As you reglaur readers know, I've been blogging about my experience with homelessness and the steps I've taken to regain my position in society. It's basically a recap of what's been going on over the past month. Right here I'm going to do a quick jump to the present to let you know mu current state of affairs. I've enrolled in the Salvation Army Vocational Program for the past two weeks.
The program is designed to help homeless people learn new, marketable skills to enable them to rejoin the workforce and become loyal taxpayers. As I've been finding out, this program tends to be more oriented towards not only homeless by revovering substance abusers and ex-cons ... a whole lot of the latter. I don't mind telling you it makes me feel intimidated, especially since many of these guys are jacked to the max and could break me like a breadstick.
At any rate, I'm in a 4-man dorm and must admit I'm feeling better about my situation. SA does deliver on their promises of providing free bed and board and 3 hot meals a day (they really are filling, but vegetarians would be hard pressed to find something to eat). Overall, the participants and caseworkers have been friendly and helpful, even letting me get new (used) clothing from the SA thrift store via voucher, and helping me get an EBT card. They also pass out a weekly gratuity, which is admirable. (My very first Food Stamps ... a proud day in the history of the Morrises. Well, at least I waited until I was over a half-century old before I jumped on the government teat.)
There are some drawbacks: The caseworkers are far outnumbered by their clients, meaning a lot of mix-ups, missed appointments, and short tempers from both parties. There's a recreation room in the dorm building and they allow guys to watch football all day on Sunday. Usually you can't hear it for all the racket created by other people partying in the lobby. When I brought up this concern at a meeting the caseworker pretty much shot me down saying the noise was just a byproduct of communal living.
Since she pretty much gave the perpetrators a license for loudness, I saw there was no need to press the matter. Sometimes even when you know you're in the right it's wrong to say so. I likely didn't make any fans during that meeting, though. An old black dude near my table said (in my direction) "Tha's right coummnal. Don't like it, take your little ass somewhere else, big-mouth motherf****. Shee-it ..." Obviously an Ivy League man. But maybe he had a point. Why should I waste time complaining about the TV when I have far more pressing matters to attend to?
So, that's a brief update as to my progreess. More of my past travials and present challenges coming up! Stay tuned ...
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