named Bill, and Margaret, a woman with two black eyes and a cut on her forehead.  We left the food and blankets and took off.  I decided that we could help these folks but we would never go there again except during the morning hours. 

 

One Sunday morning Rod and I went over to check on this group and Bill came out of the house.  He asked us if we would drain some antifreeze from the van and give it to him because he really needed a drink, which of course we did not do.  There are people who think alcoholism isn’t really a disease, but some kind of choice or lack of character.  They’re wrong.

 

Over the years since I would see Bill occasionally, usually panhandling in the Publix parking lot.  He was a quiet, gentle person, and he had more friends than I knew.  The women who tend the north Main Street cat colony counted him as a friend, and it was one of them who let me know that Bill had died.  The next weekend we went down to the small Tent City on the north end of Main Street to have a little service for Bill.  I brought some food to give the folks down there in memory of Bill.  We were joined by one of his friends, a man who used to work construction until the recession hit.   We shared the good memories we had of Bill, and our gratitude that his troubles were finally over.  Then his friend said a prayer of blessing, for Bill, for the homeless people, and for all people.  This prayer came from such a deep place within him that I felt the presence of God there in that little gathering to remember Bill. 

 

Margaret we came to know much better, because she moved to South Camp and became partners with our beloved friend Jerry, a Vietnam vet and Native American who was a leader in the homeless community of the time.  Jerry loved to cook.  He dumpster-dived behind supermarkets, bringing home soup vegetables and frozen meat that was close to the expiration date.  He’d make big pots of food and invite everyone to eat.  He also treasured his Native American heritage.  He taught other homeless people how to survive in the woods, and when Jerry left this world, several of his friends said they owed their very survival to the help he gave them.  Jerry had severe PTSD, and the drinking problem that often goes with that, but it was not at the level of Pistol Alley.  Margaret had moved up in the world, and gotten onto a path that would eventually lead to her deliverance from homelessness.  Margaret loved Jerry and when Jerry became terminally ill, she wanted to be his caregiver and to be able to visit him at the hospital, so she struggled heroically to get control of her drinking.  The Christian Bible says, “With love all things are possible, and there is nothing that is not possible.”  That verse comes to mind sometimes, because I can think of more than one person whose path out of homelessness opened up because there was another being – a human or an animal – that they truly loved and were determined to care for.  Maybe that’s what that verse means, in practice.  I would suspect that it is.  Margaret’s struggle had its victories and its failures, but overall she succeeded in doing right by Jerry during his time of leaving this world. 

 

It was of course a very different story after Jerry died.   She was in danger of losing the little section 8 apartment that she and Jerry had shared and drinking didn’t help. Joe and Liz took on the endless task of keeping Margaret in housing and getting her into new housing after she was evicted from the old housing.  Joe, in particular, is a kind of Clarence Darrow of getting difficult people into housing and keeping them there.  One time Margaret was evicted from Bailey Village because she would get drunk and run around the courtyard hugging people.  It was always something.  Eventually, though, Margaret stabilized.  It is almost impossible for people with severe problems to become stabilized while they are homeless.  Having a home very often leads to a good outcome.  Margaret now has a nice little apartment off Tower Road.  Before drink took over her life, she had been a fabric artist, and she went back to this pursuit.  The walls of her apartment, which she keeps immaculately clean, are covered with tapestries and dream catchers.  She has a few cats.  She still experiences bumps in the road, and is high maintenance, but consider the trip she has made – from Pistol Alley to this warm, little home. 

 

Pistol Alley was a scene from Dante’s Inferno.   I feel privileged to have seen it and to know these stories of deliverance.  At one time, when I was particularly steeped in “literachoor,” I hypothesized to my self that all of life is like a Tarot layout, and all stories go back to Dante and to the Greeks.  I don’t  have all that sorted out like I did when I was younger and knew so much more, but I still think there’s some truth to it.

 

MYLARS, TENTS AND TARPS

 

These are the items we need most.  This is a winter like no other, because so many people are living outside.  May it be the last one.

 

Love and peace 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.

HOME VAN JOURNAL 10/6/13

PAT FITZPATRICK TRIBUTE PARTY/HOME VAN BENEFIT

 

featuring the

 

Gainesville Liberation Orchestra! 

