Crazy week and a new place

This has been somewhat of a crazy week for me.

After settling in to a new room at the Sterling International Hotel (24th Street and Jefferson near Sky Harbor Airport), where I have been staying for the previous four weeks, I arrived back to the property after work on Wednesday night to find, to my shock, that the front office was dark, the door was locked, and there was a sign on the door saying the hotel was temporarily closed. I was dumbfounded. My key card had expired (that's another story), so the door to my hotel room would not open. After spending about 30 minutes trying to get over my anger and surprise, I had to climb through the window (which was unlocked) to enter the room. Now, I usually lock my windows when I stay in hotels, but this was the fourth time I changed rooms in the four weeks I was staying here (that's another story), so I overlooked the fact.

This hotel had put me through so many changes, I wasn't totally surprised; there was a fire the previous Tuesday in the business behind it which damaged several rooms, including mine - and at the time I was moved to yet another room. The next day I call the office and I am told they will not be taking any more payments as the property was shutting down, and to call the office number when I get back that night for the maintenance guy to let me in. That night the maintenance guy tells me the property has been shut down for renovations and all guests need to leave ASAP as the work would be starting as soon as the last guest leaves, and to talk to the manager about a refund for the final night I have paid for. I decided not to bother (they have a posted no-refunds policy and I did not have the time or patience for an argument), and left Thursday morning.

I drop off my larger suitcase at the bag n' tag at the homeless day resource center (I still had my campus ID for that facility) and spend Thursday day wondering if I will need to sleep in the men's overflow shelter again (on those vinyl mats with crazy guys snoring and very few options for restroom/shower), but Thursday night I was happily able to get a weekly room at the Friendship Inn at 7th Avenue/Grand Avenue/Van Buren Street - the original place I wanted to stay in the first place. $195 per week which is a little steep given what I am making, but it's only $10 more than Sterling, and the room I think is in the same or slightly better condition and my commute time is only increased by a few more minutes. I am still trying to save for a more permanent spot, but that depends on whether or not my temp assignment at work is extended another 90 days, which I will not find out until the beginning of June. So far the job is still going well.

More updates to come, so keep your happy thoughts coming!

No fooling on this April 1st

My new job is going very well. For a call center, the working environment is the best I have encountered in years. Call volume is steady but not crazy, and the callers for the most part are not super-irate, which is nice. I'm not holding my breath, but at the end of 90 days I hope I will be accepted as a permanent employee. Biggest challenge: finding a place to live! I am still sleeping at the "overflow" shelter on a vinyl mat with no real restroom or shower facilities. We do have access - albeit very limited - to the main shelter building for showers, but that's inconvenient. Thinking about getting a guest pass to Gold's Gym downtown or LA Fitness on the south side for morning showers this week...I have been able to get away on the weekends! The last two weekends I have stayed at the Coronado Hotel, downtown. A little bit of a run-down transient hotel, but better than a mat with mice scurrying about trying to eat people's food they leave on the floor. (I have seen the mice.) My plan: to get a weekly room at the Friendship Inn Motel at 7th Avenue and Van Buren. Pretty much another transient hotel, but WAY nicer than Coronado. I spent $50 (which I didn't have) to spend Friday night there and it was awesome. The hotel looks as though it was built in the late '50s/early '60s and I felt like I had stepped back in time. Very well maintained. I was surprised, I was expecting a dump but it was anything but, and in at least as good, if not better shape than some of the "major chain" hotels I have stayed at in the past. The towels were stamped with the hotel logo on them. Furniture was a mix of '50s and '80s and there was a modern microfridge/microwave. Weekly cost is $190 (including tax) which is doable on what I am making, with enough left over for food and bus pass each week. Maybe I will do another crowdfunding to raise the first couple of weeks rent. If you can spare $190 let me know!

Update: new job: a relief, but not out of the woods quite yet

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?

