by Debbie Brady
I was sitting in front of the City and County Building. I was early for a City Council meeting that I had decided to attend. The Council was to decide on moving money from one account to another in order to pay a settlement to Jamal Hunter. He was an inmate in the Denver County jail whose abuse by Denver County Deputy Sheriffs had been caught on video. Shame on them!
I was there to hear if the Council members, as they voted for or against this financial outlay, would demand that these abuses end. I was early. The Council meeting was scheduled for 5:30 and it was 4:45. I was sitting there reading a book when I looked up and saw someone I recognized. It was Yoko, a lady I knew through my association with Denver Homeless Out Loud. I said “Hey Yoko” and she turned to me and said “Hey Debbie.”
She was with three other women. They were pushing or pulling all of their worldly belongings. My heart went out to these women. I asked, “What’s up Yoko, where are you headed?" She told me that there had been 19 women at the Women's Emergency Shelter lottery at St Francis that day and that she and her friends had lost out for a place to sleep. (St Francis allots 15 places each Monday and Thursday.) “So what are you going to do?" I asked. She said they were going to the Sheriff’s Office to request shelter because it looked like rain and she did not want to sleep outside in the rain.
I thought of my own comfortable apartment and I wished I could accommodate them. I am just a poor old transgendered woman living in a HUD VASH subsidized apartment on a very limited fixed income. I am forbidden to have guests for more than one night and there can’t be more than one. I felt terrible! I thought, what can I do to help these ladies? The answer unfortunately, was nothing.
I hate that feeling!
I asked Yoko, “What can the sheriff do?” She said “I don’t know, but it’s his job to make sure I don’t have to sleep outside in the rain.” (I later learned that the City's plan for homeless people requires the Sheriff's Department to provide another shelter option, which may be a motel voucher, for women who didn't get into the Women's Emergency Shelter.) I told her not to forget that and wished her well. She had wanted to be at the City Council meeting herself, but could not attend because of her unhoused situation. I would love to have been a fly on the wall, when Yoko and her friends stormed into the Denver County Sheriff’s office and demanded their rights of shelter as human beings.
I stood there and watched them make their way down the sidewalk. Part of me wanted to follow them and lend my support, but Yoko had told me it was more important for me to go and see what them damn politicians were up to. So I stayed.
The political dog and pony show ran its course and I watched as the City Council voted to move the money around so they could talk about what it was really all about some other time. I will be there with my questions when that happens. I hope to help force a public comment period on the vote. We will see.
The memory that stuck in my head that sleepless night was not what went on in the Council meeting that evening. It was the picture in my mind of those four women pulling or pushing everything they owned down that street looking for a place to sleep, out of the rain.
I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, I wanted to kick some ass. This is not how it is supposed to be. What can we do to make the idea that shelter is a human right, a reality?
I am working to find the answer to that question and it has become my quest. I expect it to be my last goal. I’m an old lady now (65 in September) but I have found my calling. I was homeless myself for two years, after living a middle class life for over forty years. I know how easy it is to go from middle class to destitute in the blink of an eye. I am working with Denver Homeless Out Loud to pass a Homeless Bill of Rights, which among other things might recognize shelter as a human right in Colorado.
Nobody should have to go through what these women have to go through every day. How can you even think of looking for a job, when you have to spend most of your time hauling all of your personal belongings all over town, looking for a place to sleep at night? Have you ever pushed a cart that contains all of your worldly goods to a job interview? I have and it doesn’t work. I am glad I am now living off my Social Security retirement account and no longer have to look for work. I have found that I can now live on a lot less money than I would have ever thought possible.
I am going to end this rant with one message to all you young people out there. It was told to me by my grandmother many years ago. “Look out for your neighbors,” she said. "Whatever you give will come back to you in miracles.”
I was there to hear if the Council members, as they voted for or against this financial outlay, would demand that these abuses end. I was early. The Council meeting was scheduled for 5:30 and it was 4:45. I was sitting there reading a book when I looked up and saw someone I recognized. It was Yoko, a lady I knew through my association with Denver Homeless Out Loud. I said “Hey Yoko” and she turned to me and said “Hey Debbie.”
She was with three other women. They were pushing or pulling all of their worldly belongings. My heart went out to these women. I asked, “What’s up Yoko, where are you headed?" She told me that there had been 19 women at the Women's Emergency Shelter lottery at St Francis that day and that she and her friends had lost out for a place to sleep. (St Francis allots 15 places each Monday and Thursday.) “So what are you going to do?" I asked. She said they were going to the Sheriff’s Office to request shelter because it looked like rain and she did not want to sleep outside in the rain.
I thought of my own comfortable apartment and I wished I could accommodate them. I am just a poor old transgendered woman living in a HUD VASH subsidized apartment on a very limited fixed income. I am forbidden to have guests for more than one night and there can’t be more than one. I felt terrible! I thought, what can I do to help these ladies? The answer unfortunately, was nothing.
I hate that feeling!
I asked Yoko, “What can the sheriff do?” She said “I don’t know, but it’s his job to make sure I don’t have to sleep outside in the rain.” (I later learned that the City's plan for homeless people requires the Sheriff's Department to provide another shelter option, which may be a motel voucher, for women who didn't get into the Women's Emergency Shelter.) I told her not to forget that and wished her well. She had wanted to be at the City Council meeting herself, but could not attend because of her unhoused situation. I would love to have been a fly on the wall, when Yoko and her friends stormed into the Denver County Sheriff’s office and demanded their rights of shelter as human beings.
I stood there and watched them make their way down the sidewalk. Part of me wanted to follow them and lend my support, but Yoko had told me it was more important for me to go and see what them damn politicians were up to. So I stayed.
The political dog and pony show ran its course and I watched as the City Council voted to move the money around so they could talk about what it was really all about some other time. I will be there with my questions when that happens. I hope to help force a public comment period on the vote. We will see.
The memory that stuck in my head that sleepless night was not what went on in the Council meeting that evening. It was the picture in my mind of those four women pulling or pushing everything they owned down that street looking for a place to sleep, out of the rain.
I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, I wanted to kick some ass. This is not how it is supposed to be. What can we do to make the idea that shelter is a human right, a reality?
I am working to find the answer to that question and it has become my quest. I expect it to be my last goal. I’m an old lady now (65 in September) but I have found my calling. I was homeless myself for two years, after living a middle class life for over forty years. I know how easy it is to go from middle class to destitute in the blink of an eye. I am working with Denver Homeless Out Loud to pass a Homeless Bill of Rights, which among other things might recognize shelter as a human right in Colorado.
Nobody should have to go through what these women have to go through every day. How can you even think of looking for a job, when you have to spend most of your time hauling all of your personal belongings all over town, looking for a place to sleep at night? Have you ever pushed a cart that contains all of your worldly goods to a job interview? I have and it doesn’t work. I am glad I am now living off my Social Security retirement account and no longer have to look for work. I have found that I can now live on a lot less money than I would have ever thought possible.
I am going to end this rant with one message to all you young people out there. It was told to me by my grandmother many years ago. “Look out for your neighbors,” she said. "Whatever you give will come back to you in miracles.”
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