#houseless advice

[chronicallycouchbound]

do you have any tips for being unhoused like survival tips or even just stuff that makes life easier

Absolutely!

Before I give my advice I want to start with my most important piece of advice first: I have lots of personal experience with a few different aspects of being unhoused, I have been unhoused in frigid climates, in warmer climates, for many years, with some warning and also very suddenly, as a child with parents, as a child without parents, as an adult, couch surfing, sleeping outside, sleeping in cars, sleeping in bandos, living in a homeless shelter, living in transitional living programs, and then all of those things intersect with my various other marginalized experiences. I say all this because I want to also say that while I have extensive experiences, I don't know everything, and might miss things, or give advice that might not work in your case. So take everything with a grain of salt, including from me, for your own safety. You know your situation best, so do whatever you need to in order to survive.

Some general tips:

Aways bring extra clothes wherever you go: especially socks and underwear, they are small and light and life-savers, and homelessness often puts you in situations where you can suddenly lose everything, especially if something is left somewhere

Public libraries, churches, fast food stores and cafes are great to hang out in when it’s cold out. Unitarian Universalist Churches are (almost always) LGBTQ+ safe and affirming as well.

Shower as often as possible, the YMCA usually has cheap day passes and it’s a place to stay all day.

If you can’t shower: find a public restroom and use the sink to do a "bird bath": rinse/wash your hair, grab some paper towels or use the hand dryer to dry your hair, and use toilet paper or paper towels to rinse and dry your underarms and genitalia areas, especially when it’s hot or you’ve been sweating. Make sure you can dry off, wetness in cold is quickly life threatening, and wetness and heat breeds bacteria (which makes you stinky at best, but can also lead to skin issues)

Take extra plastic utensils, get salt/pepper packets, sauce packets, etc. as often as you can, ONLY if you have someplace to keep them (like a tent/car), small things like that can really make a difference when you're eating ramen over a fire every day, and helped keep me slightly closer to sane.

Only carry with you what you absolutely need, and always carry with you what you absolutely need.

Make friends everywhere you go, but be cautious and careful. You want to be amicable, not naive. You don't have to be trusting to be friendly.

Be friendly and overly kind to people working, they could help you later on. I have had my ass saved by so many random employees. Even if you're having a bad day, they're the people you should be kindest to. (Also be kind to service workers when not homeless, ofc)

Collect change on the streets or panhandle if it is safe and legal for you to. You can also collect bottles/cans to return, or recycle aluminum.

Look up free campsites, pantries and shelters for your area. Shelter App - Homeless Resources is a free app and website that is still kind of new, but I've seen more and more resources being added to them. Most states have a generalized hotline that's usually like a "411" or "211" or similar type phone line.

Try to always have an active phone with service, or at least a charged phone you can call emergency services on in case you need to.

Try to avoid getting into crime, drugs, alcohol/cigarettes, etc. It’s all expensive, gets you in trouble and does you no good.

However, if you are an active user: look up local needle exchanges, suboxone clinics, free narcan/naloxone, PREP and PEP (HIV prevention meds), emergency rooms, and practice harm reduction as much as possible. Try to never use alone, if using in a bathroom, keep the door unlocked. In my experience, even if you're sober or in recovery, harm reduction organizations are often amazing resources to connect you to other resources

Items I didn't realize were so life saving for me until later: blanket scarves, wool socks (natural fiber is the only thing that stays warm even when wet), baby wipes (washing body, tp replacement, etc), hand warmers, clothes that look more bougie like wearing a pea coat (stopped less by cops), carbineer clips, earbuds (for sanity), and my most prized possession to this day; my solar powered/hand crank/rechargable combination flash light, usb charger radio. Any item you need that is made for sports/hiking/etc. is often better, and any items that are multipurpose are wonderful.

And since we're headed into the colder months, here’s my advice for if you don’t have adequate heating, homeless or not:

Make soups or even just keep a pot of water boiling, and bake things if you can. I like to make teas in the morning for this purpose. Eating enough food (if you can) helps dramatically increase your core body temp.

Take a shower BEFORE the coldest parts of the day, or skip the shower til it’s warm enough to. If you absolutely need to, use warm wet washcloth and work in sections of your body so you don’t have to be fully naked and wet all at once. If you can’t be in a warm enough location afterwards— avoid getting your hair wet at all costs especially if you have thick hair. If you’re at higher risk of cold related illnesses like hypothermia and frostbite, such as disabled and chronically ill folks, I would highly recommend avoiding anything that causes you to get wet if you can’t get warm afterwards.

Make a blanket fort or use a tent indoors to spend your time in and sleep in

Drink tea/cocoa/hot beverages, avoid ice or cold drinks. Avoid alcohol specifically if you can because it lowers your body temp while making you feel warm, which can be dangerous.

Cuddle with your pets (even pets that don’t normally cuddle often are cuddly during cold spells as a survival response)

Wear thermals and layers if youre up and moving, but make sure to pre-warm any clothes you change into by tucking them into the blankets with you for a while.

