Now that I have food stamps
Yesterday I received emergency food stamps. I submitted the application with the assistance of a caseworker from the Houston Food Bank, who was on-site at SEARCH Homeless Services. She took my information, including paystubs and my Arizona drivers' license, and scanned it into her laptop using a portable scanner, and late the following afternoon I had nearly $300 in benefits (I had food stamp benefits earlier this year as a resident of Austin, so I already had the LoneStar EBT card on which the benefits appear each month).
I went to a Randalls on Louisiana Street near the Pierce Elevated (that's the portion of I-45 that runs in Downtown) and bought a nice breakfast similar to what I got earlier this year in Austin: a couple of donuts, some yogurt, a couple of bananas, some orange juice, and an Odwalla Strawberry C Monster superfood drink. Randalls' locations almost always have free wifi, too, so I was able to check my e-mail before the store opened at 6am. Big drawback: I had to carry my big green suitcase bag into the store along with my computer case, but the store clerk had me place them underneath the customer service counter while I shopped.
Houston desperately needs free storage lockers for people to use to store belongings, carrying all my stuff around everywhere I go is very, very ridiculous and is really limiting my mobility in this city. Hopefully soon I will have a more permanent place to live, courtesy of the Beacon. I should hear this week about that and post an update.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Houston needs lockers
The biggest complaint I have had since I relocated from Austin to Houston is the lack of free-of-charge locker spaces, or just a secure place to store belongings, while out running critical errands a homeless person needs to access the services needed to obtain employment and housing. Most homeless facilities in Houston require clients to take their belongings with them after using the facility and have little to no provision for someone to store a suitcase full of belongings, and are forced to drag, carry, lug their stuff, sometimes as many as three or four of suitcases and/or duffel bags, backpapcks or bags.
Every time I bring this up, people say, "that isn't going to happen in Houston, Houston doesn't care about it's homeless population".
Many of the homeless people I am meeting are very interesting and intelligent people. Many of them are living and struggling with various addictions, and many more are just normal people who were at one time or another part of the workforce, and even part of the middle class (like me) and are struggling with the stigma and perceptions given to them by the community at large because they are homeless.
Having a locker where a person can safely store personal belongings greatly helps, because people can then move freely amongst society without people looking at them with disdain and prejudice. How can people in need progress and move forward in a positive direction in life without the means to actually do so? Homeless people in Houston, as is the case in most major cities in the USA, have relatively easy access to food, clothing and a place to sleep at night. It is easy to access showers, basic personal hygiene, food, and clothing. Providing lockers would go a long way towards "sealing the deal" and helping those who can most benefit from these services use such services to re-enter mainstream society in the most rapid manner.
The biggest complaint I have had since I relocated from Austin to Houston is the lack of free-of-charge locker spaces, or just a secure place to store belongings, while out running critical errands a homeless person needs to access the services needed to obtain employment and housing. Most homeless facilities in Houston require clients to take their belongings with them after using the facility and have little to no provision for someone to store a suitcase full of belongings, and are forced to drag, carry, lug their stuff, sometimes as many as three or four of suitcases and/or duffel bags, backpapcks or bags.
Every time I bring this up, people say, "that isn't going to happen in Houston, Houston doesn't care about it's homeless population".
Many of the homeless people I am meeting are very interesting and intelligent people. Many of them are living and struggling with various addictions, and many more are just normal people who were at one time or another part of the workforce, and even part of the middle class (like me) and are struggling with the stigma and perceptions given to them by the community at large because they are homeless.
Having a locker where a person can safely store personal belongings greatly helps, because people can then move freely amongst society without people looking at them with disdain and prejudice. How can people in need progress and move forward in a positive direction in life without the means to actually do so? Homeless people in Houston, as is the case in most major cities in the USA, have relatively easy access to food, clothing and a place to sleep at night. It is easy to access showers, basic personal hygiene, food, and clothing. Providing lockers would go a long way towards "sealing the deal" and helping those who can most benefit from these services use such services to re-enter mainstream society in the most rapid manner.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Some updated thoughts
It has almost been two weeks since I arrived in Houston. I am still homeless. The biggest challenge: getting things accomplished to get established while lugging around my medium sized soft-sided suitcase/bag, which is falling apart from wear and tear (I've had it since about 1998) and my black canvas soft-sided attache case, where I keep my iBook. I am sleeping each night through the Bread of Life After Dark program:
href="http://breadoflifeinc.org/homelessness.html"
a ministry of St. John’s United Methodist Church in downtown/midtown, which provides nightly sleeping accomodations through a blanket on a gymnasium floor. I'm thankful for it, but I will be glad when I finally get a place. I spoke last weekend with a case manager at the Beacon:
href="http://www.chomhouston.org/default.aspx?name=chom.thebeacon"
who said he would try to find me a place to stay in exchange for proof of an active job search. I will try to follow up on this over the next couple of days. The Beacon as a day resource center for the homeless in downtown Houston. It's only open four days per week (basically the weekend and Monday) but is a pretty well-run operation, providing showers, a lunch, laundry and case management services.
