I think it's important to remember that not everyone is as charitable as the next person. Some may look at such ideas as great, others may have a hard time swallowing them.

I truly feel that the "tent city" idea is great. I also believe that there needs to be help to bridge many gaps in this process. Hammered mentioned employment, and others mentioned how hard it is to get a job, and how much harder that becomes when homeless. Although some may not be able to work, the ones that can may need help getting on their feet in the application process.

Maybe this is already being addressed. I know BRAC does much to help out and Phil is great at explaining to me how many different things are addressed, this just happens to be one I haven't heard about.

A few years ago when I came as close to hitting rock bottom as possible without actually landing I would have been homeless if it weren't for the fact that I have a large family. And later on a new girlfriend who years later is my fiance.

Hundreds of applications with barely dozens of interviews. Nothing is more disheartening than to get  a form letter telling you they hired someone "better suited" to scrub toilets in a hotel or wash dishes in a hospital.

I paid my dues in the temp agencies working a day one week, two or three the next, none the following, finally getting some longer lasting assignments after proving myself. I panicked when the transmission started to die in my car, I couldn't risk driving to Yelm or anywhere off the bus line for work.

It was just dumb luck that the agency found me an assignment practically within walking distance. It was just dumb luck that it was long-term, it was dumb luck that eventually they were wanting to hire me.

After over two years of applications to McDonalds and Jack in the Box failed to find me employment. My schooling and certificates and experience and references and pressed, clean clothes and tie meant nothing. Couldn't get the administrative and clerical work I was qualified for, couldn't get the remedial unskilled work I was experienced in. Maybe if I wasn't a white male I'd have had better luck but that's a rant for another day.

Some will ask why I didn't move away to find employment. How could I afford the gas to take a day to interview in Seattle or Portland? That's assuming I'd get an interview anyways. Besides, I could struggle for my life in familiar surroundings with a support network, or I could struggle for my life elsewhere cut off from any help. 

Point is, it's hard enough when you have the roof and food and clothes and are hitting the streets everyday and not being picky. You can hardly concentrate when your stomach's empty and your electrolytes and blood sugar are whacked out of order. And if you have an ignored medical condition it can be even worse.

There are a lot of people, in fact I think this is true of most people, who do not see beyond the surface... beyond what can be noticed about a person with a momentary glance. They see someone dumpster diving. They see someone in poor health holding a sign asking for money. They see someone yelling obscenities at no one in particular or muttering paranoid delusions to themselves.

 

And, since they do not create the opportunities for themselves to get to know the homeless, they might never discover that the fellow in the dumpster has a college education, or that the person panhandling on the corner loves Dizzy Gillespie, or that the shirtless person muttering obscenities isn’t wearing a shirt because he gave it to someone who needed it more than he.

On behalf of my daughter and myself I'd like to thank the residents of Camp Quixote for their warm hospitality today.

"Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose."