Category: Uncategorized

One of our wonderful volunteers told me the other day about a young woman she saw on TV who had invented a coat that be turned into a sleeping bag at night. Veronika Scott initially came up with this idea for a project during her junior year of college for her design activism class.

This is such a wonderful idea. There are many homeless individuals who prefer sleeping on the streets for safety, privacy, or mental health related issues. All of them need warmth. Many of them would probably prefer not to carry around extra bedding everywhere they went.

Ms. Scott now runs a non-proft, The Empowerment Plan, which trains and pays recently homeless women to make these coats. You can read more about her and her invention here.

Last Tuesday, ER Nurse Jessica Cook came to the Center and gave a presentation on foot care and trench foot, a disorder not uncommon to homeless people.  She stressed the importance of letting one’s feet breathe and changing into dry socks after spending time in the elements. Afterwards, Jessica check blood pressure and glucose levels for those who wanted the service. Jessica plans on coming back often to provide health talks and basic health screenings.

Last Wednesday, MPD officers Antonial Atkins and Roberto Corchado came to talk about personal safety, public awareness, and working together with all segments of the community to reduce street crimes.

I once overheard someone on M Street in Georgetown remarking to her friend, “Georgetown would be so much prettier without all these bums on the street. Why can’t they just go somewhere else?”

This comment, while infuriating, is also an understandable one. After all, if it’s out of your backyard, it becomes someone else’s problem, right? (FALSE!)

That is how some NYC residents near Lexington Ave and 125th Street feel about their neighborhood where there is a bus stop that connects to Wards Island, “which is home to four large homeless shelters for single men, with a total population of over 1,000 people.” (source) Residents have written to MTA to try and move the bus stop several blocks away, even though the current bus stop is connected to three subway lines and three other bus lines.

Shipping the homeless elsewhere and passing laws that make being homeless difficult does not actually address the problem of homelessness. Instead of trying to cover up the problem or passing it on to someone else, we should strive to tackle it head on and address the real root of the issue.

What do so many of our friends on the street have in common? As we get to understand the population and with the help of our psychiatrist, Ron Koshes, we are realizing that autism is much more common within the homeless population.  Here is a very interesting story from NPR about Autism.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/06/04/154175007/whats-different-about-the-brains-of-people-with-autism?sc=tw

For the past two weeks, we had a volunteer make sandwiches for us. Every day, she would come in at 2pm, pass out sandwiches, and stay for an hour to chat with our members.

Our members are sad to hear that her busy schedule won’t allow her to come in anymore with any regularity. They appreciated her sandwiches and her time so much that our members got together on their own and made her a card.

They came into the office asking for markers or colored pencils, but all we had were a few highlighters and permanent markers. Using these few supplies, they took turns outlining and coloring, using the blue and yellow highlighters to color in green lettuce. The artists walked around and asked everyone to sign it. It was such an awesome sight.

We have some great members here. They appreciate all of our sandwich donors, but especially love those who take the time to personally hand them out and hang out for a few minutes. If you have some time, drop by and say hello!