Do You Have Friends Who Lost Housing? Odds are High You Do

The cold is like an animal here, but not just any animal. It’s a T-Rex with a mouth as wide as a cave, screaming cold into your bones until you freeze. It’s the Snow Queen, icing your heart solid while your body ices around it. The cold perches on your chest like a wolf, draining you of all defense and forcing you to shiver and hunt for the nearest blanket. 

That’s the cold we live with in the Upper Midwest.

That cold is bearable for those of us who have warm kitchens, beds and fireplaces. It might even be something you seek out if you want to spend the day skiing or snowmobiling. If you have no choice about being outside, though, it’s a very different story. As January winds grow defiantly stronger, I can’t help but think about the people who don’t have anywhere to go.

I met a woman I’ll call Sadie some years ago. She had not had a place to live for a year. Sadie stayed in shelters where she could barely sleep because of well-founded fears of her possessions being stolen. Luckily, she found a community college program that allowed her to live at a care community while she was training to be a certified nursing assistant. She was also able to stay at that community as an employee with reduced rent.

I interviewed Sadie for a newsletter at my workplace, and found her to be funny, lively, kind and unfailingly positive. Her story inspired me and I was honored to write it. Yet, a few months later, creditors from her former life descended on her and hounded her mercilessly. Sadie fled the area and I was never able to discover where she went.

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Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash