Emergency Assistance: Thank You Mary

Liquid Tide laundry detergent splatters into the puddle as the rain splashes down around the prancing homeless man, Jack, - his soggy shoes and clothing full of suds in scrubbing his hair and singing to the Occupiers under the awning of the Union Square subway. This is normal. But he is happy, if not a little warped in spirit. Sunday's New York Times had led with a story and photo of the blind Chinese dissident, Chen Guangcheng, arriving in Greenwich Village whilst coverage of the thousands of American dissidents who had descended on Chicago to protest the NATO summit went unnoticed by the mainstream media in a New York weekend that revealed sunshine, a 30 million dollar NYPD overtime expenditure for Occupy Wall Street, and the introduction of Robert Lederman, the artist/activist who was arrested over 40 times in NYC for display and sale of his art - (Continued...)

This blog. aHBiNYC is now available as an eBook. It covers the writer's homeless experiences in New York City from September 11, 2011 through January 2013 in 245 pages and 50 chapters. To order simply use the PayPal button in the sidebar, send $10, and include your email address in the PayPal memo form. Thank you.

iPhone Phund Now Up $450. Thanks Mary

And so we're almost there. Thank you Mary for $100. Mary and I made our first television commercial together in 1984, or rather, we both worked for an advertising agency that made commercials for clients. We were not in the actual spot. Thank God. But we had this wild gay client who wanted us to spend a lot of agency money, arguably his money, on making him happy in LA. And so we did. We also did a complete survey of local convenience stores and hot tubs and spent some time riding a conveyor belt, upstairs and down  in one, searching for the toilet. Are these the kind of stories you want to hear homeless people telling - about their exploits in LA not being homeless? Of course not. But fuck you. What you would know about being homeless or fucking about in LA could fill a thimble. And that's not the point here anyway. The point here is that the face of homeless has changed. Changed drastically. And although you may believe that TV commercial making/conveyor belt riding people should, simply by their virtue of being complete twats, be homeless, then so be it. We have lives too you know. We are you. You just don't know it yet.

Homeless 101.9: How I Became Un-homeless

Illustration by Hugh Macleod @ Gapingvoid.com

I simply moved out of the government shelter. And felt an immediate sigh of relief the minute I walked out the door. All of a sudden I had my freedom back, my self respect, my creativity, my energy, my intellect. I had become a man again.(Continued...)

This blog. aHBiNYC is now available as an eBook. It covers the writer's homeless experiences in New York City from September 11, 2011 through January 2013 in 245 pages and 50 chapters. To order simply use the PayPal button in the sidebar, send $10, and include your email address in the PayPal memo form. Thank you.

Homeless 101.8: New York Mayor Bloomberg Declares War On the Homeless!

And the 12th richest man in America means business. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, under Bloomberg's tutelage "The total homeless shelter population is 33% higher than when he (Bloomberg) took office and the number of homeless families is 45% higher." So Mike's not messing around. A guy like that lives in a pretty nice house so it's fairly obvious that he really doesn't like people who live in much less. "New York's a classy city", he said, "and having all these bums, and families and children on the street just doesn't look good - so let's put em' where we don't see em'". Out of site, out of mind. That's the Bloomberg plan. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, the bible of America's 1% wealthiest, "The number of people in New York City's homeless-shelter population exceeded 40,000 last week for the first time, capping a rapid rise in homeless children and families since the spring when the city eliminated a rent subsidy program, according to a report to be released Wednesday. Mr. Bloomberg had earlier set a goal in 2004 of cutting both the number of people who sleep on the streets and use the shelter system by two-thirds by 2009, but neither pledge has been fulfilled." Instead, in measures more draconian than used on the Occupy Wall Street protesters this week, Mr. Bloomberg simply ignored his own promises and his dismal record on the issue. "Getting rid of those protesters was cheap. Housing 40,000 homeless will cost about a billion-five a year, but that's better than having them on the street", he said. "Looks nice around here, doesn't it?"

