There was several years of my life where I was on strict doctors orders to be on bedrest and I didn’t have a bed to be in because I was homeless.

Every night I’ve had a bed, ever since I was a young child, I have always said a silent “thank you” to it before I sleep.

I’ve also said that same thank you to overpasses and bridges, park benches, couches, floors, car seats, the half crumbled foundation of that building I could fit under, trees, snow, ice, green grass, tents, my jacket, my backpack, my friend’s lap, hospital beds, waiting rooms, empty church pews, abandoned buildings, behind stores, alleyways, half flooded basements, bus seats, bus shelters, steps of a homeless shelter, steps of a church.

I’ve slept in so many uncomfortable places and still was grateful. And at the same time, I knew I needed a better situation to get true rest.

When I became seriously ill in 2017, I couldn’t rest. Even when I got an apartment in 2019, I was still in an unsafe environment, still having ER visits every other week. It wasn’t until I got a bed and in home care that I stopped having nearly daily life threatening symptoms and could give my body a break.

I still have life threatening symptoms, I still have bad days, but now at least I can rest in between everything. And for that I am so grateful.

Dear city, stop scattering and disappearing unsheltered people and calling it a solution. We have resources for them and you’re making it really fucking hard to help

well, there goes, damn near everything else i owned; me and a coupe other strays out here were using a vacant old home as, mostly a stash space for the bulk of our belongings (because, we should not be confined to carrying our ever fiber of being in one backpack nor burdened with the weight of everything we owned if we do not want to limit ourselves to the former), and for getting out of the worst of the weather. it was very much a "worst kept secret" of the neighborhood kinda thing, but no one -openly- seemed to mind, and in fact were either quite kind to us or happy to ignore us as we made no trouble, one household on the other side of the spot even ran us a cord to use electricity occasionally and gave us a old microwave and toaster, among a few other trinkets.

but it seems someone did not like us, and either took it upon themselves to remove all of our stuff, or got the cops to to it for them. but near everything we had was taken, not even thrown in any nearby trash for any hope of retrieval. luckily we all word world weary enough to put some extra care into hiding a few of our most important things but all of our basics are gone.

lost mostly, was clothing, anything we did not hide well enough or were currently carrying with us is gone. this means: all our pants, shirts, etc, and the basics like our underwear and socks are gone. that last, is of course to anyone who knows, a major loss. being able to change socks regularly is very important for us who live a lot of our time on our moving feet, even more-so when regular full bathing is not guaranteed. we also all lost a a lot of our hygienically items, i always carrying the oral care essentials, some soap, and deodorant so i at least have those but the others are not quite as lucky. i know where i can get a lot of what they lost for free fairly easily, if not the best quality, but some things like shaving needs and basic skincare items are not as easy to come by.

a few people in the neighborhood have talked about trying to get some items together for us, but, if anyone else can help out, i am going to pool anything i can gather over the next few days or the week, from donations or plasma if i can donate or hopefully the little odd job or two i have been discussing with some friends, together to help replace stuff for all of us.

if you can add anything in CASHAPP: $cryptiditpyrc VENMO : @cryptidcoin (i regained access but this is still not the ___________________________best option as i have to transfer it to a card ___________________________prone to monthly fees, forgotten ___________________________subscriptions being taken out, etc)

I love when someone's responds to, "We should give homes to the homeless," with, "Well they're drug addicts." It tells me so much about you. There is some sort of funny leap of judgement you're arriving at:

1. So if you're someone that uses drugs, you deserve to have your home or shelter be taken away from you. Let's see, so like, millions and millions of people including your favorite celebrities, entertainment stars, politicians, and athletes should also lose their shelters. Yep, all of them deserve it if they're going to "mess with that kind of stuff."

2. Obviously while there are definitely more dangerous substances than others medically and chemically speaking, "drugs addicts" is a term used more by the general public to describe a broad, vague spectrum of people who use drugs that are not prescribed or use drugs outside of OTC instructions or doctor's advice. People who actually help provide aid, resources, and recovery for people who use substances do not refer to them as "drug addicts." They usually call them people with substance use disorders (SUD) or people with drug/substance dependence. There is a negative social connotation that society has applied to "drug addict" that suggests that they are morally inferior to people who do not use drugs.

3. Let alone that addictions are a mental illness, many homeless people experience other kinds of mental illness. And somehow, that should mean that if the express any amount of symptoms of mental illness, they should be kept out of a home or shelter? Even a mentally well person who suddenly experiences the loss of their shelter would immediately be confronted with the beginnings of mental illness. (Having to find safety from extreme heat/cold, having to find safe food to eat, having to find somewhere safe to close their eyes to rest or sleep, having to be careful in who they speak to and trust, having to keep their belongings close to their body or in sight at all times before someone else tries to steal them or destroy them, having to find clean water, having to find water facilities to wash themselves and their belongings. Literally having to go into urban survival mode, that is if you even live somewhere urban or suburban.) All of these new stresses take a toll on mental health, like no shit homeless people will experience mental illness.