 

1982 Video Game Bar / Music & Arts Venue

 

                                                                                                                919 West University Avenue

                                                                                                                8:30 on (music begins at 9 p.m.)

                                                                                                                (all ages / non- smoking inside)

                                                                                                                 $5 donation ($7 under 21)

 

Pat Fitzpatrick, founding member of the Home Van and long-time Home Van driver, has retired from the Home Van to focus on some personal challenges, although, as I will explain, he has not retired from helping his friends in the homeless community.  This party will celebrate Pat’s enormous contribution to the Home Van and his untiring efforts to combat hunger in our community. 

 

I can’t imagine what the Home Van would be without Pat’s role in making it what it is.  He taught me how to reach out to people.  I’m a bit of introvert and also grew up in Vermont, the Introvert Capital of the country.  I was frozen in place at the idea of going up to strangers, giving them food and even talking to them.  On those first few driveouts I just watched Pat, whose resume included a long stretch of union organizing in Immokalee, Florida, where he had his office at Ernie’s Flophouse.

He’d see a down-and-out looking person and he’d walk right up to them with that big, cheesy Irish grin from ear to ear, clap them on the back and say, “Hey, Buddy!  Howya doing?”  No one could resist him. 

 

That first winter of 2002 was one of the coldest in Florida history, with many nights in the twenties and thirties.  We were, to the best of my knowledge, the only group doing direct outreach on the streets.  That winter Pat and I would drive around town on cold nights - down alleys, across parking lots, behind dumpsters, into patches of woods  – with two gallons of hot chocolate and a load of blankets.

 

When I got a call from United Way 211 about someone desperate for food, Pat would take them a bag of groceries – any time, anywhere.  He says, “This is my job.”  He often quotes from books he’s reading on the principles of Catholic Social Justice.  He tells me, “If you have two coats, one of those coats belongs to the poor.” 

 

Even in relative retirement, he’s still doing his job.  This summer he discovered that the water fountain in the downtown plaza is defective.  He brought this to the attention of the Parks and Recreation Department, who plan to replace it.  In the meantime, he goes down to the plaza most nights with a big cooler of ice cold bottled water.  He sits out schmoozing with the passersby and offering water to anyone who’s thirsty. 

 

The good folks of 1982 are also hosting this event as a benefit for the Home Van.  Come join us in honoring Pat.

 

CHRISTMAS STOCKING TIME

 

As most of you know, the Home Van hosts a yearly Christmas party for our homeless friends at the downtown community plaza.  This year’s party will be on Thursday, December 19 at 6 p.m., in the little parking lot on the east side of the Civil Courthouse and down from the Lunchbox Café.  It is a custom that people from all over the community – school children, office staffs, bowling teams, scout troops, families, neighborhoods – stuff Christmas stockings and bring them to the party.  Some people also bring home baked goodies.  This year the Unitarian Youth Choir is coming down to serenade us with Christmas carols. 

 

For you new folks, here is how you do a Christmas stocking:   Buy a pair of white athletic or tube socks.  Stuff one sock into the toe of the other sock.  Stuff the sock with Christmas presents and tie off the end.  Suggested stocking stuffers include but are not limited to:  candy canes, chocolate bars, candles, small flashlights, batteries, stamped envelopes, reading glasses, nail files, gloves, caps, hotel-size soaps, and shampoos, lotion, pens, puzzle books, paperback books, playing cards.... The various dollar stores are great places to find affordable stocking stuffers.  I have to ask that no one put money into a Christmas stocking.  It is painful when some people get money and others don’t, especially toward end of the month when everyone’s broke. 

 

ADVOCACY GROUP MEETING

 

As you know, about a dozen Home Van supporters are forming a group to do research on homeless issues, followed by efforts to educate the community on who our homeless friends are and what challenges they face.  This group’s goal is to shine the light of knowledge on irrational fear of homeless people.  The group’s first meeting will be Tuesday, October 8 at the Civic Media Center, 433 South Main Street, 7 p.m.  Anyone who did not sign up for this group but feels inspired to come are most welcome.  I will be circulating notes by email for those who can’t make this meeting. 

