Seattle with a tour guide, rocks. Just sayin’. :)
Kathy, Richard (the tour guide I mentioned from Everett) and I went off on our own to Seattle many times. I remembered from being there before that the homeless often hung out in a little park across from Seattle’s Pike Market, so that’s where we headed.
I had purchased a new back pack in San Francisco, so we packed it up with snacks, water and Bibles and took off up the hill to the park. We saw many homeless, so I started talking to them and praying with a couple. (So funny how medical marijuana is openly smoked everywhere! I guess everyone has a medical problem . . . ha ha ha!)
I always pray over places before I go to them and ask for protection from God because I don’t ever know what kind of darkness I’m walking into. Got to say it was dark and I left there shortly….with a buzz. Just kidding. We did leave though when we weren’t received anymore. Glad we had Richard along. Kinda cool when God knows when to send someone with you.
We then went to Seattle Gospel Rescue Mission. We’d been trying to get ahold of them for over two weeks. Seems it’s like that a lot of the time. You send out inquiries, call, leave messages and wait. When you finally get a real voice on the phone they say they never got your emails or calls. This is one of those. So…I always just pray to God to open the doors for the ones He wants us to be in, and when He opens, boy is it awesome!
You know me, I’m still going to try, so when we got there I went in to see if there was anything we could do for them. It was pretty rough there I will say, but my friend Richard stood back, kept his eyes on me to be sure I was OK. When he made sure I was OK, he’d run back to the car to be sure Kathy was OK even though she was locked in, then he’d run back to where I was. My friend, Richard, said to me “You’re one brave woman! You’re surrounded by God’s angels.”
I spoke to several people. They had chapel that night but there was no time to arrange for me to speak. We also needed to get Richard back to Everett Rescue Mission before 8. I spoke to some guys on the street outside the mission too and then we left.
We got a call from a homeless guy we had met in Los Angeles. He was in Seattle hoping to work with a friend, but it didn’t work out so he called me. I picked him up and took him to the Everett Rescue Mission where he worked with us on the line at dinner that night. He told us about a woman named Carey he knew from the internet, and arranged for us to all meet as she had a good story.
Carey is a single mom, living in her van with her 9 year old daughter. She is an activist for the homeless and needy on the streets. She lost her job, her apartment, and had some pretty significant health issues, all which took her to the street.
Carey is well-educated and even writes for the Huffington Post about homelessness in her area. She writes about the barriers to social services for people having hard times and are almost homeless, which eventually leads to their homelessness. She also has an incredible blog that she uses to make people aware of the needs of homeless.
She has seen, first hand, the impact of a bad economy. Not everyone on the streets is mentally ill or has an addiction. Some got there through health issues, losing jobs, etc. She said there are just not enough shelters to handle the needs of Americans on street. There are just too many gaps in services available.
Since her time on the streets, Carey has come to know the homeless populations, lots of vets and disabled people on streets, every day seeing people that have lost their homes and are living in their cars.
Carey has become a counselor of sorts for the homeless on the streets, showing them how to get qualified for help. She gets the homeless to help other homeless. They keep each other safe.
She teaches them how to stand up against harassment and how to be their own advocate. She reaches out to local leaders in the community sharing problems and opening their eyes to how they can help people in need.
She told me this is the advice she gives other homeless people:
“Be a good listener. Use your time to help others that will keep you from going into your own depression. Don’t rely on anything but yourself. Everything takes time on the streets so don’t wait until the last minute to seek help ."
I learned a lot from Carey.
- Did you know that many homeless and working poor suffer from malnutrition even if they go to food banks? (Because they are getting starch, sugar and salt.) They don’t all give out healthy food. She works with neighborhoods to grow vegetables for the needy. “Fresh produce for the needy.”
- Many people that are homeless have jobs but don’t make enough to get out of their homelessness. They are the working poor. It keeps them going around in the same cycle because they can’t get ahead.
- You don’t always qualify for social services even if you are homeless.
- Quality of Life Ordinances are targeted against homeless people so they like to keep a low profile. A lot of homeless camp together for safety issues and to help each other out. It becomes a community.
- The homeless youth cannot get any help because they are underage and can’t sign themselves up for any benefits. They are treated totally different from adult homeless. No food from the food bank until you’re 18. Older ones get food and bring it back to the younger ones. They share.
Carey's parting words for you are this:
“Don’t judge. You don’t know the situation or how somebody got there. It’s easy to blame the poor for being poor, but if you’re not there with them 24/7 and really know how they got there and the help they really need, then you don't know their story. Don't assume you do. A lot of people don’t have coping skills and make bad decisions. This doesn’t mean they are bad people, they have just made some bad choices.”
Good words, Carey.
-Sammie
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