If you have someone to cuddle with as close as possible, do it, also wear less clothes, thinner clothes or shorts when under blankets and cuddling, you share way more body heat that way, whereas thermals and layers will only keep your heat to yourself

If you have cold feet: take off your socks under blankets (and keep socks under blankets before putting back on) and keep a hot pad under blankets near your feet. Thick socks are great for insulation— but if your feet are cold, insulation means it’ll keep that cold in and keep the heat out. You have to add your own heat, and once they’re warm, you can put the socks back on.

Tin foil, trash bags, and blankets on windows if you don’t have plastic.

Keep doors closed and use rolled blankets or towels to stop drafts. Try to stay in one room if your whole home is cold, smaller spaces are easier to keep warm. Keep doors closed. Keep window shades closed (if you have south-facing windows, you can open t hem during the day and close them at night)

If you don’t have a mummy sleeping bag, a hoodie with the strings pulled comfortably tight can be a good substitute especially if paired with another sleeping bag.

Layer blankets for insulation. Closest to your body, have hot pads and heated blankets, then a reflective blanket to direct heat back towards you, use fluffy blankets and comforters next for insulation, and on top, have something heavy to help seal the heat in and push that heat towards you.

Blanket layers: first, heated blanket/hot pad/hot water bottle/etc, then reflective blankets/emergency blankets (there are reusable ones!)/sleeping bag, then fluffy blankets, then your heaviest/thickest blanket on top (quilt, weighted blanket, tarp, etc). If you don’t have one/multiple of these, just layer what you have following this guide as much as possible.

I like to have at least one fluffy blanket wrapped near my head/neck to keep as much warm air in the blankets as possible when I move my arms. Snuggies and blanket scarves work great for this.

If you’re on a thin bed, an air mattress, or don’t have a bed, put something below you for insulation from the cold ground. Any high quality sleeping bags temperature recommendation is always based on having good insulation below you. Cardboard, yoga mats, foam, blankets, coats, etc. all work.

Be vigilant for signs of frostbite and hypothermia, especially in children, disabled, elderly and pregnant folks. Remember to follow frostbite and hypothermia guidelines for re-warming and get medical attention for these whenever possible.

Have an emergency go-bag ready with your medications, chargers, clothes and other essentials in case you need to leave your residence.

Be sure to not accidentally give yourself CO2 poisoning or cause fires or explosions with whatever heating method you use. Anything with gasoline, propane or other fuel sources are generally not safe for indoor/closed space usage.

Don’t let yourself get so warm you sweat, you can lose a lot of heat that way and the wetness will make you cold which is hard to recover from.

When you get out of bed or from blankets, fold the blankets back over where you just laid to retain the heat for when you climb back in. Even if you have to be gone an extended period of time, this keeps the cold out. You can also preheat heated blankets for when you get back into bed (like turning on the heated blanket before you go shower)

Lights have a lot of ambient heat, as do appliances, especially larger appliances. Even having your laptop on your lap and using it can help you warm up.

If you’re able to be up and moving or do light exercise while you have to be out of blankets, thats the best time to do it. Again, be mindful of sweating.

If you’re homeless and unsheltered and don’t have a camp, sleep in the daytime in the warmest parts of the day, and walk around at night to avoid freezing to death. Savor a hot tea or hot coffee at fast food places if you can afford it.

Single use hand warmers can be saved if they still have heat by putting them in an airtight ziplock bag. When you want to use them again, you just open the bag to expose them to air. If you can and have a way to use them, invest in reusable ones (there’s electric ones and also ones you can boil to reset). Hot water bottles are another good option but often come with a higher risk of being burned.

Also, if you have any more specific situations you'd like advice for, I'd be happy to make posts for those as well, it's hard to add/think of everything that helps every situation, and a lot of my advice would change if you stay in a shelter, for example. I really hope this helps, and I hope you find safe, stable, and reliable housing soon.

[st-armand]

Hobie Brown & Anarchism: A Discussion Pt 2 (Race)

Authors Note: This is my dissertation for the discourse about Hobie’s politics being misrepresented as your friendly community radical leftist

Warnings: Political Ideologies, mentions of violence and oppression

Hobie’s politics are intertwined deeply with his race, as previously stated in my random headcanons post I talked about Hobie being a Jamaican Brit, he has a lot of great analysis on colonization and imperialism, living in a colonized state of New London

(Again I’ve headcanoned Hobie to live in Lenapehoking **New York/Brooklyn and the surrounding areas** that was recolonized by the British Government and renamed New London, I’ll say he was raised in Camden but he relocated to New London when his family decided to leave due to many poor people being displaced to the new settlement. He still exists in the 70s for the most part but sometimes I do set it in modern times, there are some books ill add that are after Hobie’s time period)

Hobie is in touch with his Caribbean roots, a roadman, but an islander at heart, his grandparents raised him very similarly to their own upbringing in Jamaica, he’s well versed in the liberative politics of the Caribbean, keeping track of coupes, falsely installed leaders, environmental activism, labor strikes and organizations, and queer liberation movements, he knows he’s unable to support their struggle physically but as Spiderman he’s vocal about the efforts of those overseas fighting against settler colonialism.

