I woke up at the church around 6:30 a.m. I slept in a little later. It was light out. I walked down the side of the church where a parking garage is and took a leak against the wall. I then walked back up to my stuff and took my time packing up all my sleeping gear. There were still a couple other men sleeping on the granite benches at the church as well. I quietly put everything together and began walking my bike down the street.
I ended up riding my bike with my hiking back on my back most of the way to Planet fitness. I locked up the bulk of my sleeping gear which is the larger part of my hiking pack and I unzipped the smaller backpack to carry with me. I spent about 20 minutes charging my phones at Planet fitness and then I went over to St Francis house for breakfast.
I arrived at St Francis house just after 7:30 a.m. Everybody was sitting and eating breakfast. There was a movie playing on the TV. I didn’t know which movie it was.
When I was finished eating breakfast I went back over to downtown crossing to hang out for a bit. I always noticed a lot of these watchtower or other religious people giving out pamphlets and all kinds of other stuff to people passing by. What I find interesting is there’s always homeless people all around and they don’t take time to engage with them. The question that arises in my mind is, “wasn’t it Jesus’ mission to lift up the afflicted and suffering?” I firmly believe it is the goal a lot of these religious groups, not all, there are quite a few altruistic ones, to bring in new members and essentially sell their ideology to expand their reach. If they truly cared about other human beings they’d spend more time with the people that need the most care. I put a post on Facebook that I will share below 👇
When I’m in the city I see all kinds of religious people, with their stands and their tables giving out pamphlets, trying to convince you of their ideology, while there’s homeless people all around them. I have an idea, instead of selling your religion, why don’t you live it!? Why not go around talking to people that really need a good conversation, lift them up, sit with them, eat with them, live with them…..
That’s one of the biggest problems in this country: everybody’s trying to sell you something. We even sell charity in this country.
When I crunched the numbers of money spent on homelessness compared to the amount of homeless people in Massachusetts it came out to almost $80,000 per homeless person a year. That’s a low ball #. That’s enough money to house every homeless person in the state.
At around 9:00 a.m. I rode my bike to Atkinson Street. The famous Mass and Cass Ground zero for addiction as well as its symptom homelessness. When I arrived there the street had been cleaned up. It had been cleaned up quite a while ago. I saw quite a few homeless people and addicts congregating in pockets or standing alone.
I met a couple on Atkinson Street named Dylan and Lexie. They were in the process of using Fentanyl. Dylan was an intravenous user Lexi was not. Instead Lexi just squirted a mixture of fentanyl and water into our mouth. They told me they’d been homeless out in Boston for about 2 years. I asked him if they wanted to do an interview and I took their number. I even told them I’d give them 20 bucks each. They said they would reach out to me.
Since I didn’t want to travel too far in case Lexi and Dylan reach out to me for an interview I decided to travel over to StepRox recovery center in Roxbury. Well I was walking down the street with my bike near Mass & Cass there were a couple of young hoodlum looking gentlemen in front of me. One of the guys was talking and I was your hustling. He said he could get fingers of fentanyl, which is 10 g of fentanyl, for $90. I found this interesting. That’s actually really cheap. Back in 2006 when I started using heroin I was paying between $600 and $800 a finger. And that was a good deal. Not only is fentanyl an effective opiate, it’s cheap. While I was walking my bike I received a text from Lexi that her and Dylan did want to do an interview.
After walking a ways I took to riding my bike towards StepRox. I love the recovery centers as you all know. My plan was to just hang out and charge my phones. I hope to see Nathaniel who I met up with last year there as well. I was also hoping to see Loretta who manages the center.
When I arrived at StepRox there were four African American women sitting down for a morning affirmation meeting. One of the women was virtual. They invited me to sit with them and I could not refuse. It was a great meeting and we had a discussion on making commitments in our lives. Since I’ve been struggling so much with my relationship with my girlfriend it really hit home. I want the relationship to work, but it is so much of a struggle. These women talked about some of their struggles in recovery and in life. I spoke my piece about my relationship and they supported me. I was really happy to have walked into this meeting at the right time.
After the meeting I hung out at StepRox charging my phone. Nathaniel arrived and it was good to see him. He seemed to be doing well and was planning on going back to school. I said hi to Loretta and she seemed good. It was almost lunch time and I was starting to get hungry.
I stopped at a Spanish bodega down the street and I got some Spanish food there. There were two options: either a $13 plate or a $15 plate. I told him I would spend the extra two bucks. I received a huge meal of rice and chicken, pork, and beans. Surprisingly more than I could possibly eat. I ate what I could and I saved the rest. I figured I could just give the food to Dylan and Lexi when we did the interview.
Lexie texted me while I was eating and told me to meet them at Andrew Station.
I rode over to Andrew station and I met with Lexi and Dylan. I gave them the food which they were happy to have and we sat down and did an interview. What I found interesting was that Lexi and Dylan, despite having addiction issues, were really nice people. They should not be in the street. Nobody should live in the street! That is unless they are more comfortable there. I gave them both 20 bucks for the interview.
After the interview I rode my bike back to Planet fitness and picked up the rest of my gear. I decided that I would spend the night with my girlfriend. I took the train to Lowell and I met her at her apartment where I spent the night.
People have asked me where Homeless People go to the Bathroom. Usually at a library, porta potty, Dunks, in the woods, behind a dumpster…. But sometimes it’s in the street
