Blanketed

A single data point in a massive problem.

The Seattle area has, all things considered, fairly pleasant weather. While there are exceptions (the heat dome a few years back being one), the summer and the winter don't come across as homicidal, the way they do in some other places that I've lived in or visited.

Be that as it may, being homeless still sucks; especially now that the rainy season is settling in. This can make it difficult to be homeless, simply due to the difficulty in staying dry. A moving pad may be better than nothing, but it's not a proper blanket (let alone a sleeping bag), which, as it turns out, can be hard to find in this particular area of the Seattle suburbs. The drug store the man was resting near didn't have any, neither did the pet store nearby. The grocery store a bit down the block was a longshot that didn't pay off, either. One thing that I've noticed recently is that buildings being remodeled are losing there awnings and overhangs. I'd like to think that it's not for the express purpose of making those locations less useful for the homeless, but I'm too cynical to actually believe it.

I don't know if there are any shelters nearby, but knowing how the stereotypical suburbanite tends too regard the homeless, I would have been very surprised to learn their was. So I settled for checking to make sure that the man was okay, and giving him a bit of cash with which to buy some food, and going on my way. I don't know if that actually did anything for him... I can't image what.

And maybe that's the problem with homelessness. Even when the problem is as small as the one person looking to sleep on the sidewalk, it can come across as insurmountable in the moment.