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/
____________________________________
Sunday, February 26, 2012
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
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/
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/
Sunday, December 11, 2011
HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 12.11.11
THE POLICE CLEARANCE SITUATION
As most of you know, it is now necessary to get a monthly police clearance to receive any services at St. Frances House – meals, showers, laundry, and to receive one’s mail. This is a deeply disturbing human rights violation, based on the totally fabricated illusion that the homeless community is rife with criminals and pedophiles. Nevertheless, it is what we are stuck with, and there is a whole team of people – the A Team – working to alleviate and ameliorate the situation as much as possible – Theresa Lowe at the Office on Homelessness, Jack Donovan of the Homeless Coalition, Bill Cervone at the State Attorney’s Office, Joe Jackson, pro bono lawyer to the homeless community, Holy Trinity’s Downtown Ministry (who help people get photo IDs, both in terms of money and navigating the bureaurcracy), and folks at GPD. There is work going on to help people clear warrants involving petty misdemeanors. The Alachua County Housing Authority is allowing people to receive mail at their building. They will accept any photo ID, even one that is out of date, and do not require police clearances. The homeless people themselves seem to be settling in to the new regime with patient endurance. This is a community of people who have endured tragedies and calamities in their lives that most of us cannot even imagine, and this is just one more thing.
CHANGES AT THE HOME VAN
For nine years and counting the Home Van went out twice a week. As of this past Thanksgiving we have reduced our driveouts to one day a week, the Thursday driveout. This was a difficult decision to make, but – due to advancing age and diminished resources – it was necessary. A church group from Chiefland has started coming to the plaza on Tuesdays and serving a meal. We overlapped with them for about three months. During those months we were giving people extra food to alleviate the 130-person meal limit. This also gave us an opportunity to see how committed the Chiefland group is. They came every single Tuesday – during rainstorms, on cold nights, after two jerks started a fight in the line, and just before Thanksgiving. They earned their ‘street creds’ as people who know what it takes.
In some ways the Thursday driveout has always been at the heart of what we do. We started out as a mission that went out to the woods where the people live. This changed the whole dynamic of delivering services. We weren’t standing behind a counter helping supplicants. We were guests in their homes, and we got to know who they are and how they live. We were able to intervene in crises – like someone who needed a trip to the pharmacy to get more insulin right at that moment. We became an emergency contact for people who needed immediate help. Just this past week we became aware of a very young homeless man who was in crisis with sickle cell anemia. Pat and I have been visiting him and bringing him the extra water he needs. This is our little slot and we will now be better able to do this work. In addition, we are going to be able to stretch our money further. Two years ago we lost our state funding to buy tents and since then have been almost totally reliant on donated tents. Now we will be able to buy a few tents each month ourselves. So, after the initial anguish we felt at making this cut back, we are seeing that it is for the best.
THE CHRISTMAS PARTY
As I mentioned last time, our Home Van Christmas party will be on Thursday, December 22 at 5:45 p.m. in the little parking lot on the east side of the Civil Courthouse, right down from the Bo Diddley Plaza and the Lunch Box Café. Freeman will be there in an old green Aerostar Ford van to accept Christmas stockings. It is also okay to pass out the Christmas stockings you bring yourselves. We always have an abundance of stockings so it isn’t ‘one to a customer.’ The East Side Jazz Band will be playing Christmas carols and – it is rumored – Santa Claus is coming with them to make a personal appearance! It will be dark in the parking lot, except for light from the plaza, and that is unfortunate. We are all bringing flashlights and it would be good if guests bring flashlights with them also. With the help of the Home Van Angels, both physical and metaphysical, we are going to do the best we can and have fun also.
Many blessings to all of you, now and always,
arupa
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, duct
tape, books 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/
As most of you know, it is now necessary to get a monthly police clearance to receive any services at St. Frances House – meals, showers, laundry, and to receive one’s mail. This is a deeply disturbing human rights violation, based on the totally fabricated illusion that the homeless community is rife with criminals and pedophiles. Nevertheless, it is what we are stuck with, and there is a whole team of people – the A Team – working to alleviate and ameliorate the situation as much as possible – Theresa Lowe at the Office on Homelessness, Jack Donovan of the Homeless Coalition, Bill Cervone at the State Attorney’s Office, Joe Jackson, pro bono lawyer to the homeless community, Holy Trinity’s Downtown Ministry (who help people get photo IDs, both in terms of money and navigating the bureaurcracy), and folks at GPD. There is work going on to help people clear warrants involving petty misdemeanors. The Alachua County Housing Authority is allowing people to receive mail at their building. They will accept any photo ID, even one that is out of date, and do not require police clearances. The homeless people themselves seem to be settling in to the new regime with patient endurance. This is a community of people who have endured tragedies and calamities in their lives that most of us cannot even imagine, and this is just one more thing.
