Summer drags on with thousands of people wandering the streets with no place to live and some people are at the end of their fuse. The weather has been hot, and there has not been much rain. The first dried leaves are slowly showing up on the sidewalks each morning… getting trapped along the curb as the breezes of summer pick up.
Homeless people all over Chicago (there are 10,000 unhoused families in the city of broad shoulders and narrow sidewalks) keep trying to get housing and keep trying to survive. According to some unroofed persons I talk to, “People do their own thing but get angry about the way they are treated.” This comment comes from a buddy who has chosen the name “Abel” for this interview. He agrees that it takes a huge amount of patience to deal with the rich indoor folks with their hot showers and their refusal to give people change or give people a break.
He has chosen this name because it shows he is “able” to do things. For example, he can still help in the church with making lunches to hand out and with odd jobs around the place. He is capable and he is religious but not “crazy churchy” like his brother and his family. He says they are a little too “caught up in prayer and good advice for him” and a little bit “forgetful when people need help.” He does not spend much time with them even though they live near the park where he sleeps during the summer. His brother and wife, and two sons, are always very busy with work and church and school. They “don’t have time for a poor-ass uncle.”
Abel does not give up hope for a better day. However, he does not dwell on trying to find housing because he has been on and off waiting lists for many years.
“I go to all the different places to sign up, and I tell them how I am still sleeping outside every time,” he explains, as he rolls his eyes. “There are special new programs now for guys to get apartments, and I know of some guys who did!”
Abel tells me of his frustration of waiting for what he calls “forever” to get a place and how he now gets disability payments. He has a physical problem that is not getting better. He has been to several different kinds of doctors in the last few years. His current doctor finally got him disability checks.
I ask if he wants to share what the problem is or what category it is, and he does not. There is something else he wants to talk about. He wants to talk about the war in Ukraine because he says it is a good example of how the government helps people in other countries but ignores the homeless and poor in the United States who he says, “actually deserve to be helped.”
He is not worried about housing now because of the disability payments—it is a sure thing he will get into a senior building or a similar place now, he insists. He confides, “Once they know you have a check coming at you every month then they will deal with you no matter how f*&#@$d up a guy you are.”
So Abel talks about Ukraine and how those people need to learn to defend themselves and not take money from our government. He tells me how this country is known for sending money to other countries and ignoring the poor. He tells me how the poor are always getting left out and how they have to magically figure out ways to survive but they have to be “real ways” to work and get money and save it to get their own place to live.
I mention there have been people talking about who deserves help and who doesn’t deserve help for many years. He rolls his eyes again and tells me that is the problem. He has real solutions, he says, and the problem is that the citizens of this country talk too much and do too little.
So I ask him, “What are some of your real solutions?”
He replies, “Here are some of my solutions with the reasons I thought of them:
· Get rid of taxes on poor people. They should not have to pay taxes—just like with a LINK card. They cannot get ahead if they have to give away so much money for things the rich people should be paying for.
· Stop sending money to other countries every time they need food or they have emergencies. They need to learn how to make money and grow crops and build things.
· Stop letting other countries send their krap here to sell. No more watches or cars from Japan and no more televisions from China.
· Give more people jobs so they can work and buy things with money they earn.
· Teach kids about charge cards and make them all go in the army. That way, they will understand how money works and they will learn to respect leaders. Their parents don’t teach them anything, so the government needs to do it.”
I say I will tell people about these ideas when I write up the interview and put it on the blog. He reminds me I should not change what he says to make it nicer language just so “everybody reading the sh*t will be cool with it.” I promise to keep the words exactly as he has said them.
The point of the interview was going to be to talk about homeless issues, I thought, but it has turned into a way to fix the economy and get everyone on the right path. I like the part about financial literacy training, so I ask him more about it.
“Kids need to learn the value of money and how bills need to be paid,” he tells me. “They need to know how interest gets put on you by your bank.” The problem with kids is they don’t respect money and they don’t respect other people. They think life is a big party and they don’t plan ahead.
I ask him if anybody taught him these things when he was young. He says, “No, nothing at all about that!” He goes on to explain how he has learned everything the hard way. He did not know how charge cards can destroy your credit… how you have to pay things off fast and save up your money to buy things instead of constantly charging everything.
He has a lot of other ideas, too, he says. He says people would be better off if they listened to his ideas and get serious.
I ask him if maybe he would consider starting his own blog. I tell him how there are platforms you can use and just type things in and let people react to them. I am really impressed he has thought about all of these things so much. He told me he wanted to talk about housing. I wanted to ask him about housing. I guess we were both wrong about where this would go.
Next, I ask him if he has heard about the new program the mayor has for getting people “indoors” without having to wait too long. He has in fact heard about it and that is another reason he is not worried he will have a place to live soon.
He does not care if it is a studio in a senior building or a one-bedroom apartment. However, he does want it to be private. He explains he “wants his own door that locks and his own f*&$#@g key to the door. He does not want a curfew or room mates or rules or bullsh*t, as he calls it. He is “not a child” and has a medical problem. He does not want “some stupid f@#$%r teling him what to do in his own house,” he insists.
I wonder what the lessons are to be learned from his comments. He has a lot of ideas. He does not know who to tell… or how to tell someone…
I ask if he will ever get a blog going.
He replies, “Maybe if I have enough patience I can start one too.” He laughs and says he just has opinions about some things.
I remind myself that in the meantime he sleeps in the park.