Everybody smokes...

We've obviously NOT won the war on smoking...

“We've won the war on cigarette smoking" is a mantra among health-conscious middle- and upper-class Americans. But within the remarkable half-century public health success story of declining overall rates of smoking is a disturbing subplot: Those still puffing away are a substantially more disadvantaged group than ever before. In a 2008 Gallup poll of over 75,000 Americans, the rate of smoking among people making less than $24,000 a year was more than double that of those making $90,000 or more.

I met a nice lady the other day....

August 24 - As usual, Paula walked into the Breakfast wearing her perpetual frown. She is hard to miss, a frail, impossibly thin older lady dressed in mismatched clothes, always wearing a sad face. She is almost always alone and seems to prefer it that way. She'll usually stand away from other people when she is having a cigarette break.

When I finally got up my courage to approach her, I found her very willing to chat. Her grumpy face immediately changed into a big smile when I said "Hello." She bubbled over into an animated conversation in a deep, husky voice that suggested years of cigarettes. She has lived on the streets of  Providence "too long." She was difficult to follow, jumping from one subject to another, often in mid sentence. She mentioned her alcoholism, her bipolar struggles and years being homeless, almost in one breath. Along the way, I learned she is 66 years old. She admitted she usually avoids taking her meds. And like almost all the folks I talk with at the Sunday Friendship Breakfast, she holds out hope that someday she will finally have a place to live. 

Bus Station - Kennedy Plaza, Providence, RI

It was bitter cold at 6:50 AM last Sunday morning when I visited the bus station on Kennedy Plaza. I found many (homeless???) people seeking shelter there. It's a heartbreaking sight. So many folks need housing. Although Mr. Paolino thinks one 9 to 5 social worker is going to solve the problem of homeless folk populating the plaza, per his letter in Projo the other day, I think perhaps providing decent housing might be a better idea. And maybe a far better use of our tax dollars than paying all these expensive salaries or buying pricey out of state branding that our extravagant governor seems want to do...

Mother Nature’s cruel April Fools joke

A very tough morning at the Sunday Friendship Breakfast today with the temperature at 36 and the wind chill way down in the low teens. Thinking winter was over, many of the men and women that live their days on the street had put away, sold, or discarded their warm clothes too soon. April Fool!! It was sad to see so many folks having to struggle once again with a bitter cold Sunday on the street.

17 Cheeseburgers

17 Cheeseburgers

 

I asked the lady getting pulled out of the Sunday Friendship Breakfast door by an enormous Rottweiler, “I’ll bet he eats a lot?” The man following answered, “Yesterday Brutus ate 17 cheeseburgers at McDonalds!” That was the beginning of a heartbreaking conversation I had with Ralph and Katie yesterday morning.” Ralph announced that Brutus was a therapy dog, and that “Brutus saved my life.”. He told me he felt like he was going crazy, and had nightmares until they got Brutus 3 years ago. He said they (meaning the state? of RI???) got thedog for him, and “It cost $3000”. He said “I’d be dead with out him.It calmed me down” He said the dog was registered and Katie agreed. She quickly pulled out an official Therapy Dog Certificate and showed both sides with the dog’s registration number, and other information. She said “Brutus can go anywhere with us except the operating room.” She said that now Ralph can sleep at night, and he added, ”The dog lies right between us!” More of their story emerged as we talked. Ralph was a Vietnam vet and I told him I was, too. He was a medic (Corpsman),, as was I. We shook hands. He was stationed in Danang. Likewise! Small world. We discussed a little Vietnam vets talk, and I’m sure he was there. However, he missed the Tet Offensive, January 30, 1968, arriving a year later. We shook hands again. It sounded like he had a bad experience in Vietnam and after he got out of the service. (Maybe PTSD????) He told me he was working on getting his discharge changed to “Honorable”. He admitted he had had trouble with the law. So I asked the question I often ask folks I meet at the Breakfast, “Do you have a place to live?” She shook her head, “We don’t and we’ve been out on the street for 8 or 9 months.” Ralph added, “We live in the woods, in a shelter I built.” I asked where but he shook his head, “it’s a secret.” I asked if he had been to the VA, or to Operation Stand Down RI for help. I told them these people could help them find an apartment. He shook his head. He was vague about this and I think that meant they had not, or turned down for some unspoken reason. I felt so helpless. I asked if I could take a picture of them and they had no problem with it, and no problem if I posted it on Face Book. as long as Brutus was in it. Maybe it might help somehow. I promised I would bring them some prints next week. They walked off down Mathewson Street. I wondered why this man had fallen so far through the cracks, and for so long. For me Vietnam is a distant blur. My memories there were not bad. I was lucky. He was not. (click to enlarge photos)

