Invaluable Incompletion
Lately we have been having a good number of incomplete routes throughout our week. It is always our goal every week to see each of these areas outreached to. Consistency is a big deal to us at the R.O.C., but inconsistencies do happen.
There are several reasons why a route doesn’t get done. There are still roughly only about 6 of us who are available to do outreach each of the 4 days a week that we go out. So anytime one or two of us unexpectedly has to be out of work, this can lead to incomplete routes. We also all work for different agencies, and at times those agencies have us doing other duties as assigned during outreach hours. We have to go to trainings. We have to go to random meetings or sometimes conferences. We have to check on other camps in other areas that are receiving complaints or are being made to leave. If there are fires, floods, chemical spills, overdoses, or deaths at or near encampments that we are aware of, they take priority over our preset daily schedule. At times we have to track down clients that are in other areas before they are discharged from the housing programs they have been referred to. We do a lot of transporting of clients to the hospital, Homeless Healthcare, McKamey, their new apartments, and substance abuse programs.
While these different circumstances can lead to incomplete outreach routes and many people going unvisited, invaluable work is still completed. It is in these circumstances where we often get to spend more time with our clients. They get to tell us their stories. We get to ask them more questions about themselves.
While transporting one individual and their dog to and from McKamey, it is learned that they used to be a painter for over 40 years. Every summer they would travel from Florida to Chattanooga to stay with their mother, who owned and operated a 20-room bed and breakfast. They would spend all summer painting and helping renovate the rooms. The client’s relationship with their mom was always toxic. Their mother convinced them to give up their apartment in Florida and move to Chattanooga to live with their mother full time after their mother had gotten too old to continue to operate the bed and breakfast. After arriving back in Chattanooga with nothing but a suitcase and two trunks, the client’s mother drove the client directly to the local homeless shelter and refused to let them live with her. Out of all the possessions the client gave up when she moved, she misses her sewing machine the most. She used to love to sew, and her grandmother was the one who taught her how. She knows that she has earned the reputation as a “drunk” in this community, but she doesn’t see herself that way. She isn’t a drunk. She likes to drink and feels she has a right to do that after working for over 40 years. Her unfair and unwanted reputation, she feels, has led to her being discriminated against by local service providers in the past and in the present. It is difficult for her to know who to trust on the streets where she is currently living, and she pointed out individuals as we were driving who had stolen from them. A few nights ago they awoke to being swept downstream by the water that had fallen from the storms that night. She ended up getting caught under a chain-link fence and had to be rescued and cut out and away from the fence by law enforcement. They recently had an apartment but gave it up in hopes of moving back to Florida to live with their boyfriend. On the night before their bus to Florida would arrive, they were robbed and left with no way of purchasing the ticket needed to go. Now her boyfriend has had a medical condition that has led them to living in an assisted living facility. So now they could no longer live with them if they were to make it to Florida. The client’s dog is their best friend and their biggest blessing. She is amazed at how smart their dog is and how they have been there with her through everything. She was very emotional and thankful for the services that McKamey and the R.O.C. gave them that day. It was an hour and a half well spent!
These moments spent with clients go a long way in deepening our relationships and understanding of what it is truly like to experience homelessness. While other plans may have to be cancelled or delayed, the gravity of what can be and is established amongst our incompletions is truly invaluable!
#ROCAndRoll
#ROCRetrospective
#InvauluableIncompletions
