“Did you notice how cold it was? Glad to be inside on a night like that.”
There are a lot of homeless people (WAIT! Please don’t stop reading, we need you to hear us!) living out here in the cold, where you will only dash outside to take out the trash.
- On a cold night (36 F.) we are sleeping inside a refrigerator.
- On a very cold night (32 F. or below) we are sleeping inside a freezer.
How would you feel if you opened your refrigerator or freezer door and you saw a miniature camp with us in tiny sleeping bags (or less) inside? This is how we live.
What about rain? In the winter, when it warms up 10 or 20 or 30 degrees, into the 40s, 50s or 60s, it often rains. Imagine you step into your cold shower and you are dodging the spray until the hot water comes on ― but it doesn’t, and you can’t dodge it. You are wet and cold, soaked through to the skin. Now imagine it is the cold rain outside. Sure we try to sleep under something: a bridge, a tree, an overhang. But the rain is there, all around, over, under, and on us. And it doesn’t go away in the course of a 4-minute shower, or even a half-hour shower. It is there all night.
We need your help.
Please donate to Valley Churches United. They help me and people like me “to keep body and soul together” while we try every day to get a home. For some of us, after a while, we aren’t even trying to get a home, we are just trying to get to the next day. Valley Churches is there for us through all of it.
“What about the shelter?” you ask. For all of us who are homeless and not in the shelter, (an estimated # in Santa Cruz county) that is not an option. I am a short, 54 year-old woman, the height of a 5th grader. How many 5th graders are you going to send to the shelter by themselves? Many of us cannot tolerate the drugs, alcohol, and fear of the shelter. It truly is not better than being on the street, (or for the lucky ones, in a car).
The funny thing is that I know now that a lot of the people at the shelter are like me: they only want to get help and get back on their feet. But it only takes one bad apple to trash or end my life. It’s not worth it.
Good news!
I’m one of the lucky ones. Last week I found a home. Now I am able to trade cooking and housework, etc. for a room.
But there is still a refrigerator and freezer and cold shower full of homeless people out here. Please help.
You can donate money to Valley Churches United :
- Money is the best because they know what to buy with the money, how to use it where it is most beneficial.
- If you have access to discount goods (that would cost less than VC would have to pay for them), good. You might call VC first to ask what they need most.
- If you can just afford a bag or a can of food, please do.
Please give what you can. We’re in your refrigerator and freezer and cold shower, waiting for you to notice us.
Denise Schultz, until recently homeless, has just found a place to stay, after moving 49 times in the last year. Please remember that many homeless people are not addicts, alcoholics, or thieves! Many are homeless because of health and financial problems, not lack of character, ethics, or effort.
I originally wrote this article from my experience in Santa Cruz County. Please donate to local organizations in your area. If you can, it will help us all, not just the homeless, because we are truly all in this together.
