A Day in the Life of a Homeless Day Laborer
Published March 07, 2009 @ 09:55AM PT
I first met "Jerry" at a day shelter during the summer of 2007. He's an eight grade dropout pushing 50. A lifetime of manual labor has taken a heavy toll on him, but he never shows it. On the streets, weakness is something that is easily exploited by damned near anyone who can.
Jerry is a quiet and thoughtful man, most of the time, and on this particular day he was waiting for his turn at the washing machines while playing cards with a couple of other guys who were there for the same purpose. He has a habit of stroking his goatee almost obsessively when he speaks with someone.
Jerry and I traded conversations on occasion after our initial meeting, and I could tell he was a proud man, accustomed to making his own way, however small that way may have been, and was uncomfortable as hell asking for anything that even remotely resembled a handout. He asked me only once for something; a blanket, and I knew by his body language and the look on his face that it took just about everything he had to bring himself to request it.
I brought him into my office for a minute and while I dug for the blanket in our clothes closet, I said, "Hey Jerry, didja hear about the leper hockey game? There was a faceoff in the corner." He cracked a smile and let out a rough chuckle, and it dissipated the cloud of shame I knew hung over him as he asked me for something he felt he should've been able to provide for himself.
We've been friends ever since.
Around Christmastime of this year, I found him wandering through downtown and he told me about the hassles he was having with day labor. What you're about to read is an accounting of a typical day for Jerry, and there's no doubt in my mind that things haven't changed at all for him since he shared it with me back in December.
* * *
Jerry rises from his bed, a concrete slab tucked up between the beams under a local I40 overpass. It's 3am, 8 degrees and the wind is blowing hard from the west, dragging with it the grimy ashes from last night's small cooking fire and tossing it directly onto Jerry's hair, face and clothes.
No need to get dressed, he's slept in damned near everything he owns, including his two sets of socks and his cherished but tore-back pair of boots, in order to keep warm during the night and he's been doing so ever since the weather turned cold back in late November.
Jerry shrugs off the cold and begins the 4 mile walk from his spot under the bridge he considers home to a local Temporary Employment office, "day labor," as the tramps call it. He hustles with each step because he knows there'll already be people in line and he wants to make sure he's close enough to the door to actually get a shot at being selected for a day of what often ends up being grueling, backbreaking labor.
It's supposed to be "first-come, first-serve" but he knows the staffers at this agency, just like all the rest, have their favorites, and he isn't one of them. He also knows there's a couple of guys who own the temp agencies and incidentally, also own halfway houses. The guys in those halfway houses always get preferential selection; this way the bosses are ensured they'll also get their inflated rent from their tenants, who "they're just trying to help," naturally.
He rolls into the lot around 415am and sure enough, the line's already long and growing by the minute.
He steps in place and begins the wait, in the cold, with a crowd of other sleepy men and women.
At 5am the door swings open and a mass of humanity floods into an oversize garage. As each person passes by a small window, they leave their name with the man behind the glass. Most have been "on file" here for some time and simply state their names. Some are new faces and are presented with an application of sorts, which allows them to list their skills and former jobs so that they can be assessed for placement in jobs suitable for their skill levels.
Based on their answers, jobs are supposed to be given that for some, pay a little better, based on skills learned from other jobs. But most workers quickly discover that the employer at the actual job site "makes the decision whether to pay skilled, semi-skilled or general labor wages, and we (the temp agency) just pay what they set."
It's usually the "general labor" wage, $6.55 an hour (minimum wage). Jerry has never made more than that, nor has anyone he knows that's worked for the agency. Jerry tells me he's skilled too, a journeyman welder, and has done some intricate jobs that required x-ray verification to ensure the welds are good. From the little I know about welding, having your work pass an x-ray exam sounds far more skilled than anything I could ever do.
Today Jerry gets lucky. He gets a work ticket. Unfortunately, the job requires safety glasses, steel toed boots and a hard hat. Jerry has none of these items.
But the temp service does and will rent them to Jerry, for a total of $4 dollars a day. Jerry has no choice but to accept the deal, since he can't work without the proper equipment.
