14
C E L E B B IT O IG A D£CJU>£
îI îiL I lllih
10
street roots'
«M¡
Education * Dialogue ^'Independence
Dreams can come true, and sometimes they bring jobs
for a Powerball ticket. Then he told me, “If I
very time the Powerball goes over a
win, we’re going to buy the Warehouse
hundred million, I think about the
across the street for the Blanchet House.”
cold mornings waiting in line at the
Blanchet House. Sometimes some of the Then he went bn to say, “And we’re going to
turn the warehouse into a big homeless
homeless guys would
shelter. I told him, “Hell yeah! I’m in.”
come to the line
My friend Vince and I were looking at the
soaking wet,
building. We figured the first floor would be
shivering. I’d look at
W OB1B2B those guys and think, offices, intake^ counseling, conference
rooms, showers, bathrooms, and laundry
“What the hell, how .
Leo Rhodes
facilities. The second floor would be for
the hell did these
guys get wet?”'I ’d feel
families, the third for single mothers, the
sorry for them,
fourth for single fathers, the fifth for youth,
and the sixth only for women. Thé top floor
watching them shiver. Then one day it
happened to one of my friends. I was
would be open to any homeless person. All
the times we tried the Powerball, we didn’t
standing in line with another friend. We
win more than $12.
started laughing as our friend walked up ,
I left Portland in 2000, and didn’t return
shivering. We asked him, “What are you,
until March of this year. I checked o.ut my
nuts, walking around wet?” He replied, “No,
I fell asleep on the landing docks.”
old stomping grounds. I went by the
Across the street from the Blanchet
Blanchet House. It was still there, and still
House is a huge, old, abandoned warehouse. the same. Across the street was thé
Sometimes they would turn the sprinkler
warehouse, and they were renovating it. My
system on the homeless as they were
heart started beating quickly. I thought to ’
sleeping on the -docks. What a rude
myself, Wow, did somebody hear about bur
awakening.
plans to make thé warehouse into a shelter?
One morning, a friend asked if I’d pitch in I kneW it wasn’t any of my friends^ because
8
activist a n d homeless
advocate. H e is also a
vendor with Street Roots
a n d a regular conributor to
the newspaper. H is street
nam e is The Wanderer
they’re all dead. Happy and excited, I looked
at the warehouse building and smiled.
Some time later, I found out it was going
to be an office building. My heart sank.
Then I told myself it was just one of those
days.
Now I hear Commissioner Fish is going
to start construction on the Resource
Access Center. The RAC building is going to
have affordable housing, a homeless shelter,
support services, and a day shelter for
homeless people. This is a great start, but' |
we need more, like across the river in
Northeast', and in Southwest. Homeless
people aren’t just downtown.
I’m excited about the RAC building, and I
know it will help a lot of homeless people.
Yet one thought keeps going through my
mind. Are there going to be any homeless
or low-income people working on the job
site?
We should e-mail Commissioner Fish to ,
applaud his creativity and courage on the
RAC building, and also encourage him to put
homeless and low-income people on the job
site.
Emptiness
By Wesley Hesketh
The emptiness of the street
Pounding at my' soul
Making me only one half
Where once I was a whole
But in the streets I’m living
No one being kind
Can’t they understand?
What is on my mind?
The hunger and the loneliness '
Fill this life of mine
As I lie here sleeping
People walking by
Looking for a handout
People never being kind
No one to help me up
No one gives a try
The pain that is in life
Never makes its point •
Drug-induced this dreaminess
I’ll smoke just one more joint
But someday I’ll stand up straight
L will show them all
That my life is not a mess-
My happiness does call
Now I’mJat the bottom
Falling in a pit
Now I find that drugs and smoke
Is not really it
Though I have no money
Not even a room they’ll give
Nobody really can be with me
In this life I live
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