 

MYLAR BLANKETS

 

It’s time to start collecting mylar blankets.  These blankets, also called space blankets, are available at WalMart and at any store that offers camping supplies.  They generally cost under a dollar each.  They can also be purchased on line at a multitude of sites.  Anyone who is charging a dollar or more per blanket, don’t buy from them.  You can do better.  I think it’s going to be particularly important this winter to have a large supply of these blankets on hand.  The number of people coming to us for supplies has doubled since last May and many of them are sick or elderly. 

 

STATUS OF THE ONE-STOP

 

The City Commission has voted to buy the old Gainesville Correctional Institute  on 39th avenue, in it’s entirety.  The State has agreed to expedite this purchase, so the city may own the site as early as this November.  The center will start offering some services as soon as possible.  It is going to be a long process to get this Homeless Empowerment Center, as it is now called,  up and running in full.  It is likely that our homeless friends are going to have to struggle through another winter on their own for the most part.  May this be the last one! 

 

WHAT WE NEED

 

We are low on double A and triple A batteries, personal hygiene products, and paperback books.  You can call me at 372-4825, to arrange for drop off. 

 

peace and blessings 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/

 

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.

 

 

 

City Commission Meeting/Candlelight vigil

This afternoon the City Commission voted to buy the land on 39th Avenue since a land swap is not happening.   According to city staff, there is some willingness on the part of the Department of Corrections (DOC) to go with a sale.  Commissioner Wells asked the city to also negotiate for early occupancy of the site, rather than waiting for all the cumbersome wheels of a government transaction to go through, and the other commissioners also agreed with that. 

 

This is a very welcome development.  At the time I called for the candlelight vigil, I was hearing that this land swap falling through could well be a deal-breaker for the DOC and at best would result in a lengthy postponement of the opening of the One Stop Center.  Commissioner Wells, by the way, was magnificent in addressing the latter issue.  He said, to paraphrase, What we have on the downtown plaza is an emergency.  People sleeping all over the place.  It is an emergency for them, it is an emergency for the people working to establish and maintain businesses downtown, it is an emergency for everybody involved....I am tired of endless bureaucratic obstacles and legal obstacles – a lot of people have been working very hard for a long time for this – it is what our community wants...

 

He was much more eloquent and complete than that but I am reproducing it as best I can because it was the most magnificent, heartfelt and compelling speech I have heard from the dais in a long time, if ever.

 

Our candlelight vigil last Sunday went really well.  The group discussed the situation and made a decision to do research for a public relations campaign on behalf of homeless people and parolees.  It seems we have the beginning of an advocacy group made up of people both from the activist community and the faith community working together for a common goal.  That is a terrific partnership, one that is needed!  So, we will meet again this Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Duck Pond, meditate a bit, and then decide where we want to go from here.  There will be issues, there will be obstacles, one victory is not going to put us out of a job.  We may want to meet elsewhere in the future.

 

arupa

HOME VAN JOURNAL: SPECIAL EDITION

Duck Pond opposition spurs Plan Board to reject probation office's move

“Stalled out for years at a prior location, the city's longstanding plans for a homeless shelter and assistance center east of Gainesville may have hit another stumbling block.

After hearing hours of opposition from dozens of residents of the Historic Duck Pond neighborhood Thursday night, the city's Plan Board denied a permit application to relocate the state's downtown probation office to a building along Northeast First Street just west of the neighborhood.

The state was to take ownership of the building, a former law office just north of City Hall that more recently housed the police department's detective division, in a land swap that was part of the agreement for the city to get the shuttered Gainesville Correctional Institution on Northeast 39th Avenue for the homeless assistance facility...”

                                                                                                                                                                    -Christopher Curry/Gainesville Sun/8/22

 

The probation office has been located downtown, a few blocks from the Duckpond Neighborhood, for at least the past 30 years.  For the past several years it has been located two blocks away from my home in the Southeast Historic District, one of the lowest crime rate neighborhoods in the city.  In all that time there has not, to the best of my knowledge, been a single incident of criminal behavior connected to the comings and goings from that office. 

 

This decision of the Planning Board will not go before the City Commission.  It will stand unless it is appealed, through a process I’m not familiar with, and that appeal will also go before the Planning Board.

 

A book called A Course in Miracles makes a statement to this effect:  All human behavior comes from either fear or love.  I have analyzed my own actions and the actions going on around me and I’m convinced that this statement is absolute truth.  We now have an instance of a decision based on  fear.  Decisions based on fear tend to have very bad results.  In this instance, help for the sick, elderly and disabled people who make up a substantial portion of the homeless community has met another major stumbling block.

