These are the art submitted for the Homeless Mortality theme.
This is Diedre’s from Healthcare for the homeless Houston “Change” committee
“Success Can – Pressurized Fortitude”
Karen Adkins from St. Francis Day Shelter
“Krystle Wear”
Kyrstle Yang from The Gathering Place
“Unhoused Face”
Myra from Colorado Coalition for the Homeless CAB
There are so many things happening. One of the biggest is this Project Homeless Connect: Denver. This is the Thanksgiving event. They provided haircuts, clothing, food, and much more yearly. They use our convention center because it is large enough to house homeless and low-income families that need assistance as well.
I went to a local one in my neighborhood at the local EZ Pawn. They had hygiene packs, hot drinks, and food, plus clothing. Last year I was able to get a pair of snow boots that are still working this year. This year and the previous ones, I grabbed some hoodies and clothes for the winter. I can’t always afford clothes but most importantly, I have friends that are in more need than I. This is one of my favorite events for Thanksgiving.
There are two more events that are important to people who are in need. There is a shoe drive outside of the Denver Rescue Mission. I am not sure what day it happens but lots of people show up and get shows for the winter or just better shoes. The other event is the coat drive called Coats for Colorado provided by Dependable Cleaners.
Christmas has lots of things as well. There is this big event downtown at the Civic Center Park where you can get a winter coat, sleeping bag, hot drinks in line, and much more. They do this on the day of Christmas as well. All around the downtown area they will dinners served from local business to provide for the homeless and low-income families.
There are plenty of people around the Denver Metro Area driving around giving holiday cheer by providing money, clothes, gift cards, and whatever they can. I suggest that we all provide this kind of love for someone this year. I have a list of people but I have limited means. I will give where ever and whenever I can.
Please leave a comment or leave feedback down below. I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
I started the day with running errands and ran into a few people that was currently using the #airbnb for a place to stay. One was a South American sounding individual. He said him and his wife was paying monthly about $600 for rent. They said it was way cheaper than renting. They started with traveling with it but now they are just living here in Denver paying these prices. I think it would be cool to rent out a room or a place without a major lease.
The second person was young and decided to travel while he was young. His destination is Las Vegas but for now he his going from place to place. He started in California then used AirBnb there then traveled by bus to Phoenix, Arizona. He stayed with his grandparents but moved to an Airbnb paying weekly rates. He then traveled to Denver to try things here for a while. He lost his ID and had to revert to day labor as a form of income to pay for his place to stay for the week. Once he has acquired his identification he will then travel to Las Vegas use AirBnB again until he gets a job and permanent housing.
The third person I met was and older one on the bus traveling to her home. She said that after she retired from her job, she decided to travel around the world. She used planes, trains, buses, and AirBnb to live. She said she used her Social Security Income to do this and she wants to write a book about her travels. She said it was going to be called a face looking adventure not Facebooking because the traveling was making her look at people faces and talking to them. Not the opposite which was looking at faces on social media and posting messages.
This blog may have been originally for things I thought people wanted to know about. I then thought I would post things about my website and share them on here. I finally thought that I could use this site to help improve my writing skills to eventually write a book or something I could make money from. I think now I should do all of the above.
I have a separate blog on #Blogger that I use for interesting stories. I post them here with a link to the original blog because I want to get comments from #WordPress users as well as share them on my social media. That blog is called Myra’s Crazy Blog because there is no consistency to what I write other than unexpected stories. I want to use that blog to see how generating income from Blogger would work. I am not sure yet because I just started posting on a regular basis.
I think this is a wonderful place to make posts that I can get feedback from all types of readers, including experienced writers. I took the blogging course on WordPress to help me learn about posting. I know that some of my classmates were really awesome writers but wasn’t too familiar with the social media aspect of writing. I know that I will eventually get the feedback I need with the posts I put here.
I created a website earlier this month to start upcycling some clothing that I have laying around my home. I wanted to make some things that wouldn’t take much time but will be well needed in the economy today. I also wanted to create so products that could be used for the homeless or by the homeless. Let me explain, I wanted to make a travel kit that homeless people could use but I wanted it to be an option for the customer to buy to distribute themselves or donate the funds for me to distribute the product for the homeless. I wanted my products to be limited at first and then eventually offer homeless people the option of making money with creating some on their own. I wanted to post about that on this blog to give people an idea about the site since this blog is named after the site.
Now I feel that I can do all of the about above. I will post about my other blog to share those posts that can be shared on my personal social media. I will just do a little writing, like this to get opinions from readers/ writers that love to help with beginner writers. I will also post about my website adventures and how the process is progressing. I think I will benefit from all of these post here on this blog.
