Day - 160 Homelessrob and the Tampa Times

I was pretty happy when the reporter for the Tampa Times said that she had "found" my blog. LOL, that means to me that this little world of mine is becoming more mainstream.

We spent the day together doing interviews and driving around looking for a a female, homeless, vet. Apparently that is a hard find. No one could find a female, homeless, vet. I know they exist. I've seen them. So they did the interview with me and some of my friends about my life. We also talked to some homeless people. I showed them where I lived, and where some homeless people hang out at shelters, and other kinds of resources. So, I did my best with it and I hope it helped them. If they choose to do a story with what I gave them I hope it causes change on the homeless issue here in Tampa.

I hope!

I did learn a few things along the process of this interview.

We were talking to someone, and at one point this person said something like "homelessness is in the mind, its not a bad economy, its something in the brain". I actually know the person who said this I and I have a fair amount of respect for her. This person does understand homelessness. However, for this topic I must disagree.

In order to have "homelessness in your brain" (or the "homeless glitch" as I had a feeling my friend was trying to say), you have to first know what homelessness is in the first place.

For me it was the economy. Pure, plain, and simple. Again, I went from making 23.51 an hour to 9.00 an hour, to shortly after that - nothing. My trade (manufacturing) died. Along with construction, along with teaching, along with many other things. I (like a lot of people in these trades) had never experienced homelessness until it just happened. Heck, I did not even know what it was. I certainly never thought it would happen to me. I can believe homelessness is in one's brain (It sure is in my brain) but let's not try to assume that one becomes homeless because they were born with a mental need or want to live a life on the streets. People become homeless for many different reasons. Loss of jobs is one of them.

At another point in the day I heard two different homeless people mention where they stand on the same issue. One homeless man mentioned that finding resources to obtain an I.D. was simple and easy for him here in Tampa.On the other hand, another man mentioned that obtaining his I.D., here in Tampa, was impossible. For me, I think of my Lance experiences and how hard it was for Lance. Lance had no I.D. at all and that was a HUGE problem. I had to wounder if the first man actually had at least one form of I.D. to start with. Listening to these two men was great for me. It reminded me that even as homeless people live in the very same homeless world, at the same time, we do not. Our personal struggles are almost always the same. However, in that struggle we often find different results and have different out comes (as in life). In the same notion, what works for one homeless person might not work for another.

At another point in the day I tried to explain what I am actually trying to do here with this blog. Like always, my thoughts were scattered and I kind of had a hard time explaining. However, it did remind me to remind you of what I'm doing here and what the reason is for this blog.

Reason for this blog:
To entertain you with a story. That's is it! It is not to educate you about the homeless issue, I'm not fit for that. This blog is simply a story. A person trying to get from point A to Z, and happens to start off homeless. I talk about homelessness because it is a part of my story, a huge part. For now though, this blog is simply here to entertain you, my reader.

If you read this blog and you are not entertained by now, then I did not do my job!

I do want to thank the Tampa Times for taking an interest in me, no matter what comes out of it. I learned a few things along our road trip.  My offer is always open for them. Whatever I can do to help.



If you like my blog please visit and like my new Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/HelpfulMarketer?ref=hl
and see the cool things I'm doing now!