 

I have not, in my almost 70 years, seen anything like the suffering that is going on in the homeless community.  Some nights there are so many people with canes, crutches, in wheelchairs, bent over, lined up at the Home Van that I feel like I’m looking at a line into a faith healers tent.  There has been a sense that we are all hanging on by our fingernails waiting for the One Stop Center to open. 

 

I am not going to demonize the people of the Duckpond Community or their allies for this decision.  I have struggled with irrational fear for all of my life and I know how powerful it is.  Wise beings have said that there is only one force in the universe that is more powerful than fear, and that is love.  After some contemplation, I have decided that I’m going to hold a candelight prayer vigil on the banks of the Duckpond every Sunday night from 7 to 8 p.m., beginning Sunday, September 1.  I am inviting the entire community, housed and unhoused, rich and poor, to join me.  People of all faiths and no faith.  Atheists and secular humanists are invited to join me.  Their belief that love and grace and creativity lie within the human spirit I hold as sacred as any belief held by me or anyone else.  We are all one. 

 

That the human family may come together, that we may love and care for one another, that we will stop being afraid of one another and shooting at each other and shutting each other out – that will be our prayer and our affirmation.

 

Please join me on the banks of the Duckpond on Sunday, September 1 at 7 p.m. or any Sunday after that.  Please invite others.

 

Peace and love to everyone,

 

arupa

HOME VAN JOURNAL 7.20/13

THE JUNE SURPRISE

 

For a long time about 100-150 people have been coming to Home Van meals, with the numbers rising as we go toward the end of the month.  In June we went on our first driveout of the month and 225 people showed up – more than usual out in the woods and a really big crowd downtown.  I hoped it was an anomaly since we are on the outer edge of how many people we can serve.   We are the Home Caravan these days, with Liz McCulloch’s car fitted out with the socks boutique, candles, mylars, bug spray and batteries, and one or two other cars carrying volunteers who cannot be crammed into the van itself. 

 

It was not an anomaly – every driveout since has been enormous.  These last two driveouts we were saved from running out of food by a church group that showed up.  That won’t be true every week and I’m considering strategies for coping with this situation.  It is a terrible thing to have to turn hungry people away.  If anyone out there would like to make a few extra sandwiches for us and drop them by, that would be welcome.  Peanut butter sandwiches would be fine, just don’t use crunchy peanut butter since a good many people have bad teeth or no teeth.  Extra fruit and boiled eggs are also very helpful.  You can give me a buzz at 372-4825, or email me, about this.

 

The buzz down at Bread of the Mighty Food Bank suggests that many groups are experiencing a big rise in numbers.  I am puzzled by news reportage that things are getting better, homelessness is down, employment is up.  We just aren’t seeing it.  I heard through the grapevine that a local trailer park evicted 17 people recently.  It all adds up.  People who are evicted from their homes have no choice but to go downtown – what else can they do – stand around on the sidewalk somewhere?   For some people, a bench on the downtown plaza has become home. 

 

PHOENIX RISING

 

Phoenix Rising, a new group in the community is partnering with the Home Van.   This past week several of our egg boilers were out of town and they showed up with 15 dozen boiled eggs and some other items as well.  Phoenix Rising is an open community who meets twice a month and are interested in spiritual growth and community outreach by working with existing organizations.  Their contact information is email: roxaneb555@gmail.com

 

TENTS

 

I am getting many, many requests for tents from people who are desperate to the point of anguish. Last week two young women, one about six months pregnant, came by to get my last tent.  the young pregnant woman didn’t speak at all – she just stood on my steps looking permanently stunned. Her friend chatted with me, expressing much gratitude.  I realized that this scene has taken on a kind of ghastly normality because I have experienced it so many times. 

 

I am hoping that there might be a group out in the community – maybe a group connected to a band – who could do a big tent benefit for the homeless community.  We really need to have a hundred or more tents in stock to cope with this situation, and in reality I rarely have more than five or six tents available and often I have none.  If anybody could organize something like this, let me know.

 

THANK YOU

 

Many thanks to all the people who have brought us bug spray and water.  This is the worst mosquito season ever out in the woods, so I hope people can continue with this outreach. 

 

Thank you for being there for us – so many of you, so often.  That’s how we keep going.

 

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/

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOME VAN JOURNAL 6/9/13

A SPECIAL THANK YOU

 

 

To Alachua County, and particularly to Candie Nixon, Marie Small and Tammy Carmichael who came up with 500 cans of bug spray for our homeless folks!

I hear they are continuing to write grants for this purpose.  The reign of torture out in the woods is being alleviated.  We are still accepting all other donations of bug spray because it’s going to be many months before the mosquitos go into their winter hibernation.  It is also a bad year out there for ticks and chiggers.

 

 

GENERATIONAL HOMELESSNESS

 

 

This is a phrase I’ve never used or seen used.  It came to mind when I realized that a homeless teenager who came to the van for services was the son of a woman I knew when she was a homeless teenager receiving services at St. Francis House.  His mother is proud of the fact that she came up with a ‘real bed’ for his tent and that he is eating three meals a day.  This is success in her world.

 

 

In the nineties much was made of the culture of welfare – two and three generations of families living in public housing and receiving welfare.  As I recall, Newt Gingrich led the assault on generational welfare by severe cuts to programs that brought support to women and children.  

The right way to get people off welfare is through education, job training, and empowerment classes (IMO), but our country used the “cut them off at the kneecaps” approach.  I don’t know how much this contributed to the severe rise in homelessness in our country, but it surely is a part of the problem.  The criminalization of  homelessness might be seen as Phase 2 of our country’s war against the poor.  A war that is becoming increasingly grim.  The farm bill being considered in Congress involves cutting billions of dollars from the food stamp program, which is already insufficient.

 

 

There are many other factors.  In the eighties when Ronald Reagan led the charge to close state mental hospitals, we were told that mentally ill people would go into halfway houses and from there be re-integrated into society.  For the most part, that didn’t happen.  I have heard our Sheriff say at County Commission meetings that the jail is not set up to be a mental health facility, but has been forced into that role. 

 

 

I applaud our local law enforcement community, including some local judges, who are working hard to meet the challenge of mental illness among the poor and the  homeless, through Drug Court, Mental Health Court and, in many cases, through simple kindness to those who have been abandoned by the larger society.  This winter, for example, GPD, Officer Ernest Graham in particular, helped distribute mylar blankets during the cold months.

 

 

Other factors in the situation include the failure of government to maintain the minimum wage as a living wage; an insufficient stock of low-income housing, automation replacing  many minimum-wage workers; the failure of SSI and SSDI to pay people enough to live on; the our-sourcing of jobs, skyrocketing medical costs.  I see all of those causes operating.

 

 

So this is a big, big kettle of fish.  Until there is a change of climate in this country, until Social Darwinism is replaced by compassion and by gratitude for all we have, and a willingness to share with others, we will continue to move in the direction of Generational Homelessness. 

 

 

In our community many people have become involved in the struggle to alleviate the suffering of the poor and the homeless, and our city and county governments are working hard at making the One Stop Center into a reality.  I have heard that this facility may start offering some services as soon as next October.  This is a beginning. 

 

 

We have a long way to go in this ever-changing landscape.  Recently I realized that the Mayberry, RFD aspect of the Home Van is disappearing altogether.  In the beginning we thought of our homeless friends as part of our extended family.  We sat around their campfires.  We knew them and treated them as our brothers and sisters in the woods.   Joe Jackson took Bug Man Eric to a football game when Eric’s  alma mater was playing the Gators.  We participated in camp cleanups and helped people move from one location to another.    Now we see terrible things – an ancient guy with a twisted leg hobbling up to the van to get a sandwich – we see him over a sea of faces and we don’t know who he is. 

 

That hurts.  Still, we must ‘keep on, keeping on.’  No pendulum swings forever in one direction. 

 

 

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

 

 

The Home Van is in need of a backup van driver.  This must be someone who knows how to drive a large vehicle – a 15-seater van - and who is available the second, third and fourth Thursdays of every month.  The Home Van goes out Thursdays at 4:45 p.m. and returns between 6:30 and 7 p.m.  The backup driver would need to be available when our regular van driver can’t make it.  The backup van driver might sometimes be needed to pick up cases of water and take them out to wooded areas.

