.:Yeah, I'm Back Kids

A while ago I decided to back off this blog. Close it out. Whatever. Life changes, people change, and there's a whole new thing out there. We could all just lean back in our leather office chairs while sipping Mocha Lattes and think it's fine.

But it's not.

Getting out of homelessness is just one step down the path. Keeping out of the cycle is another. The greatest problem I've seen over the last four years is the high percentage of people returning to the streets, the shelters, the soup kitchens, and the traps their minds continually to become ensnared in.

And it sucks. Granted at times I write with a big ego...it was one of the reasons I chose to close the blog entries since I thought it would hamper my attempts to improve 'the system' for the recipients.

But I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Homelessness isn't the issue. Alcohol isn't the issue, or drugs.

It's about the mind and the need for mental health at the root, and it's something I've not seen anyone having the balls to name the demon publicly. This used to infuriate me. At times I saw it as a double standard, professionals telling me one thing behind closed doors acknowledging the problem while keeping their mouths shut in front of the camera.

That's when it hit me. It's not their job to be heard. They can't do their job if they out the system, since they can always be removed.

But me...I'm not in the system. I'm outside it. I am it. I see it every day when I speak to those still within it. I smell it when I realize someone hasn't had a bath in a week I'm speaking to. I hear it when their stomachs churn and body exudes odors of malnutrition.

When I became a Director for the Emergency Services & Homeless Coalition of Jacksonville, Inc., I thought my hands would be tied...of not being able to speak my mind...or heart. Again, I was wrong.

People are still sleeping outside. People are still using drugs to escape demons inside. People are still using peers for their own purposes of feeding those demons even. But do I have an answer to this nightmare others wouldn't talk about?

No, unfortunately. For millenia people have experienced homelessness. The problem isn't about homes...it's about people...it's about survival...it's about what's inside.

A home isn't. A soul and heart is. Get to the heart of the soul, and you might find the cure to one person's homeless cycle.

One new home at a time.