Vendor Writing

The Missing Piece

BY VICKY B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I remember doing puzzles with my mom growing up. The dining room table generally had a puzzle in progress during the week but, had to be finished by the weekend for family gatherings and having company over for dinners. When there was a missing piece, it prevented us from finishing it and it was put back in the box, still a missing piece.

I’ve been discovering that the end of homelessness has a missing piece: education. Not educating the public, but educating those going into housing. For decades, people experiencing homelessness sometimes finally get into housing, but are just dropped off and that’s the end. We expect homeless people to figure things out for themselves when essentially we’ve been left out of the world for so long playing catch up is near impossible without help.

Someone once said to me, “Give them a pole, but teach them how to fish.” We’re starting to increase what we have in the bucket of affordable housing, but we haven’t taught people how to be successful in housing. Most people think dropping someone into housing solves the problem, but in reality that’s just the beginning. Life skills must be taught and made mandatory.

You can't just set up someone's cell phone, you must teach them how to use it. You can't just show someone how to check their email, you must teach them how to use a computer. We need to be taught how to figure out what we want instead of what’s given to us. We need to get out of the “hustle” and get into living. We’ve been given this enormous gift of housing, but too many aren’t successful. But they’re in housing so we figure it’s a success when it’s not fully. The missing piece must be the teaching. We’ve been out of society for the most part for way too long and we need to be retaught.

Recently on a local news program MDHA was showing the viewers the missing piece. They had in-house programs that taught these important life skills that are taken for granted. This makes housing a success. When we have a budget to live by, we have finally taken control of our lives. Isn’t that the real goal? To make sure those who have been living on the streets and in missions feel like successful human beings again? When we know before the 5th of the month that we can’t make our rent and start making a plan to get the money. It’s called living again. It’s not survival mode. It’s even been suggested in small circles that it be made mandatory as part of the yearly recertification process. I’ve seen many residents that are still doing “the hustle” to make it every day. They aren’t growing. They are staying stagnant in homelessness even while in housing. In order to break this cycle, we must have true wrap around services in the follow up. In order to make housing a success we must have true wrap around services instead of letting the back half hang out. People have been reaching out to me and I’m so flattered by this, knowing I’m thinking like most. Now it’s time to create the housing success.

Amtrak Train Rides from Kissimee, Fla., to Burlington, Iowa

BY LESLIE S., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

It was a Wednesday night in Kissimmee, Fla. I found myself waiting for a Northbound Amtrak train. I was on the way to Burlington, Iowa. I used to live in Waterloo, and Denver, Iowa. I was taking a vacation to see relatives back in Iowa. When Amtrak arrived I boarded the train. I had a meal earlier that afternoon. I also packed snacks for the trip. We were on CSX tracks. We occasionally saw freight trains.

I was riding in a coach and also went on an observation cart. It was a three day journey. We were on the way to Washington, D.C. to change trains there. The next afternoon we arrived in Washington D.C. I decided to take a walk. I had on a white Iowa Hawkeyes T-shirt. I was walking by the engine. The engineer saw my Hawkeyes shirt and he looked down the train and asked me to come up to the cab. Of course I said yes! It was a newer, expensive engine. It had a lot of dials on the dash and control handles. I was amazed. For five minutes I stood staring at the dash of the engine.

We were laying over for a short break to refuel engines. That was highlight of the trip. Minutes later I got off the engine. No one had seen me up there. We were on a train to Chicago, Ill. Where I caught a passenger train to Burlington Iowa. I had to get a ride to Waterloo, Iowa in Burlington. I think Saturday morning I arrived in Burlington, Iowa. This all happened in the Summer of 2010. If I never wore that Hawkeye shirt I wouldn’t have gotten to see the inside of the cab.

I Have Walked Alone

BY WILLIAM B, CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Over the years I found I don’t have to walk alone. I have found friends with The Contributor newspaper who have allowed me to walk with a better life. I’ve also found friends at Room In The Inn who have helped me walk a better life. I’ve also found friends in my church family that have helped me walk a wonderful better life.

The reason why I’m walking a better life is because I had to change my life. That change was getting off of drugs. It will be 15 years on May 18. I feel like if I can do it, hopefully other people can do it. I ain’t gonna say just because I done it, they can do it because that would be wrong. I don’t know they’re going through, I know what I was going through.

My 15 years is not as hard as I thought it would be because I found out I can do more amazing things than I ever dreamed. I’m a writer as you can see. I’m a little bit of a storyteller because I know a lot of things from my past that I could tell you about. For instance, my tattoo story from a few issues ago was very interesting. If you haven’t read it yet, find me and I’ve got a copy. I’ve got other stories from the past five years in The Contributor about my life.

I’m fixing to come up on a very important spinal surgery on March 30 of this year. I feel like the Lord is not ready for me to come to him yet. I figure this surgery is going to help me get my life in even a better, better way. Because I love doing what I’m doing with The Contributor The Contributor has really made a big difference in my life.

I’ve met really wonderful people from all over the United States and some from other countries. I had a lady who came and let me bless a spoon for her. I’ve got it on video. Someone told her to get a spoon blessed by me. She came down from Australia and asked me if I could bless her spoon. Right on Broadway. That’s just one of the things that has happened to me out there.

The Contributor has really helped a lot of people. There are some people who have done even better than me, and that makes me so proud to be a contributor vendor and to know people like that.

I’m going to say to everybody out there if you haven’t read The Contributor or don’t know about The Contributor come and ask us questions. We can tell you more about Nashville than you’ll ever dreamed of. And we can also tell you what life with The Contributor has done for us.

God Bless you all. And thank you very much for reading.

The Longest Day: Eternity

BY SHORTY R., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I guess you all read The Last Ride The longest day is but to come, sit down and buckle up if you're ready, it's coming sooner than you think. From experience, I've seen that light at the end of the tunnel hasn't went out yet. I (and we) have a purpose to do here.

So, we shall do the best we can and we shall travel together on this "longest day" called eternity.