Dave
Posted by invisiblepeople | Filed under face and voice of homelessness
As I was walking up to the area in New Orleans where Dave and around a dozen other homeless people were sitting on a sidewalk the local police were making them move. At first I thought how rude. It was over 100 degrees and they were trying to find shade by a local church. But then on another street the officer was nicely talking to the homeless people and telling them an alternative location. Turns out the church does not want homeless people on their sidewalk. Well, that’s an easy fix. Open the door and allow them to cool off inside. But that’s another story.
Dave says life on the streets is “hot, dirty, grimy”. He talks about the local rescue mission charging $5 per night. There has been lots of controversy about this. On my last night in NOLA I was told by someone in the know that the reasoning behind this is because of budget concerns. The mission is out of money and had to make this change to stay open. Still seems kind of off to me. Especially if you charge people $5 to attend a church service.
Dave has a part time job but that is not nearly enough to afford an apartment. I found it interesting that many of the homeless people I met that day had jobs. Unfortunately Katrina destroyed so much housing that the cost of living has skyrocketed.
I love Dave’s 3 wishes.
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Newby1961