He gets his gear rented and readies himself for transport to the job. It's another $6.00 to ride in the van that will take him to the site and then back to the temp agency when the job ends for the day.
He spends this particular day drilling holes in concrete, using a concrete saw, lugging chunks of old "crete" and iron to the edge of a building and then tossing them up and into a front-end loader's bucket, which happens to set at about chest level.
Jerry wonders why it isn't on the ground but he doesn't say anything to the driver/operator since he doesn't want to appear weak or come across as a whiner, since peeps like that don't ever get called back.
There are about 5 guys from the same temp service who are working in this group and a company foreman stands nearby, ensuring that all the "rent-a-bums," as he calls them, are putting forth a full effort. Breaks are closely monitored and lunch is 30 minutes.
Jerry works himself hard all day, hoping he'll receive a check in the box on the work-ticket that allows him to come back tomorrow.
After 9+ hours on his feet in boots that don't fit, Jerry gets to return to the temp agency to reap the green fruit of his labor, minus the deductions for travel and rental equipment.
For a day of backbreaking manual grunt-work, involving hauling, cutting, and breathing concrete and concrete dust, Jerry receives a grand total of $43.90.
They cut him a check for that amount, but Jerry doesn't have a bank account. He walks across the street to a local Sun Trust bank, where the check is drawn on. The bank charges him $5.00 to cash the check, even though it's cut from the bank he's standing in.
Jerry now has $38.90 in his pocket. He's worked himself into a massive hunger and wasn't able to eat any lunch, since he had no money when he arrived this morning.
But he also stinks from several nights under the bridge and the sweat he expended as he toiled all day has made him "riper than a buffalo fart," as he puts it. He would really love a long, hot shower.
Unfortunately, the cheapest room he can find in the area will cost him $36.00 before taxes, if they have one of those rooms available. If not, he'll definitely not be able to afford the $40+ it'll cost him for a "better" room.
He can't shop around, since he's got to walk wherever he goes, so he decides to opt for a big meal and spends $7 at the local fast food joint, since he really isn't able to cook much over his fire under the bridge.
He finishes his burger, heads back to his "home" at the "Overpass Inn" and stops along the way to pick up a 40-ounce beer; he'll use it to quell the aches and pains he's feeling from a day of hard labor.
He crawls into his filthy bedroll after drinking his 40, happy that he's going to return to work for at least one more day this week, and maybe tomorrow he'll even be able to eat lunch. if he's really lucky, he'll get another "may return" checked and he might even be able to spend the night in a fleabag motel, where cockroaches run in herds over the walls and bedbugs feast on unsuspecting sleepers.
Who knows, maybe Jerry will be able to work the whole week. If this happens, he should be able to afford some new boots. He damned sure needs them, since the soles on the ones he's wearing now are flapping like the tongues of overheated St. Bernards whenever he walks.
But he knows chances are pretty slim that he'll be returning all week; the job ends when the concrete work is finished and from his expert analysis, this will take another day and a half, two at the most.
He sighs, pulls the covers over his head and tries to grab a few hours sleep before he has to do it all over again.
His last thought before sleep overtakes him is of a comment he heard from a passing car while walking home tonight, clutching his 40; "goddam bum, why dontcha get a job?"
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Comments (24)
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Author
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Steve spent 30+ years in and out of homelessness while battling addictions. He "got it together" in 2000, got his BA and MPA at Cal State University Chico. Since then, he has dedicated his life to serving those who are still on the street. You can currently find him wandering around Nashville, Tennessee assisting the disabled in obtaining their social security disability benefits. He co-founded and writes for The Contributor, a street newspaper produced and sold by the homeless, and in his spare time trains outreach workers for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council and blogs at Stone Soup Station.
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This man's daily struggle is quite common these days. I can't imagine how he endures day after day - but he must do it somehow. Our whole country is going to be living under a bridge soon the way things are going now hoping to get at least one or two days' work a week just to eat. This man is an example of those who have fallen through the cracks.