There are often times where there a diaspora groups who have movements in the colonial lands for their homelands, and those are instances where he can be present to fight, and protect.

Hobie is a dark skinned black man, he’s spent his life navigating colorism and antiblackness, whether you headcanon him as other, he still has existed in spaces where black men and women trans and cis have faced antiblackness, misogynoir and trans-misognynoir, from his family, himself and his community.

For many years he spent time witnessing these acts from people around him (Like how many of us know what family members to trust with our identities and politics because of how lax and unaware the adults we were raised with speak), I don’t see him as the person to spew hate, but he has had to unlearn constructs around colorism and his social political understanding of the world, first through lived experience, then through learned information, and then through community action—praxis.

I’d personally headcanon him as possibly genderqueer and asexual (like myself) due to how often he’s the receiving end of unwanted sexual attention, he enjoys sex, but sees it as an intimate act with people he needs to trust. Saying this he still had to navigate being queer in homophobic and transphobic in black spaces, (This is for all my black trans friends, white trans people please don’t use this as a reason to be anti-Black, this is a intracommunity conversation.)

He was lucky to have an expanse of siblings with varying gender expressions and sexuality so his home was a safe space, but he still wasn’t immune to facing this violence.

He goes hard for dark skinned black people, and black people who aren’t conventionally attractive, he knows he has privilege with his looks and how that bends people in his favor, but regardless of that Hobie wants people to KNOW him on a deep level, and isn’t shy about deep emotional connections and emotional maturity, he knows people intimately, in ways where people expose their inner most turmoil to him and he accepts them as they are, and asks before offering advice.

Considering his feelings on treating people with respect regardless of appearance this is best shown with the way he interacts with houseless people on the street, he doesn’t shirk away from the smell or their appearance, he is knowing and emphatic to the circumstances they’ve been forced into, he isn’t deterred by their delusions, hallucinations of breakdowns, and he is an expert at deescalate them when they’re having a mental health crisis. He doesn’t openly antagonize people (for the most part) but he kinda has this aquarian way of showing his authority through his intellectual capacity and cool demeanor, he does speak down to people who are treating people in a discriminating fashion, he’s very shady.

Like lets say he’s in a group of people and their spewing colorist remarks he’ll dramatically sigh and rub his temples and say shit like,

���Ya don’t really read do you?”

“C’me off it mate”

“Someone’s new ‘ere”

And if the person or conversation continues in that direction, he’ll openly state his opinions instead of making the tension palpable with his shade.

“Y’know ‘s quite simple innit? Dark skinned black people are the lowest on colonial racial pillers, dark skinned women navigate it the hardest, having to live in the confines of racialized ideas of beauty and attraction.”

If the person is open to learning he’ll continue to teach them in a nuanced fashion, taking his time to explain and highlight the histories and how they connect with modern social standards, but if they aren’t he just continues to be annoyed and exasperated, usually before that happens his group ushers them away, their space isn’t for people who want to debate the livelihood of other people.

As a taste of the romance and platonic parts,

Hobie finds all people attractive, he sees past their physical traits, and focuses on the content of their character, their morals, their personal goals and aspirations, that is where he finds beauty in people, sexually or romantically? As I stated before he has to know you before initiating a relationship like that, but he does recognize that there are beautiful people, he prefers to get into relationships with black people or non-black people of color only if they are willing to navigate antiblackness alongside him and for the safety of other black people, and don’t expect him to stay in a relationship with someone who’s family is racists or discriminatory especially if you don’t verbally set boundaries and hold the defensive.

He does have non conventional ideas of romance, but he gives and shows love in all kinds of way that it makes it worth feeling insecure in the basis of the relationship, I don’t believe that his consistency joke was meant to be understood as jumping between person to person, or manipulating you into a relationship with no future goal in mind, he doesn’t mind spending the rest of his life alone, especially taking into consideration his role as Spiderman, but he wants to have someone who will anchor him in the chaotic inconsistent world, that the roles they play in love are adaptable, a giver, a provider, a support system, a friend, a comrade he plays all those roles effortlessly and knows which you need and when. He isn’t devastated by moving on from someone he loves, he recognizes that people are in your life for a reason for a certain period of time, short term and long term, and he doesn’t fight the change when the tides of life are moving against him.

I got all yalls request imma reply so you know I see them, will work on them in the next few weeks since application deadlines are coming up <33

[queer-crip-grows]

Right-to-buy council houses without specifically only releasing housing that already had a replacement built was of the most notable ways of the *many* that Thatcher et al screwed the UK.

I’d love to have a law put in place that landlords either have to sign contracts to provide housing under council house-type contracts with rent controls to people on housing benefit etc, or sell to the local council at compulsory purchase prices.

Same for all the houses not being lived in - use to house people under contractual controls, or have to sell to the council housing central fund.

Personally I’d start converting all the office units that are no longer needed because so many people are working remotely now into housing too.

