As of this writing, I am scheduled to begin a new job Monday, March 10. This is an inbound telephone customer service job for a nationally-known, locally-based company. It's a temp job with the possibility of permanent hire. The job starts out with a two-week training session before I am assigned my actual schedule.
The interesting thing is that I am still staying in the Men's Overflow Shelter (MOS), with only limited access to my belongings, which are stored off-site. I will need to pack basic hygiene items and even a change of underwear in my computer case (I will place the iBook in my larger suitcase). Maybe the facility where I will be working will have a weight room with showers- a lot of workplaces provide this nowadays. I (hopefully) will have access to my stuff when I return each night around 6:30 or so. MOS provides vinyl padded mats on a concrete floor with no air conditioning. Not the most comfortable accommodations. Showers will have to be taken at night when the MOS guests are allowed to walk across the street to CASS at 10pm for showers (and hopefully I won't sleep through shower time!)
Once I get my first paycheck, which should be on or around March 20th, I will have a better idea of where I will be staying. It will be nice to have a real shower in my own space again!
Observations:
- The shelter system is inadequate to serve the needs of working professionals, or, more specifically, educated professionals who are accustomed to "white-collar" work and social environments. My "Restore Centers" proposal is one possible solution: professionals who find themselves homeless can stay at no charge in a "mid-priced business hotel" environment similar to a Fairfield by Marriott or a Hyatt Place, with meals provided, as well as access to computers and various job search/job placement services right there on site. Being in a familiar professional environment, and NOT being around drug abusers, ex-cons, alcoholics, severely mentally impaired individuals and the "chronically homeless" should greatly help serious professional people with the support and motivation to re-enter the workplace.
- Many (not all, but a disturbingly sizable number) of the homeless people I see around the Human Services Campus apparently have no real desire or motivation to find employment or otherwise have a way out of their situation, which disturbs and saddens me. There are those who spend their entire days around the campus getting drunk or high, getting into arguments and fights, and annoying the hell out of others who actually need to be there because there are no other options - but are willing to take steps to improve their lives.
There are a handful of people there that I saw when I first re-entered CASS in November 2012, and a fewer handful still who have been around when I first moved to Phoenix in September 2004. Why people would actually "want" to be homeless frankly baffles the shit out of me. Housing is a fundamental human right. Could it be, because we are so conditioned as a society NOT to regard housing as a human right, that we don't do all we can to fight for and demand this?