Posted by L P on 03/07/2009 @ 11:44AM PT
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you know I see homeless people standing in corners hoping that someone will give them some change, and I think to my self: why don't they get a job? I shouldn't say anything. We don't know what this people are going through, maybe they are people who don't want to work, but maybe many are like this man who can't get a job. This is a great country, but if things keep going the way they are, where is this country going to end up?
Posted by Alejandra Garcia on 03/07/2009 @ 11:55AM PT
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There is no reason that in a country as rich as ours that anyone should have to live on the street. No matter what the reason. We could provide a warm safe place for everyone if we wanted to. Doesn't have to be fancy, just a place where they can go to sleep and keep their things. I lived on the streets for a year after my divorce. Personally I'd rather be dead then have it happen again.
Because there are not enough jobs for everyone the "why doesn't he/she get a job" is a horrible thing for us to believe but it is a belief that is pounded home for many of us. In America if you don't work you're worth nothing, no matter what the reason. And the problem is going to get worse. The have's in this country are going to need to decide which they want more....their excess monies or their heads because I hear all the time about how angry people are and I bet their words were the same phrases uttered before the French revolution.
Everyone deserves a job, a safe place to sleep and food in their belly. We need to get to the point where the "StarTrek" believe system becomes a reality.
Posted by Charlotte Notshown on 03/08/2009 @ 08:09AM PT
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Honey, you have it all wrong!! The only RICH thing in this once God fearing wonderful country of ours is the folks in the white house who keep taking your hard to come by money by taxing everything they can get their hands on and then taxing that tax! Congress is still VOTING THEMSELVES A HUGE RAISE, WHILE EVERYONE ELSE SUFFERS! We have made CHINA rich, but we ourselves are no longer rich! With so many people without a job, who is going to be paying the top dogs salaries? Thats is the only thing GOOD about this whole mess!
Posted by Patricia Miller on 03/08/2009 @ 06:14PM PT
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Nobody HAS to live on the streets. There enough homeless shelters for all. The problem is getting the homeless to go to the shelters. In my city the only time the homeless are forced into shelters is when the city declares a "Code Blue" which means the police can round-up and place all homeless into existing facilities against their will because they will probably die from the cold weather.
You cannot force Americans to do what they don't want to do. Junkies are usually not permitted into shelters for obvious reasons like fear of theft. If the junkies clean up like Steve did they will then be welcome.
Posted by jack barr on 03/08/2009 @ 08:47AM PT
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You have no heart! That's plain to see!! Wait til it happens to you and you have to knock on a shelter door and are turned away because there's no more room!!!! Have you not heard that MILLIONS not thousands have lost their jobs and then their homes thru No Fault of their own? They just need love, help, and understanding which they are not going to get from the likes of you! Do you not believe in GOD? The way you treat people, is the way you're going to be treated one of these days!! Matthew 9:37-38 says "In serving others,we are serving GOD"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God help you and others who feel as you do! You wicked person!
Posted by Patricia Miller on 03/08/2009 @ 06:00PM PT
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You have no heart! That's plain to see!! Wait til it happens to you and you have to knock on a shelter door and are turned away because there's no more room!!!! Have you not heard that MILLIONS not thousands have lost their jobs and then their homes thru No Fault of their own? They just need love, help, and understanding which they are not going to get from the likes of you! Do you not believe in GOD? The way you treat people, is the way you're going to be treated one of these days!! Matthew 9:37-38 says "In serving others,we are serving GOD"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God help you and others who feel as you do! You wicked person!
Posted by Patricia Miller on 03/08/2009 @ 06:01PM PT
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You have no heart! That's plain to see!! Wait til it happens to you and you have to knock on a shelter door and are turned away because there's no more room!!!! Have you not heard that MILLIONS not thousands have lost their jobs and then their homes thru No Fault of their own? They just need love, help, and understanding which they are not going to get from the likes of you! Do you not believe in GOD? The way you treat people, is the way you're going to be treated one of these days!! Matthew 9:37-38 says "In serving others,we are serving GOD"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God help you and others who feel as you do! You wicked person!
