by Gonzo Gates
Many I'm sure don't remember that phrase. Times have changed. We are not hobos we’re homeless. We are no longer considered the bums of old, sticks w/ bandana bundles over shoulders. But we are here.
It is different now.
Understand this: We do not like our lives to be this way. It depresses us beyond measure and above strength. This is not really an existence: it’s survival, but just barely. Bologna as a daily sustenance. Raise your children on that.
Some of us and I say “us” as I've been in this environment long enough to call many friends or family. Some chatter wantonly, making sense to no one but self. God only knows; “touched”, as it were.
We have vets in our population, men and women who risked their lives to protect our constitutional rights. Sadly, the “Right to Rest” is not one of those. It used to be, but the city of Denver robbed us of that. Easily.
And we have cripples. Handicapped.
And yes, we have ex-cons. The standing joke is: “Come to Colorado on vacation, leave on probation.” It may well soon come to the point where most people here have been introduced to the Colorado Judicial system, one way or another. I am not trying to be funny.
This is your state.
You approve of this.
Or you are ignoring it?
So where is the crime in all of this?
We all want homelessness fixed. You don't want us in front of you, and I for one don't want to be in your face. Seriously. I love life, it's people I can't stand. People come with opinions. Judgments. Currently, those who are blessed with housing have a tendency to look down their noses at those of us who are homeless. I have to admit that there are many homeless who trash their environment, though, who are constantly drunk and disruptive and think the world owes them everything. Many of us though, we are not that way. We want to rise out of this mire.
But we have become an industry.
There are so many local, state and federal projects and programs that are ongoing, yet they do not talk to each other. That's a true statement. Rather, a true bank statement. All these programs get as much funding as they can. Yet no accountability.
There is no communication between programs. There is no accountability for any of them, of what they take in, in donations of any form, and how it's all dispensed. It is a “free for all.” And yet this tourist community supports this. They not only support it, the City of Denver spent $8.1 million to allow the Denver Police Department (DPD) to violate the homeless in a variety of creative ways. We keep getting “tickets” for resting, jaywalking, miscellaneous BS, that we can't possibly afford, crowding the jail and clogging the courts.
And this community approves of this.
At DRM, you are not allowed to have a water bottle during the night. You have to use the drinking fountain out front if the door is open, which isn't always, even if you're handicapped and can barely get up off your bunk or mat, much less walk. No food is allowed, even if they give it to you during a meal. You are not supposed to carry food. Being street staff, a PC, a mat volunteer, is different: They can eat, drink and be merry, whenever or wherever they want. If a homeless person gets caught with food or a water bottle, they are “barred” for seven days. Into the elements. I know of a homeless man who was ejected for seven days by a PC for a RUMOR that he had eaten food in the dorm, while other PCs were on their bunks eating in the open.
Dostoyevsky said: “You can judge a civilization by how it treats its prisoners.” How is all this any less? All these public and private donations with absolutely no accountability. Where is all the money going? You will not be able to end homelessness in the next ten years because you have too many people coveting all those donations, and no one is even trying to communicate.
The answer is simple. If you all work together and cooperate, we might make progress and solve the homeless problems.
Oh, but then you would lose funding.
Don't you just hate that? Oh you do.
It is different now.
Understand this: We do not like our lives to be this way. It depresses us beyond measure and above strength. This is not really an existence: it’s survival, but just barely. Bologna as a daily sustenance. Raise your children on that.
Some of us and I say “us” as I've been in this environment long enough to call many friends or family. Some chatter wantonly, making sense to no one but self. God only knows; “touched”, as it were.
We have vets in our population, men and women who risked their lives to protect our constitutional rights. Sadly, the “Right to Rest” is not one of those. It used to be, but the city of Denver robbed us of that. Easily.
And we have cripples. Handicapped.
And yes, we have ex-cons. The standing joke is: “Come to Colorado on vacation, leave on probation.” It may well soon come to the point where most people here have been introduced to the Colorado Judicial system, one way or another. I am not trying to be funny.
This is your state.
You approve of this.
Or you are ignoring it?
So where is the crime in all of this?
We all want homelessness fixed. You don't want us in front of you, and I for one don't want to be in your face. Seriously. I love life, it's people I can't stand. People come with opinions. Judgments. Currently, those who are blessed with housing have a tendency to look down their noses at those of us who are homeless. I have to admit that there are many homeless who trash their environment, though, who are constantly drunk and disruptive and think the world owes them everything. Many of us though, we are not that way. We want to rise out of this mire.
But we have become an industry.
There are so many local, state and federal projects and programs that are ongoing, yet they do not talk to each other. That's a true statement. Rather, a true bank statement. All these programs get as much funding as they can. Yet no accountability.
There is no communication between programs. There is no accountability for any of them, of what they take in, in donations of any form, and how it's all dispensed. It is a “free for all.” And yet this tourist community supports this. They not only support it, the City of Denver spent $8.1 million to allow the Denver Police Department (DPD) to violate the homeless in a variety of creative ways. We keep getting “tickets” for resting, jaywalking, miscellaneous BS, that we can't possibly afford, crowding the jail and clogging the courts.
And this community approves of this.
At DRM, you are not allowed to have a water bottle during the night. You have to use the drinking fountain out front if the door is open, which isn't always, even if you're handicapped and can barely get up off your bunk or mat, much less walk. No food is allowed, even if they give it to you during a meal. You are not supposed to carry food. Being street staff, a PC, a mat volunteer, is different: They can eat, drink and be merry, whenever or wherever they want. If a homeless person gets caught with food or a water bottle, they are “barred” for seven days. Into the elements. I know of a homeless man who was ejected for seven days by a PC for a RUMOR that he had eaten food in the dorm, while other PCs were on their bunks eating in the open.
Dostoyevsky said: “You can judge a civilization by how it treats its prisoners.” How is all this any less? All these public and private donations with absolutely no accountability. Where is all the money going? You will not be able to end homelessness in the next ten years because you have too many people coveting all those donations, and no one is even trying to communicate.
The answer is simple. If you all work together and cooperate, we might make progress and solve the homeless problems.
Oh, but then you would lose funding.
Don't you just hate that? Oh you do.
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