Grocery Store Encounter (Part 2)
Mark was about ready to wash down his his pills with malt liquor when a stylish woman appeared in front of us. She seemed nervous. I put her at 40. A few seconds earlier, I had seen her park a nice SUV across the street, cross the sidewalk and approach the store's entrance. I assumed she was going inside to shop and then she did not.
Here she was. She apologized for interrupting our conversation but wanted to talk to Mark. She knew his name. I'd never seen the woman before.
She addressed Mark and launched into an idea. It was about the woman sitting next to him and went something like this:
Did Mark know that a shelter for homeless women down the street had recently reopened after a long delay for remodeling? Yes, Mark and I both did and said so. Maybe, the woman suggested, Mark could ask his friend if she wanted to go there. The woman knew she was in trouble and had often seen her sleeping in the neighborhood, not far from her home. (I got the feeling the woman had seen Mark in front of the grocery store with the blue blanket bundle, stopped on a whim, and was trying to help.)
She asked the name of Mark's friend. Mark said she'd given him three different ones. The woman said the shelter didn't require sobriety. Maybe Mark could call the shelter or take her there? It was going to get a lot colder in the coming months. The shelter was long-term housing, not simply an overnight facility. There were social workers on site and lockers, etc. Mark told her he didn't have a phone. The woman said his friend first needed an assessment to gain admittance to the shelter, but the fire department could make one or some other person or agency.
HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH THE ASSESSMENT. In other words, we could not take this homeless and addled and mentally ill woman to a shelter a half mile away and present her for an immediate assessment and then admittance. NO WE COULD NOT. We could probably not even get a referral for an assessment there. We probably couldn't even get her in the front door. I told the woman Mark and I had tried the system to find him housing 18 months ago and failed and what she was suggesting, namely the assessment, seemingly didn't exist in our experience. Maybe if she tracked down a Street Response Team, but weren't they on the verge of being disbanded by one of the city commissioners? Nobody knows anything about the assessment. Mark dug out a copy of The Old Crow Book Club and held it up to the woman. He told her she should really read it since it was about the very cause she was undertaking. The woman was totally incurious about it. She said she'd make some calls. I tried not to discourage her from trying, but probably did. She said goodbye and left in obvious distress. She wanted to help the homeless woman right then and there.
So many of us do. Then when we ramp up effort, energy and planning and get going, and nothing happens accept nothing.
I have written this before: why can't an official with the power to make assessments on the spot start doing this around Portland, and perhaps look elsewhere besides downtown. If this homeless woman had an assessment, I feel almost certain Mark could convince her to try the shelter. He knows she's not going to make it much longer.
I fear the same for my friend.