Posted by Patricia Miller on 03/08/2009 @ 06:01PM PT
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I was surprised by the comment that there are "enough shelters" in this country. It would seem to imply that people really "want" to be on the streets. Until you have been homeless or have slept in a shelter, or spoken to someone who has had these expereinces, you might want to temper your comments as you clearly live in a unrealistic state of mind!
Posted by Bee Gee on 03/22/2009 @ 12:39PM PT
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Jack - appreciate the comment but did want to clarify something you mentioned about there being enough homeless "shelters for all," I returned from an outreach training provided to a west Tennessee town that doesn't have a shelter at all and folks are left to fend for themselves in about a 100 mile radius of this town.
Also, many shelters are not the most pleasant places to bed down for the night, nor are they the safest. On the streets of Nashville, most folks who are homeless will quickly tell you they'd rather shiver the night away in an alley than to take a bed in the local Mission. To be fair, the mission here does an outstanding job of caring for hundreds of people daily, but because there are so many needing assistance, they have been forced to operate as an "institution," which rather closely resembles being incarcerated for some.
Just wanted to give you a fuller picture of why some folks don't use the shelters. Thanks again for the comment and I'm so glad you're willing to talk about these kinds of problems in our society!
Posted by Steven Samra on 03/08/2009 @ 09:01AM PT
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You seem to have sweet spirit. God richly bless you for all that you do for others! How can we help this precious man...Jerry? I would love to take him in and help care for him, feed him, take him to church,etc.
pmiller1946@yahoo.com
Posted by Patricia Miller on 03/08/2009 @ 06:21PM PT
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My girlfriend was homeless, when she escaped from her abusive husband. She and her child were living with another woman, her family in an apartment. She would get a job and her husband would find out and accost her. The first time I saw her husband he lofted their child at the woman providing sanctuary knocking her down. Their entertainment were the threatening phone calls from the husband. The womans shelter had her on a six month wait and she had expired her one month usage.
I have heard the excuses that this society present in discussions. "get a job", "call the police", "go to a shelter" and "get an attorney" - for at least two decades this country has lacked a function system of support.
We appear to have an opportunity here - forclosed houses/shelters and increasing populations of homeless. People that may be willing to work on projects to feed themselves such as urban gardens or renovating communities. But these people need to be paid something, current voluteering as it is implemented takes an opportunity away from those in need.
Posted by jowey styxx on 03/08/2009 @ 11:50AM PT
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My girlfriend was homeless, when she escaped from her abusive husband. She and her child were living with another woman, her family in an apartment. She would get a job and her husband would find out and accost her. The first time I saw her husband he lofted their child at the woman providing sanctuary knocking her down. Their entertainment were the threatening phone calls from the husband. The womans shelter had her on a six month wait and she had expired her one month usage.
I have heard the excuses that this society present in discussions. "get a job", "call the police", "go to a shelter" and "get an attorney" - for at least two decades this country has lacked a function system of support.
We appear to have an opportunity here - forclosed houses/shelters and increasing populations of homeless. People that may be willing to work on projects to feed themselves such as urban gardens or renovating communities. But these people need to be paid something, current voluteering as it is implemented takes an opportunity away from those in need.
Posted by jowey styxx on 03/08/2009 @ 11:51AM PT
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My girlfriend was homeless, when she escaped from her abusive husband. She and her child were living with another woman, her family in an apartment. She would get a job and her husband would find out and accost her. The first time I saw her husband he lofted their child at the woman providing sanctuary knocking her down. Their entertainment were the threatening phone calls from the husband. The womans shelter had her on a six month wait and she had expired her one month usage.
I have heard the excuses that this society present in discussions. "get a job", "call the police", "go to a shelter" and "get an attorney" - for at least two decades this country has lacked a function system of support.
We appear to have an opportunity here - forclosed houses/shelters and increasing populations of homeless. People that may be willing to work on projects to feed themselves such as urban gardens or renovating communities. But these people need to be paid something, current voluteering as it is implemented takes an opportunity away from those in need.