 

 

We also need more soup makers.  Making 7 gallons of thick soup is a considerable undertaking, and we like to have enough people so that no one makes soup more often than once a month.  In summer our cadre of soup makers becomes particularly thin.  This month we don’t have a soup maker for June 20.  We also need a soup maker for July 18 and August 22.  If you would like to make soup for us, email me and I will connect you up with Liz McCulloch, our soup scheduler.

Save the homeless folks from soup made by Arupa  - a vegetarian whose secret ingredient is number ten cans.

 

 

 

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/

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOME VAN JOURNAL 5/11/13

DIVERSITY/CIVILITY

 

 

The late Erma Bombeck once wrote, “I live in a subdivision so conservative that when my women’s club celebrated diversity day, the best we could come up with was two fat ladies and a Democrat.” Going into the Home Van experience, I was on the opposite end of the spectrum. My diversity might have been a Mary Kay distributor and a Methodist. I thought I was an advocate for diversity, but I didn’t know anything about it. I stayed in my demographic of old hippies/radicals/artists etc.

 

Early on we realized that we needed to have respect for all the opinions we encounter among our homeless friends. If one of the old vets told me that Rush Limbaugh would be an excellent choice for President of the United States, I made a conscious practice of listening from my Buddha spot, where all is sacred. One of my special memories is the day Country came to see me. Country, when he was sober, was the epitome of a southern gentlemen, and an especially kind person. In my livingroom I have a small collection of Virgin Mary art. Country looked it over, turned to me, folded his hat across his chest, and said, “Miz Arupa, I know you don’t know this, but you are committing the sin of Mariolatry. Only pictures of Jesus should be on the wall because He is our Lord and Savior. If you leave these pictures up here, you might die and go to Hell forever. I don’t mean no disrespect, Miz Arupa, I just thought you oughter know.”

 

I thanked him. He cared about me.

 

We are living in a time when civility is becoming a lost art. I know it’s possible to learn from everyone, because humans have much more in common with each other than we have different, no matter what map of reality we are using. It’s trying to remember that in the midst of storms– that’s the hard part.

 

UPDATE ON “k”

 

Several of you have inquired about K, the young man who had aged out of foster care and nearly became homeless after a bruising encounter with his biological parents. K now has a place to live and a job. All he needed was a leg up.

 

BUG SPRAY AND BOTTLED WATER

 

Same topic as last month. The woods are already swarming with mosquitoes. They hit there, especially along the banks of Sweetwater Branch, much earlier than in town. Bug spray and bottled water will be our greatest need for the next few months.

 

TRIUMPHS AND TRAGEDIES

 

I spend more time in this newsletter recounting triumphs than tragedies. I want to celebrate the accomplishments of our homeless citizens, as well as the courage, love and patience so many of them demonstrate. I want everyone on this list to know that you are making a difference – in the donating and volunteering you do for us and other organizations, and on your own, you are saving lives and bringing happiness to homeless people.

 

There is tragedy also. My husband said to me recently that he can scarcely bear to bike by the downtown plaza during the later evening, because it such a tragedy – people everywhere wrapped in old blankets, people screaming, bundles scarcely identifiable on the sidewalk, except that he knows there are human beings inside them. The most vulnerable and disabled – by mental illness or addictions or both – basically live on the plaza. They don’t have the ability to set up a tent. They are in a free fall through life. Not because they are worse than anyone else – whose life has not been touched by mental illness or addictions? – but because they have nothing. Please keep these children of God in your prayers.

 

Peace and love 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/

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.

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 4/14/13

BUG SPRAY AND WATER

UF entymologists are predicting an unusually bad mosquito season this year, due to rainfall patterns. These bringers of cheer also say that we are going to be invaded by a sort of mega-mosquito, 20 times the size of an ordinary mosquito, that bites through clothing. That sounds more like a toy helicopter than a bug, but I did read this in the Gainesville Sun. The woods have already been invaded by mosquitos – but not the helisquitoes yet. So, we are going to need bug spray donations more than ever. It is pure torture being out in the woods with no way to keep mosquitoes off. I advise people to spray their clothing rather than themselves, especially around cuffs and collars. That way they are not saturating their bodies with Deet, and the effect lasts longer. Still, it is going to take a lot of bug spray to get through the next few months. I also need to start stockpiling water, so those donations are important also.

