This morning I got to school and checked my emails. One email subject caught my eye...something about Homeless Resources. Upon opening the email I learned that this email was from a homeless person who had come across my Homelessness Blog while doing a search on "blogging + homeless". Morgan (his name) proceeded to share a number of homeless resources, his circumstance and his interest the Eleanor Rigby Project. He blew all my homeless assumptions out of the water as he proceeded to eloquently share bits and pieces of his experience on the street. When my students arrived later in the morning, we all sat there captivated as I read the email from a man who had spent the better part of the past thirty years on the street. Morgan quickly answered the question that was in all our minds:

"How on earth does a homeless person manage to, not only email, but help manage a Blogging space called the "Homeless Blogs Webring"?"

This is what Morgan said:


"...Just in case you might wonder how a person living homeless may have online access, especially late in the evening when I e-mailed you initially, all of my online access comes by way of public access computers or the online computers of friends and allies."

Morgan made homelessness almost sound "normal"...certainly after thirty years, it must seem normal to him:

"As you already know of course, there are many different versions of homelessness and it is definitely experienced differently depending on where and how one lives, especially for those in more rural regions. While I remain homeless (being that I do not have a place of my own which I very much want and am in dire need of) for the last three years while I've been homeless this time around (I have been homeless off and on for thirty years now), I have not had to sleep outside as I usually always have some place of last resort to be inside. It may be a couch or on a floor somewhere or otherwise by using most of my limited income for about 7 to 10 days per month in a motel when it can be afforded and is available. It means I am always going from place to place and sometimes on very short notice.

Anyway, one of the places I stay and sleep on a couch, has a public access computer and I use it in the evening, especially when I either have lots of online work to do or just cannot sleep. At least I am inside anyway. I do not stay at homeless shelters at all anymore (since

1991) and it is not because of drinking or drugging either, as I do neither. In fact I always behaved well. However homeless shelters are not a home and they are not safe or conducive to good health, etc. In my opinion homeless shelters are part of the problem, not the solution. Plus, except for being given a bed sometimes when one is available, they did little to help me move on from being homeless and some of those who either work or volunteer in such places seem to blame us for the circumstances we find ourselves in. Such attitudes and treatment does not help us one bit. Among other things, we need real housing that is safe, decent, accessible, available and affordable. Oops, sorry, do not mean to carry on like that, but those are some of my observations on the subject for what it is worth. Thank you for doing what you are. Good work Brenda."

My students and I sat there looking at each other, taken-a-back by the writing we had just heard. Right in the middle of our "study" of homelessness a voice from the field had emerged unexpectedly. The theory had suddenly turned into something starkly real. They asked me if they could send him some questions, questions about his statement on shelters, questions about why after thirty years he's still on the street and questions about how he learned about Blogging. Everyone marveled at his writing skills...he was obviously not a drop out. I told the students I'd ask him... and that for security reasons all correspondence would have to go through me.

Morgan was game to answer the students' questions. He provided links to other homeless people we could question as well (from his homeless Webring http://homelessblogs-webring.blogspot.com/ ). He had some other interesting suggestions:

"However as their experiences may have been different, along with their perspectives of them, you may want to have the students consider posing their questions in a different manner than they pose questions to me (as the questions to me pertain to a certain context), and using their own words and style of course: [this is not intended to coach the students either, but these are the usual questions and hopefully they are phrased in open enough ways to provoke open answers and not defensive reactions from someone who may be asked these such questions]
e.g: Have you ever been homeless? How long have you been homeless? How many times? Are you living homeless now? How did you become homeless and why? Have you ever stayed in homeless shelters? If so, what have your experiences of staying in shelters been? Has homeless shelters and other homeless service providers been helpful or harmful in your opinion? Why? Have you ever lived literally on the street? If so, for how long, where and what was the experience like for you? What do you believe needs to happen to end homelessness? ...

Of course it should also be clearly understood that none of us represent others who are homeless, just as very person is different, homelessness can be experienced very differently by different people, though there are generally common experiences shared by most if not all people who live or have lived homeless."