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*