I am meeting a lot of people being homeless in Houston. Many of the homeless population are stuck in a cycle of poverty. I would say that 90% of the people getting services for homeless people in Houston are African-American. Houston has about a 25% Black population. Many homeless people in Houston have been stuck being homeless for years, and many of the homeless that I have seen know each other and use these day resource centers to hang out and socialize as well as to get help.
I have met a few people in this town who are from New Orleans. Because of the relatively close proximity of Houston to Louisiana there is a definite New Orleans flavor to many aspects of life in Houston, especially in the Black community, which I was largely unaware of until coming here.
I am still waiting for Google to get back to me on sponsoring my first few weeks in Houston. Now that I have had a chance to get to know the city a little bit, I think it would be easy for me to ride Metro buses and trains all day with a Google t-shirt. The Metro light rail system is quite heavily traveled, for being such a short starter system (7.5 miles). The busiest stations seem to be the ones serving the core of the downtown business district as well as the Texas Medical Center corridor (which looks like the Las Vegas Strip, just for 40-story hospital towers instead of hotel/casino resorts).
Come on Google! My offer still stands!
It has almost been two weeks since I arrived in Houston. I am still homeless. The biggest challenge: getting things accomplished to get established while lugging around my medium sized soft-sided suitcase/bag, which is falling apart from wear and tear (I've had it since about 1998) and my black canvas soft-sided attache case, where I keep my iBook. I am sleeping each night through the Bread of Life After Dark program:
href="http://breadoflifeinc.org/homelessness.html"
a ministry of St. John’s United Methodist Church in downtown/midtown, which provides nightly sleeping accomodations through a blanket on a gymnasium floor. I'm thankful for it, but I will be glad when I finally get a place. I spoke last weekend with a case manager at the Beacon:
href="http://www.chomhouston.org/default.aspx?name=chom.thebeacon"
who said he would try to find me a place to stay in exchange for proof of an active job search. I will try to follow up on this over the next couple of days. The Beacon as a day resource center for the homeless in downtown Houston. It's only open four days per week (basically the weekend and Monday) but is a pretty well-run operation, providing showers, a lunch, laundry and case management services.
I am meeting a lot of people being homeless in Houston. Many of the homeless population are stuck in a cycle of poverty. I would say that 90% of the people getting services for homeless people in Houston are African-American. Houston has about a 25% Black population. Many homeless people in Houston have been stuck being homeless for years, and many of the homeless that I have seen know each other and use these day resource centers to hang out and socialize as well as to get help.
I have met a few people in this town who are from New Orleans. Because of the relatively close proximity of Houston to Louisiana there is a definite New Orleans flavor to many aspects of life in Houston, especially in the Black community, which I was largely unaware of until coming here.
I am still waiting for Google to get back to me on sponsoring my first few weeks in Houston. Now that I have had a chance to get to know the city a little bit, I think it would be easy for me to ride Metro buses and trains all day with a Google t-shirt. The Metro light rail system is quite heavily traveled, for being such a short starter system (7.5 miles). The busiest stations seem to be the ones serving the core of the downtown business district as well as the Texas Medical Center corridor (which looks like the Las Vegas Strip, just for 40-story hospital towers instead of hotel/casino resorts).
Come on Google! My offer still stands!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Letter to Coalition for the Homeless of Houston
This was a letter sent August 7.
Michael Sheldon Reed
Houston, TX
Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County
600 Jefferson St, Suite 920
Houston, TX 77002
Hello:
I am a newcomer to Houston who arrived in town homeless, and I think that, once my situation stabilizes, Houston will be a wonderful place for me to live, work, and resume my professional and personal life. Houston is a city I strongly considered as a relocation destination for several years, but always found a reason not to come, until last week, when I decided my recent relocation from Phoenix, Arizona to Austin was not working out.
