Recently, I had the opportunity to volunteer at an event called Project Homeless Connect. This takes place twice annually in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where around 100 different homelessness service providers all set up tables in the convention center to provide a one-stop shop for homeless and near-homeless individuals seeking help. This year's event had a tremendous outpouring of volunteers from the community--over 1400!
Because of this huge number of volunteers, each guest (this is how we referred to the homeless individuals, in an effort to promote an atmosphere of hospitality) worked one-on-one with a volunteer who went through an intake survey and then helped them navigate the convention center to find the services they were looking for. This setup not only was good for the guests, but it also gave each volunteer the opportunity to hear a story, and hopefully better understand homelessness.
Too often the only face of homelessness people see is the adult male panhandler. This is certainly one face of homelessness, but a minority in terms of what homelessness really looks like (47% of Minnesota homeless are 21 or younger). I had the good fortune of working with a middle-aged Black man who I'll call Dan (a pseudonym to respect his privacy).
Up until less than a year ago, Dan worked a job putting finishes and chrome on metal products, a job he had done his whole life. He got tuberculosis a few years ago, and after it was treated he was told he needed to go in for x-rays every 6 months. About a year ago at one of these x-ray appointments, the doctor found a lesion on his lung. It turned out that he had developed lung cancer (likely from the harsh chemical fumes he had worked with). Fortunately, the cancer was still in stage I (the first time his doctor had ever seen cancer at such an early stage). Though Dan can no longer use one of his lungs, his cancer is now in remission.
The consequence of this cancer is that Dan had to quit his job because he could no longer work around such harsh chemicals. He moved from Chicago to Minneapolis to live with his sister, and has been unable to find a job (apparently even McDonald's wants you to have work experience in the field). Along with his homelessness, Dan had some serious substance abuse issues (it is not uncommon for unemployed homeless people to use drugs or alcohol to pass time during the day, sometimes leading to addiction). In the past month, he was able to get into a residential substance abuse treatment program, and is doing very well. Because of meetings and other program-related commitments every day, residents are encouraged not to find jobs while undergoing treatment.
This is his story up to the point where I met him at the Project Homeless Connect event. Since the event is focused on making guests comfortable, the intake room is a huge ballroom set up with pairs of chairs facing one another, a volunteer in one chair from each pair. When the doors open guests walk in and choose the volunteer they would like to work with. Dan came and sat across from me and we started talking and went through the intake form to see what services would be most useful to him. He told me that his top priorities were legal services, education, and employment help (the last one was him thinking for down the road, for once he gets through his treatment program).
After going through the intake interview, we walked across the convention center to the legal services intake booth. I did not ask Dan what legal services he needed, since this can be very personal and quite frankly it was none of my business. After getting through the first intake, he wanted to tell me about the legal services that he needed. Three years ago he started dating a woman from Jamaica and a year ago they got married. After they had been married for a couple of months, she asked him to come along with her to the immigration lawyer. He figured this must have something to do with her visa. When they started asking for all of his information and wanted to fingerprint him, Dan asked why. It turned out that in the more than two years that they had been together, she had failed to tell him that she was in the country illegally. He could not tolerate that she had been lying to him about this (personally, I have a bias in favor of illegal immigrants, but I'll withhold judgment on Dan). At that point he walked away from the marriage.
His former wife filed the paperwork for a divorce, but never showed up to the scheduled date in court and the proceedings were never finished. They told him that because she had started the proceedings, he could not file for divorce on his own. He was stuck married to a woman he no longer had any desire to be with. The legal intake referred him to the family law section, and he invited me to sit with him while he spoke to the attorney. After over an hour of waiting in lines and speaking to three different people, the ultimate advice came through. First, call Cook County (in Chicago) and see if the divorce had ever gone through (a possibility). Second, if it had not gone through he was to establish 6 months residency in Minneapolis, then go through a legal service agency (that the attorney recommended).
After a struggle to figure out who to call and what exactly to ask, we finally figured out the number for the Cook County records. I let Dan borrow my phone, and sat by as he spoke to the records division. After a short while, I saw his eyes light up. He said thank you to the clerk on the line, then handed my phone back to me and told me that he was divorced. I never would have thought news of a divorce could be so happy and relieving to someone, but to Dan it was. As cheesy as it sounds, the big grin on his face made my day feel really worthwhile.
The next thing Dan had on his list was over in the education section. While we had been waiting in line for the attorney, he told me about his ambitions. He never got his high school diploma, and the first thing he wants to do is get his GED. After this, he told me, he wants to go on to college and get the education he needs to work as a substance abuse counselor. He told me about how inspiring it is that his current counselor once had a drug problem, but is now clean, and Dan wants to be able to offer the same inspiration to others. At one of the tables we found out that he could enroll in free GED classes provided by the public school system the very next day, and he could do it in the evenings so that it wouldn't interfere with his treatment.
The last thing that Dan and I went to do was to get him set up with a free voice mail number. Down the road when he starts looking for a job, this will come in handy giving him a place for potential employers to call him back.
Once we had done this I asked Dan if there was anything else he needed, and he couldn't think of anything. He told me that he really just wasn't the kind of guy who would ask for more than he needed. So that was it. He gave me a hug and said thank you, then we went our separate ways. I think and hope that he is on his way out of homelessness (though I know that even a small obstacle could set him back). It goes against the stereotypes that many of us are taught that such an ambitious, sharp, and kind individual would be homeless, but Dan and many more like him go to sleep every night without a steady place to call home.
This day went great for Dan. He was set up with some assistance in the areas he needed. But perhaps just as important is the way he touched my life. I loved hearing his story and the tremendous struggle that he's gone through, and have great optimism that he will succeed.
I also hope that sharing Dan's story with you will touch you like it touched me, and perhaps motivate you to work against homelessness in your community. It is estimated that around 3.5 million people experience homelessness in a given year. There are many things you can do to help the cause ranging from volunteering at soup kitchens and shelters to writing your elected officials to let them know you care about homelessness. And though many people would rather give of themselves than their wallets, all sorts of homelessness and homelessness prevention programs across the country need donations to continue the great work they are doing.