A can of soup in a sock is the most destructive weapon one could hope to obtain. At one time I would have disagreed with a pithy response about disease or fascism but after spending a few weeks in the woods of Orlando with the homeless that live there I have begun arming myself with leggings and canned corn.
The technique is both a means of personal protection as well as a way to keep food close on hand. This, along with a savvy arsenal of mixed use post consumer lethality have become common place if not a vital means of survival for a growing population that have nothing left to protect but themselves.
Steve Bruton, a Homeless Advocate at Northland Church in Orlando Florida defines homelessness as any person living without stable housing for a three month period. This includes living in motels or the car, sleeping in parks, the woods, or living with friends. Having no place to live is a monumental hurdle for getting back on one's feet and it is part of Steve's passion to find individuals without homes affordable housing, and in the mean time, supply the basic instruments of survival.
As the recession continues to inspire declining job growth, each day, thousands of Americans find themselves part of a new homeless population, which make up an increasing minority of individuals who until recently made up the middle class but are now without the basic necessities of shelter or food.
Those who had lived near the city take to alley ways and door frames, while the rural homeless take to the woods. Both groups are brought together by an arching need for help and an indelible calling toward survival in the midst of a new reality that was never imagined and promises of the American Dream buried in shallow graves. “A common misconception is that all people that live on the street are either mentally disfigured or have a drug habit, while this is not usually the case,” according to a report by the Seminole County Board of Homeless Advocacy. "This has given rise to a new homeless that have come directly out of the middle class and are struggling to find a way back."According to Nobel Laureate Muhannad Yunus, and Author of Building a Social Business, "One of the problems poor people have is that their lives are not protected against economic and personal shocks. Living on the edge of subsistence it takes only a tiny blow to send them into a downward spiral that often ends in extreme poverty. "
The first day I was in the offices of Northland preparing to enter the field (which was more like a tropical forest), something we would do each day, equipped with food and supplies for those in need, a man came into the office that erased my demographically founded assumption of the homeless population as decrepit denizens of the dark. Not only was he not a drug addict or alcoholic, or sex offender, but a seventy year old computer programmer laid off from work, barred behind a mountain of hospital bills from his wives battle with and loss to cancer. After that turmoil, he would now be sleeping in his car for the foreseeable future. Steve filled up his tank,supplied a few groceries, along with a card of a near by job agency, and had to send him away. There was no more he could do. The day was just starting and we had a lot of people to see.
It became alarming as we drove around and Steve began pointing out the places he had worked. It seemed that behind every block of businesses, just on the other side of every tree line, whole communities existed of individuals finding refuge in the woods, many living in large communal groups of over eight people. We stopped behind Lowes, a common hang out for individuals looking for day labor work, and entered the woods with a camera and a bag full of socks, cans, and MRE s.
Paths ran, still warm, through the forest in winding circles toward clearings that held the sounds of life and the stench of desperation. As we walked through the overgrowth that was as much tropical forest as I have ever been in, we came upon a group of campsites that had been recently fled by their inhabitants. Steve told me that the police would sometimes run out the people living in tents and would even sometimes arrest folks just to give them a place indoors to sleep. As well, the day before on my way to Florida it had rained and we figured many campsites had simply washed away.
Maintaining a schedule is important for the homeless to do in their search for the paraphernalia to keep alive. “Food is the easiest thing to come by,” said the one man who preferred so remain unidentified. Feeding kitchens in churches and other groups throughout the state maintain a constant schedule for feeding. The last night I was able to hang out with some Food Not Bombs people, who are known for diving into dumpsters to help feed the homeless. Who by the way, don't make the best food, but I love their attitude.
While the number of new homeless continually rise, so does the outreach to help them. Families acclimated to the middle class life are suddenly plunged into post disaster campsites or crammed into motels with another family to save on prices. The homeless don't want much but to get back to the middle from which they came, and they are willing to work for it. Until then they have to survive how ever they can.
More to come tomorrow....
