the salvation army, caritas, and arch (austin resource centre for the homeless) are all located within few blocks radius and this morning there was a lineup today at arch (with an x-ray machine to navigate prior to entry) and at caritas (for food). a friendly guy told me arch is where folks go if they're on some form of social assistance, for access to programs (job training, counselling, that sort of thing).
in addition to monthly assistance, folks here get about $200 in food stamps. but those don't go far, my friend said, if you don't have a home, nowhere to store food, have to eat as you go at about $10 a day. apartments start about $450/500 around here - much much less than where i'm from, but expensive nonetheless if you don't have an income or you're working a minimum wage job. the folks at the coffee shop i'm in suggest minimum wage is around 7.35 or 7.50 an hour ... i guess this place pays better than that since they don't know exactly what it is.
i asked about sleeping in the park -- my street friend said no, you'd likely get moved along. besides, there are fire ants. and those people i saw hassling a guy on congress st. this morning (what's the matter with you ... got a sleep condition? on some kinda drugs?) for trying to sleep on a city bench (sleep condition? if you mean 'being tired because i'm homeless with no bed ...'), the city rangers i think they're called, apparently they have as much authority as the city police. it seems poverty is illegal here, too.
so that explains it ... the homeless folks here (and there are plenty, my friend said, though i still don't think there are as many as where i live) are moved along to their little area of town located, ironically, just off 6th street (music and party central on the weekends and, it seems, the original main street). it's the old out of sight out of mind syndrome that the capitalists love. nothing wrong with our economic system, they say. my friend has slept in the abandoned lot nearby, without hassle, but wasn't sure what might happen if he were to put up a tent. there are no signs of a tent city here yet, but poverty isn't getting any easier with the economic times and no health care etc.
i asked about shopping carts ... i haven't seen anybody pushing a shopping cart. the binners, he said, carry plastic bags full of their goods. i've only seen one binner, but i haven't spent a lot of time in back alleys.
i stood around chatting with my friend, observing things, for about 20 minutes. nobody freaked out. nobody seemed even remotely high on any substances. the people were fairly well dressed, mostly middle aged, mostly men.
the bus is $.75 one way, $1.50 for a full day pass. Though, if you want to travel very far away from the downtown, on the express buses, the price goes up by another dollar or two. And you get a pass that's good for a day. There doesn't seem to be any simple transfer system, just one way rides or a day pass.
it does get cold in austin in winter. not as cold as parts of canada, perhaps, but they do actually receive arctic air sometimes. and this heat .... even people with access to air conditioning complain about it. continually and incessantly, in fact. it's tiring, they say, and it just keeps getting hotter and drier.
something's gotta be done about it.