CHANGES AT THE HOME VAN
For nine years and counting the Home Van went out twice a week. As of this past Thanksgiving we have reduced our driveouts to one day a week, the Thursday driveout. This was a difficult decision to make, but – due to advancing age and diminished resources – it was necessary. A church group from Chiefland has started coming to the plaza on Tuesdays and serving a meal. We overlapped with them for about three months. During those months we were giving people extra food to alleviate the 130-person meal limit. This also gave us an opportunity to see how committed the Chiefland group is. They came every single Tuesday – during rainstorms, on cold nights, after two jerks started a fight in the line, and just before Thanksgiving. They earned their ‘street creds’ as people who know what it takes.
In some ways the Thursday driveout has always been at the heart of what we do. We started out as a mission that went out to the woods where the people live. This changed the whole dynamic of delivering services. We weren’t standing behind a counter helping supplicants. We were guests in their homes, and we got to know who they are and how they live. We were able to intervene in crises – like someone who needed a trip to the pharmacy to get more insulin right at that moment. We became an emergency contact for people who needed immediate help. Just this past week we became aware of a very young homeless man who was in crisis with sickle cell anemia. Pat and I have been visiting him and bringing him the extra water he needs. This is our little slot and we will now be better able to do this work. In addition, we are going to be able to stretch our money further. Two years ago we lost our state funding to buy tents and since then have been almost totally reliant on donated tents. Now we will be able to buy a few tents each month ourselves. So, after the initial anguish we felt at making this cut back, we are seeing that it is for the best.
THE CHRISTMAS PARTY
As I mentioned last time, our Home Van Christmas party will be on Thursday, December 22 at 5:45 p.m. in the little parking lot on the east side of the Civil Courthouse, right down from the Bo Diddley Plaza and the Lunch Box Café. Freeman will be there in an old green Aerostar Ford van to accept Christmas stockings. It is also okay to pass out the Christmas stockings you bring yourselves. We always have an abundance of stockings so it isn’t ‘one to a customer.’ The East Side Jazz Band will be playing Christmas carols and – it is rumored – Santa Claus is coming with them to make a personal appearance! It will be dark in the parking lot, except for light from the plaza, and that is unfortunate. We are all bringing flashlights and it would be good if guests bring flashlights with them also. With the help of the Home Van Angels, both physical and metaphysical, we are going to do the best we can and have fun also.
Many blessings to all of you, now and always,
arupa
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, duct
tape, books 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, November 11, 2011
HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 11.11.11
HOLLOW VICTORY
As of November 2 the 130-person meal limit at the St. Francis House soup kitchen came to an end. It was replaced by requirements so harsh, so difficult to meet, and so humiliating and demeaning that St. Francis House is now serving lunch to between 70 and 90 people a day. As of this writing, in order to eat lunch at St. Francis House one must have a photo I.D. and a police clearance that must be renewed once-a-month. A police clearance is a warrants check. These warrants checks can be obtained from GPD between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. every day and on Sundays between 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Under the new laws passed as a result of the Homeland Security Act, it has become a long and complicated nightmare for homeless people to obtain state of Florida I.D.s or even to obtain the documents, such as birth certificates, necessary to obtain a state I.D. Many homeless people do not have such I.D.s and have given up trying to get them. Theresa Lowe, Director of the Office on Homelessness, and others, are working to have other sorts of photo I.D.s deemed acceptable for getting a lunch at St,. Francis House. This will certainly help but it does not address the underlying issue of what has happened to our society that we treat poor people like criminals and are willing to deprive them of food, even if they are children, pregnant women, veterans, and elderly and disabled people (as many of them are).