Bobby and Snoopy

Sunday night, February 28, 2016 at 11:30 PM Bobby wanted to talk. He asked me to take a picture of Snoopy, which I did. Kathy gave Bobby a sausage to give to Snoopy. He told us he got Snoopy just after he got out of the hospital. He mentioned he was there because he had to have several toes amputated. Frost bite? Diabetes? He did not say. He said he has been on the street for years. He isn’t allowed to bring Snoopy into the shelters so they usually sleep outdoors. He also mentioned he could not read or write. I was surprised because he is articulate, and has a good vocabulary. I asked him why. He said he was severely dyslexic and had been all his life. He told us they tried to teach him to read using “mirror” books but it didn’t work. He told us they panhandle to survive, and he had a license to do it. He said he is not an “aggressive" panhandler, like some people. He just sits on the sidewalk and hopes somebody will give him a dollar. I told him I would bring his picture next week. I can’t get them out of my mind. I keep thinking how hard it must be for them. I wonder where they are right now. I wished I had given him a dollar but I never thought of it because Bobby didn’t ask.

 

Monthly Shot Treats Schizophrenia

Michael has regained his composure with the help of an antipsychotic med in the form of a once a month injection. He says this shot has changed his life, and he is now symptom free, clean, and getting his life back together. He has reconnected with family and he told me with obvious emotion that his niece called him on the phone the other day and told him “I love you, Uncle Mike.” He said, "This was the first time in many years since someone told me that."

"Using an injectable agent ensures the drug gets into the blood. You're not relying on the patient to remember to take a pill every day," physicians say.

A year at the Sunday Friendship Breakfast

Dear Kathy, As I think back over our work at the Sunday Friendship Breakfast, I cannot think of a more rewarding year in my life, working with the homeless and needy. Sometimes it feels like we are just sticking our fingers in the dike, you and I, holding back the flood of needy folks out there. Other times, no.most times I come home thinking, “There go I but for the grace of God.” So many people so alone and so out of luck. But I believe that our time spent volunteering in Providence has helped in some small way. I think we’ve made a difference. And I cannot help but wonder why, in our society, do we (still) have so many people just barely get by. The first day I walked into the Breakfast I expected to find “ a few” homeless people there, maybe 50 or 60… not 300. I am saddened by the mental illness and substance abuse, discouraged by the lack of opportunity, and exasperated by the politics of poverty that we find. All that said, I have hope, and I am so glad we did it. When you asked me, after the first Sunday, “Are you going back?” and I answered “Yes.” I had no idea that this year would be like no other in my life, and how fulfilling 2015 has been with you at the Sunday Friendship Breakfast.
I love you. Happy New Year. Jan

Angels on the streets of South Providence

Believe in angels. They still exist. Take Ralph Davis and Rose Preston for example. I rode around the streets of South Providence with them and recorded their many good deeds. Every Saturday morning and every Wednesday evening in summer or winter, in rain or snow or 100 degrees, they are out there looking for folks in need. They offer a sandwich, or a pastry, a hot chocolate, or maybe a pair of fresh socks or warm gloves, even a little hope and human kindness. They have been on the streets for many years, helping the homeless without judgment or discrimination, just trying to do some good. So believe in angels. Here are two, right under our noses.

Share The Warm, an appeal for a photograph to help feed the homeless

A Sunday Friendship Breakfast.

November 25, 2015  It is early morning as I write this, the day before Thanksgiving, 2015. There is a double moon setting over our lake, one in the sky and another twinkling in the water. It’s crystal clear, with the temperature at 27 outside our nice warm cabin. The day holds promise for Kathy and me. We’re doing double birthday portraits of our grandsons, Zak and Matt. It’s become an annual thing andthey, of course, are amazing grandchildren.

But at the same time, as I look out on this perfect landscape photograph, I can’t help but think what the day holds for some homeless people I know who don’t have it as good as we do. I wonder if Debbie can see the moon as she wakes under the warm exhaust fan at Tommy’s Diner. Or Courtney, another homeless woman I’ve met recently, who sleeps on the steps of the Cathedral in Providence. I try to imagine what she sees when she peeks out from under her pile of blankets. Or my buddyVernon, a resident at Crossroads, who has started a business called “Humble Beginnings.”. What does he see out his window?

One thing I do know about them is that they are hungry, as are thousands of other homeless and sheltered men and women who are waking up today. They want something to eat. Easy for Kathy and I here on our golden pond, but not so easy for all of the Vernons and Debbies out there.

