Thanksgiving Day

Hello, Because we were not with family this year, we volunteered to help serve the meal at the homeless overflow shelter. I handed out napkins and silverware (plastic type). Leroy was handing out bottled water or sodas of several varieties for choices. Water was not very popular. Many of the people looked younger than I expected. Is that because I am getting older or because there really are a lot of homeless young people? Will they ever manage to get beyond this? Then I wonder what are the best ways to help them? Part of that is not knowing what they really need. We spoke some with the woman who is managing the place. She believes that there will be more homeless because of the shortage of affordable housing. This facility holds 70 men and 30 women, no children. There is another place that accommodates families. As the cold weather comes rooms will fill. The count is that there are about 300 homeless in the city. When we moved here the housing search was a struggle. Brian had told us what we should not pay above because of the amount of money that Leroy would be earning. I did not yet have a job. I can say that options were limited and many of the places were in poor condition. How do families manage? At that point Leroy was making twice the minimum wage. And some feel that they should not raise the wage level. Even twice that is barely enough. It seems that the goal is to keep people poor and dependent. What does this have to do with Thanksgiving? Not sure, but I am thankful that I have enough money and time to share with others. I missed being with family, but it is good to see others. The youngish guy we ate lunch with was quite well spoken, who knows why he is where he is. The two guys at our table talked about the library being closed tomorrow. I know that many go there to be warm during the day. The woman who ran this place said that she looked out earlier in the day and saw someone pick something up off the ground and eat it. Paula