THIS IS THE SOCIETY WE HAVE BECOME. Earlier this month I read that Senator Steve Oelirich is working to have free and reduced school lunch programs ended because they ‘breed dependence.’ Letters have been written to the Gainesville Sun in support of his unconscionable plan. One recent letter of support stated, “Children can get a meal just by showing up.” Maybe these little dead beats should drop out of school and get a job.
This week we learned the horrrific news that a former coach at Penn State University has been raping the children of the poor over a 13-year period while the head coach, the president of Penn State, and various other high officials stood by in silence. When this head coach was fired, a certain portion of the Penn State student body (enough to create a major riot and turn over a police van) rioted in support of Joe Paterno, the head coach. These students believe that football is more important than stopping a child rapist.
WHAT ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN? In our own town of Gainesville, City Commissioners, past and present (excepting the two most recently elected) have sent the message that the interests of money and property are more important that the right of poor people to eat lunch. Pat Fitzpatrick repeatedly went to City Commission meetings and showed a TV20 video of a pregnant woman being turned away from St. Francis House. Commissioners were given eye-witness testimony that hungry children were being turned away from St. Francis House. They sat on their hands and did nothing to end this atrocity, for two long years. Now they have created a situation where even fewer people are able to eat.
May God have mercy on all of us, and lead us on to a better path.
arupa
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, duct
tape, books 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 to307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at
http://homevan.blogspot.com/
As of November 2 the 130-person meal limit at the St. Francis House soup kitchen came to an end. It was replaced by requirements so harsh, so difficult to meet, and so humiliating and demeaning that St. Francis House is now serving lunch to between 70 and 90 people a day. As of this writing, in order to eat lunch at St. Francis House one must have a photo I.D. and a police clearance that must be renewed once-a-month. A police clearance is a warrants check. These warrants checks can be obtained from GPD between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. every day and on Sundays between 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Under the new laws passed as a result of the Homeland Security Act, it has become a long and complicated nightmare for homeless people to obtain state of Florida I.D.s or even to obtain the documents, such as birth certificates, necessary to obtain a state I.D. Many homeless people do not have such I.D.s and have given up trying to get them. Theresa Lowe, Director of the Office on Homelessness, and others, are working to have other sorts of photo I.D.s deemed acceptable for getting a lunch at St,. Francis House. This will certainly help but it does not address the underlying issue of what has happened to our society that we treat poor people like criminals and are willing to deprive them of food, even if they are children, pregnant women, veterans, and elderly and disabled people (as many of them are).
THIS IS THE SOCIETY WE HAVE BECOME. Earlier this month I read that Senator Steve Oelirich is working to have free and reduced school lunch programs ended because they ‘breed dependence.’ Letters have been written to the Gainesville Sun in support of his unconscionable plan. One recent letter of support stated, “Children can get a meal just by showing up.” Maybe these little dead beats should drop out of school and get a job.
This week we learned the horrrific news that a former coach at Penn State University has been raping the children of the poor over a 13-year period while the head coach, the president of Penn State, and various other high officials stood by in silence. When this head coach was fired, a certain portion of the Penn State student body (enough to create a major riot and turn over a police van) rioted in support of Joe Paterno, the head coach. These students believe that football is more important than stopping a child rapist.
WHAT ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN? In our own town of Gainesville, City Commissioners, past and present (excepting the two most recently elected) have sent the message that the interests of money and property are more important that the right of poor people to eat lunch. Pat Fitzpatrick repeatedly went to City Commission meetings and showed a TV20 video of a pregnant woman being turned away from St. Francis House. Commissioners were given eye-witness testimony that hungry children were being turned away from St. Francis House. They sat on their hands and did nothing to end this atrocity, for two long years. Now they have created a situation where even fewer people are able to eat.
May God have mercy on all of us, and lead us on to a better path.
arupa
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, duct
tape, books 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 to307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at
http://homevan.blogspot.com/
Friday, October 14, 2011
HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 10.14.11
STORIES
I used to tell so many more stories in this newsletter, especially in the old, old days when we walked through the woods, from camp to camp, sitting around people’s fire pits hearing the news of the day.