We volunteer at a soup kitchen in Providence called The Sunday Friendship Breakfast, run out of the Mathewson United Methodist Church. It is just over a year ago that we have been going and it has been an epiphany for me. Although I thought I knew about homelessness, I really didn’t “know” it until we started helping out there. Like so many things inlife, until you experience something up close, you really don’t understand. And even now, luckily, talking with these men and women, I still don’t really know how difficult it must be for them. I’ve never slept under an exhaust fan, or in a shelter.  But I’ve seen the overpasses where they sleep and walked the sidewalks where they walk. And I’ve heard their stories. 

Exhaust fan at Tommy's Diner

Exhaust fan at Tommy's Diner

I have begun making portraits of these mostly invisible people who come to the soup kitchen. I give them 4 x 6 prints, which they really appreciate. You can see some of these pictures on my website if you care to look, part of what now has become my way to raise awareness of homelessness with my photographs.  And I’m writing to ask you share your photographic talents to help feed the homeless at The Sunday Friendship Breakfast.

Background: The Sunday Friendship Breakfast feeds somewhere between 250 - 300 hungry men and women and some families every Sunday morning (plus on special days like Thanksgiving and Christmas). They provide a nourishing meal of oatmeal, eggs, sausage, home fries, pancakes, fruit and coffee. Doing the math that is 52 weeks x 275, or 14,300 meals per year. Some of the money to buy the food and supplies comes from grants made by suburban churches and others. But of course it’s never enough. And the people, the new faces, the men, women and children, they just keep coming and they are hungry.

I am writing to my photography friends at the Newport Photographers' Guild to ask you for a picture for an exhibit Kathy Caswell and I are putting together called “Share The Warmth” to be held on Sunday afternoon, January 7th, from 1 to 4 PM at the Newport Yacht Club. We will offer your picture for sale at a silent auction, all proceeds to purchase food for the soup kitchen.

Details: Donate a matted and framed photograph about 11 x14 to 16 x 20 inches finished size. The subject of your image can really be anything but the theme is “Scapes”, that is, landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, etc. because we think these might have the most sales appeal for an exhibit like this one. We will begin the bid at $65 - $85 depending on size but hope at silent auction your picture will go for more.

I am asking for a picture from you. Will you donate one of your favorite images to help feed those far less fortunate than you and I?  If so, please send me an email with the subject line “Share The Warmth”.  Say "yes" and include your contact information. I will put you on my list and more details will follow both through the Newport Photographers’ Guild, email and on this website. And please respond soon!

janthephotoman@gmail.com

Ralph and Rose' Way -- Midnight Moment Outreach

Ralph Davis and Rose Preston are the real deal. They are making a difference, helping people they find wandering the streets of South Providence. They look in abandoned buildings, and beneath the overpasses of the city. They look for people who are hungry and cold in  empty parking lots, even behind dumpsters. I went out with them one Saturday and recorded their morning routine, one they have continued to do for years, rain or shine, two days a week. When they see a lonely man with a backpack or a tired woman carrying a garbage bag, they pull their Subaru up to the curb and Rose  asks gently, "Hi there, are you hungry?" And so goes another "Midnight Moment", helping folks that could use a little help, making contact with people who are pretty invisible to most of us. They hand out meatball sandwiches and hope. Or soup and conversation, maybe an encouraging word or two. All on their own dime. Theirs is a truly inspirational commitment.

Below, you can watch a short video that begins with pictures of Ralph and Rose in action along with an informational skit on what it is like to be homeless. Ralph should know, he's been there. 

https://youtu.be/2lD60_HgIfg

 

The way it is for the disabled.

Most folks don’t even think about stairs… until they can’t get around. We only have a few stairs in our house but they became a major obstacle when Kathy had foot surgery. I cannot even imagine how difficult it must be if one is disabled and homeless. Pictured here are a few of the many reasons why Mathewson Street United Methodist Church is having a fund raiser(links below) so they can make the Sunday Friendship Breakfast (and the many other services) accessible to the disabled in downtown Providence.

Links to a ”Wine & Waterfire”, a major fund raiser to make Mathewson Street United Methodist Church handicapped accessible:

http://thomasreedjones.blogspot.com/2015/09/wine-and-waterfire-october-3rd.html

The entertainment for the evening\: http://pipesonthemic.com

October 3rd, 5 to 7 PM at Mathewson Street United Methodist Church, Providence, Rhode island. Tickets here: http://www.headsupri.org

Buy some even if you cannot make it! Thanks. Jan Armor

An act of kindness, the way it was.

I see it all of the time at the Sunday Friendship Breakfast; large and small acts of kindness that often go unnoticed. Here Leo offers a breakfast to a disabled woman who is unable come inside* for a meal. She may have gone hungry had not this man taken the time and made the effort. Recording this little moment underscores in my heart that helping others less fortunate than ourselves is what this is all about at the Breakfast? We can all make a difference.

