PLEASE MEET TERRY:
How do we define homelessness?
Is it the tents you see in the in-between spaces? The man with a beard at the freeway off-ramp flying a sign, or the woman sitting in an alley with a blanket wrapped around her?
Yes. And more. LOTS MORE. Homelessness includes the 'un-sheltered" and "sheltered", the 'seen' and 'un-seen'.
Un-sheltered: An individual or family whose primary residence is a public/private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.
Sheltered: An individual or family living in a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living arrangement.
But there is more. LOTS MORE. There's a frightening number of people struggling with rent, an increasing population in a vulnerable process of negotiating how not to be evicted. The stress of living day to day with this is also homelessness.
Terry is 43 yrs old, graduated from Garfield High School. He loves everybody, smiles easily. He loves bowling too! Basically Terry is as nice as the day is long!
He currently works at the Dollar Store, makes up to $1,300 a month when healthy. That's the problem. He has a host of health issues, right now it is his kidneys. He just had a biopsy done, awaiting the results.
Terry rents a 10x12 room, pays $650 a month. Months back he was in a room with no window but the doctor wrote a note, saying he needed one due to his asthma. The landlord moved him to a room with a window.
Terry is behind in his rent, several months. He is stressed out to the maximum. Hoping we can help him cover one month.
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TRUTH: It's not right that so many among us are spending their life energy just trying to find stable housing.
White Center neighborhood | Rex
A QUIET THOUGHT - If you're moved by the goodness of this community, please visit http://www.facinghomelessness.org/ and click on the 'donate' button and consider a "monthly recurring" donation of just $5 in support of the work. THANK YOU!
#kindness #JustSayHello #FacingHomelessness