I sent an e-mail last week voicing my concern about an apparent lack of coordination of various services in Houston which address the needs of homeless individuals and families.
My expression of concern was direct and honest. Having been in the situation of needing emergency shelter in every city I have relocated to since 1998, I have had the dubious honor of being a client of "continuum of care" services in several cities in the South and Southwest. In each of those situations, the help I received enabled me to achieve a measure of self-sufficiency. I also got to see first-hand what works and what doesn't work.
In my last e-mail I mentioned Phoenix, Arizona as a prime example of what can happen when municipal authorities are responsive to the needs of both the homeless population as well as the business community.
http://www.humanservicescampusaz.org/HSC/ourStory.htm
I lived in Phoenix from September 2004 to February 2010, and stayed at the main shelter in Phoenix (for my first 30 days there), well before it was consolidated into the Maricopa County Human Services Campus. The Human Services Campus opened in November 2005 and cost about $25 million to build. Several agencies are on the complex grounds, including a shelter with over 300 emergency beds for men and women, a day resource center (http://lodestardrc.org/home/), soup kitchens operated by two different Catholic service agencies, and resource centers for employment and healthcare.
Here in Houston, during one week here, I have experienced the emergency shelters at the Salvation Army, Star of Hope and Bread of Life. While each is reasonably good at what it does individually, they each have limitations that make one's path all the more difficult to try and seek employment through individual initiative. The most critical of these limitations is the inability to store personal items securely on site during the day for retrieval in the evening before check-in to a bed. Star of Hope allows for such storage, but personal luggage cannot be brought into the dorm area and change of clothing/hygiene items are required to be taken out before the luggage is checked in.
One major service that the Houston community can provide and implement rather quickly, and for relatively modest cost, would be to take a vacant lot, centrally located along a major busline or even the Project ACCESS shuttle, and establish about 150-200 small storage lockers for homeless individuals to access free of charge. These lockers can be of the variety used in schools, or of the kind used in airports and bus terminals. The lot can be secured by a chain link fence and one or two uniformed guards on-site. Items can be screened with a small metal detector at the entrance gate if that's a concern.
The ability to store personal luggage and items during the day, and leaving one unencumbered to attend appointments and perform job search activities, etc., is in my opinion critical to helping lift oneself out of homelessness. I have used storage lockers tied to emergency shelters in Las Vegas and Austin to great relief and success.
There are those who feel that the way of the homeless is a way of life. I personally view homelessness as a temporary, albeit sometimes necessary, condition that should be made as easy as possible to exit. While I do not fall under a textbook definition of "chronically" homeless, I have experienced shelter life more times than many of my peers (college-educated professionals of my generation) have. The reasons are not important in and of themselves, but that fact remains that when social services are coordinated, accessible, easy to locate and easy to utilize, those people who can benefit the most from these services do so and do so successfully. I have seen and experienced such success many times.
Houston is the nation's fourth largest city and sixth largest metropolitan area. It is considered an internationally important city for business, higher education, medicine and the arts. The lack of coordination and (in my perception) even competition among otherwise well-meaning, well-received, highly utilized and results-focused service providers in such an important city is frankly embarrassing and appalling. It is the job of everyone, from elected officials to the corporate sector to the faith community, to ensure that no need go unmet, that no individual who wants to get off the streets is ever hindered from doing so. Coordination of existing efforts is crucially important to getting to this place.
I would suggest that plans be made by the first quarter of 2011 to raise funds (via a $50 million capital campaign (Shell, ExxonMobil and/or KBR can write a check for this in five seconds)), acquire 13-15 acres of land and build a Harris County Human Services Complex on the model of Phoenix, Arizona, right down to the blueprints. In a city as large as Houston, there certainly must be several acceptable sites that can be purchased or donated. Building materials and construction can be partially donated or given tax credits for, and I would assume that even Federal funding can be partially secured for such a project. In a city as important to the economy of Texas, the United States and globally, it would be shameful and embarrassing NOT to have such a critically important facility. The additional shelter beds alone would be an excellent and long-overdue addition to the beds already provided by the existing agencies. Daily operations can be partially funded
by having an election and (assuming the measure passes) creating a Human Services Special Purpose District and imposing a five one hundredths of one percent (0.05%) tax for this specific district within Harris County.