*Note - Unfortunately “coming inside” isn’t always an option for disabled people at the Mathewson Street United Methodist Church. There is no handicapped access.. yet. Plans are under way to change this. A capital campaign is in the works to raise the many thousands of dollars needed so anyone who wants a breakfast can have one. Click to enlarge.

The Way It Is In Rhode Island

We drive off every Sunday to our home in Wakefield. It is less than 30 miles from the Sunday Friendship Breakfast in Providence but a million miles away in possibilities. The folks pictured here live on the streets and in the shelters of the city, surviving day by day, meal to meal, hoping for something better.  Possibly they will find housing. Maybe they will get well and get clean. Perhaps they will make a better life for themselves. Maybe...

Pictures here are Wilhelmina, Robert, DayDay in mask, Brian with cigarette, Zulu in uniform, Tom with tattoos, Paula with cane and Charles with his meal. The lady in the second picture pouring sugar and the mother and father with their baby are not identified. Click to enlarge.

Alone on the street, just the way it is for many folks.

July 21, 2015

She came to the Breakfast late, all alone, and spoke to hardly any one. She seemed preoccupied in thoughts, maybe of better times long long ago. To me she seemed to have given up, resigned to a life without laughter or promise. When I asked her name she just waved me away. It was very sad.

Some things never change, it's just the way it is...

Back from a trip to Portland, OR, it's just as I expected. The almost invisible faces of those who have been left behind are still here. There is an unease in me: things just never change. Homelessness here, or in Portland, Oregon, or Miami, Florida, will not go away, at least not any time soon.


The way it is for homeless women.

In Rhode Island, the number of individual homeless women has grown by 65% since 1998. The number of single women – among society’s most vulnerable population – has spiked in recent years. Many nights pass without enough shelter beds to go around for these women.

The way it is when you are homeless.

It s always packed at the end of the month. The money is mostly gone and folks are hungry. I've noticed many of the regulars have begun to trust me, often ask me to take another photo so they can give it to a friend or relative. I did one yesterday for Servio on his bike. He is going to give it to his grandson. Many of my subjects are not just faces. I know many names now, and some fragments of the stories that go with the faces. 

Andy approached me in the hall. His pants were falling down. He asked me for scissors so he could make another button hole in his waist band. I did not have any but told him I would put out a request for 32 waist Bermuda shorts. It's sad, simple things like scissors, or shorts that fit, and/or a thousand other little things are not easy when you live in a shelter. This is the way it is.

Servio is sending this one to this granddson.

Andy needs size 32 waist shirts.

Midnight Moments, the way it was on Saturday morning...

You could say Ralph and Rose are married, but not to each other. Instead, they are married to the idea that it is worth it to help those who have been left behind.

They cruise the grittier streets of Providence every Wednesday evening and every Saturday morning with a station wagon crammed with food and white socks. A sign on the side of the car says, “Prayer and more.” More for sure. I think Ralph said. they have been doing this for many years now. They look for people who are alone, who are wandering the streets. The look in abandoned houses, or under overpasses, or behind dumpsters. They seek out the people who are pretty invisible to most of us. 

They call themselves “Midnight Moments”. (His email is mmouthreach@yahoo.com).They make roast beef, meatball and P & J sandwiches in they own kitchens. They cook up a hearty beef stew when it is cold. They buy socks and bananas with their own money. They sometimes get donations from supermarkets and bakeries. They stop whenever they see someone that looks like they are in need, and they ask, “Are you hungry?” or “Would you like a sandwich? or “Do you need a pair of socks?” This is how Ralph and Rose make a difference. They reach out.

For me, going out with Ralph and Rose  was, you could say, and “eye-opening experience”. Riding with these two gentle souls was really much than that. The couple of hours I spent with them were truly amazing. They are an inspiration. No one asked them to do this. They just saw the need and did it. They have been helping the homeless in their spare time, mostly with their own money for years.

Ralph told me what he is really hoping for is “duplication”, meaning, he hopes others might duplicate what they are doing.  Writing a check once in a while is fine but what he hopes is  that you might keep food or socks or blankets in your car and when you see a homeless person you pull over a pull over and ask, “Hey, do you need a blanket, or maybe a pair of socks?” He is hoping you will reach out. Not just once, but whenever you see someone in need. He hopes lots of folks duplicate what he and Rose are doing.

I recorded in pictures a tiny bit of Midnight Moments.I was quite moved.

Take a look here:  Maybe you can buy some white socks for someone who could really use them...

Ralph Davis and Rose Preston of Midnight Moments.

Ralph Davis and Rose Preston of Midnight Moments.