Thinking time

The shelter sites will close before long.  Then what will I do?  Where will I go?  I am still trying to figure it out.  I am a little scared.  I’ve had problems in the past with other homeless people following me and watching me in the night.  I got paranoid last summer because of it and over-stressed.  To learn that an alcoholic homeless guy followed me “home” to my outdoor sleeping place for the purpose of watching me sleep because he liked me!  I can’t live like that again being scared that someone is watching and following me!  Plus my physical health issues aren’t helped by sleeping outside.  Why can’t I find a job as a house-sitter or live-in something?  I am not mentally prepared to be able to live outside again.  Yet any housing program I try, they don’t like my psych history and that I ‘m not on meds and refuse to accept me.  Though if they did accept me, I would be able to see a psychiatrist who they refer to and be able to start meds right away.  All these places want me already on psych drugs.  How do I get the psych drugs when I can’t get any psychiatrist willing to see me because I have no money, and no organization will accept me as a patient because I don’t have a “residence”?!  What the heck am I supposed to do?!  Keep looking.  Its about all I can do.  Its depressing.  Reject after reject.  I want a place to live, I want psych care, I want my physical health issues taken care of, I want to go to school and have a job.  I want to have a life.

Hi, all

I haven’t been online as much so please forgive my lack of posting.  I am so far behind!  I have several hundred emails to get through now.  Please be patient.  I was able to get a few more items added to My Wish List at Amazon.  Please take a look, and if you can, I appreciate any help you can offer!  I am not set on the items listed, so if you see something better or cheaper, please feel free to substitute.  Thank you! 

Finding help

I love being able to help people!  It honestly even helps me to help myself.  One project I plan to work on is to develop a list and database of resources.  This will include not just organizations that help the homeless and low-income, but services also.  Things like health care and auto service are needed.  Office supplies for job interviews and planning calendars for building a structured life.  I will go forward to places to ask for their help–if they will consider helping the homeless by offering discounts, or even donating.  I already got a free eye exam with all services included and eyeglasses for 20 homeless people!  It felt great to arrange that!!!  But now I want more–I want to build a bigger foundation for help and resources.  This will take time, especially since I have no income or transportation to meet managers of businesses face-to-face.  Email will help, but I figure in person is the best way to approach.

Please, if you know someone in any service area who may be willing to help by offering discounts to the homeless, either unlimited or a limited number or schedule, a one-time-only arrangement, or anything, please email me at padschicago@aol.com.  I greatly appreciate the help!  Thank you!

New links, and an update on me

Hi, all!  FYI, I just added several new links to my site–check them out!

I realize that I have been quiet lately.  I’ve been sick from health issues with irregular heartbeats and bad kidneys,  tired and moody and neglecting my duties.  Life isn’t easy.  I admit that I have mental health issues, like many of us.  I haven’t found any person or place willing to take me for treatment either, either because I have no money to pay or because of some idiotic reason, like because I don’t have a residence.  So much for taking charity cases.  I’ve been given just as dumb or even worse excuses for being denied housing too–such as my favorite, “its too far to move” (HELLO?!  I am *HOMELESS*!).

I am so tired of living like this!  With my health issues, mental and physical–it’s very hard to put up with everything.  I try.  I use the internet and friends like you and others to get me through.  I get tired and irritated of having the same problems and little to no help.  I will admit that some days I would love to end it all.  But, thank God, I am afraid to.  I respect non-believers, but for me, I do have religious faith and it honestly is keeping me alive when I feel that all else has failed.  Faith keeps me going on.  There is better yet to come.  I need to believe that.

Experiencing homelessness

In Edmonton, Canada university students will live as the homeless for 5 days for a fundraiser for the Youth Emergency Shelter.  They will live outside, not have normal access to food or shower, will always carry all of their things with them, including sleeping bag and more, and must still attend all classes and do homework.

And at Mount Olive United Methodist Church in Indiana teens raised money for a trip to Honduras by living homeless for 30 hours.  They lived in makeshift cardboard shelters, without any modern technology, and without food.

In both places, everyone learns how hard it is to be homeless.  They understand how things can be taken for granted.  They experience firsthand only some of the problems we encounter every day.

I hope to see  more fundraisers such as these.  They can help to raise awareness of our situation and discourage the stigma we often face.  Understanding comes from experience.  With understanding, comes compassion.  With compassion, comes hope.

Let’s get cooking!

There is a shelter I go to that has THE BEST food!  This one certain volunteer there–his cooking skills are out of this world!!  Someday  if I get rich, I am going to hire this man to be my personal chef!  I have been telling this shelter that they need to make a cookbook for us so when we get out of homelessness we can cook like them.  Well, I just found an article from a Scotland news that an organization has done just that!  Scottish Churches Housing Action will distribute cookbooks to people who are moving in to a new home after being homeless.  It is a great idea and thing to do–why don’t organizations here do this?  I would love to see it happen!

How many of us are out there?!

I want to know how many homeless people in the Chicago area have a blog?  How many nationally have a blog?  I really want to know!  If you are homeless and have a blog, please share the link with me!  I will link to every homeless person’s blog on my page so please send me the link.  I want to see how many of us are out there that I can link to, how fast can my links grow! C’mon, I know you are out there!  Quit lurking and talk to me!  LOL  

Homeless TV

I need to share a great site with you–its called “Invisible People TV“.  Its a blog of videos of a guy interviewing and recording homeless people.  It really displays a powerful message that we as homeless people wish others understood.  I encourage you to watch the videos and share the link!

If you have any videos or other things that you can share with me, I’d love to see what else is out there–please send them to me at padschicago@aol.com!

Great day!

The weather is a little wet, but hey, this is Chicagoland.  The temperature is at least warmer.  And everything else about today is just great! I can’t complain!  I plan to meet with a guy from Cross and Crown Church on the 21st to talk about several things.  The National Coalition for the Homeless has agreed to network with my site–so that’s more good news!  I plan to do some advertising soon and pass out flyers for my site.  For now I am counting on YOU for word of mouth and links in your emails to your friends!  Please pass on word of Pads Chicago and tell everyone that they are more than welcome to voice their opinions on homelessness issues in the forums! Thanks!  Have the bestest of days, people! 

Sorry about the website downtime

Sorry if you tried to acess the Pads Chicago website and you got a directory listing instead.  Somehow the server actually lost the index page sometime overnight!  I don’t know how it happened, but thank goodness I keep a backup of every page!  I re-uploaded it and everything should be fine once again.  Should anyone come across any problems, however, please email me.