Same for the huge city centre shops - I’m not sure if the pattern repeats elsewhere, but I live near Glasgow and the city centre has basically died since Covid. No one is renting the huge retail stores and the place is full of unhoused folk, which is a fucking scandal. So convert them into housing; let the buildings see use, and let those folks get off the streets. Pets and kids specifically allowed too - get families out of one-room shelters and into proper homes of their own.

I’ve heard that there would be issues putting in water infrastructure, but given the place is literally crumbling already and usage in so many areas is so low that having workers digging up the streets to install water lines wouldn’t cause enormous disruption, the time to do this is *now*. Build rainwater catchment and purification systems on roofs too - we get so much rain in the UK it’s kind of ridiculous not to use it! Some of that could go directly to drip irrigation in gardens, but plenty could go right into the houses/flats too. And of course this would provide tons of jobs in construction, architecture, planning etc etc.

Install gardens and green spaces around the place while you are doing this - offer some at low rent, or to buy cheaply, to market gardeners, but specifically put spaces in for communal gardens with the idea of offering allotments and encouraging people to grow their own food.

Put solar panels on every roof and integrate spaces for smaller wind turbines amongst the houses too. Huge storage batteries in basements to make the new blocks as low-footprint and self-sufficient as possible power-wise.

It would be a *fantastic* opportunity to create genuinely accessible housing - office buildings and shops already have lifts and wide corridors ideal for wheelchairs and other mobility devices, so keep that in the design when creating housing. There is a hidden epidemic of houselessness amongst disabled people and older folk with mobility needs, so create low-rent council housing that specifically fits those needs there.

It would regenerate the areas - all the smaller shopfronts not suitable for housing conversion would fill up with people offering the things people in residential neighbourhoods need, with a guaranteed payer base. People on low incomes *use* all of their incomes on necessities, so small businesses selling those necessities will do well. Offer small businesses low rents to provide those necessities. Any that don’t fill up, offer to charities and use for council staff offering the aid and advice people transitioning into housing actually *need*.

Carers are generally low-paid - so this would be an opportunity to offer them cheap housing close to a huge client base in the new accessible housing. No need for low-paid, mostly-female workers to dash constantly between clients in cars. They could walk to work and walk in between clients, who would also no longer be trapped in inaccessible homes, so people who are not actually bedbound would hopefully be less housebound.

Put rooms in the blocks for communal and co-op activities to reduce isolation - with the lifts and wide corridors, even people who are functionally housebound are likely to be able to make it to a room in their own building, and even quite young children could get to those places safely on their own if their parents are working. Wraparound childcare, paid and informal, near where folks actually live.

City centre areas that are now largely dead other than unhoused people, with limited and decreasing zero economic activity taking place and a decreasing incentive for businesses to set up there rather than in out-of-town retail parks people need to drive to, would become vibrant communities with every incentive for businesses to set up there, particularly for the small businesses that still employ the majority of people.

It wouldn’t take a lot to extend this model to transform those out-of-town business parks that are currently largely empty either; nothing says the businesses that are still there would need to move, and they would have a huge new pool of potential employees living within easily walkable distance, though there would need to be oversight to make sure places like Amazon didn’t attempt to buy them up and turn them into company housing. There would need to be a little more investment to provide green transport links like electric buses and trains so that it would be easier for small businesses to move in to provide services, but given the tax income that would result and the reduction in pollution the investment would probably pay itself back within a decade or so.

[kay9leo]

#MCtober2024 -Meet Iñaki "MC" Martinez Cariaga

Based on @lamieboo's #MCtober2024 event (click on #MCtober for more info).

Note that she's from a Hogwarts Legacy AU that takes place in the late 2000s. Hence why she says Dungeon Snakes Rulez! (if you don't get the reference, it's from Fallout 3). She goes by "MC" since she doesn't want people to call her by her entire double surname. She's also trying to mimic that Spiderman graveyard meme pose here lol.

Iñaki hates potions in the US not because she's bad at it, but because of how careful and focused she tries to be to do well in the class. However, in the UK, she hate History of Magic due to Professor Binns. She loves Ancient Runes and DADA with Professor Hecat being her favorite due to the fact all the things they do in class matter for real life as well. That and she finds Hecat to be a cool teacher Professor.

Iñaki also tends to keep her wand in her hair bun. Most people think that's just a hair stick holding her hair up. Nope, just her wand lol.(More on Iñaki below the cut.)

Originally when she came to Hogwarts, she and Fig were late to the point that they missed her sorting and she was houseless for a week before she was allowed to be sorted.

In that time, she ended up befriending Amit, Poppy, Natsai and Garreth. She didn't care much for Sebastian, finding him too cocky during their first duel in DADA. While Iñaki found it easy to befriend people from the other houses, Slytherins didn't seem as opened to making friends.

Which would work in her favor.

When it came time to be sorted, Iñaki had a plan.

Seeing that she wasn't really going to be in Hogwarts/the U.K. for that long (3 years at most, a year at the least -which is something that she hopes for), Iñaki figured there was no point avoiding the invertible and just limit her interactions with people that she liked. She already had a hard time saying goodbye to her former friends when she temporarily moved to the U.K., she wasn't going to go through that again when she would finally move back home to the U.S. permanently.