Maybe Jerry found a chicken, frozen solid and not past the date, in the dumpster behind Winn Dixie and he bought some flour and they all had chicken and dumplings....
or about Eva’s hallucination. Eva was a kindergarten teacher who took to drink after her child was killed in an accident. One afternoon, in a stupor of beer and listerine, she had a hallucination – but not of elephants or giant spiders. She saw little children running through the woods laughing and playing and she held her arms out to them. Soon after Eva stopped drinking and she had her own little apartment and was reunited with her family before the end. Maybe someone who drinks so much but has such a loving heart can have her own special hallucination and then find her way home...
I will never forget Henry who loved owls and felt he could communicate with them. One day he was standing in the parking lot of Shands, where he worked as a janitor. He looked up and saw an owl on the roof and then an owl feather fell at his feet.
It’s different now with so many homeless people, needing so much, but we still have our moments, especially at the small stops. Tuesday night two journalism students who are doing a class project on hunger rode along and they were talking to a beat up old hooker universally known as “Big Booty Judy.” She’s talking to them and our pharmacy volunteer says she has some donations in her car to give me. It’s a bag and sticking up out of it is a brand new fluffy pink teddy bear. Judy is saying, “It doesn’t matter if you’re hungry. People just walk by you. They don’t look at you, or if they do it’s like they’re looking at a piece of garbage. It’s because of how you look. But I’m not a piece of garbage. I’m a human being. I’d do anything to help anybody. I’d give someone the shirt off my back...if I had two shirts...” At that moment she glances over at me and sees the teddy bear and her eyes light up like candles. Of course I give her the bear and she wraps her arms around it...
At such moments I feel like the luckiest person on earth to have this job. To myself, I call them “the Jesus moments.”
Judy has had a long hard path through life, and none of us would have wished it on her. But we have the world we have. It is a gift to know these homeless people and to share such moments.
CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS
The Home Van’s annual Christmas party will be on Thursday, December 22 at 5:45 p.m. in the little parking lot on the east side of the Civil Courthouse. It has been an annual tradition in Gainesville for the past 6 or 7 years. People from all over the community join us and they bring Christmas stockings for our homeless friends (and sometimes home made cookies!). For you newbies on the list, here is how folks do the stockings:
Buy a pair of white tube socks. Roll up one sock and put it in the toe of the other. Then fill the stocking with presents and tie off the top. Here are some suggested items to put in the stockings: candles, batteries (especially triple As), duct tape, chocolate bars, reading glasses, playing cards, small games, crossword puzzle books, small stuffed animals, Vienna sausages, stamped envelopes, pens, small notebooks, lighters...The Dollar store is an excellent place to find stocking stuffers. We have two requests for the stockings:
1. Don’t put money in the stockings. It’s a wonderful thing to do, but it hurts too much if one person gets money in his stocking and another person doesn’t.
2. Make sure each stocking is not made up entirely of utilitarian gifts (like soap and toothpaste). Every stocking should have something pretty and frivolous in it like a Santa Claus candle or a chocolate bar.
We used to have designated drop-off sites for Christmas stockings, first at a volunteers house and then at the Alachua County Housing Authority. The number of people and the numbers of stockings has increased to the point that any drop-off site ends up resembling one of those homes on the TV show about people with Hoarders Syndrome. So now we ask people to bring the stockings to the Christmas party and, if they can, to stay and party with us and meet our homeless friends. If any of you make stockings and can’t bring them to the party, call me (372-4825) and I will make a drop-off arrangements for you.
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, bug spray, duct
tape, books 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 to307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/
I used to tell so many more stories in this newsletter, especially in the old, old days when we walked through the woods, from camp to camp, sitting around people’s fire pits hearing the news of the day.
Maybe Jerry found a chicken, frozen solid and not past the date, in the dumpster behind Winn Dixie and he bought some flour and they all had chicken and dumplings....
or about Eva’s hallucination. Eva was a kindergarten teacher who took to drink after her child was killed in an accident. One afternoon, in a stupor of beer and listerine, she had a hallucination – but not of elephants or giant spiders. She saw little children running through the woods laughing and playing and she held her arms out to them. Soon after Eva stopped drinking and she had her own little apartment and was reunited with her family before the end. Maybe someone who drinks so much but has such a loving heart can have her own special hallucination and then find her way home...
I will never forget Henry who loved owls and felt he could communicate with them. One day he was standing in the parking lot of Shands, where he worked as a janitor. He looked up and saw an owl on the roof and then an owl feather fell at his feet.
