Operation Do-Gooder: Update

blue skies!

I first wrote about KC - Kevin - last December, shortly after Libby died. He's homeless, but different from the other homeless guys I've met. He's sober and he reads.  Books.  Real books.

I tried to help him out by getting him a phone, but the experiment turned out to be a dud. He never did learn how to use it, and it eventually got lost, in one of his moves between shelters.

He spent much of the winter in a good place in Olathe, KS. There was a group of people there working to make a difference, and they had a temporary shelter set up in a gym while they worked on a permanent location.  Unfortunately, the permanent location fell through just as Kevin was getting his feet back under him, and back on the streets he went.

I've stayed in touch with him since he found his way back downtown in early spring. Since we started working from home last summer, I made a point to stop by the library on the days I was in the office. Sometimes, he'd not be there, but most days, I'd catch him. We'd sit and talk for thirty minutes or so each week.

It's tough to be long-term homeless. Since he's one of the old-timers, he gets shuffled to the bottom of the list a lot; shuffled right back out the door and onto the streets for the night. When this happens, and it happens regularly, he doesn't have a safe hole to retreat to and spends the night wandering the streets with his backpack and his rolling suitcase.

I haven't given up on helping him. As I've gotten to know him better, I've also gained an understanding of why getting him a phone wasn't enough; I know now why he is unable (not unwilling, unable) to make those daily phone calls.

I brought him to another of the social services agencies this past week - Catholic Charities this time. They made some calls and got him on the waiting list for one of their senior affordable housing units. (He's now old enough to qualify for those places...)

I've made a commitment to myself to make the follow up phone calls for him.  I'm going to call every few days (the plan is to call often enough to keep him on their radar screen, but not so often that I'm a pest...) to see where he is on the list. From what they said, it's a list, but a 2-3 month list, not a once-in-a-blue-moon list.

In the meantime, I've got him on the hunt for the documents he needs to get into the place once his name rises to the top. I hope he follows up.

winter is coming.
fingers crossed.