Home?
By M. Hannington
Their names are Pinky (she likes to dye her hair pink) and Pointy (his winter hat is so tall I wonder if the hair underneath matches).
I see them around all the time, but we have never really interacted. So I have given them names.
Closer to home, there is Chris, who is bi-polar and can’t always get his meds. White and blonde, he says the others sometimes tease him as he waits in a parking lot for day jobs. There is Brother Michael, not quite right, but functional and he comes and goes, but sometimes does yard work for me.
They are all the victims of another recession at another time when many of the states mental institutions were closed. They survive on the odd job, return money from bottles found and the handout.
They have for years.
From 1987 until the mid-90’s I had a regular bottle man. He would come and collect my returns once a week. An alcoholic, he lived with family and in and out of shelters for most of his adult life. I'll never forget the paper-like feel of his hands and the scars that he said came from sleeping outside.
Clean for many months, he was finally able to, with a relative, get a home of his own. I never saw a happier man.
He died shortly afterwards.
You wouldn’t have known that he was only 58 years old.
In downtown Detroit the panhandlers are different now.
They introduce themselves and shake your hand. They tell you their stories. The overused "I'm just trying to get bus fare home.", is a thing of the past. I'm curious if this is because they are so new to the game, the politeness? Or is there a sense that we are more connected.
All of us in the same boat…
On a recent trip to the Detroit river front, Red Sox Steve and I ran across half a dozen men fishing for Walleye, which is in season from March until June. Many of them are elderly and in scooters having been dropped off for the day by family or perhaps navigated the long dirt path to the river on their own.
Owen Park looks more neglected than usual, it is only half mowed and in the place of the oil drums painted kelly green that serve as trash cans are instead piles of trash. It is typically empty on weekdays and it's a rare sight to see so many men out fishing during the work week. One wonders if this is a new way for them to put food on the table. How long can you survive on fish and unemployment? Are they destined for the streets too?
There are the lucky ones. If you can call it that.
Like the man in the wheelchair, who worked 8 Mile Road for a decade. 8 Mile has long been known as a dividing line between wealthy white suburbanites and poor urban blacks. The wheelchair was a prop, an aid to making a living. He was hit by a car that broke both his legs and his arm. He walks with a limp now, but the insurance company paid a nice fat settlement and he is living large.
My neighbor's sister. On the street with her son, unwilling to reach out to family. Now stricken with cancer and fighting to live. She has found them and a home again.
What will it be like a year from now. Ten years from now?
Where will these people call home?
Under Governor Engler's term (1991 - 2003) homelessness nearly doubled in the city of Detroit.
The Engler administration closed 10 of the state’s 15 psychiatric hospitals (more than any other state). Hundreds of mentally ill patients were turned over to understaffed support groups across the state and city of Detroit. In 2003, the 1,200 bed Northville Psychatric hospital, operating since 1950 was closed after State employees there were offered lucrative retirement packages. The sale of the land and hospital netted the state 31.5 million.
According to a 2003 article in Psychiatric News:
At the time the State reported only 6% of inmates required mental health care.
Over 75% of the U.S. homeless live in cities.
In recent times there has been a shift in those seeking shelter from single adult men to the working poor and families. 50% of the homeless have jobs, but are unable to afford housing. 23% of those sleeping in COTS emergency shelters in Detroit are children. Nationally 56% of persons from homeless families are children under ten.
MSHDA estimated 15,928 homeless persons in Detroit in 2006 with about 11% or 1,856 of those being among the chronically homeless, most of these are either mentally ill or addicts.
Current estimates by Detroit area charities now put the number of those living rough on the streets at 13,000.
On June 1st, 2009 GM filed for bankruptcy citing a debt of 172 million dollars. It is estimated that 20,000 Union workers will lose their jobs because of the filing. It remains to be seen what the real impact of the bankruptcy will have on the City of Detroit, but as of November 2010 GM began hiring in earnest.
Photos by Mary Lee Hannington ©2009