4. There is nobody (except maybe people who decide to be cartoonishly evil) that WANTS to suffer through the hardest, most painful, or most dangerous parts of substance abuse. Literally no one mentally well ever has thought to themself that, "Ah yes, what a fine day, I think I would like make all of my skin peel off and rot my teeth out. Yeah, that sounds great. I would love the sensation of bugs crawling in my veins every day and to never enjoy the pleasure from a cookie ever again. Let's see what I got under the sink." Literally no one. People turn to drugs to try to get away from all the of extreme stresses and pain of being homeless. They want to stop feeling pain and misery, and nobody is helping them get to a safe place of security to get back to living in a long-term home.

I don't know how to tell you that you should be kind and caring to the people around you, including some of the most vulnerable people in your immediate community. I don't know how to tell you that everyone in your community deserves basic human needs to be met, and not have to live in constant survival.

The next time you want to respond with, "But they're a drug addict," you should be prepared to either argue how that makes them an inferior person, how that giving a homeless person shelter impacts you negatively, or how more people should be homeless.

“In The Streets”

Dry Point Etching

5x7 Inches

Title: Unsheltered | Author: Barbara Kingsolver | Publisher: Harper (2018)

Books I packed for a week of being in a cabin with 10-12-year-old summer campers. (The ones lying down were for me. The ones standing up were their options for my nighttime reading aloud. They chose Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.)

It’s record-breaking heat in the southwest right now (probably more places than that, but it’s where I’m based and we’re going through it)

This is an 8oz bottle. On average, 8 of these a day is golden. That varies based on body type, climate, and activity level. But it’s a baseline. There are a lot of folks out there who don’t have access to dependable, clean water.

Can you keep ready to drink and froze water with you on your errands?

Here’s the peek at my water bottle that no one asked for

I run water distro in Old Town. If you want to contribute to our water and ice fund I have vnmo and cshapp (just trying not to drop my name on this blog lol) and if you’re more comfortable with an org, unshelteredphx on insta is always running water and supply distros

Stay hydrated and get organized.

There is no Humanity B

There is no Humanity B

Hi All, See this interesting article about how new technology is being created to enable humans to communicate better across species. So we can now look forward to communicating better with honeybees, dolphins, and elephants. It’s all very fascinating. Are there others out there working to create new methods (technological or otherwise) whereby humans can communicate qualitatively better with…

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today, my friends, as SCOTUS hears a case to criminalize #homelessness, let me remind you that WE KNOW HOW TO FIX THIS ... the Mental Illness & Drug Abuse rampant amongst the unsheltered are often CAUSED BY BEING HOMELESS

Wet shelters save lives. If someone is forced to freeze to death in their car because they’re not allowed in the local dry shelter because they’re under the influence, you are enabling their death.

⚠️ livid post regarding community work ahead

The park I was doing water distribution at has since been swept and had the awnings above the cement benches completely removed. This park is near no housing, there in no playground or schools or anything. It is literally a quarter-mile strip of grass that runs along the goddamn train tracks. The ONLY thing it is good for is resting. But apparently that’s not okay for the folks that need it the most

It’s been a terrible summer for unsheltered folks in Phoenix with the record breaking heat and the city is ramping up their criminalization of mutual aid. A couple I know that lives near the zone has been targeted by police for months because they share water, ice, and resources their daily. They’ve had drones hovering over their house and one of them was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor resulting in being barred from the zone just yesterday. They are getting evicted from their home because a neighbor doesn’t like their water stationmaster. It’s a small igloo container that they place water bottles into and folks walk by and grab one, they never walk onto anyone’s property and no one stays there

I sat through a city meeting on Heat relief this summer where the city basically stated that local orgs and communities should be in charge of aid because we know what we’re doing and then fed into the “city bungles everything” trope. Meanwhile law enforcement in this same city sits outside of food distro sites and harm reduction events waiting to arrest houseless folks. They harass volunteers who are on the ground. And they kick folks out of shaded areas

I don’t know what to do anymore.

What I do know is that the more we help each other, the quicker this capitalistic policing system is rendered obsolete. Please take care of yourself and look out for your neighbors - all of them, housed or not

🙏

Rohnert Park Sweeps Encampments, Moves Unhoused to Transitional Shelters

The city of Rohnert Park is celebrating the successful transition of nearly three-quarters of the population of a homeless encampment into interim or permanent housing after the last resident of a safe sleeping program left and the site was officially closed, city officials said last week. Rohnert Park worked in conjunction with the Bay Area nonprofit HomeFirst, which assists unhoused…

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Homeless & Trafficked

What is the human trafficking rate in Missouri? 4.32 per 100,000 people As recent as 2020, Missouri had the fourth highest incidence rate of human trafficking at 4.32 per 100,000 people (Polaris, 2023a).Dec 31, 2023 Is Missouri still a hotspot for human trafficking? Missouri comes in at 20 for highest human trafficking cases reported. According to the Human Trafficking Hotline, close to…

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