By the time a Harris County Harris County Human Services Complex is funded and built, I hope and plan to be a gainfully employed, taxpaying citizen and resident of Harris County, but I would feel much more proud of Houston knowing that such a valuable resource was ready and available to whomever needed it.
Please carefully consider my thoughts. Your feedback is important and I would welcome a continuing dialogue. This is a critically important issue and sometimes it takes the voice of a newcomer/outsider to be the catalyst for long-needed action. Thanks very much.
This was a letter sent August 7.
Michael Sheldon Reed
Houston, TX
Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County
600 Jefferson St, Suite 920
Houston, TX 77002
Hello:
I am a newcomer to Houston who arrived in town homeless, and I think that, once my situation stabilizes, Houston will be a wonderful place for me to live, work, and resume my professional and personal life. Houston is a city I strongly considered as a relocation destination for several years, but always found a reason not to come, until last week, when I decided my recent relocation from Phoenix, Arizona to Austin was not working out.
I sent an e-mail last week voicing my concern about an apparent lack of coordination of various services in Houston which address the needs of homeless individuals and families.
My expression of concern was direct and honest. Having been in the situation of needing emergency shelter in every city I have relocated to since 1998, I have had the dubious honor of being a client of "continuum of care" services in several cities in the South and Southwest. In each of those situations, the help I received enabled me to achieve a measure of self-sufficiency. I also got to see first-hand what works and what doesn't work.
In my last e-mail I mentioned Phoenix, Arizona as a prime example of what can happen when municipal authorities are responsive to the needs of both the homeless population as well as the business community.
http://www.humanservicescampusaz.org/HSC/ourStory.htm
I lived in Phoenix from September 2004 to February 2010, and stayed at the main shelter in Phoenix (for my first 30 days there), well before it was consolidated into the Maricopa County Human Services Campus. The Human Services Campus opened in November 2005 and cost about $25 million to build. Several agencies are on the complex grounds, including a shelter with over 300 emergency beds for men and women, a day resource center (http://lodestardrc.org/home/), soup kitchens operated by two different Catholic service agencies, and resource centers for employment and healthcare.
Here in Houston, during one week here, I have experienced the emergency shelters at the Salvation Army, Star of Hope and Bread of Life. While each is reasonably good at what it does individually, they each have limitations that make one's path all the more difficult to try and seek employment through individual initiative. The most critical of these limitations is the inability to store personal items securely on site during the day for retrieval in the evening before check-in to a bed. Star of Hope allows for such storage, but personal luggage cannot be brought into the dorm area and change of clothing/hygiene items are required to be taken out before the luggage is checked in.
One major service that the Houston community can provide and implement rather quickly, and for relatively modest cost, would be to take a vacant lot, centrally located along a major busline or even the Project ACCESS shuttle, and establish about 150-200 small storage lockers for homeless individuals to access free of charge. These lockers can be of the variety used in schools, or of the kind used in airports and bus terminals. The lot can be secured by a chain link fence and one or two uniformed guards on-site. Items can be screened with a small metal detector at the entrance gate if that's a concern.
The ability to store personal luggage and items during the day, and leaving one unencumbered to attend appointments and perform job search activities, etc., is in my opinion critical to helping lift oneself out of homelessness. I have used storage lockers tied to emergency shelters in Las Vegas and Austin to great relief and success.
There are those who feel that the way of the homeless is a way of life. I personally view homelessness as a temporary, albeit sometimes necessary, condition that should be made as easy as possible to exit. While I do not fall under a textbook definition of "chronically" homeless, I have experienced shelter life more times than many of my peers (college-educated professionals of my generation) have. The reasons are not important in and of themselves, but that fact remains that when social services are coordinated, accessible, easy to locate and easy to utilize, those people who can benefit the most from these services do so and do so successfully. I have seen and experienced such success many times.
Houston is the nation's fourth largest city and sixth largest metropolitan area. It is considered an internationally important city for business, higher education, medicine and the arts. The lack of coordination and (in my perception) even competition among otherwise well-meaning, well-received, highly utilized and results-focused service providers in such an important city is frankly embarrassing and appalling. It is the job of everyone, from elected officials to the corporate sector to the faith community, to ensure that no need go unmet, that no individual who wants to get off the streets is ever hindered from doing so. Coordination of existing efforts is crucially important to getting to this place.