When the sorting hat was placed on her head, she was a hat stall for either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff (to most people's surprise when they learned about it). She asked the hat to place her in Slytherin and had to convince the hat as to why. Iñaki would spend 5 minutes on the stool making her case as to why she should join the den of the snakes and ultimately the hat allows her to join Slytherin.

(The hat was impressed by her ambition to not make friends and trying to leave Hogwarts without leaving her own mark on the place or vice versa).

However, before the hat made its decision, it gave her a piece of advice saying:"...things aren't always as they seem. Take a moment to step back and see things as they are and not as you wish.", before it yelled out: SLYTHERIN.

It was a huge surprise to everyone since most people thought she would either be a Lion or a Badger due to her personality. There were even some bets about her being an Eagle, but barely anyone betted on her being a Snake.

Unfortunately for Iñaki, she didn't account certain variables for her plan to remain friendless in the den of snakes. Not with Imelda, Ominis and especially Sebastian as her housemates.

....

More on Iñaki "MC" Martinez Cariaga

[nando161mando]

139,000 houseless people in Wales.

Of which 39,000 are children.

Many spending months and years in limbo.

Tens of millions spent on hotels and temporary accomodations.

There are 120,000 empty homes in Wales.

Homelessness is a choice we all make.

[transsolidarityproject]

Homelessness Hotlines

Everyone deserves compassion and safety, including emergency shelter and other social services. Find tools and resources centered on houselessness below. Support the project by reblogging or visiting transsolidarityproject.wordpress.com. Updated last: 11/30/2024

🇫🇷 115 @ refugies.info / 115 / Emergency number in France that connects individuals with accommodation centers free of charge.

🇺🇳 211 @ 211.org / 211 / Referral and directory telephone service that connects callers with any/all resources that may be beneficial to their circumstances. 211 is available both in the entirety of the United States and Canada.

🇬🇧 Advice for Renters @ adviceforrenters.org / Charity organization that offers free housing advice, financial support, and mentoring for those living in the United Kingdom.

🇬🇧 akt @ akt.org.uk / 020-7831-6562 / British organization that specializes in providing emergency housing and services to LGBTQIA+ youth ages 16 to 25.

🇬🇧 Centrepoint @ centrepoint.org.uk / 0808-800-0661 / Youth homelessness charity based in the United Kingdom that works primarily with young people ages 16 to 25.

🇮🇪 Citizens Information @ citizensinformation.ie / Homeless information for those in Ireland, with large databases on agencies throughout the country.

🇺🇸 Coalition for the Homeless Crisis Intervention Hotline @ coalitionforthehomeless.org / 888-358-2384 / One of the oldest advocacy and direct service organizations for the homeless in the United States, providing crisis care, housing, food, and job training.

🇲🇽 Consejo Ciudadano Para la Seguridad y Justica @ consejociudadanomx.org / 55-5533-5533 / Also known as the Safety Hot Line, Mexico's primary non-emergency telephone center for those seeking support on various social issues.

🇬🇧 Crisis @ crisis.org.uk / National charity in the United Kingdom that helps homeless individuals find the resources and tools needed to thrive.

🇺🇸 Disaster Distress Helpline / 800-985-5990 / National service that provides 24/7 crisis support within the United States for anyone experiencing emotional distress due to natural or human-caused disasters such as tornados, severe storms, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, droughts, mass violence, disease outbreaks, and community unrest.

🇺🇳 FEANTSA @ feantsa.org / 32-02-538-66-69 / International organization co-funded by the European Union to provide support to homeless individuals.

🇺🇸 Feeding America @ feedingamerica.org / 800-771-2303 / Nationwide network of food banks, food pantries, and meal programs in the United States.

🇪🇸 HOGAR SÍ @ hogarsi.org / 911-108-984 / Social initiative and nonprofit organization in Spain that supports the needs of homeless individuals.

🇳🇱 Homeless Counter / 070-353-72-91 / Emergency shelter and social support for homeless people living in the Netherlands and at least 18 years old. Homeless individuals under the age of 18 should contact the Jeugd Interventie Team at 070-302-80-05.

🇮🇪 Homeless Dublin @ homelessdublin.ie / 1800-707-707 / Emergency accommodation for homeless individuals in Ireland.

🇦🇺 Homelessness Australia @ homlessnessaustralia.org.au / Support and resource organization in Australia with a large database of local helplines and charities centered on helping homeless individuals.

🇺🇸 Homeless Shelter Directory @ homelessshelterdirectory.org / Network of local shelters and homeless services in the United States.

🇺🇸 Human Resources and Services Administration @ hhs.gov / The primary agency under the United States government for supporting the delivery of essential human services which operates and partners with 19 different federal agencies, state and local governments, and other service providers to help homeless individuals.

🇺🇸 Miracle Messages @ miraclemessages.org / Nonprofit organization based in the US that provides social support systems to those experiencing homelessness, such as through their family reunification program, phone buddy system, and basic income pilots.

