There are really three stories here.
The first story is the news story, and it focuses on the bare bones issues of affordable housing and homelessness in the Richmond region. It's not sexy, and most of the drama associated with it is genuinely depressing. But it's an important story, and one that only gains in importance as the economy continues to slide. (Find out more about it at Homeward.)
The second story is both more human and more optimistic, though it has traces of critique in it. It focuses its attention on simple human kindness, and how people extending themselves to help each other -- even in the smallest of ways -- is a warm, powerful gesture. It is also an important story, and obviously a timeless one, because it reminds us that we are our brother's keeper, and our sister's keeper, and that it is through our generosity that our community is strengthened.
The third story is basically about three white, middle-class people spending a day trying to look at the world through the experiences of three struggling veterans. That's primarily the focus of this post.
After eating breakfast this morning -- eggs, grits, untoasted bread and a bite of pastry -- I became "George", a disabled veteran staying in a transitional housing room on East Grace Street. My companions were "Keith" and "Lee", also veterans with disabilities and housing challenges of their own.
Before becoming George, Keith and Lee, we were breakfast guests at the Conrad Center and the Freedom House, and preparing for a day designed to raise our awareness of the issue of homelessness. The day-long simulation was part of Affordable Housing Awareness Week, and involved 21 people taking on a variety of roles and tacking a variety of tasks related to the challenges of being homeless.
My partners "Keith" and "Lee" were really Barrett and Helen. Barrett works for the Virginia Home Builders Association of Virginia, and Helen works for Housing Opportunities Made Equal. We headed out this morning equipped with a few props (crutches for Barrett, whose role was a veteran with a prosthetic leg; goggles to simulate my vision impairment; a garbage bag filled with clothes), a bus ticket (one, one-way ticket) each and $15 cash between us.
We were dropped off at the Greyhound bus station on North Boulevard around 9:00 in the morning. Our instructions? A visit to McGuire VA Medical Center near Southside Plaza; a stop by the Social Security Administration; a jaunt west to the Department of Rehabilitative Services near Regency Square mall; and a tour of HomeAgain men's shelter on East Grace Street.
Easy peasy. Go south, go central, go west. And do it on in 7 hours on $15.
Obviously, the Greyhound station would have a clear, easy-to-understand map of the GRTC bus system to help newcomers to Richmond quickly find their way around town. Or, obviously not.
We decided to head downtown, assuming we could track down the bus to take us to our first stop -- McGuire. Because cab fare, one-way, was $19.50.
But first we had to wait 20 minutes for a bus. The driver was extremely helpful, and told us we'd need to catch the #62 and where to pick it up. While waiting downtown, a real veteran made sure we got the right bus, and then let us know where to go once we got to McGuire. We chatted on the walk from the bus to the V.A. building with another veteran from Yorktown.
While at the VA, one man in line turned to Barrett and me and said, "You guys are fast. I just left you on Broad Street." It turns out he was on the bus with us from the Greyhound station. And apparently, three white people on a city bus stand out.
From McGuire, we headed back into the city to join 240 other people for lunch at St. Paul's, which feeds the homeless and others in need every weekday.
Barrett had to leave us for part of the day to take care of some work, so Helen and I grabbed our lunch tickets at St. Paul's and trekked up Grace Street to HomeAgain. We got a great tour of the facility from the director, and then one of the residents introduced himself and said he was on the bus with us from McGuire. Standing out, indeed.
The woman at HomeAgain helped us figure out the best way to get to the Rehab center near Regency -- it involved almost two hours of time on a bus -- and we headed back to St. Paul's for lunch.
After lunch, Helen and I were joined by one of Richmond's friendly, neighborhood reporters from a publication that is not the Times-Dispatch. We caught another bus to the Social Security Administration offices on West Cary Street. (Guess where our money was going?) Barrett rendevoused with us there.
It became pretty clear as the afternoon went on that getting out to Regency and back before the 4:00 deadline was not going to happen, so we made our way back to the Conrad Center for the debrief.
In the end, a few things were clear.
First, the fact that I woke up in a warm bed with my wife and came home to dinner with my family made it hard to fully put myself in "George's" shoes entirely. It was a gorgeous day, I was traveling with interesting people, and we didn't actually have to wait in line for services.
Second, people are generally nice. Everyone we met -- average people on the bus, folks dealing with homelessness, and service providers -- went out of their way to be helpful. Most of them had no idea we were anything but three people on the streets.
Most importantly, the experience reinforced an awareness of just how difficult it must be to deal with any number of problems -- being a veteran seeking care; being homeless; dealing with a disability; having to rely on the bus system to get around time.
In real life, "George" and his friends would have to choose between making a doctor's appointment at the V.A. and making lunch at St. Paul's. They would have arrived at the bus station from Hampton Roads with no idea where the V.A. was or how to get there.
Nothing about the systems we encountered made our experience easier. It was, as always, the people who made things better.
