5:30 a.m. I woke up and collected my things. It was a brisk morning when I walked outside. I drove to work.
7:00 a.m. the Outreach team arrives at the shelter. After packing up supplies and food the Outreach team embarks into the street at
8:15 am. The outreach team first stops by the fruit market and engages with Uriel. The Outreach team provides Uriel with food cosmetics and socks.While the Outreach team was driving Roger and Deana, who we met the day before in the woods near the highway, texted on the Outreach phone and accused the Outreach team of calling the cops on them. The cops had come and made them move their tent. I texted them and let them know that at no time did we ever disclose their location to the police. I explained to Roger the services we provide are medical care, drug treatment, IDs, clothes, food, shelter, and help accessing local resources. I told Roger that we are here to help and we provide valuable services. If he doesn’t trust us he can always text us and meet us somewhere and get the things that he needs. Roger agreed to text us anytime he needed services and was grateful that I explained to him that we did not disclose his location to police and that we’re there to help.
At 9:00 a.m. The Outreach team stopped on West Street where we saw Gio and James and we provided them with food, drinks, socks, cosmetics, and we celebrated James’s birthday. Very rarely do I give people on the street money. I gave James 5 bucks today because it’s his birthday. Something in my heart directed me to do this kind gesture. They did not want any other services from us at this time so we moved on.
At 9:30 a.m. we went back to the shelter where Jose, an outreach worker I know from another shelter organization, donated 25 backpacks with supplies in them like cosmetics, socks, and hats. 10:00 a.m. Outreach team drove around the streets looking to see if there were any homeless people outside. The streets were relatively empty today.
10:30 a.m. the Outreach team decided to check out a new area in West Lawrence at the Mermaid laundromat next to the market basket. There we found Hollis and Shepard who took food, drinks, backpacks and cosmetics from us. They did not want any other services or did not want to give us their last name. The Outreach team stopped by McDonald’s, and there they met with Tiffany, and Sonia who would not give her last name. We gave Tiffany food and a resource guide. I offered Tiffany treatment but she said that her grandfather would be bringing her on friday.At
11:45 the Outreach team came back to the office so that we could do a virtual team meeting with the admins of the homeless database software system. I had a lot of questions about coordinated entry which is the intake process into the state’s rapid rehousing system. The rest of the day was spent working on paperwork and the assistant director helped me figure out how to add pictures to our clients files in the homeless database.
3:00 p.m. I finished up my work day, I drove towards Lowell, and I parked near the Merrimack River. I hung out in my car till about 7:30 p.m. I did some work catching up on writing blogs. I was also watching Karen Read’s case intently. All the news organizations were reporting that Trooper Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, was now being investigated by internal affairs for the Massachusetts State Police for his corruption.
7:30 p.m. I drove to my girlfriend’s apartment. She had gotten out of work late tonight. I took my tools with me, which I keep in my little car. I had two projects to do. Install a shower head, and install her TV on the wall. It wasn’t until about 11:00 p.m. that I was done with both projects. I took a shower, and her and I settled in for the night.