I would like to thank all the readers that commented on their opinions in advance. I would also like to show my appreciation to all the writers that gave wonderful advice that will help me in becoming a better writer. Please feel free to leave your comment on any of my social media places as well as on the blog. Have a wonderful day!
Why Do People Become Homeless?
Lately in my apartment building, there have been plenty of people that have lost their homes. I can count at least 7 this year that I know personally. I know that it is hard to maintain a place when you are used to being on the streets or coming from the homeless community.
Most of the people that lived in this building that I knew had previously been homeless, had mental conditions, and/or had substant abuse issues. When someone becomes homeless, most people have had a bad experience that got them there. Once homeless for two years or more these people start to develop additional issues and conditions that may be hard to fix. For example, some people have a bipolar disorder. While these people with bipolar can be treated, they are homeless and it makes it hard to work on the condition with medical assistance on a consistent due to no permanent residence. After awhile, they start to self-medicate (abuse substances) to ease the condition.
Now the homeless have a chance for a place “Alone” and are expected with case management to function normally. I agree that this sounds great to an outsider looking in. Case management can help the few people that don’t need tons of supervision and help to do normal tasks but resources for additional assistance. For example, these almost normal people just need to utilize additional assistance (food banks, utility assistance, and rental assistance) to stay afloat. Unfortunately, most of the people that come from the homeless community also need routine mental help, schedule weekly contact on what a normal person does.
At the end of the day, most of these previously homeless clients are creating habits that are bound to cause a loss of their residence. I think case management should monitor them for at least six months and then recommend accordingly. Most of the case management have such a large workload that they don’t have time for such individual attention. There are groups available for people who really want to progress but by the time they realize it is necessary, they are in the process of losing their place.
I have often thought there should be a group or program to teach residents coming from a homeless community how or what to expect to be normal again. For example, having a monthly budget and how to slowly interact with a community, and finding a project to take up some wasted time to prevent substance abuse. I think they all, of course, take a computer class.
I started the day tired from a late night. I had a few friends in my house and they left an hour before me. I had an appointment that was an hour and a half away. I missed my first bus. I didn’t let that discourage me from keeping good spirits. As I waited we saw a 6 car pile up because of the slippery ice. I had someone to keep me company on the first bus and then I had someone who talked with me on the second bus so it made the time go fast. Afterwards, I headed home and wrote the last blog as I travelled.
When I got off the bus I started heading to the store to cash a check when a guy asked for a cigarette. I said I was gonna buy one for my neighbor so he walked with. He said he just got homeless which, of course, made me more sympathetic. At the store I realize I couldn’t give him a cigarette from my neighbor. So I got him his own pack but he stayed with me. I got a tv from a pawn shop and he asked to hang out for awhile at my house and I said I am not in the mood to entertain because I have been gone since noon. It is about 6:30 pm and I offered to buy dinner. I let him come in to carry my tv, but he asked for a hug. I thought maybe he is feeling bad, but there was an ulterior motive. I immediately left my place and bought dinner at 7-11 so that I could end the visit.
My heart is big when it comes to homeless people because of my experience of homelessness. I know this was a bad thing to do, having him in my home, but it was only for ten minutes. I was firm and he did appreciate the food. We sat at 7-11 and eat then I said good night. I feel sorry for people that want to take advantage of people. I would have given him bus fare to go downtown where the shelters were, but he didn’t want it.
I ended my night by washing a load of clothes. I watched some tv in my bed and I thought that it was important to reflect on my actions in a positive way.
I decided, some time back, to create an image that only my friends and family would understand. My love of chocolate was well known, but I remember someone thinking I was the color of milk chocolate. My first attempt was creating my first email with the name Chacalit. I used that for many years.
I later decided I want to start my own business with the name. I was going to sell something online through the site to make myself known. I even went to the point of paying for the business license and business to say I owned my business, I actually still own the domain name. Making logos for the business was very difficult. I tried several of them, but the pictures were not professional. I now have a generic one.
What I did was find this picture and added the name to it. I call it my logo but whatever. I set up a website, but it was too expensive to run the website with hosting. I use a free website provider now that has the name in it: http://chacalit.webs.com/. I will work on the real domain soon enough.
Now I would like to have the site known for helping the homeless in the city I live in and for promoting the products I make from home. I was homeless for quite awhile and it had made a huge difference in my life. I am not sure if the business image is representing me or what the company is about but I hope this blog helps people understand more. I want my audience to understand me and what the company is about.
Create by Tod 🦊🐾
Heidi Emmett, Clothing Pattern Designs, Felted Items, & Re-purposed Garments
Chacalit 
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