🇯🇵 Moyai Support Centre @ npomoyai.or.jp / 81-03-0363-0137 / Social welfare service that helps people living in Japan find everyday essentials/housing and overcome financial hardship.

🇺🇸 National Call Center for Homeless Veterans @ va.gov / 877-424-3838 / Free help through the United States Department of Veterans Affairs for veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. As a free and confidential service provided 24/7, the center accepts calls both from veterans themselves as well as family members, friends, and other supporters of veterans who are at risk.

🇺🇸 National Coalition for Homeless Veterans @ nchv.org / 202-546-1969 / National organization focused on ending veteran homelessness in the United States by promoting and shaping legislation as well as managing a referral helpline for at-risk veterans.

🇬🇷 National Emergency Response Mechanism / 30-2132128888 / Service for homeless children or children who are unaccompanied or in otherwise precarious living situations.

🇺🇸 National Healthcare for the Homeless Council @ nhchc.org / 615-226-2292 / Human rights and social justice organization that manages a nationwide healthcare network for homeless individuals in the United States. Additional information about free and low-cost medical, dental, pharmacy, vision, and behavioral services can be found through the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics at nafcclinics.org.

🇺🇸 National Runaway Safeline @ 1800runaway.org / 800-786-2929 / National communications system for runaway and homeless youth in the United States, which caters to keeping young people as safe and healthy as possible in potentially dangerous situations.

🇿🇦 National Shelter Movement of South Africa Helpline @ nsmsa.org.za / 0800-001-005 / 24/7 helpline in South Africa, with a focus on victims of domestic violence. Also available via text and WhatsApp.

🇳🇴 Nav @ nav.no / 55-55-33-33 / Emergency accommodation in Norway for those looking for a place to sleep for the next 24 hours.

🇬🇧 Samaritans @ samaritans.org / 116-123 / Charity that supports those in crisis in the UK, which includes assisting homeless individuals find necessary resources and aid.

🇧🇪 Samusocial @ samusocial.be / 0800-99-340 / Immediate help provided by mobile teams and emergency reception centers in Belgium to help homeless individuals.

🇬🇧 Shelter @ england.shelter.org.uk / 0808-800-4444 / Helpline agency that connects individuals with free legal advice and local referrals.

🇬🇧 StreetLink @ thestreetlink.org.uk / Website service for individuals sleeping rough in the United Kingdom, connecting them with their local council and outreach services.

🇺🇸 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program @ usa.gov / Formerly known as "food stamps," SNAP is a US welfare program that provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget.

🇳🇿 The People's Project @ thepeoplesproject.org.nz / 0800-437-348 / New Zealand-based organization that fosters a housing-first approach in helping homeless individuals get back on their feet.

🇺🇳 Travel's Aid Hotline @ travelersaid.org / 866-201-7399 / International network of social service agencies, airports, and train stations that work to end homelessness and human trafficking around the globe.

🇬🇧 United Response @ unitedresponse.org.uk / Established charity that specializes in housing needs for individuals with mental health needs and disabilities such as autism, sensory impairments, and dementia.

🇺🇸 Women, Infants, and Children @ fns.usda.gov / Special supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children in the United States to provide federal welfare for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding people, as well as infants and children up to age five who are at nutritional risk.

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[doctormastertardis]

Hands-down, one of the BEST stories I have ever read in my entire life. I am 38 and have read thousands of fictional stories. And THIS is everything. Idk if it's because of what I was going through when I first starting reading the series in 2019, but FUCK man I cry just thinking about how much this character saved me and prevented my suicide.

Gwen's mom comes from an ISLAND (which, again, is very much I can relate to because my mom comes from the mountains in the Philippines islands). And growing up, me and my oldest sister who was darker skinned than me, were always SHOWNED through people's actions that we were "ugly" and "less than" (our middle sister was VERY light skin, a mestizaje). My wide-set nose with a bump, my wavy frizzy hair, very lanky skinny body... the same as Gwen!!!

EVERYTHING about the main character Gwen made this story SO PERSONAL for me. And when her (dead) mom appeared to her (my mom passed away recently), and her mom told her SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL. I bawled like a baby. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL STORY!

Growing up as a BROWN indigenous person in the Philippines, post-colonial times, my mom sent us to an "international school" all throughout the 90s and she used to save up US $90 a year to pay for our tuition, that came out of my dad's US Navy retirement money (note: he was NOT an officer, he was a custodian/cook for the navy/ HE FED PEOPLE and he was HOUSELESS before he ever joined the US navy, just saying).

Anyway, because I was always surrounded by RICH light-skin Chinese, Korean, Irish, Italian, and German-Filipino kids in the international school that me and my sisters attended, MY MOM ALWAYS REMINDED ME: "they are all human beings; they shit like we shit too." As a kid it would make me laugh, because she literally uses the word "feces" in my language. But now that my mom has passed away, I will forever remember her advice to me. EVERYONE IS A HUMAN BEING WHO SHITS (lol), so we treat everyone equally even if they are treating us like "less than". And that, to me, is one of the most loving advices my mom ever gave to me.

