Cozy Fixer-Upper, Superb Location

Evidence of three street homes under the bridge: a jacket hanging on the fence, urine bottles, cardboard slabs, garbage bags full of belongings. Residents currently away on urgent business.

Yesterday when the sleet came, I wondered how the unhoused people near me would survive the weather. Most have sleeping bags, some have tarpaulins to fend off the sleet, and some were able to huddle under city bridges.

Elizabeth Rodenburg, an unhoused woman in my neighborhood, wrote this on Facebook:

"I have been homeless for two months so far. I am not paying taxes right now but I have paid into the system over the years. The amount of folks in poverty who are WORKING is incredible. For folks who cannot work anymore, the poverty is astounding.

So many folks looking for a place to live, so many programs to help us that do not have nearly enough funding to help all who qualify, wait lists....well just darn depressing.

I am saddened by the sheer volume of homeless and forgotten there are out here, no family to help them, no one who loves them enough to take them in, no neighbors, no friends, no body.

It is crazy how all your friends who have homes food jobs and all disappear and drop out of your life when you become homeless, like it's catching or something, very sad. Poverty is so isolating."