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> But I really think we need to do things like bring back SROs and Missing Middle housing. Some things really can't be fixed while you are still unhoused. I th

> But I really think we need to do things like bring back SROs and Missing Middle housing. Some things really can't be fixed while you are still unhoused. I thought about that as I wrote my comment. I can live out of a backpack for weeks, no showers, no change of clothes, scrounging for food. But I've only been able to do that while suitably "housed", whether couch surfing or in short term rentals. If I had to do that on the street, I'm confident everything would quickly go to shit. I'm a big fan of housing-first in general, as long as it's supported with mental health care, and properly policed to keep units from becoming drug dens. I read all your stuff btw.

DoreenMichele 7y ago
Thank you. It's not obvious to people how rapidly that unravels when you don't have routine access to normal middle class stuff. It's part of why I blog. A lot of what I experienced wasn't anything I could have ever predicted. I found that after I was able to arrange one night a month in a hotel, it became vastly easier to pass for normal. I got showered. I got a break from life on the street. I watched a little TV, something not available while sleeping in a tent and which is a common source of small talk for most people. I went more than two years without a proper shower. My first hotel stay took two showers to get the dead skin off. After that, I stayed occasionally in a hotel, but not once a month. I took baths instead of showers to soak the dead skin off. A shower wasn't enough. But with monthly hotel stays, I no longer needed to soak the dead skin off. My feet stopped turning black. Cleaning up at sinks in public bathrooms in the weeks in between did a lot more for me than it did when it was all I had access to. And I absolutely would not have ever sat down and tried to dream up "How many days a month do I need to be in a hotel to pass for normal?" This isn't a thought experiment that would have even occurred to me to try to pursue. I only know this stuff because I lived it and that's how it went down, not because I would have ever in a million years tried to figure out "How many showers a month do I need to make cleaning up in sinks sufficient most of the time?"
- nate_meurer 7y ago
  Ok, now that is fascinating and completely unintuitive to me -- that just one day a month made that much difference. Do you think many other homeless people would benefit significantly from such a small dosage, or do you think your particular constitution allowed you to take advantage of it better than others would? I'm assuming your kids were with you... did it do them as much good?
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    Given that I have a genetic disorder that significantly impacts all epithelial tissues, which includes the skin, I would guess that others could potentially benefit as much from even less -- assuming they followed some of the same practices I followed to avoid grime, which is not a given. It's possible other homeless could get similar results from a hotel stay once every six weeks, just as a wild ass guess. Edit: it's also possible I'm guessing in the wrong direction. 0_o

DoreenMichele 7y ago

Thank you. It's not obvious to people how rapidly that unravels when you don't have routine access to normal middle class stuff. It's part of why I blog. A lot of what I experienced wasn't anything I could have ever predicted. I found that after I was able to arrange one night a month in a hotel, it became vastly easier to pass for normal. I got showered. I got a break from life on the street. I watched a little TV, something not available while sleeping in a tent and which is a common source of small talk for most people. I went more than two years without a proper shower. My first hotel stay took two showers to get the dead skin off. After that, I stayed occasionally in a hotel, but not once a month. I took baths instead of showers to soak the dead skin off. A shower wasn't enough. But with monthly hotel stays, I no longer needed to soak the dead skin off. My feet stopped turning black. Cleaning up at sinks in public bathrooms in the weeks in between did a lot more for me than it did when it was all I had access to. And I absolutely would not have ever sat down and tried to dream up "How many days a month do I need to be in a hotel to pass for normal?" This isn't a thought experiment that would have even occurred to me to try to pursue. I only know this stuff because I lived it and that's how it went down, not because I would have ever in a million years tried to figure out "How many showers a month do I need to make cleaning up in sinks sufficient most of the time?"

nate_meurer 7y ago
Ok, now that is fascinating and completely unintuitive to me -- that just one day a month made that much difference. Do you think many other homeless people would benefit significantly from such a small dosage, or do you think your particular constitution allowed you to take advantage of it better than others would? I'm assuming your kids were with you... did it do them as much good?
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  Given that I have a genetic disorder that significantly impacts all epithelial tissues, which includes the skin, I would guess that others could potentially benefit as much from even less -- assuming they followed some of the same practices I followed to avoid grime, which is not a given. It's possible other homeless could get similar results from a hotel stay once every six weeks, just as a wild ass guess. Edit: it's also possible I'm guessing in the wrong direction. 0_o