It’s different now with so many homeless people, needing so much, but we still have our moments, especially at the small stops. Tuesday night two journalism students who are doing a class project on hunger rode along and they were talking to a beat up old hooker universally known as “Big Booty Judy.” She’s talking to them and our pharmacy volunteer says she has some donations in her car to give me. It’s a bag and sticking up out of it is a brand new fluffy pink teddy bear. Judy is saying, “It doesn’t matter if you’re hungry. People just walk by you. They don’t look at you, or if they do it’s like they’re looking at a piece of garbage. It’s because of how you look. But I’m not a piece of garbage. I’m a human being. I’d do anything to help anybody. I’d give someone the shirt off my back...if I had two shirts...” At that moment she glances over at me and sees the teddy bear and her eyes light up like candles. Of course I give her the bear and she wraps her arms around it...
At such moments I feel like the luckiest person on earth to have this job. To myself, I call them “the Jesus moments.”
Judy has had a long hard path through life, and none of us would have wished it on her. But we have the world we have. It is a gift to know these homeless people and to share such moments.
CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS
The Home Van’s annual Christmas party will be on Thursday, December 22 at 5:45 p.m. in the little parking lot on the east side of the Civil Courthouse. It has been an annual tradition in Gainesville for the past 6 or 7 years. People from all over the community join us and they bring Christmas stockings for our homeless friends (and sometimes home made cookies!). For you newbies on the list, here is how folks do the stockings:
Buy a pair of white tube socks. Roll up one sock and put it in the toe of the other. Then fill the stocking with presents and tie off the top. Here are some suggested items to put in the stockings: candles, batteries (especially triple As), duct tape, chocolate bars, reading glasses, playing cards, small games, crossword puzzle books, small stuffed animals, Vienna sausages, stamped envelopes, pens, small notebooks, lighters...The Dollar store is an excellent place to find stocking stuffers. We have two requests for the stockings:
1. Don’t put money in the stockings. It’s a wonderful thing to do, but it hurts too much if one person gets money in his stocking and another person doesn’t.
2. Make sure each stocking is not made up entirely of utilitarian gifts (like soap and toothpaste). Every stocking should have something pretty and frivolous in it like a Santa Claus candle or a chocolate bar.
We used to have designated drop-off sites for Christmas stockings, first at a volunteers house and then at the Alachua County Housing Authority. The number of people and the numbers of stockings has increased to the point that any drop-off site ends up resembling one of those homes on the TV show about people with Hoarders Syndrome. So now we ask people to bring the stockings to the Christmas party and, if they can, to stay and party with us and meet our homeless friends. If any of you make stockings and can’t bring them to the party, call me (372-4825) and I will make a drop-off arrangements for you.
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, bug spray, duct
tape, books 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 to307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/
Thursday, October 6, 2011
HOME VAN NEWLETTR 6/10/11
WINTER IS COMING
Mylar emergency blankets and candles – we need hundreds and hundreds of these two items during the winter months. Emergency blankets keep people alive, even when the temperatures go into the twenties. In fact, the homeless folks say that these blankets actually keep them warm on very cold nights and – good news! – they are extremely inexpensive – one or two dollars apiece depending on where you buy them. They can be purchased by the case online at many different sites – for a range of prices. If you shop around you will find a good deal. More good news – they’re light weight – minimal shipping charge. On very cold nights Pat and I drive around and pass them out, and we keep them in the van. When you donate mylars you are saving lives.
Candles are so, so important. A candle raises the temperature inside a tent by ten degrees. Equally important, candles keep people from sinking into depression. When it gets dark at five o’clock and you have no source of light – sitting out in the woods for endless hours of darkness – unable to read, unable to see what’s coming at you when you hear twigs breaking and leaves crunching - that is like being a prisoner of war.
In a way, our folks are refugees and prisoners of the war between corporate American and everybody else.
This winter I hope your generosity will allow us to pass out candles and mylar blankets by the dozens (mylars also make good makeshift tarps) so everyone has all they need of these two amenities.