SPECIAL PROJECTS...

Every once in awhile we get a chance to actually pull someone out of the fire, as we did recently with “K”, a young man who aged out of foster care in Gainesville a year or two ago. (In order to protect K’s identity, this account is fictionalized, while being essentially true.) K spent some time with his parents over the years, but mainly lived in foster homes, some good and some abusive. He aged out of foster care successfully, and got himself a job and a place to live. He even saved up a few hundred dollars. About this time his parents came to town with big news. They told K they had an apartment and good jobs waiting for them in a faraway place. They asked K to quit his job and go with them so they could all be a real family. First they needed a hotel room for a few days, to rest, and then two more Grayhound tickets. They convinced K to quit his job and give them the money in his savings account, to help them put this grand plan into action. A week or so later K called me from a motel out by the interstate. He and his parents were about to be evicted from the motel and none of them had eaten in four days. He told me, with his voice trembling, that his mother was so sick he feared for her.

We went out to the motel with food. His mother, who seemed to have recovered, was all sweetness and smiles. She told me about the apartment and jobs in ‘Timbuktu’ and asked if we could help them get there. The rest of the story, the unedited version, emerged over the next two days. In short, once K turned over his money and the family got a motel room, his parents invited friends over and went on three-day binge. All of K’s money was gone.

The price of two Grayhound tickets was way more than we could afford, but the Home Van angel, the one who whispers in my ear, told me to get one ticket, which was still more than we could afford, but I’ve learned over the years to obey this little voice when it talks to me. K’s mother eagerly volunteered K to stay behind while she and her husband took the bus. “He’s young, he’ll make it, and we’ll send for him when we get paid.” K agreed. In reality, K, as he told me later, was terrified at the notion of living on the streets. Although his life had been hard, he’d always had a roof over his head.

When I heard the whole story I realized that we really needed to get these so-called parents out of town, way out of town. Like Charlie Brown with the football, an abandoned child is vulnerable past all the reason to the idea that his parents have changed, now they love him, now he’s going to have a real family.

K did have friends in a small religious commune in Gainesville. After we put his parents on the Grayhound, we took him there. He was greeted with hugs and immediately given a bed. A week later K had found another job. K feels that the severity of this experience has finally inoculated him from the siren call of his parents, particularly his mother. He understands now that the people who love him are his real family. He is doing well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOME VAN PET CARE!

Home Van Pet Care is turning 6 years old this month! I can’t say enough to thank Elizabeth Howard and her volunteers for all they have done for the animals these past years – all the hours of bagging food and bringing it to the woods and capturing cats and dogs and taking them in for spaying and neutering and health care. Elizabeth also reached out to other people and groups concerned with animal welfare and lit a lot of fires. Happy, Happy Birthday to Home Van Pet Care and all their furry friends.

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/

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.

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 2/22/13

A VERY SPECIAL DINNER

On February 20 the Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry hosted a dinner gathering at St. Francis House for the homeless community, to meet with them and listen to their concerns. This was the first time for such an event and there were a few glitches, since more people attended than were expected. Nevertheless, it was a very successful and positive event. Everywhere we went last night on our driveout people were talking about this dinner and saying how much they enjoyed the experience. Historically, as a community, we haven’t done nearly enough to include the homeless community in the conversation. This effort in that direction was deeply appreciated by our homeless friends.

Theresa Lowe, Coalition Director, opened the meeting by thanking the homeless community for helping with the annual Point-in-Time Survey and reporting on the initial findings. The PIT Survey is sponsored by HUD and is a count of the homeless population over a 48-hour period. It also includes questions on why people are homeless, and what their needs are. It is a snapshot taken of a moving target over a brief period of time, so there are always people who aren’t counted. Statisticians work with the figures in their own mysterious (to me) way of extrapolating a more exact count. Theresa reported the following figures (not extrapolated figures but the actual number counted):

(1) 985 unsheltered homeless people

(2) more than 1000 homeless people in shelter

(3) 400 homeless children, as reported by the Alachua County School District (all of whom have families who may not have been counted)

(4) 300 chronically homeless people, defined as people who have been homeless for more than one year

Theresa referred to these numbers, particularly the 985 unsheltered homeless people, as “staggering,” especially when compared on, a per capita basis, with other cities. Denver, Colorado, for example, counted 1000 unsheltered homeless people in their PIT Survey.

