Last week I attended a meeting in Bozeman to address the continuum of care for the homeless. The meeting was held at the Bozeman Public Library which I had yet to visit since its completion at its new site on East Main Street. I pulled into the parking lot at 11:30am, which was the starting time for the meeting; this meant that by the time I parked and got into the building I'd be running a few minutes late. I really don't like to be late. My first stop in Bozeman was to swing by Bozeman Deaconess Hospital's new medical professional building, a 4 story addition to the hospital's growing campus, to pick up some colostomy bags (the wound care specialist at BDH holds on to that type of stuff and was able to provide enough supplies for a month) for one of our patients who has no income and cannot afford to purchase them. Can you even imagine needing something that essential and not having the money? FUCK. So here I am in this state of reflection on the injustice of poverty as I pull into the library parking lot. The first row of parking places are designated for handicapped use and 30 minute parking; this is a two-hour meeting so I keep driving. I start to turn into a space and the sign says 'Hybrid Vehicles Preferred' (preferred is in red letters), and I think fucking hell. I drive on and go to turn into another space which is reserved for carpoolers, fair fucking enough, but come on, how many people carpool to the fucking library in a small town? I am beside myself with irritation by the time I pull into a parking space; I am so flustered that instead of grabbing my water bottle, I grab the colostomy bags and don't even notice until I'm half way to the entrance. My irritation increases exponentially as, realizing my mistake, I trigger the alarm to my car. I do have the where-with-all to take a deep breath, turn off the alarm, and return to my car to exchange the colostomy bags for my water bottle. I arrive at the meeting about 10 minutes late, but fortunately people are still milling around, so I'm able to sign in and find a seat without the added mortification making a late entrance.
The purpose of the meeting is for all of the service providing entities in Bozeman to come together to discuss what needs exist in the community with regard to the homeless*, and how they can meet those needs without duplicating services. Since I'm from a different county my purpose is to listen and see how we might be able to capitalize on their ideas and/or share resources so that we can address the issue in Livingston and Park County as well. Bozeman/Gallatin County has more resources, but because they have grown so fast they have not had the opportunity to coordinate their resources formally. Livingston/Park County has fewer resourses, however we are still small enough to know what everybody has and does. That is not to say that we don't need to follow Bozeman's example and formalize our resource and support networks, or articulate a continuum of care, as it were. Our community is growing, and the problems facing us with regard to housing and homelessness are growing as well.
**The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines the term "homeless" or "homeless individual or homeless person" as -- (1) an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and (2) an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is: A) supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill); B) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or C) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodations for human beings.
As listed in Wikipedia, the leading causes of homelessness are:
Lack of affordable housing
Substance abuse and lack of needed services
Mental illness and lack of needed services
Domestic violence
Poverty, caused by many factors
Prison release and re-entry into society
Lack of affordable healthcare
Natural Disaster
Lack of education
So many people in our community do not have an adequate enough income to afford the housing options available. Subsidized housing is limited and primarily available to the elderly and disabled. The waiting list for a Section 8 voucher is two to three years and the number of landlords who work with HUD and Section 8 is limited. More often we see singles "couch surfing" and families forced into motels (with weekly rates that eat up any savings they might have for rent and deposit) while they try to find affordable permanent housing. It's a dire situation.
So here I am, just having arrived from picking up colostomy bags for an indigent patient on my way to a continuum of care coalition meeting for the homeless and I'm relegated to the deep end of the parking lot because I didn't car pool (and not for lack of trying, I might add) AND I don't have a fucking pussy-ass hybrid car. The Bozeman Public Library chose to get their LEED points by having designated parking spaces when they could have left a much smaller asshole footprint dry landscaping.
It's not that I don't like green or the environment. I just can't stand the hypocricy it tends to hold hands with and the disparity it engenders.