Homeless 101.6: Now I Know What I Can't Be. I Can't Be the Poster-child For the Homeless

How did I get here?

The last few months have been fraught with soul searching. "How did I get here?" - as the Talking Heads might have said. And what I have come to realize is that once one succumbs to the psychological mind frame that allows a person to live as a "professional homeless", the battle has been lost. You will have become what you fear most. And compromises must be made to live on a state owned bed and just $200 in food stamps and $45 cash a month that the government allows you. One of the men in my room at the shelter is a loan shark for crack heads. He loans them $20 and they give him back $40. Another can sell three packs of cigarettes a day at the shelter, one by one, and pocket maybe $20. And not a one of them is looking for a job - they already have jobs. In fact, in my entire time at the shelter I have not met one single person who mans the commercial job hunt and is really trying to work themselves out of the system - rather, they learn how to gig the system - how to get the most out of it that they can in legal or less than legal ways. It is not exactly a breeding ground for role models.

And so now I have learned what I cannot be. I cannot be a poster-child for the homeless. I cannot beat the system and show others how to bootstrap their way out. That is simply not possible - because the system is not built to make that happen. That you must do for yourself. I came to see this a week or two ago when I realized that a number of people thought because I was white, good looking, well spoken and waspily-dressed that I could put a different face on the issue. I could, but that won't solve a goddamn thing. It will simply be a deckchair rearrangement on a Titanic that I didn't build. And as much as I have learned a new-found respect for the issue and acquired a desire to affect it positively, I can't do that as a homeless man. 

But I can, as a man with a job and a voice. It's just that simple.

Homeless 101.1: Is Homelessness a Crime in America?

Homeless America

At the 30th Street Men's Shelter in Manhattan one would certainly think so as truly homeless people are treated just like and along with criminals of a number of varieties. At the corner of the building hangs a sign pointing to the entrance. "Intake and Vagrancy Control", it reads. Upon entering all items must be removed from pockets, belts and watches removed and put in trays for x-ray. Then the 'clients' (as residents are duplicitously called) pass through a metal detector and are whisked with a wand if anything beeps. A combination of DHS (Department of Homeless Services) Police and rent-a cops patrol every inch of the place and one is never out of the view of security at any time, except when in a bunk room - but the bunk rooms have not locks or latches. "You watch your shit here, boy", said a guard to me. "We've got crooks and scammers and pimps and drug runners and more in here. You watch your shit all the time", he said in regard to anything I might be carrying. It applies to your behaviour as well. (Continued...)

This blog. aHBiNYC is now available as an eBook. It covers the writer's homeless experiences in New York City from September 11, 2011 through January 2013 in 245 pages and 50 chapters. To order simply use the PayPal button in the sidebar, send $10, and include your email address in the PayPal memo form. Thank you.

Mayor Bloomberg Warns of "Panic in the streets if companies don't start hiring".

And the land of the free passes another day. Metro New York reports that not only was a man arrested for using a bullhorn at the Occupy Wall Street protest, but gasoline for an electric generator was confiscated by police and cited as a 'fire hazard' - fuel that would be otherwise legal if used for a lawnmower, chainsaw or motorbike. Welcome to America, where freedom of speech is ok, so long as you don't use a bullhorn and petroleum products, the ones we wage wars over, are reserved for those who don't have a problem with the current economic situation. I have personally seen the protest and can tell you that activities are entirely peaceful, but it certainly seems as if the police are being brought in to disrupt things. And they are doing a fine American job of that. Luckily, attorney Samuel Cohen supports our right to free speech and is representing the protesters. "What these people are doing is the essence of the First Amendment. We want to make sure this is allowed to continue", he said. For video of police brutality against peaceful protesters, click here.

In other news, Mayor Bloomberg warns of "Panic in the streets if companies don't start hiring". Maybe finally, somebody in some position of power is getting it. Maybe.

Make Jobs, Not War!

What Obama's speech should have said: "Good evening. To get American working again, we must cut our massive war budget and find better ways to spend that money. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America."