I would suggest that plans be made by the first quarter of 2011 to raise funds (via a $50 million capital campaign (Shell, ExxonMobil and/or KBR can write a check for this in five seconds)), acquire 13-15 acres of land and build a Harris County Human Services Complex on the model of Phoenix, Arizona, right down to the blueprints. In a city as large as Houston, there certainly must be several acceptable sites that can be purchased or donated. Building materials and construction can be partially donated or given tax credits for, and I would assume that even Federal funding can be partially secured for such a project. In a city as important to the economy of Texas, the United States and globally, it would be shameful and embarrassing NOT to have such a critically important facility. The additional shelter beds alone would be an excellent and long-overdue addition to the beds already provided by the existing agencies. Daily operations can be partially funded
by having an election and (assuming the measure passes) creating a Human Services Special Purpose District and imposing a five one hundredths of one percent (0.05%) tax for this specific district within Harris County.
By the time a Harris County Harris County Human Services Complex is funded and built, I hope and plan to be a gainfully employed, taxpaying citizen and resident of Harris County, but I would feel much more proud of Houston knowing that such a valuable resource was ready and available to whomever needed it.
Please carefully consider my thoughts. Your feedback is important and I would welcome a continuing dialogue. This is a critically important issue and sometimes it takes the voice of a newcomer/outsider to be the catalyst for long-needed action. Thanks very much.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Houston...at the risk of sounding corny....
There most definitely IS a problem. I have been in town since Sunday and have yet to find a place in town where a homeless person can safely store belongings during the day. This is something that will SEVERELY hinder my ability to look for employment in this market and needs to be addressed. NOW.
The main day resource center in Houston, SEARCH Homeless Services, has, thankfully a place to sit and have your belongings under your control, but no way to LEAVE them and go elsewhere to take care of business and come back at the end of the day to get the belongings.
Also, there is no municipal homeless shelter in Houston. This is years behind other cities such as Phoenix, Atlanta, San Francisco and yes, even Austin. Houston has delegated the responsibility to serving the homeless population to the faith and the non-profit community, and they seem to be doing their best, but with this recession, the need for help is quite great.
There most definitely IS a problem. I have been in town since Sunday and have yet to find a place in town where a homeless person can safely store belongings during the day. This is something that will SEVERELY hinder my ability to look for employment in this market and needs to be addressed. NOW.
The main day resource center in Houston, SEARCH Homeless Services, has, thankfully a place to sit and have your belongings under your control, but no way to LEAVE them and go elsewhere to take care of business and come back at the end of the day to get the belongings.
Also, there is no municipal homeless shelter in Houston. This is years behind other cities such as Phoenix, Atlanta, San Francisco and yes, even Austin. Houston has delegated the responsibility to serving the homeless population to the faith and the non-profit community, and they seem to be doing their best, but with this recession, the need for help is quite great.
Monday, August 02, 2010
I am in Houston now. My brother was able to send the $100 and I took Greyhound over, along US Highway 290. I will leave this blog up for at least one month and try to give periodic updates.
I am officially homeless. I stayed last night at the Salvation Army and will stay tonight at the Star of Hope Mission. I'll keep everyone posted as to the trials and tribulations. The main thing I have an issue with: no place for the homeless of Austin to store large personal items such as suitcases free of charge during the day. There should be storage lockers where anyone may store items for the day and retrieve them at a later time. Someone get back to me on that.
I'm also waiting to hear back from Google to see if they will still sponsor me. Now that I am in Houston, they can now reimburse my brother in the San Francisco Bay Area for the money he wired me, and they can still put me up in accommodations for 90 days while I look for work. All they need to do is drop me an e-mail and we'll talk.
If they can't do that, how about waiving the $10 number change fee on Google Voice, so I can get a local Houston 713 number?
I am officially homeless. I stayed last night at the Salvation Army and will stay tonight at the Star of Hope Mission. I'll keep everyone posted as to the trials and tribulations. The main thing I have an issue with: no place for the homeless of Austin to store large personal items such as suitcases free of charge during the day. There should be storage lockers where anyone may store items for the day and retrieve them at a later time. Someone get back to me on that.
I'm also waiting to hear back from Google to see if they will still sponsor me. Now that I am in Houston, they can now reimburse my brother in the San Francisco Bay Area for the money he wired me, and they can still put me up in accommodations for 90 days while I look for work. All they need to do is drop me an e-mail and we'll talk.
If they can't do that, how about waiving the $10 number change fee on Google Voice, so I can get a local Houston 713 number?
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