Lessons in Homelessness

Working as a night monitor with City With Dwellings taught me a lot about working with homeless people. The organization's tag line, "A Community First Initiative" drew me in and working at two different churches gave me a chance to meet many members of our community.

As the monitor, my job was to establish relationships with the guests.   I knew them by name and got to know their personalities.  I was surprised how quickly we built rapport and was also continually shocked by how quickly it could evaporate. I learned about giving and receiving forgiveness.

Below are graphics that depict the average (18.4) number of guests that stayed with me for the 25 nights I worked.  I worked from 6:30 PM to 6:30 AM on Thursdays and Sundays.   During those 12 hours I got to interact with homeless men during check-in, dinner, a smoke break, going to sleep, waking up, and departing for the day.

Any night when there were 20 guests or more was particularly challenging for managing group dynamics.  By the end of the season, working with fewer at a time seemed much more manageable, but there was still plenty of room for unexpected events.  I worked hard to maintain quiet in an effort to help the guests sleep, but an overflow homeless shelter is a menagerie of activity.

Only one guest stayed with me every night that I worked.  That means he was with me the nights in December at Redeemer Presbyterian and the 3 months at First Presbyterian.  I worked 25 nights and the average guest was with me for 4 nights.  Of the 84 guests who stayed with me almost half stayed 2 nights or less.

These numbers demonstrate the churn and turnover in guests within the overflow shelter. These numbers are a subset in two ways.    They show only 1 of 4 sites coordinated by City With Dwellings and only the nights I worked.  

The depth of relationship that the longstanding staff members have with guests is impressive.  Through the many seasons of running the overflow shelter, they have gotten to know guests who come and go.   Working with an organization that ensures no one will sleep outside in the winter was an honor and a privilege to see the depth of love demonstrated through caring relationships.   I witnessed love in action and in truth.  

Sweep?

Come join me in sweeping up cigarette butts at the transit center on Sunday, October 27 at 7:15 PM.

This volunteer effort will reduce second hand smoke residue and improve the appearance of our city. I am inviting you as a fellow citizen who cares about our community and public transportation. The transit center is not in use on Sunday evenings. Please bring any tools or broom you plan to use. I will have a broom, dust pan, rake, and trash bags.

There are many butts that are lodged in every crack and crevice. The volume of discarded butts overwhelms the regular cleaning crew's ability to sweep them all up. The more hands that volunteer to sweep the deeper the clean the transit center will receive.

Please come in a spirit of service and joy in being a part of progress within our community.

Run!

"When I seen you (gasp) I took off running. (gasp) I am too old to run like that but I didn't wanna miss you." After he catches his breath he says "I used to run-an-run as a youngster."  The passenger appeared to be in his late sixties, a tall thin African American.  He was happy to have caught the bus to town and glad I waited on him.

When people reach the bus after exerting themselves they are often smiling, reminiscing of days gone by when running was more a part of their life.   It catches me by surprise that they are actually more talkative than most passengers, so relieved to not have missed the bus.   

We have a policy that if someone is making an effort to get to the bus stop then we wait.  What this means is if you see someone running to catch the bus, be courteous and wait.   Having folks run up to the bus or to a stop is a daily occurrence.   What is fascinating is that people of all ages, genders, sizes, and builds will run to catch the bus. I get to witness passengers run, jog, shuffle, hustle and hurry to catch the bus.

Bus riders get to move more.   Studies show that compared to commuters who drive to work, bus riders get more steps.  They get to walk to the bus stop and walk to their destination.  They step up to board the bus and hop off to continue on their journey.   Daily, I revel in the movement that I get to witness.

 

Get on Board

Thursday, April 25, 2019, will be a fare-free day for the following public transportation systems in the Piedmont Region on North Carolina:

• Greensboro Transit Authority
• High Point Transit System
• Winston-Salem Transit Authority
• Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation

I am a huge fan of fare-free systems. Check out this policy brief about fare-free systems, which we wrote two years ago.   I fell in love with the fare-free systems while studying public health in Chapel Hill.  The town is vibrant with pedestrian activity and its busses are full. 

Come ride the bus, for free, on 4/25/19 and experience the benefits of public transportation!

CDL permit

To drive a bus you need a Commerical Drivers Licence (CDL) Class B with a "P" for passenger endorsement.  To get a CDL you have to pass written, medical and skill tests.  The first stop is the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to take tests for a learners permit.

Hanging around at the DMV is quite the experience. After 3 trips I became acquainted with the staff and relieved to receive the permit.  New jobs are stressful in ways we don't expect. I witnessed test anxiety and hope others find ways to clear this written hurdle.

To prepare for the written test I read the manual, took a practice test and finally discovered the app.  After my initial failure, a DMV staff asked if I had "seen the app?" which turned out to be a Godsend.   Air brakes, combination vehicles, passenger safety is all new to me; the app is a test simulator which helped me pass on my second attempt. I took a third trip to the DMV because the second visit was too close to quitting time and didn't leave enough time for the paperwork.

At my final DMV visit,  I was left wondering whether the $64 dollars required for the permit would be a barrier for potential drivers.  While joyously leaving, an acquaintance waiting in the lobby asked me for the $2 he was short to get an ID and I easily shared it with him.  It saddens me to think of how something as simple as a $13 ID can be a roadblock for many. 

The medical test must be conducted by a licensed "medical examiner" who in my case was a Nurse Practitioner (NP) at an Occupational Medicine Clinic. Medical exams are required every 24 months to renew your CDL.  Eavesdropping in the waiting room I realized it was full of truck drivers and the nurse who took my vital signs said drivers are the bulk of their business.

The young NP who conducted my exam reassured me that the red patch in my eye was probably due to strain from the race I ran the previous week.  She was not concerned about the eye, but remarked that not many of her CDL exams are with 50k runners.  I passed the medical exam with flying colors.

New drivers get 8 weeks of training to pass the skill tests. I am confident that this training will afford many more humbling failures as well as the gratification of learning new skills.