last nights homeless story

[Zoe Girl]

I picked up my daughter from her college class last night. If you know Denver it is the Auraria campus and then we drive down Colfax, a busy street with a questionable reputation for most of it, to home. Colfax goes directly by the capital as well, and the park in front has many homeless.

As we got close there was a man crossing the street with a very large duffle bag type pack on his back and he was not walking well at all. He was visibly swerving and not crossing at the light (well that is common, I wonder about the suicidal ideation of half the people downtown who do not cross safely). As he got to the curb he missed it and fell over into the street. I was in the middle lane but I pulled over to block any other cars and we put on hazard lights. He slowly got up and onto the curb. He looked at us and just seemed really confused but gave a small wave.

So that was it, another night downtown.

[iris lily]

I experience homeless multiple times weekly as a downtown worker but haven't seen anyone down in the street lately.

Last spring I was working in my open garden plot near one of our little houses in a not-so-great neighborhood, and a guy a block away was shouting and making noise. He came walking up my way, still shouting, then he'd stop walking and would stand and shout for a while, then walk and shout.

I went back and forth in my mind: Should I leave to go behind the fence until he is gone? Is this guy mad at someone down the bock? Is he having a psych episode?

I continued to work and was annoyed that this loudmouth was ruining a perfect, beautiful day. He walked on, shouting, and finally someone at the end of that block came out of the house and started shouting back at him. That made me more nervous but I kept working since I had weeds that must be pulled. The two of them stood and yelled at each other for a while, and finally the loudmouth jerk moved on.

During that incident I found myself thinking that it was odd that I preferred that the guy be a homeless man having a private psychotic episode than some angry guy feuding with someone on the block. The homeless guys are safer to be around, of the two choices.