People - Homeless PEOPLE

I’ve slept on floors – floors with mice and spiders the size of my fist. I’ve slept in chairs before – chairs so rigid my back cracked a worrisome amount of times as I woke and started moving around. Suffice it to say, I have had my share of horrible sleeps. And yet, I would never dream of comparing these experiences to others’ whose discomfort has been more intense and sometimes become routine. For instance, I have never been forced into sleeping on the pavement and I have certainly never had to sleep in front of spectators. I count myself lucky.

These past few weeks, I’ve taken the time to watch the people nobody wants to know about. I’ve seen beggars asking for pennies. I’ve seen old ladies crying and asking for scraps of food. I’ve seen people wrapped in makeshift sleeping bags curled up in the doorways of buildings. However, instead of simply watching or exchanging pleasantries, I actually began to have meaningful, in-depth conversations with people from this demographic. And these haven’t been the 2 – 3 minute conversations I’ve written about in weeks prior. These conversations were long and involved.

I can think of very few things more annoying than being woken up from a sleep; so, of course I didn’t bug anyone who was actually sleeping. But I was curious to speak with someone who clearly was in the habit of sleeping on the streets (blog title plug, 2 points). While I haven’t volunteered with Labre in a few weeks, I will credit the experience I gained with them as having helped to give me the push I needed in order to speak with homeless people on the level needed for the research I am conducting. A few days this past week, I found myself walking around in the heart of Chicago. I waited until the night sky had begun creeping over the city and it was clear that people were beginning to hunker down. I spoke with several homeless people, many of whom shared some interesting things with me. Among them was Josh. Of course, this isn’t his real name.

At no point did Josh seem hesitant to speak with me. In fact, after I introduced myself, he seemed eager to describe his life story; though I sensed I could have been anyone and he would have felt equally comfortable speaking with such enthusiasm on the intimacies of his life. Josh, who is an older man, wanted me to note in my blog that he had matching shoes. I’m not sure why, but nonetheless agreed. So, Josh has matching shoes. He had been employed almost ten years ago, doing odds and ends for a hardware store – a store that has since gone out of business. Before that, he told me, he had worked consistently as a lawn care professional. He admitted to doing some hard drugs “a long time ago,” but felt a need to assure me that he no longer does them. He told me how he loves to draw and paint whenever he gets a chance and that if he were in a different position in life, he would always have a pencil in one hand and pad of paper in the other. We had sat around for nearly a half hour, chatting away, before he ended our conversation abruptly, informing me he had to go visit some friends. As we were getting up, I decided to launch one more question at him. “Have you ever gone to college,” I asked him. He told me that he had gone, and sensing my interest in this part of the story, invited me to look for him in the same area around the same time next week to discuss his college days in more detail.

I have emailed a few homeless shelters in the Chicago area, but sadly all of them have refused to meet with me. I will continue to reach out, however. One of them went so far as to tell me they typically only do interviews with the media, though all of the shelters seemed reluctant to invest time in addressing the questions of a lowly student (that's me). I do not ever wish to misrepresent myself, but I would imagine that if I am ever to get any serious information out of these places, that in the future, I will leave the fact that this is a student project our of any introductions. Perhaps, since this is a blog, I will simply attribute my interest in homelessness to student journalism, which isn't a lie. Is this fine or is this that tangled wed everyone is always talking about? I will not deny any class involvement should the topic come up, but being overly open about why I am doing this has not helped me. Just my thoughts. Until next week.