UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

by Kenneth Gregory

        2100 Lakeside is to those looking in from the outside a Homeless Shelter for Men to be a warehoused.  A place where the disenfranchised citizens sit in wait on government funded programs, provided by well-earned tax dollars. Yet for those lucky souls able to have the experience of residing in such a place for whatever the case may be, it provides an alternate route of escape for those unfortunate enough that they have left to endure surviving day to day in the cruelest of elements.

          If we were to step deep inside the heart of most who enter these doors, empty their pockets as they pass through the metal detectors and take advantage of the emergency shelter away from the coldest of winter weather, it would reach out and wrench our emotions unbearably until it affects us on a personal level we rarely allow it to enter our thoughts, of the lived placed on wait, until further notice!

          Take a quick second to close your eyes and imagine if you would, yourself being one of the many homeless men or woman you pass on your daily journey to work.  Holding a cup asking for change, even at the worst point digging in a garbage can for something to satisfy your rumbling stomach, only to find a few morsels of chicken teriyaki or a half-eaten bagel to fill your need, and desire of hunger.  Now ask yourself would you prefer a life of rummaging through trash bins or 2100, and oasis of such to those broken down by circumstances is beyond our control, waiting to start life anew.  Instead of viewing this as a homeless shelter for men to be warehoused, how it would be a blessing for those disenfranchised, suffer-smeared souls, until further notice!

Copyright Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless and the Street Chronicle published April 2011 Cleveland, Ohio