You Might Have Called Them "Bums..."

Homelessness for Stupid People

The foibles of the most pampered homeless population in the Bay Area...

I ran into Ivan yesterday who I had not seen for quite some time. I didn't quite recognize him till he took off his bicycle helmet and sunglasses. Once he revealed his boyishly friendly face I was finally sure it was him. He looked great and told me about this new job he scored as a cook. The two of us shared personal stories and news and goings on. While we were speaking his phone rang.

“It's Jackie!” Ivan said. “I gotta take this!” You bet he did. Jackie doesn't take no for an answer!

I first met Jackie and Ivan in November of 2011 at the Warming Centre. Can't remember the location it resided at that day, but, like every other guy in the room, we all noticed Jackie first. It's not just that Jackie is beautiful, she also has an outgoing character that can remind one of an annoyed rhino... from time to time. She will get in your face if you tick her off. Having done that... more than once, I've experienced this first hand.

Ivan is the opposite. Quiet and unassuming, he's easy to talk to, friendly and a whole lot tougher than he looks.

Ivan has a couple of things going for him, not counting his personability. The first is that the guy is very industrious. He's not afraid of hard work, and will jump right in when necessary. The other thing is Jackie. She's quite the motivator. It shows all over his face when they're together. Jackie is also a Medical Tech, working on being a Licensed Practical Nurse, while Ivan is a trained cook.

When I met them, they were both out of work and homeless. It did not take Jackie terribly long to find work as a Nurse. Ivan took a little longer to find work. But, before the Warming Centre season ended in April of 2012, the two of them were both working and had managed to rent a room. Ivan took whatever job he could get. Jackie's been at the same job for over a year and a half. Her boss must like her...

Just recently Ivan found this well paying job as a cook in a local institution. The two of them have high hopes that soon they'll be able to move out of their rented room and get into an apartment of their own.

It's mid August, 2013. They rented a room in March of 2012 with two incomes.

Think about that for a moment. These are two highly skilled individuals who have been climbing back up from homelessness for two years and HOPE to have their own place soon.

I've mentioned before, and I'll say it again: just because you have a job does not mean you won't be homeless any more.

Jackie and Ivan are a couple with two incomes sharing a room trying to get back into normal life any way they can. To the rest of us they're an inspiring story. Everyone who knows them is happy for them. And they did it together, proving once again that a couple is more than the sum of its parts.

Could they have done it individually? Maybe. As industrious as Ivan is... but I know men just as industrious who work and are homeless. The force of will that Jackie has? Heh... I wouldn't bet against Jackie.

Maybe I'm fully off base, but the difference, I believe, is that Jackie and Ivan are a couple with the same goals in mind: a better life for the both of them. They motivate each other. They are one another's purpose. They're also both young with a whole lot of life and potential ahead of them. Every indication is that they're going to be living up to a lot of that potential.

So, I believe, and I hope I'm correct, that we can safely chalk Jackie and Ivan up as a success story. They did it with the same level of support everyone else has with the noted exception of their support for each other.

In a past blog entry, I spoke of David who made it out on his own. David is also, however, well educated with a skill set in high demand. He's not lucky so much as very, very smart. And except for the fact that Jackie and Ivan have each other, you cannot call them lucky either.

At the risk of repeating myself: there are homeless people out there who have held down the same job for years. They aren't the hyper conspicuous meth-heads and alcoholics. You might have seen them, sure. A couple, who do have jobs, have been mentioned in the responses to this blog. I don't know any homeless with with jobs who could be considered “problem” homeless.

I would dearly love to introduce you to some of these people. I won't since I don't want to violate their privacy. They're not the type of people who put their bad behaviour on full display for the whole world to see (and me to write about... Judy...)

But I have mentioned a few of the names in a previous entries. These are guys that several of the responders to this blog would label “bums” without hesitation. But I'm not writing this for those people. I'm writing it for the rest of you. Those of you who don't comment. I'm writing this to make it perfectly clear that getting out of being homeless is not so simple a thing as just getting a job.

I can't tell you what exactly it would require... (other than deporting the cause of low wages and cutting the salaries of those tax supported types that drive up the cost of living)... I could tell you that it might require every homeless guy (who isn't on some controlled substance) to get married to a girl like Jackie just to be motivated... heh... they probably broke the mould when they made her, so, not happening. It doesn't require government funding, that's just going to feed expectations of those expecting to be taken care of. It doesn't require you to throw away money at people with signs (especially those with their kids in tow).

Realistically, I have no idea how I, personally, or the guys I mentioned in that other blog, will make it back to “normal.”

The ignorant can call us “bums” all they want to. I'll blame Stoney and Mark Watters and Adam Parris and the rest of the drug addled types who fit the classic description of “homeless.” (If you've no idea who those names belong to, count your blessings!) My friends and I are not them.

My friends and I will keep our jobs, and I'll be as outspoken as I have been... Jackie and Ivan, thankfully, don't have to endure that kind of hate any more...