One reminder: I no longer take in donations of blankets and winter clothing, because I don’t have the storage space. The Alachua County Housing Authority takes blankets and coats (large size coats are particularly needed). Once a week we take our van to the Hospice Attic Thrift Shop warehouse and load in blankets and sleeping bags and coats. The folks at Hospice Attic – who also donate to other small missions – are genuine angels, and there is one very special angel named Mary Lou who sorts out what we need from the vast middenheaps of donations they receive.
Every winter I hope that this is the last winter we will have hundreds of homeless people living outside. But the One-Stop Center is still a distant dream. One bright light in this darkness is Gail Monahan and her allies at the VA. I wish we could clone Gail, about 40 or 50 times. I think she’s gotten more people off the streets, permanently, than anyone else in Gainesville. She is the Albert Einstein of housing. Her goal is to get every single homeless veteran into housing and she is making great progress.
High protein foods also help homeless people survive the winter. Vienna sausages, or any little poptop cans of meat, will be needed more than ever in the months ahead.
Gary, who was treated for tongue cancer this fall and needed donations of protein shakes, asked me to thank everyone for helping him. We have been able to supply him with all the protein shakes he needed and he is making a good recovery. He can now eat applesauce and boiled eggs.
The Civic Media Center has given a temporary home to the St. Francis House Vet clinic. They also passed out bottled water to homeless folks all summer, and make their restroom available to homeless people.
Many thanks to all of you for being part of our Home Van family. The brothers and sisters in the woods appreciate you more than you will ever know.
love, arupa
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, bug spray, duct tape, books 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
http://homevan.blogspot.com/
Mylar emergency blankets and candles – we need hundreds and hundreds of these two items during the winter months. Emergency blankets keep people alive, even when the temperatures go into the twenties. In fact, the homeless folks say that these blankets actually keep them warm on very cold nights and – good news! – they are extremely inexpensive – one or two dollars apiece depending on where you buy them. They can be purchased by the case online at many different sites – for a range of prices. If you shop around you will find a good deal. More good news – they’re light weight – minimal shipping charge. On very cold nights Pat and I drive around and pass them out, and we keep them in the van. When you donate mylars you are saving lives.
Candles are so, so important. A candle raises the temperature inside a tent by ten degrees. Equally important, candles keep people from sinking into depression. When it gets dark at five o’clock and you have no source of light – sitting out in the woods for endless hours of darkness – unable to read, unable to see what’s coming at you when you hear twigs breaking and leaves crunching - that is like being a prisoner of war.
In a way, our folks are refugees and prisoners of the war between corporate American and everybody else.
This winter I hope your generosity will allow us to pass out candles and mylar blankets by the dozens (mylars also make good makeshift tarps) so everyone has all they need of these two amenities.
One reminder: I no longer take in donations of blankets and winter clothing, because I don’t have the storage space. The Alachua County Housing Authority takes blankets and coats (large size coats are particularly needed). Once a week we take our van to the Hospice Attic Thrift Shop warehouse and load in blankets and sleeping bags and coats. The folks at Hospice Attic – who also donate to other small missions – are genuine angels, and there is one very special angel named Mary Lou who sorts out what we need from the vast middenheaps of donations they receive.
Every winter I hope that this is the last winter we will have hundreds of homeless people living outside. But the One-Stop Center is still a distant dream. One bright light in this darkness is Gail Monahan and her allies at the VA. I wish we could clone Gail, about 40 or 50 times. I think she’s gotten more people off the streets, permanently, than anyone else in Gainesville. She is the Albert Einstein of housing. Her goal is to get every single homeless veteran into housing and she is making great progress.
High protein foods also help homeless people survive the winter. Vienna sausages, or any little poptop cans of meat, will be needed more than ever in the months ahead.
Gary, who was treated for tongue cancer this fall and needed donations of protein shakes, asked me to thank everyone for helping him. We have been able to supply him with all the protein shakes he needed and he is making a good recovery. He can now eat applesauce and boiled eggs.
The Civic Media Center has given a temporary home to the St. Francis House Vet clinic. They also passed out bottled water to homeless folks all summer, and make their restroom available to homeless people.
Many thanks to all of you for being part of our Home Van family. The brothers and sisters in the woods appreciate you more than you will ever know.
love, arupa
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Home Van needs tents, tarps, bottled water, Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, white tube socks, batteries, bug spray, duct tape, books 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
http://homevan.blogspot.com/
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