Put me in this tiny house - and solve the affordable housing problem

Some months ago I happened upon a great idea for a cost-effective small home. Something like this can be developed into a single-room occupancy (SRO) apartment complex in major cities with monthly rents below $400.

http://www.quora.com/Design/What-are-some-efficient-designs-for-a-tiny-home/answer/Jordan-Phoenix

Also take a look at this interesting website: The Tiny Life. Now, I don't totally advocate a "tiny home" as a total replacement for a regular traditional home. My interest is in housing that's affordable and fulfills the mission of housing being a basic human right, readily and freely available. I'll be learning more about this interesting movement. I'd like to find out how I (and others like me) can directly benefit.

http://thetinylife.com/what-is-the-tiny-house-movement/

One week on a mat

As I mentioned in my last major update, I have become homeless again. The temp job I had ended and my income stopped, leaving me unable to keep my hotel room. For the past week (since February 8) I have been staying in the Men's Outreach Shelter (MOS), colloquially referred to as "overflow", between downtown Phoenix and the Arizona state capitol complex. Everything in this immediate area is centered around the Human Services Campus; a one-stop facility where the homeless population is provided with various services, including shelter beds (Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS)), medical care and soup kitchen meals. The Men's Outreach Shelter is located immediately across the street from the Human Services Campus but is considered part of the same group of services.

I have to get in line at MOS as early as 4pm each afternoon to get the best possible spot inside (they let people in starting sometime around 6pm), which means my days have been a little on the short side. The facility holds about 200-250 men; if there is no room inside, one must sleep out in a gated outdoor area. I sleep on a mat which is foam rubber covered by a thick vinyl shell. The facility has no showers, just four Port-A-Potties, the kind you see at construction sites or outdoor concert events, which get extremely foul smelling as the night wears on (damn I hate using those things). I use the on-campus "bag n' tag" baggage storage facility across the street to store my suitcase and my computer bag for most of the day, but I take the suitcase with me each night to make sure I have my clothes with me as I like to at least change my shirt each day.

Showers are a little problematic, because the MOS has no on-site shower facilities. I have to sign my name on a list to use the main CASS shelter facility on "campus" after it opens at 6:45 and have to coordinate/arrange to go back and forth to "bag n' tag" to take a change of underwear into the shower area and put away my dirty clothes in the suitcase after I am finished; therefore I do not shower every day. I carry a razor and toothbrush with me in my pocket so I can brush my teeth and shave as I can duck into a suitable public restroom and do so.

There are long lines for everything on the Human Services Campus, and a super-high demand for a limited amount of services. However, the setup here in Phoenix is light years better than in, say, Houston, which would greatly benefit from having a Phoenix-style campus for the homeless. One interesting note: the lines get dramatically shorter for everything around the first of each month, as many homeless people receive some sort of cash assistance and leave for a few days to get a hotel room, get drunk, get high or whatever.

As for my immediate situation: things may improve over the next few weeks. Last week, I interviwed for and got a customer service/sales telephone job with a major locally-based company; that position will probably start next week - it's a 60 day minimum temp assignment with strong possibility of permanent hire. I should be able to hold down this job and keep using the MOS for a couple of weeks, I will try and get more clarification on that this week. After that I will try to get a room in a single-room occupancy hotel downtown for under $150 per week. Barring that, because I remained in the main CASS men's shelter from November 2012 until late April 2013, my maximum time frame of 180 days has been exhausted until May 1. There is a 90-day limit on the use of MOS.

The homeless population, particularly in Phoenix, is very diverse and no single stereotype can be fairly applied to all of the people using these services. There are hard-core drug addicts and alcoholics, guys just released from being incarcerated, young people under 25 struggling to get started in life (and some just out of high school), and "normal" people like myself who are unemployed and have no means to pay for a hotel room or apartment and don't qualify for many support services.

In my opinion, the entire mindset and attitude of America needs to change to end poverty and homelessness. Some have the mindset that it is the fault of the poor and homeless for their situation. That is "blaming the victim", which is absolutely incorrect and unacceptable. There is no excuse in my mind for anyone to be homeless or poor. In previous writings and posts, I have expressed my views on this and have outlined my solutions.

