After hunkering down for over a year, limited to daily walks with my dog and masked-up rushes through the market for food, in June, when the local library opened with limited hours, I took it as a sign that the world was reopening like a flower and this was the budding.
I decided to venture out and specifically, to start going to a coffee house that was always open. I was in need of conversation and connection because it seems so many friends have disconnected. Always, as in that the owner had never closed it, never reduced hours. He had always had outdoor dining tables which was a plus. (And it turns out that he and his key employees are all anti-vaxxers and have not taken any Covid-19 vaccine.) Were they wearing masks? By the time I got there, this didn't seemed to be enforced.
Most of the other restaurants in the area did not have outdoor dining, and it took a special ordinance for this to be quickly permitted. As a matter of survival these restaurants took to putting dining areas on quickly built platforms that extended out onto the street and also somewhat protected diners from car traffic. They were shaded with umbrellas or tarp-like clothes for shade. Though not always attractive, there was talk of permanence as through much of the year outdoor dining is comfortable.
There was so much talk about which restaurants would survive and now the talk is about which restaurants have survived, usually with the help of a government grant or two. If you ask how business is they will usually say slow. They seem to be running on a small crew of employees and I imagine that waiters are not getting the tips they are used to.
There is another coffee house not far from the one I've been favoring which, just before the shut downs, had refurbished the interior and exterior. The people who go there are considered to be better than the people who go to the one I favor. I've been told this repeatedly. The place is more expensive and generally not as tolerant about people who are hanging out. It's bright and airy and has some nice art but it also has the "parklet" area for sitting outside.
The other day I took my dog with me and sat on a bench across from this coffee house as I had already spent most of my money on a not so great $5. lunch at a Mexican place, because they have a back area that is shaded and where my dog was welcome to sit under the table. A waitress from this coffee house actually came across the street and asked me why I was not sitting at their parklet! I said I was fine in the shade with my dog on the city bench and actually didn't have any money to buy coffee there. She assured me it was OK, I could sit there as long as I liked. Then I realized that the place wanted people sitting around so it looks like they are busy! (It's the oldest marketing strategy there is!) I may consider doing that at some point, as I combine my very small budget for dining out with buying groceries for cooking in and my need to get out of the house already. But after the bench I did proceed to the coffee house I favored.
One of the reasons I favor it is that they buy the beans and roast them, making them the freshest roast in town. (Most places buy already roasted beans and those can sit for months or even years.) That said, I actually don't know much about coffee. I don't especially like caffeine and it's effects on me. I do know that I don't want to drink coffee that actually has flavored oils or additives to it for flavor. The other reason I favor this coffee house is that the owner is only going to be paid in blessings for this but he is allowing several people who are living in vehicles to pretty much make it their home.
I now know the stories of some of these people. They are people who were living their lives, working and paying their way (i.e. a permit to breath) when one day something bad happened that ruined their lives and they are triumphant in daily survival since. Despite all the talk about help for the disabled or help for the homeless, there are far too many people in need of that help and so some people decide that the van life may be difficult but its an independent life and better than going to a crowded possibly diseased shelter. Sleeping alone in a vehicle may take some strategy to avoid being harassed by locals including the police, but one also avoids people they do not need in their lives. People they would meet in shelters.
The man I'll call Burt was beat up by some gang member type Neo Nazi's a few years ago. As they bashed and broke the teeth out of his mouth and cracked ribs that punctured a lung, which could have killed him, they taunted him a Nigger Lover. Burt, who is White, did have a Black girlfriend at the time. They were renting a house together. I'm not sure what happened to the relationship or when, but his injuries were enough to take him out of the workplace long enough that he lost the house rental and has not rented since. His social security income (not disability) is just enough that he is not qualified for food stamps. He maintains his vehicle, a storage unit, his food. He smokes but doesn't use alcohol or drugs. He has occasional work in the music business because he was a recording professional. He's been a vegetarian since childhood and is most often seen eating yogurt or grilled cheese, but very little. If you offer to buy him a coffee or anything else he will say, "No, I'm alright." Burt spends substantial time at an outdoor table in front of the coffee house and communicating with texts on his cell phone.
