Sleeping in someone else’s shoes

A night spent sleeping out in the cold can be an eye-opening experience.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” said Barnstable County Commissioner Mary LeClair, one of 18 people who marked National Homeless Person’s Memorial Day and the first day of winter by staying out on the street and sleeping in tents that night on the lawn of the Federated Church in Hyannis.
“The biggest thing I learned was how slow times goes by when you’re homeless. I would look at my watch and it was 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and it took forever to be 3,” Le Clair said.
Barnstable County Commissioner Bill Doherty, who also spent the night out, downplayed his own participation other than to say he did it to bring attention to the issue. As a result of that attention, he and others were witness to an extraordinary act of kindness.
“While we were out there, we were talking about how some of the reports in the papers said we were sending out the wrong message, inviting people to come from off-Cape. Well three people did come from off-Cape. A mother and two kids drove for 2 1/2 hours and brought 20 gallons of chicken soup,” Doherty said. “One kid, a sixth-grader, bought the ingredients for the soup out of his own money, made the soup and then they packed it up and brought it down here, warmed it up in the [church] kitchen, and went home.”

Perspectives on a problem
A gathering in front of the Federated Church last Thursday brought together homeless advocates and those who have struggled or continue to struggle with homelessness. Some shared their stories in public, speaking out in support of those still on the street. Others watched from the sidelines, lending their support through their presence.
“I had to be here, ‘cause I’ve been in the homeless shoes, waking up in the woods on Christmas morning,” said Richard McBride, 45, better known as Cowboy, who credits Pilot House, a shelter for those recovering from substance abuse, for giving him back his life.
The daylong commemoration included a candlelight vigil on the Hyannis Village Green in remembrance of the 11 homeless people who died on Cape Cod this year. It was a statistic all too real to some, including Mary Beth Phelan, who is now living at Pilot House after spending two winters out in the woods. She made a public plea for more beds for those with no place to go.
“There are still too many people sleeping out in the woods,” Phelan said, “There are too many of us who died. I don’t want to be one of them.”
Billy Bishop, a crusty 63 year old whose alcoholism caused him to be homeless for most of 13 years, praised those people, agencies and organizations that have rescued so many from the streets, but also asked those gathered by the church, “Why do we take our animals off the street, yet there are humans on the street? They need help like these animals,” Bishop said. “If they don’t [get help], they’ll die.”
Helping people come in from the cold is just the first step. Keeping them from slipping back can be more difficult. Tom, who spent five years living in the woods near the West End rotary until his campsite was discovered, now has a roof over his head. But with rent and medical expenses eating up all but $100 of his monthly income, he clings precariously to his newfound home and wonders where he’ll go next should he lose his home once again.
Homelessness is a new experience for April Fallen, 17. She and her boyfriend Frankie Tarr, 20, have been homeless since they returned from Virginia a few weeks ago after visiting Fallen’s dying grandmother. Fallen said a relative was supposed to have housing arranged for them when they returned to the Cape, but when they got back there was nothing. Tarr, who has been homeless on and off for four years, said his Tourette syndrome prevents him from working, making it difficult for them to scrape together the money for a room. The two have found temporary shelter with the Common Ground commune. But since the group requires that each live in separate buildings, they are hoping to find someplace where they can be together.
No one can say for certain how many people are homeless on the Cape. In February, an annual “point in time” homeless count conducted by the Leadership Council to End Homelessness on Cape Cod and the Islands determined that there were at least 1,165 adults and children on Cape Cod without a home of their own.
LeClair said that while sleeping outdoors gave her some sense of what homelessness is like, it was going home that brought it all home for her.
“I came home and I took a hot shower, I dressed for work and I thought to myself, ‘They’re not taking a hot shower right now, they’re not warming oatmeal for breakfast. They’re not doing the things that I’m doing,’” LeClair said. “I can’t imagine having to do that for a whole year every day.”