Then Commisssioner Randy Wells reported on the city’s efforts to acquire the old prison complex on 39th Avenue for a new homeless shelter and one-stop center. He was able to report that negotiations with the State are going well. He then asked for feedback from the community about what they would like to see this project include. We were not able to stay for the entire comment period, but while we were there the homeless people cited three major concerns they would like to see addressed:

(1) JOB TRAINING AND JOB OPPORTUNITIES (suggestions were met with enthusiastic applause)

(2) MORE AND BETTER ACCESS TO SHOWER AND LAUNDRY SERVICES

(3) A GREATER EFFORT TO TREAT HOMELESS PEOPLE WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT, AND FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE TO TREAT EACH OTHER WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT

Amen, amen, amen!

Commissioner Wells has a strong vision of this new center as a place where the entire community will come together to build something that is useful and beautiful, with not only shelter, health care, and job training, but also many other community projects such as organic gardens, murals painted by local artists, activities for children and more. He wants as many citizens as possible, housed and homeless, to participate in the process, now and after this facility opens. If you would like to be notified of meetings concerning the new one-stop center and/or if you have input about what you would like to see included at this center you can email Commissioner Wells at wellsrm@cityofgainesville.org

MANY THANKS

My SOS for more groceries was met by a cornucopia of good food! Many thanks to all of you. I now have enough food and better food. I have also received a good many tents and tarps from both groups and individuals, and the same with vitamins and batteries. We are a bit low on personal hygiene products, so keep us in mind for that. We never have enough razors, and shaving is a significant part of getting a job, so razors will be especially appreciated.

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/

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.

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 1/8/12

TOUR OF PROPOSED NEW SITE FOR ONE-STOP CENTER (AND OTHER COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES)

This coming Saturday, January 12, from 8 a.m. to noon, there will be an open house for people to tour the old Gainesville Correctional Institute, which may become the One-Stop Center. This opportunity was initiated by Commissioner Welles, who has a strong vision for ways this facility could become an asset to our community and a place for a variety of activities, in addition to homeless services. As a large homeless shelter, it couldn’t be more ideal. It already has many rooms with bunk beds, bathrooms, a large kitchen, bike racks, a chapel, a library. It’s on a bus line, there are sidewalks. It would not require mega tax dollars to get it up and going. I encourage people to go out and see it – the more community support the better. The Point-in-Time Survey is coming up at the end of January, and I suspect it will show a substantial rise in numbers of people living out doors. I was shocked that Pat, who gives out mylar blankets downtown in the late evening, gave out 120 of them in about two weeks. Freeman is sometimes downtown in the later evening and he says there are people sleeping everywhere. In years past, the more challenged homeless people slept on the streets because they tended not to have campsites. Now I talk to people who are sleeping downtown because they are terrified to be out in the woods, or simply don’t have the strength to walk or bike back and forth from the woods.

So, let’s really push for this new site. To get there you drive down 39th Avenue toward the airport. You will come across an old, unoccupied prison on the opposite side of the street from the airport and across from the county jail.

THE CHRISTMAS PARTY!!

Huge thanks you to everyone – this was the best Christmas party we’ve ever had. People knocked themselves out stuffing the stockings with all sorts of good things, and a lot of people brought cookies and fudge and peanut butter balls and oranges – all sorts of goodies. We had 7 gallons of beef stew, and Carlotta’s fabulous corn bread and hot chocolate. My wonderful neighbors came with their band and played Christmas carols (a terrific band – you can hear them Wednesday evening at Lightning Salvage, behind Satchells). It was a wonderful evening.

ACTS OF KINDNESS

A woman from Newtown was talking about the thousands of acts of kindness being showered upon the community of Newtown. She said, “Maybe if we were this nice to each other all the time, things like this wouldn’t happen.” Sounds right to me. There is a national movement going on for everyone to do 28 random acts of kindness, one for each person who died at Newtown. I think that is a fantastic idea. I have only one New Year’s Resolution this year – and it is to try to be nice and not to add one single atom to the tidal wave of anger and pain that sometimes seems to be engulfing us.

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.