Well, they woke us up at the ARCH homeless shelter at 5:30am. By about 5:45 you have to be out of the dorm area. As I went downstairs I saw pretty much everyone just sitting in the main holding area. Like a sheep in a herd I just sat around like everyone else. I figured they would let us all out at the same time….it was still early so I wasn’t thinking, “Wait, this isn’t jail, they’re not HOLDING us.”
I eventually got up and left, it was still dark outside. I have no idea what those people are going to do all day. Probably just chill.
Anyhow I figured I can’t kill a whole Saturday doing nothing, I’d go insane, so something must be done. I started walking towards the day labor center….apparently they’ve moved, bummer. Walked back to the ARCH, found a guy with work boots strung around his neck and asked him. It was two miles away by bus and he was going there. I hopped the bus with him, got there. Turns out it was a slow day and they had no more jobs left. The guy who went with me already had a repeat job, so he went off. I waited for an hour for the bus to come back then went back to the shelter.
Ok, NOW WHAT? I went over to the public library, it doesn’t open till 10am. Oye ve.
So now I’m sitting on a bench across the street:
Me with my backpack and garbage bag with a sleeping bag and food inside of it.
Most of the other homeless people are just bumming around doing nothing. What an untapped labor force this is.