When I first read the MOM REVEAL in "Cursed Princess", I couldn't stop crying man. I knew her mom was from another realm! I just deeply felt it. And it spoke a lot to me.

These are the types of stories that will remain forever an absolute treasure. If anyone is looking for a great graphic novel with a HUGE HUGE HUGE HEART, please go read Cursed Princess Club.

This is it. This chapter broke me. It destroyed me emotionally. I feel like I'm being caressed gently and thrown to the ground at the same time.

[poetryfoundation-potd]

Pennies for the Opera

BY TONGO EISEN-MARTIN

Our perfect confidence in the sun

In commemoration

every tambourine a thousand miles in every direction

playing in a California rent party

rattlers dancing and bleeding over God’s non-whitened skin

waiting for the cornfield to shrug

we are forgetful

but your ancestors nevertheless

slowing down the poem to the speed of sweet light

the speed of  bedless deaths

the bones of  fast friends near a pile of first fruits

a pile of  imperialist failings

oppressor and oppressed give their guns the same nickname

underground working-class sort of goes back to school

sort of studies revolution

The summer belongs to itself  now

As does a sharecropper’s God

As does the death mask

Real advice from Malcolm

Real rose chords over my Memphis skeleton

a tenor part before dying

playing to our waning blood pressure

our penny-plated gun (the last of the spacetime) tucked

white people would have sold us standing naked on anything

sold us off a huge garden crystal

or peacock  feather

would have sold us off  of  a stack of

doo-wop records if  they could

would have sold us off of the

perfection of the cosmos

Forestry of  drug paraphernalia

Suburb spikes in the grass

Syringe jungle like a sick bed’s sick bed

execution needle that became a society’s bottleneck

Preamble noose-talk

or nuclear scientist thanked for their work

Activists who don’t scream Black power/rather Black component

A painful season

Season gone sentient

and well-dressed

taken as a whole

taken in puppet skin

a sentient Sunday that married fifteen sticks of dynamite

we are houseless now

and dancing our waistlines into a courtroom floor

Atlantic ocean throwing my voice into the city weeds

City weeds of the other other confederacy

I would double down on this poem

on this gang friendship

signs of apocalypse in all directions

I would run this poem into the ground

on my fifth skipped meal

“today, Lord, we become even better friends”

dollar store notebooks in a mass context

pen cap full of bullets

California color line as played out with necro protest types who sleep on the other other earth

While

We are waiting to shoot on a muralist’s behalf

This waiting to shoot: an old man’s truancy of sorts

or tear stain on a Panther pamphlet

houseless bookseller speaking about little Bobby the conqueror

A crisis of open-air corrections

Chemical extradition

And war songs wearing off

Around the corner from South Texas

You pretended that prison is a river

You married your american cop

Black skin/white mantras

Like normal-speed bullets changing a normal life

Like walking back to the united states in defeat

[makalauriels]

As much as I’ve enjoyed all the confusion and outrage over Sauron’s identity from all sides, like I’ve said here, I think it’s time I throw my hat into the Sauron guessing ring!

Because we all need as much of the fun kind of speculation we can get.

Anyway I don’t think Sauron is any of the characters we’ve seen so far. In fact, I don’t think we’ll see Sauron on screen until season 2! If we’re lucky, we’ll see/hear him at the very end of the season finale as a kind of hook, but right now we will not know for certain he’s here.

Based on the info we get from episode 2, which I will elaborate on below, I suspect that Sauron is already in Eregion and already amongst the jewelsmiths.

Who would tell you this? Which thrall??

This is not found in any recorded document (or Doylishly, not in any of Tolkien’s writings). Maybe dear old Uncle Maedhros told you this tale.

But that's not it, isn't it? A certain Lord of Gifts has been whispering in your ear, hasn't he?

Why spring? When 20 or even 30 years is nothing to the elves and you certainly do not have the manpower for such an ambitious building project on such short notice.

And damningly, why is this proposed forge in the shape of Sauron’s sigil?!

Spoilers for future events under the cut:

Sauron already being in Eregion but going unnoticed by the people who canonically don’t trust him (Elrond, Gil-galad, Galadriel), because it’s Celebrimbor who is approaching people for this project and making them think it's his own idea, would be delicious drama because it would hurt everyone involved.

Celebrimbor - For… obvious banner related reasons.

Elrond - For aiding evil in the course of duty and letting his admiration and trust blind him. For bringing doom unto the dwarves in the form of 7 rings.

Gil-galad - Because he has unwittingly aided that which has come to destroy his kingdom. Suspicious and politically astute Gil-galad who is already aware that trouble is on the horizon and is doing his best to keep it at bay without alarming his subjects. Except by helping Celebrimbor whom he trusts for counsel, Gil-galad has doomed his kingdom by trusting bad advice. And this would be particularly terrible for a Gil-galad, son of Orodreth, who is most well-known for dooming his kingdom of Nargothrond (founded by Finrod from the prologue) by believing in terrible advice. All Gil-galad’s nightmares are coming true all at once.

