Reflections from the front lines serving people who are experiencing homelessness, sitting in a multi-day extreme heat warning, testing my patience, and reminding myself of gratitude.
For locals, you know it’s been a late hit of heat this summer. For those who live elsewhere, we are facing a lengthy stretch of high temperatures with little time to cool down. The extreme heat warning issued last week keeps extending. Today the Weather channel says through Friday at 8 pm to expect “dangerously hot and humid conditions. Afternoon temperatures 107 to 113. Major heat risk.” This morning the sky was oddly cloudy, a light brown almost-fog, with a potential for a “stray shower or thunderstorm.” I don’t think we are near any wildfires, however the color and density of ‘stuff’ in the air reminds me of the effects of smoke.
For those who are unhoused and unsheltered they experience these weather effects and events dramatically. Whatever you may believe about climate change, the life-threatening dynamics are real. And the people we serve exist through them. The temperature shifts, the unhealthy air quality, the urban heat island, the wind, and occasional rain. Even after eight years of working at Key Campus, I am baffled by people’s ability to survive through the Phoenix summer. Although not everyone does make it through and knowing that weighs heavy on my heart.
The Keys to Change street outreach team counted 148 unsheltered people in the immediate area of the Campus on August 4th. This is about 100 people less than a month ago. Fingers crossed it means people are staying in heat relief respite centers. Approximately 865 people slept in three shelters on the Campus last night.
Historically the Key Campus was open from 6 or 7 am to 6 or 7-ish pm. This meant that if a person did not have a shelter bed in one of the spaces, they had to leave the property at closing time. With the extreme heat, we extended hours at the end of May to be open 5 am to 9 pm. This week we are extending to be 24/7, which will remain in effect through September 30. As we see the results of these new hours, I anticipate that 24/7 may become our stretch goal for every day of the year. We need funding sources to do that, so don’t be surprised if you see that request in upcoming communications from us!
Meanwhile, people across the country are working on applications to HUD for federal funding and awaiting a Court’s response to the lawsuit regarding HUD’s failure to follow the rules for making changes to the significant Continuum of Care program.
Through all of this, our patience is being tested by issues with IT systems. The reminders over the last week as to how easy technology has made dozens of work functions are vivid. I had flashbacks to floppy drives and transferring files from disk to desktop, desktop to disk, maybe with a flash drive. Control-Alt-Delete and Restart only go so far sometimes. I realize that I REALLY, REALLY am glad that I took typing class in high school. While I do not miss a Selectric typewriter, I am very appreciative of the ability to type at a speedy click. Good grief, now I remember college and typing, yes typing, paper after paper. Ugh… don’t miss that at all. White out/ “liquid paper”? I went through a lot of it. We are avoiding the need to revert all the way back to doing tasks on paper… for that I am grateful.
It’s the things we take for granted that when they break or don’t function, we feel it in an impatient and frustrated kind of way. And being someone who is not homeless, well then, these temporary setbacks are minor glitches.
I had the unique opportunity to tour Creighton University’s Health Sciences program today, thanks to the Virgina G. Piper Charitable Trust. Once a Fellow, always a Fellow, as they say. A current Fellow, Michael Zirulnik, is the Assistant Vice President, University Relations for Creighton. Michael graciously invited all Fellows (current and ‘always’) to visit and see the medical programs they are leading right in the middle of Central Phoenix. I treated the two-hour tour as a field trip, staying present (except for a 4-minute scan of emails) to listen, connect with Fellows, and appreciate the reprieve from “homelessness.” As several people said hello, they asked “how are you doing?” or “how is it going?” a few with eyebrows raising as if to add “with homelessness” or “with your job.” My gut reaction is to say “I am good. I am not homeless.” The answers that at times run through my mind, “I’m OK and frustrated” or “it’s hot out” or “I’m tired” do not come out of my mouth, because as I drove from 13th Avenue and Madison to Central and Thomas, to enter a beautifully designed space, full of young students, the genuine answer is “I am good. I am not homeless.” Glitches, impatience with systems, and daily frustrations fall away. I have no valid complaints.
The people, 1,000+, around me as I type in my too-cold, air-conditioned office, they are facing real challenges. Walking outside in 107 degrees on concrete that reflects a higher temperature. Sitting on pavement that may burn their skin. Some not knowing where they will safely sleep tonight. Most not knowing how long it will take to find housing they can afford, how long it will take to find a job that will pay the rent, or how long it will take to be approved for their earned Social Security income. I could go on and on.
I am good. I am grateful. Truly and deeply grateful.
We continue to learn, adapt, practice patience, focus to the goal, and work on ending individual and system-level homelessness.
Michael read a poem to start our visit at Creighton today, “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver. The closing lines are:
“I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?”
Thank you for this, Michael. It is sticking with me. For now, what I plan to do is live with health, family, friends, and the vocation of ending homelessness. Pausing to be idle, that is so important, too. Today’s field trip gave me an idle interlude of learning and connection. I am grateful.
