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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2017)
FINDING HOME, from page 10 “Not comfortably, like in a domicile, but you can sleep.” So from May 2015 through April 2016, he lived in that Buick. In summer, the temperature in there got as high as 125 degrees, he says. Several times he was in danger of dehydration and heat exhaustion and had to call paramedics. For a few winter months, a friend let him stay in her home. The hip pain got worse. “To get out of the car, I would literally lift my left leg over the doorsill with my hands, put it on the ground, push myself out of the driver’s seat, prop myself against the side of the car. Without the cane, I couldn’t have done it.” He slept in the front seat; he couldn’t get into the back. He kept a few clothes in the car, some food, and a Stanley thermos for a hot drink in the morning. I d park in some lot. In the morning, not uncommonly I would find someone parked close by, getting out of her car, brushing her teeth, her hair. I figure it’s 5 a.m.; she’s getting ready to go to work “Police officers would knock on the window and say, ‘What are you doing here?’ I would explain, and the officer would say, ‘Well, yeah, you’re not breaking any laws, but we can’t let you park here.’ Invariably they were polite.” ** Srp grew a beard, only because “it was hard to find a place to shave. Some places won’t even let you inside if they think you’re homeless. A lot of places have no mirrors. They don’t want people getting washed up and doing things like shaving. A toothbrush car and about how he wants his story told. doesn’t take up much room, but you need “You know,” he says, “when we were running water. In the morning, the first young, you’d hear the word ‘hobo.’ You order of business would be to go find a didn’t stop and think, ‘What does that restroom.” mean?’ Well, I can tell He tried not to go you. It means you’re back to the same "Soaie places wga't even le t not looking at that places every day. He yon Inside II they Halak you're person and seeing a got to his doctor tsemeless» A le t of places bave person. You’re seeing a appointments and label. »e m irrors. They don't want spent his days at the “There’s a big Beaverton City Library people getting washed up difference between and at the Elsie Stuhr and doing things lik e shaw surviving and making Center, a Beaverton la g . A toothbrush doesn't take i t If all you’re doing is recreation center np much to o n , bat yon need surviving, all you have where there’s Meals is yourself. If society ru nning water. In the morn- on Wheels. takes that from you, “They don’t deliver in g r the firs t order of business you have nothing. It to cars,” he says. “But would be to go fin d a rest» didn’t happen to me, you can get a hot meal ro o m /' but I was lucky. It was and socialize. And james srp , one of the things I there are good people P O R T LA N D RESIDENT actively worked at. there. Or I might go to Don’t let yourself be one of the local depersonalized. Don’t churches that had a hot meaL” let people get away with that. At some restaurants, the staff was helpful “Be clear in the story,” he insists. “These and friendly, let him sit in a booth, have homeless people aren’t labels - derelict, coffee, use the free Wi-Fi to search job and bum, drunk, wino. People walk down the apartment listings or watch movies. He is street and they don’t see what’s right in still grateful for all of that. And he found front of them, that those are people.” support from his large Facebook group, “Friends of Mike Callahan,” based on the science fiction novels of Spider Robinson. y April 2016, the pain was too much. Without them, I wouldn’t have survived “If I didn’t get the surgery,. I would this,” he says. Robinson’s tenet - “shared not be able to get out of the car. I would die joy increases, and shared pain decreases” - in there,” he says. kept him balanced. He found a rooming house where he Srp is philosophical about his time in the could stay until the surgery was finished, B then went to an Avamere facility for physical therapy. A staff member at the Stuhr Center gave him the Street Roots Rose City Resource booklet and suggested he go into Portland and talk to Northwest Pilot Project. Srp was doubtful. “I had hardly ever been to Portland,” he says. “I’d lived in Washington County, and I really wanted to stay out there. I didn’t know the city.” But he got his name on a list, did all the paperwork, and when his social worker at NWPP found him an apartment, he decided to give Portland a chance. He’d been 16 months without a real home. NWPP supplied “a bed, bedding, two forks, two spoons, two knives, two glasses, two bowls, and a 9-inch frying pan,” he says. The apartment has a stove and a fridge. Friends in the Facebook group sent a pot, a coffeemaker, a tea kettle and a tea pot as housewarming gifts. Srp is set. “Some people need lots of toys, a nice house with pretty furniture,” he says. “For me, it’s all about the people.” Srp’s final words, as we finish our long conversation: “Someone told me once that a philosopher is someone who values experience for what it teaches. That applies to me. I have been lucky.” He still has the car, and still goes out to Beaverton to visit friends. He keeps up with his Facebook group. He’s getting to know his new neighborhood. When I last saw him, he grinned and showed me he could take a few steps without the cane. Better dental health can lead to better whole health. A healthy mouth connects you to a healthy body. Just one of the ways we’re healthier as a whole. CareOregorr P a rtn e r OHP-HSO-18-129 yourwholehealth.com I*