Posted by jowey styxx on 03/08/2009 @ 11:51AM PT
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Reading your article above (top of page) I see that many people from the building industry are now without jobs or homes, and have joined tent cities to survive. How hard would it be to organise some building materials, and they don't need to be fancy - so these people can at least build something weatherproof to live in. Aid agencies overseas have had to use imagination and resourcefulness, AND think outside the square to provide housing solutions that work. Don't give me that guff about councils 'not allowing' substandard development; if you allow eco-architects to help, these places could be showpeices without being expensive. Imagination and ingenuity can achieve incredible results, if they are allowed to thrive and are not stifled. Our friends and neighbours have been travelling this path for many years now. They are people who could earn a lot of money, but have chosen to live very simply, to share their knowledge (household energy conservation, preventative healthcare etc) and to live in a way that is mainly about giving, not so much about taking. Instead of criticising those who are struggling, take time to think about what you can do to help turn things around - it's a movement around the whole world!
Posted by pip fox on 03/09/2009 @ 04:34AM PT
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I think part of the problem is that there are some people who are not homeless and they make the truly homeless people look lazy or false. When I waitressed there was a man who would stand on the corner of the intersection with a sign "Homeless: will work for food." At the end of my waitressing shift, he would come in every night and order the most expensive thing on the menu. I also knew people who knew him and said that he actually did have a home.
People who make it harder for others who truly ARE homeless should be ashamed of themselves. They are promoting a false stereotype.
Posted by ganymeder x on 03/10/2009 @ 04:43AM PT
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i'm curious why you instead of just documenting this dude's plight, why you didn't get 5 do-gooders together to cough up $100 each and get him an apartment somewhere?
I mean, you get a blog post out of it, what does he get from this friendship?
Posted by Misanthropy Today Fox on 03/22/2009 @ 01:35AM PT
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I wonder also, is this site a feel good initiative. For example with the homeless, foreclosure crisis they could set up a "tent city" protest on the Washington Mall and in New York Central Park (wall street) with the press.
I doubt that they will do that, they just want donations and the ability to claim altruism.
Flip side, maybe they did give him some money or transportation to a place to stay.
Posted by jowey styxx on 03/22/2009 @ 08:44AM PT
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Perhaps Jerry won't be rich after this article, but it made me reconsider homelessness. I'm in San Francisco and see my fair share, and often echo those sentiments of "Why don't you get a job?"
The article is bringing more attention to the problem, impacting far more than five do-gooders could have done to affect the overall problem, not just one person's plight.
Posted by Tyler James on 03/22/2009 @ 01:21PM PT
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You're assuming the person blogging knows people who can afford to give away $100 themselves. It would maybe be a temporary solution to collect enough money for him to have lodging for a few nights. That is assuming he would also take the money, that he wouldn't feel humiliated by a handout. He obviously works extremely hard.
As far as the "Do gooder" who blogged about "Jerry," he is bringing attention to the problem. He is reaching far more people. And who's to say that blogging is the only thing he's done? You don't know. And even if it was, he's still helping. Making people aware of the issues is always the first step, whether or not it's the only one.
Posted by ganymeder x on 03/22/2009 @ 07:22PM PT
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My comment above was aimed at the people who were asking why the blogger didn't do more and accused "do gooders" about just wanting to feel good. For some reason, it didn't post under the comment I was responding to. My apologies.
Posted by ganymeder x on 03/22/2009 @ 07:24PM PT
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In 1990 I flew across the Atlantic and travelled down from Boston, through Panama and as far as Ecuador. All the worst poverty I saw in America was in the US.
Posted by D W on 03/22/2009 @ 02:22AM PT
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pls to send me your address and his shoe size.janesridge@yahoo.com.au
Posted by janes ridge on 03/22/2009 @ 10:37PM PT
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Steven, Thank you. I have personally been homeless with 3 children, and I truly appreciate your efforts in bringing Jerry's day to light. Change is made one person at a time. Thank you for being a light on a truly dark path.
Posted by Deborah Wilson on 03/22/2009 @ 10:45PM PT
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