The Homeless In Boulder

I am an extremely lucky person.  I have a roof over my head, and I pay my rent on the third day of each month without fail to be certain it stays that way.  There are a large number of homeless people in Boulder, and the City Council, during it's Winter Retreat, said that dealing with the homeless in Boulder was a needed item on the agenda.  The Council members then went on to state that there had to be a division of the homeless between those, who through no one fault of their own, became homeless, and those who "chose to be homeless."  That has caused a big uproar in Boulder.  One woman wrote a very irate letter to the editor of the local newspaper stating that "no one chooses to be homeless."  I have to disagree with her.
  My husband and I were part of the people who number among "the homeless" for several months.  I had to choose between paying his medical bills, so he would continue to receive treatment (and live), or to make the house payment.  I paid his medical bills.  The house was foreclosed, and we lived out of our Dodge Caravan for several months, until my husband's ex-wife took us into her home.  (Talk about a Saint of a woman - Susan Devine, you are one!) I continued to work and save, and we were able to rent our own place eventually.  It was an extremely emotional and very upsetting time for all of us.  But we were lucky: I kept my job, continued to work, and, thanks to Sue, we were able to save enough money to move out on our own again.
   Now, my husband has been dead for 10 years.  I live in Boulder, where the cost of living is much higher than most towns, other than the ski resort towns.  Boulder is very welcoming, even though the predominantly white population seems unusual to me. Last year, the city budgeted $1.2 million, or 51 %, of the $2.2 million Human Services Fund to help the homeless.  Programs which share the money are the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, the Boulder Outreach for Homeless Overflow, the Community Food Share, the Bridge House, Medical Respite, Attention Homes, and the Emergency Family Assistance Association.  There are multiple religious houses working for, and with, the homeless; and there are several work programs in place for those who want to work.  There are places to go for assistance, places to sleep, places to eat a good meal, places to receive free clothing and shoes, and places to make a plan (with counseling) on how to get your life back together and move on.  There are normally between 900 and 1,000 homeless people seeking a place to sleep each night in Boulder - about 9.2 percent of our year-round population.  People who study the homeless say that's "an average percentage of the population throughout the state of Colorado."
  In the last eight years, I usually ride the bus from point A to point B in Boulder.  I am usually rather scruffily dressed, as I'm headed out to walk and play with dogs, and I know I'm going to get dirty.  In other words, I'm usually wearing sneakers, jeans or shorts, and a T-shirt.  One of the bus routes I normally use goes to and from the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless - and, in the summer, I'm usually too hot to talk, so I listen to the other passengers.  If you spend the night at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, you are fed breakfast in the morning, and given a bus pass; you have to leave the shelter during the day.  It is amazing to sit quietly and listen to the homeless talk.  Some bewail their fate and are unhappy that someone isn't doing enough to help them - about half of the folks I see and hear.  The other half are folks who really do "choose to be homeless."  The men and women discuss which cities and states have the best free programs.  We have a string of pan-handlers who have specific places where they have "the right" to beg, and they have appointed shifts.  If you're a newcomer, and appear in someone else's territory, you get beaten and/or robbed.
   It's really eye-opening to sit and listen to people compare the free programs between Seattle, Portland, Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, D. C.,  Raleigh, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Denver.  I know some homeless people who drift with the weather - going where they can stay warm, or cool - and then, too, I know of several people who want to "test themselves" and see if they can stay outside year-round here in Boulder.  One man I know has a portable hammock that he carries, along with an electric blanket - he uses photo-voltaic mats to power his battery, so that he sleeps warm at night.
  So I have to disagree with the woman who states that "no one chooses to be homeless."  I'd guess that about 30 percent of the homeless in Boulder are "homeless" from choice.  They can pick up $250 in a couple hours of pan-handling at the corner of Broadway and Canyon - so they can eat, drink, and get high.  Why work?  Why pay rent? The good people of the city (and county) are going to pay for their bed, part of their board, and part of their transportation....   I asked one man, who had been a construction worker, if he could get a job and settle down, would he?  The man laughed at me and said, "Get a life, b****...."
   I feel that those who want to get their lives back together, who want help, and want to again be a person with a fixed  address should have that chance.  But, I must admit that a lot of the people I see as "spongers" leave me cold - I'd love to get the pan-handlers out of town for good.