Simply put: America needs to get the politcal will, the political desire, to change the lives of the poor, the needy, the homeless and the unemployed, and America needs to do this sooner rather than later - or risk increased chances of social and political unrest. Because when enough of the "middle class" are forced, as I was, to share a mat with people who are the "lowest of the low" (because there are simply NOT ENOUGH jobs to go around to support the entire population and will never be - software/hardware improvements, robotics, higher productivity and globalization will see to that), it will be too late.

How you can help me right now: My FundAnything campaign is still going on. Please consider supporting me and putting me in better accommodations. Any amount is welcome and will be put to good use. Immediate need by the 24th will be a bus pass to get to my new job, but I should have enough money from what I was given before to get at least one bus pass.

On being homeless yet again

I am about to be homeless after living in a hotel for two weeks (and another one for over six months prior). And by homeless, I am referring to having to seek shelter in a homeless shelter, but mind you, the last time I was in an apartment suite I signed a lease and was paying monthly rent for was November 2012. This will be the fourth time in over three years, in three different cities, that I have had to seek accommodations in the "continuum of care".

The employment market acts as though it has no long-term use for me anymore, since I am not young enough or skilled enough or cheap enough - even though I have a degree and enough experience to more than adequately perform in the jobs I want to work - if such jobs are even offered at all.

I am living proof that this economy sucks and "free market capitalism" is an utter and absolute joke and failure. There is enough food, enough housing, enough of everything to provide for the basic needs of everyone on this planet and then some. Why are there still poor? Why are there still homeless?

People are living on the street as we speak because we simply will not house them. We can easily give all homeless people adequate shelter, but we don't. We can give all who are hungry proper food, and many times we do, but many times we don't. We can provide a job to anyone who wants to work, but we don't, and when there is no work needed to be done, we refuse to provide for the basic needs of those displaced when they are no longer needed or wanted in the workforce - many times as a result of the natural technological progress that always happens.

We as a society do not see access to the abundance of the world as a human right. We see it as something with a monetary value to be bought and sold, for the enrichment of an elite class of "our betters".

That is an unacceptable and unsustainable view, and must change. Now. We can no longer afford to say "we can't afford it" when it comes to providing for the basic needs of the people. Change will come in this country. It will come peacefully or it will come through chaos and civil/social unrest. I would prefer peaceful change but as the saying goes, "Power concedes nothing without a demand", and those in power will react angrily to that demand, causing those who demand the concession to react angrily in turn. Not a good situation for the future of our republic.

But if we act now, if we change our minds, our attitudes and hearts to seek solutions that will end poverty, end homelessness, end the dependence on interest and debt - we may have yet a chance. Access to adequate food, shelter/housing, a basic income on which to live - that's a fundamental human right that must be freely provided without prejudice or precondition to all human beings. Until we understand and resolve to make that happen, people will continue to needlessly suffer.

Another update: Possible new job - now what?

I have an interview with a temp agency later this morning concerning a possible assignment as a graphic production artist. If this comes to fruition, the dilemma: I have no idea where I will be staying in 48 hours. I have pretty much run out of the money from my last temp job. My last dinner was at a local soup kitchen here in Mesa, where I am staying in a hotel until Saturday morning (when I must leave).

I did receive a monetary gift over last weekend, but $20 of it was eaten by a Valley Metro ticket machine as I was trying to purchase a bus pass. Now I have no money and no bus pass (I will have enough for one daily bus pass for today and money for another bus pass this weekend.) I have applied to be admitted to the East Valley Men's Center and will find out later today if 1) I have been admitted and 2) if they have space available. If not, I must head back into downtown Phoenix and to CASS, where I stayed for six unsuccessful months.

You may ask "why don't you just apply for unemployment benefits since your temp assignment ended?" I looked into that, and because the earnings threshold is so high and my assignments only paid so much - and I cannot even count the previous three months in my claim - I do not qualify.

You can help out in this situation. I have reinstated my crowdfunding campaign on FundAnything.com. You can literally be that "bridge" that will make it easier to start a new job. Take a look at the link and consider chipping in a little: