I woke up in the tent, early, as I have been. It was around 5:30 a.m. The nicer weather has definitely improved my mood. I worked on writing blogs. Keeping up with writing is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Days just flow by. I’ve never realized how fast time actually moves.
At around 7:30 a.m. I got my stuff together, brushed my teeth, and I drove to work.
The Outreach Team went out at 9:00 a.m. and engaged with Ricky who was panhandling on an island in the middle of a really busy street right off the highway. I did a coordinated entry into the rapid rehousing list with Ricky. We also gave him some food, drinks, some socks, and a cosmetics bag. Next we stopped and we gave Cheryl some snacks, some drinks, and socks. Cheryl refused to do a coordinated entry onto the rapid housing list. Cheryl suffers from a severe form of schizophrenia and perhaps other mental disorders. She has been homeless for many years, and when I try to offer her services she becomes paranoid, claiming that the government is out to get her.
The Outreach team drove to Andover and picked up a young kid to bring to the shelter to do an intake, his parents were leaving the country and he had nowhere to stay. The young kid decided that he did not want to stay at the shelter after seeing the bunk beds, people, and layout. The young kid got picked up and found other arrangements.
Right before 11:00 a.m. I drove with the shelter manager and we went to the food bank in Lowell and picked up drinks and food for the shelter.
When we returned back to the shelter we had lunch and then I drove with Ezekiel to Brightview MAT provider to learn about their OTP (outpatient treatment program) service. From Brightview we drove over to the encampment behind the hospital where I did a rapid rehousing referral for a homeless man that was living under a bridge.
Next I came to the shelter and finished up some paperwork.
At 4:30 I drove to the frutera parking lot to pick up a man I had been working with for a while, who had a tent set up on a picnic table in the park next to the futera. He had texted me and was ready to come stay at the shelter. So we packed up all his stuff and I took him over to his new home. The man that lived on the picnic table said that the nicer weather had brought families and children to the park, and he’s no longer felt comfortable living on the picnic table by the water.
After work I drove to my campsite and I settled in for the night.