By Charles Springer
In June 1996 I had just come back two months after burying my father who died of cancer. I was allowed to go to Chicago from the city-funded shelter Turning Point with the stipulation that when I arrived back I would start the program all over again. I had landed a job, was almost three years clean and sober, going to Alcoholic Anonymous meetings on a daily basis, attending church every week and saving my money.
But I was heavily grieving my father’s death. He was always my secret hero. He went from an alcoholic cop to a man who had almost 20 years of sobriety, had a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice and two masters degrees in psychology. He lectured at U.C. Circle Campus and was a substitute teacher in my old grammar school. He was working on his certificate for family abuse counseling. All this and a sergeant in the Chicago Police Department. Yes he was my secret hero, even though we bumped heads many times.
I was asked to leave the shelter for not reporting my chores four times in the two months since I had been back. I had saved nearly $1,000, which was spent in a matter of weeks on hotels as I was only given the weekend to find another place to live. This basically sent me into a downward spiral on the streets, which has lasted for almost seven years now.
Imagine, if you will, this happening to you. I ask especially to those who seem to enjoy pointing out the anti-social behavior of some of us who are homeless. Would you be anti-social after this? Would you trust the agencies whose jobs it is to help the homeless? What would you do if this suddenly happened to you?
There are those of us out here who let this negative impact on our lives fuel our positive actions. For me it was part of the reason I started attending college. I had to show these agencies that they had made a mistake and should have worked with me in my time of grieving. They should have seen that anything I was going through was not from drugs, alcohol or severe mental illness. This happened in the winter semester of 1997-1998 and since then, I have been showing the homeless agencies that putting me on the street was a mistake.
Now in 2003, I am a columnist for this paper and though I have taken the semester off due to burn out, I still go to school. I also work for a program on the Third Street Promenade moving vending carts for daily pay.
This program and programs like it within the farmers markets are a very important part of the homeless community. They provide help for those who want to work, as well as help some of us to re-learn the most basic work skill of all: “To suit up and show up” as the Alcoholic Anonymous community puts it. These programs also help to build self-esteem, self-confidence, self-worth and help the surrounding communities so we are not in your pockets.
In the cart pushing program, we work for specific carts and make $6 to $10 per cart a day. But since the influx of homeless on the street, this program, like the others in this city, are bogged down. This is how I know the agencies are bogged down by the increasing numbers of people landing on the streets.
I feel that other programs like this and the farmers market program should be mimicked throughout the city. Representatives from the city, police and fire departments, hospitals, religious and spiritual organizations, the business community, community organizations, homeless agencies and organizations, and leaders within the homeless community must come together in a summit to discuss implementation of programs like this. They also need to bridge the gap between the community and the homeless population. I am hoping since that this is a progressive city, the proposed summit be taken seriously and the aforementioned communities and organizations respond to this request from the homeless population. Only through working together can we solve any of the problems facing the general population of this city and how we as homeless can fit in without causing problems on both ends of the street, so to speak. (Charles Springer is a freelance writer and artist and a homeless resident of the city of Santa Monica. He).
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 17, 2003. Read the original PDF.