I hope your 2015 is better than mine

I haven't posted here for a while, so here for your perusal is my year-end recap.

2014 has been an up-and-down year for me.

I began the year in the final days of a high-paying yet stressful temp job with international package delivery company DHL, doing telephone customer service at their call center in Tempe. After that was over in January, I became homeless again by February, and by the middle of March, thanks to the temp agency, I was soon holding down another temp customer service job while sleeping at night on a vinyl mat in a run-down shelter. The mat turned into two separate hotel rooms (more than that if you count the times I had to change rooms at the first facility - which I had to leave altogether because it was shut down in early May as a result of damage from a nasty fire at the used oil business in back of the hotel - it has not reopened).

Things were going relatively fine (from about the beginning of May, I was paying for the Friendship Inn, each week, in downtown Phoenix in a cool "retro" room) until I was laid off from the University of Phoenix call center in late August. Once again, I found myself homeless - but I did try and prepare for the worst by having applications for other jobs in the works. In late September, I interviewed for, and was hired as, a Digital Imaging Specialist at the State of Arizona's Library, Archives and Records department. That job is going quite well, the work is fun and interesting, the people are nice, and the pay is relatively excellent, but it is only a part-time position, meaning there is ZERO money left over to get an apartment - and what's more, the Men's Outreach Shelter (MOS), where I have returned to sleep each night on, you guessed it, that same vinyl mat, was ordered to shut down by March 31 for lack of funding to bring the building (a run-down brick and stucco dump that really should have been replaced 20 years ago) up to code. (See the article: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/12/25/county-may-close-phoenix-homeless-shelters/20904607/) Maricopa County seems reluctant to get a replacement facility up and running as the official position is that shelters don't end homelessness - yet there is a huge lack of adequate funding to place all who want housing into an apartment. Something doesn't quite make sense about that. Either put people into apartments, or build a new temporary shelter. Phoenix and Maricopa County cannot in good conscience leave people to fend for themselves on the street - at least the people who need a "leg up" to be self-sufficient and productive citizens.

I am trying to investigate my options for subsidized housing. There are "rapid re-housing" programs supposedly available, that people around the Human Services Campus tell me they are being hooked up with left and right. I am told by some that I may not qualify, others tell me I should qualify, so I will keep being persistent. I sent a letter to the director of Central Arizona Shelter Services a couple of weeks ago asking for intervention in the matter, and met with two of the shelter's top officials, who promised to at least look into some assistance for me. I also sent a similar letter to the CEO of the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee. You see, Phoenix is hosting the Super Bowl this year, the big event is coming up VERY fast, and the city is no doubt freaking out that the "homeless problem," exacerbated by the MOS situation (they are required to turn away more and more guys each month in advance of the shutdown) will have a negative impact on the touri$$$$$t$$$$. (I copied the mayor of Phoenix and some members of Phoenix city council on these emails).

If something doesn't happen, and soon, it may not be possible for me to keep this excellent job I have found as we draw closer to the time that MOS closes down.

In the meantime, I have applied for unemployment benefits and I'm very hopeful this part-time job with the state will turn into a full-time job. (I'm also keeping my marketing efforts for Michael Sheldon Reed Design somewhat alive on Twitter and LinkedIn.)

What do I want most for 2015? Seven clients (early stage startups) to design brand identity systems for. My business model puts me as somewhat of an investor in the startup in exchange for my creative genius. I am getting some interest on Twitter and will keep pushing. Once the clients start coming in, things will get much better for me very quickly.

I hope your 2015 is a lot better than my 2014. Or yours.