The man I'll call Blaine, had a injury as well. His stomach bears the scars of a horrific fall he experienced while working as a carpenter that took him out of the workplace. Blaine says that the owner of the coffee house let him sit in the corner for months to heal. Then hired him part time. As if in pain, Blaine seems to walk around the block quite a bit.
The man I'll call Reggie was, with his sister, caring for sick and dying parents. When both parents died, and I've heard a version of this story so often, they both eventually became homeless. Basically what happens is that the parent(s) want to die at home but debt is racked up and once they die the home has to be sold to pay that debt back or the parent's retirement income is what's been paying the rent. The children are unpaid care givers but they are not financially taken care of.
Traditionally children did take the responsibility of caring for aging or sick parents but today, sadly, it is better to let the insurance or the government send over some stranger and pay them while the children work rather than sacrifice. There are also people who would rather exploit illegal or less educated people, especially Hispanic women, by having them as unpaid caregivers in their houses. These people do not want to sell their houses and downsize to go live in a retirement community - not even an exclusive one. Why? Because they want the value of their homes to escalate, supposedly as an inheritance for their children.
Reggie's sister's episode into homelessness was brief because at the time she did qualify for some program. Reggie, however, bought a recreation vehicle and proceeded to live in it. Then came the cancer diagnosis. He's chosen to not take radiation or chemotherapy and has been in stage four seemingly for years. Reggie was spending almost all his days at the coffee house until a club he belongs to reopened. While he's wasting away, and has bouts of pain - and has a doctor prescribing pain killers - his biggest worry seems to be keeping the vehicle running, repaired, and legal.
If you are wondering about women in the same situation, well, there are one or two who are coming by there, but perhaps they are being welcomed into friend's homes more often or have found somewhere else to be.
I have a theory that women are more often helped - especially if they have children. If you call the information lines for the city or county for any reason, such as garbage pick up, you will hear a recording first that asks you if you are a woman with children who are homeless.
If a woman is an unmarried women the sad truth of it is that they are often in tremendous danger of rape and other violent crimes if they go into street homelessness. So soon enough they will choose or be chosen to be the girlfriend of someone who will take them in. There is not enough help for women who are unmarried and childless, who may have been self supporting and independent for years but who may have lost a job and be facing age or sex discrimination or who do not want to have a sexual relationship with someone as a condition of housing.
Most often a woman will be asked Where Is Your Family?
This is going to be a controversial statement but that is not an appropriate question to ask most people, especially not if they are White people.
In Los Angeles County one person in five has no one to call upon in any crisis. I have not seen the stats on race applied to his, but my guess is that these are mostly White people. The reason is that about half the population is of Hispanic, usually Catholic and Mexican, people who are first or second generation Americans and there is a cultural difference in attitude about family. These people are sticking together, but sometimes there are ten or twelve people sleeping on floors in a one bedroom apartment. Is this legal? Sometimes it is the smart thing to do to save money because the banks will loan money to several adults who are working in order to purchase a house.
I lived in a small one bedroom that was by city policy legal for up to 10 people, though I think the other 9 would have to have been stacked up because it would have been barely comfortable for two people. Basically the idea is that if everyone is working, then they won't be home enough to be made crazy by the small space and the tripping over other people as they cook, use the toilet, and sleep. Maybe you can do this with your family but strangers?
The landlords have many ways to prevent this from happening. They may have a lease that says an additional amount of money - say $500 - for each person living there must be paid. Or they may rent month to month as if the place were a motel for eternity, rather than as a trial period, and have a provision that you may only have a guest over for 10 days a year - things like that. Therefore, whenever you hear of a huge family all living in a small place and sleeping on floors, you usually assume it's a landlord who is taking cash or there is something illegal going on.
For White Americans, education, careers, and a willingness to move to whatever city holds promise for prosperity has been the reality although this basically splits the family up and makes it more difficult to have relationships. Most people have jobs not careers though, and the costs of living in Southern California are increasingly ridiculous, so it is in other parts of the country too.
As a friend of mine who comes from Guatemala says, "In my country all these people would be begging on the street." It is true and the Grace of America is that we take care of our own. Sadly, the situation has become one in which Capitalism is depending on the Government and the Government is depending on the Tax Payer, which is the People, not Big Business. When a company such as Walmart has events to teach employees how to get EBT or Section 8 apartments, you know they have no intent to pay a livable wage. You get your discounted merchandise and your taxes help support the employees.
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