You’ll Rethink the Luxury of Having Your Own Mailbox After Learning Luis’ Story
A few weeks ago, one of the volunteers who staffs the check-in desk tapped on the doorjamb of my office.
“A guy on the phone — Luis — asked if we can send him his mail,” he said. “The guy says it’s really important.”
I was working at a nonprofit that offers services that help people living on the streets acquire permanent supportive housing. Forwarding mail is not one of those services... Read More
Not Just Another Staff Meeting: Planning a Memorial
The email preceded the staff meeting: “Clients are asking whether we’re going to have a memorial for Tony.” A soft-spoken, charismatic man who had lived on our streets, off and on, for 27 years, Bethesda Cares had placed Tony into housing a year and a half ago, after a two-year stretch living at a metro stop. Read More
Homelessness: Making a Memorial Matter
“We need music,” Sue says. “We need something that takes people through their grief, and helps lift them up at the end of the service.” Read More
Homelessness: The Memorial
You are not alone.”Reverend Chuck Booker’s words cut through the silence in the chapel, through the cold rain clattering on the chapel’s windows, through the heaviness in my heart. Read More 
No Rest for the Weary… or for Someone With No Bed
Sometimes my job breaks my heart. Today was one of those days. My desk is in earshot of Bethesda Cares‘ reception desk, in our Drop-In Center for clients suffering homelessness. Read More
From Despair to Hope to Dignity
Homelessness strips so much from a person: protection from the elements. The safety of a door that locks. The certainty of a place to which to return each day. A place to put your stuff. The privacy of a bathroom. Access to a kitchen for a glass of water. Read More
Queuing and Q-ing with Dignity
Can I Put My Nose in Your Cup?
At Bethesda Cares‘ Drop-In center the other day, it was a warm, late afternoon and I was silently musing about the wisdom of an evening cocktail. Apparently the folks in our center were thinking about the same subject, but with a very different twist: Read More
Sometimes Your Clothing’s Disposable Even If You’d Rather Keep It
Last Tuesday the rain in DC was unrelenting. It was the day on which Long Island saw 13 inches of rain; though not as badly off, we were deluged too. Because Bethesda Cares‘ Drop-In Center for the homeless not only provides access to our services but also serves as a respite from the weather. Read More
How Do You Register to Vote If You’re Homeless?
From Despair to Hope to Dignity
Homelessness strips so much from a person: protection from the elements. The safety of a door that locks. The certainty of a place to which to return each day. A place to put your stuff. The privacy of a bathroom. Access to a kitchen for a glass of water. Read More
I Have No Idea Who Is Sitting Next to You, But You Don’t Either
was waiting in a line at a supermarket Tuesday morning when a woman I know only by her first name (Helena) got in line behind me and asked how my job at Bethesda Cares is going. “Great!” I gushed. “It’s been a big few months, a bunch of our guys have gotten housing!” Read More
Sometimes, You Just Gotta Get Away (Even If You’re Homeless)
The Moment Lost in a Smile Withheld
You know that horrible, awkward feeling…when you go somewhere, public or private, and feel like you are underdressed, overdressed or just stand out like a sore thumb? Maybe you’ve escaped that particular misery, but I’ve felt it and can assure you it is uncomfortable. The outsider’s perception as to whether … Read More
Does This Bus Shelter Make Me Look Fat?
Last week, I overheard a conversation in which an enormous, middle-aged man — not just tall, but carrying enough girth to be easily considered morbidly obese — was talking about weight loss with a few other men. They were sitting around a table at Bethesda Cares‘ Drop-In Center for the homeless. Read More
Respecting Someone Living Unsheltered
This week at Bethesda Cares’ Drop-In Center for people experiencing homelessness, a lumbering man I’ll call “Ralph” came in to check his mail early one morning; like many clients of no fixed residence, he uses our office address to get correspondence. Our volunteer checked the files; nope, nothing had arrived for him. Read More
Rats Don’t Bite, So Sleep Well?
Homelessness and Angels Unaware
Thursday morning, a volunteer beckoned to me as I walked down the hall at Bethesda Cares. “You’ve got to see this client’s drawings, Amy,” she said. “They’re incredible. And he does them with both hands.“ I looked at the drawings, and totally agreed. They were powerfully-rendered ballpoint… Read More
I Get Mail, Therefore I Am.
A few weeks ago, one of the volunteers who staffs the check-in desk at our Drop-In Center (for people experiencing homelessness), tapped on the doorjamb near my desk. “A guy on the phone — ‘Luis’ — asked if we can send him his mail,” he said. “The guy says it is really important.” Read More
Time, Hope, Homelessness
How Can You Sleep in a Parking Lot? That’s Not a Rhetorical Question
You are standing alone, under a streetlight at the back of a silent parking lot. You figure the time to be around 4:00 a.m.; you don’t own a watch anymore. You look around, listen in the darkness, in that very particular pre-dawn stillness. Everything seems quiet, so you creep behind a dumpster… Read More
Punked
Walking back to work after lunch yesterday, I came upon an unkempt man lying on the pavement by my office door. Let’s call him “Jasper.” … Read More