It's (Not) Always Sunny in Las Cruces

(In fact sometimes it's cloudy and frigid with chances of snow)

I write this post finding that I have reached the point of my volunteer year when I am thinking more about the future than the present. While my time down here in Las Cruces has been educational and my job has been eye opening I am ready to move on to something else. As Red, one of the homeless clients, would say I have “itchy feet”.

As to what I will do when August rolls around I am not yet sure. For now I will probably move home and find a job, start saving up some cash (something that is very hard to do when you are working on a volunteer stipend)

We recently had some cold weather down here. The week before there were record highs being set and only days later record lows. It seems to be that New Mexico as a whole is sorely unprepared for such weather with rolling black outs being held to conserve energy as well as the government and schools remaining shut down for three days. I made the discovery during all of this that I must live in an area where there is cold and regular snow in the winter. The beauty of fresh snow on the ground is something that can’t be surpassed for me and the sharp bite of frozen air when stepping outside makes me feel alive.

Work at the Community of Hope continues to be an up and down adventure. There are days where I am rushing back and forth, trying to juggle several tasks of completely different nature; while on other days I find that really all I have to do is organize books and research homelessness online. I am continuing to see the severe highs and lows of people in the clients I work with.

Examples.


Low:
One of the homeless has been drinking mouthwash for years to get drunk. Bottles and bottles of it every day. Last week I was afraid would be his last as he lay there barely conscious. He has been to the hospital so many times that many of the staff there recognize him. He has an expressed desire to die and he is working on a slow and painful death for himself.


High:
When all my NMSU volunteers achieved their necessary hours for class and left all at the same time I quickly found that my job had become working full time at the front desk. A couple of weeks of this ensued before we finally placed one of our homeless guys up there. It’s not something we usually do but this guy was perfect for it. He camped out every night until he got sick and started staying in the Gospel Rescue Mission across the street to fight it off. He was at the front desk basically working 40 hour work weeks for no pay. I was beginning to feel bad for him since he was working the desk so much he had no time to volunteer for our paying weekly jobs like janitorial duties. Yesterday this man finally was paid back for all of his hard work. He submitted his resume to be considered for a position in one of our transitional housing units, as a resident manager. At lunch time our director informed him that he now has a new job and a new place to live. I was overjoyed at the news, as were other employees. I could tell he was happy but true to himself he only allowed himself a little smile and a polite thank you.

Everyday is something new. New faces and problems, new defeats and victories, new personal outlook and growth.

If I haven’t lost your attention yet I am shocked you do not have better things to do.

On a closing note the city of Las Cruces this week did the annual Homeless Point in Time Count. Community of Hope was a key player putting the count to work. What we were trying to find out is where people were staying on the night of January 30th. With this data we can have a better picture of what numbers we need to be able to serve and can use the data for requesting grants. An intern and I went out driving around looking for potential and reported hotspots for homeless camp sites. What resulted was 3 hours of driving around, looking in bushes, and awkwardly asking people at truck stops if they were homeless.

We found no one. Because it is cold outside. The coldness is rare here and was just unfortunate timing for our survey. On the plus side we were able to survey some people that rarely leave their campsites but had come to MVCH to get warm. On the downside is the fact that this is a national survey to determine home much money will go towards homeless services. The timing of it, in the dead of winter for much of the country, seems ridiculous and a move likely made to get smaller numbers. Smaller numbers means less money the federal government has to shell out to solve the homeless problem.

But of course, we don’t have a homeless problem, do we?



A client with his newly adopted kitten, "Scooby". While the client's nickname was previously "Slow N' Easy" he now prefers to go by "Shaggy".