Galadriel - Because from episode 1 we see her hunting Sauron across the far corners of Middle-earth. She’s spent so long away from home and has pushed herself and her followers to their limits, alienating everyone around her in the process, because she knows he’s out there. But all this hard work was for nothing, because the call is coming from inside the house and she wasn’t there to stop him.

Everything they are doing, all the missions and goals they have set for themselves? All of this will come to nothing. The road to hell will be paved with their good intentions.

Because… well… They’re Noldor.

Tears unnumbered ye shall shed; and the Valar will fence Valinor against you, and shut you out, so that not even the echo of your lamentation shall pass over the mountains. On the House of Fëanor the wrath of the Valar lieth from the West unto the uttermost East, and upon all that will follow them it shall be laid also. Their Oath shall drive them, and yet betray them, and ever snatch away the very treasures that they have sworn to pursue. To evil end shall all things turn that they begin well; and by treason of kin unto kin, and the fear of treason, shall this come to pass. The Dispossessed shall they be for ever.

Ye have spilled the blood of your kindred unrighteously and have stained the land of Aman. For blood ye shall render blood, and beyond Aman ye shall dwell in Death’s shadow. For though Eru appointed to you to die not in Eä, and no sickness may assail you, yet slain ye may be, and slain ye shall be: by weapon and by torment and by grief; and your houseless spirits shall come then to Mandos. There long shall ye abide and yearn for your bodies, and find little pity though all whom ye have slain should entreat for you. And those that endure in Middle-earth and come not to Mandos shall grow weary of the world as with a great burden, and shall wane, and become as shadows of regret before the younger race that cometh after. The Valar have spoken.

��Quenta Silmarillion, “Of the Flight of the Noldor”

[mischief-marauders]

Give me a Hogwarts that:

Has a third option for dorm assignments at Hogwarts. Male, female, and genderless rooms for each year in order to help students feel more comfortable in their rooms.

No more strict sitting with your house at meals rules. Make the tables houseless to increase interhouse relations and help students make friends outside of their houses

Puts as much emphasis on quidditch games for house points into other non athletic student activities. Dueling club, academic competitions, student games, etc all count for house points

Mandatory monthly therapy sessions for students deemed at risk. Students that have family members that are known death eaters, students that come from a not ideal home life, or even students that just need help, etc to prevent them from falling through the cracks and having somewhere to turn to.

Has clubs, meetings, and safe spaces for marginalized students. A safe space for muggleborn students to meet with a muggleborn professor who they can share and get advice from.

Mandatory service hours with some of the professions around the school. Students needing 40 service hours each year or they can’t graduate. First year they need 40 hours of volunteering in the kitchens with the house elves. Second year they volunteer with Filch. Third year they volunteer with Hagrid, etc. This will lessen the strain on the workers and help students appreciate the elves and employees more.

Mandatory muggle history and society class in order to destigmatize the hate of muggleborns wizards and witches and help the purebloods understand them and where they come from better.

One headmaster running the school and any major decisions they make have to go through a small committee consisting of the heads of houses. The professors are the ones who spend the most time with the students and should have a say in punishments, suspension, expelling, or any major decisions involving a students life at Hogwarts. Checks and balances.

[rothjuje]

Okay. Today has been very unpleasant.

Woke up naive and cheerful, ready to put 10k over on dream house.

Contact realtor, she asks if I’m sure about the ‘subject to sellers finding suitable housing’ clause. Wait what’s that? Oh it’s a lease back for an undetermined amount of time. Wait WHAT. Turns out they didn’t publicly publish it and realtor didn’t realize I hadn’t seen it.

Then realtor asks me what our temp housing/storage situation was. I said we planned to move in directly from our leaseback. “Look, I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but you need to know that you will be homeless for at least two weeks.” Then went on to say it’s been taking people an average of 3 months and 10-15 offers to secure a place.

And that dream house? The comps were 50-100k over asking. That is INSANE.

So. Here’s where we’re at.

1. This weekend was our last shot to not be houseless. So. If we don’t get this house it’s automatically one week of being houseless. Every Monday (when offers are typically due) that an offer we made is not accepted is another week houseless for us. So. Very fun.

2. I found out that we can put in offers with no contingency, so we can make attractive offers before we close. That’s the only good news. They will still be sight unseen though.

3. It is quite possible that we cannot find a house in our price range that warrants the expense, given Justin can work remotely. Justin wants NH if we can’t afford MA but man oh man I want as blue as we can get.

4. If we do not get an offer accepted by June 1st, we will rent for a year (if we decide to move to New England). We briefly talked about staying in TX, perhaps in Corpus Christi, but it feels like I’m selling my soul. We need an adventure, and we need a blue state. I do love Corpus Christi though, the ocean feels like bath water there and there are endless seashells.

We’re at a loss. We could move anywhere. Justin is concerned that liquidating our life savings for something we don’t love is not a smart choice.

Hmmmmmm. What about Vermont? He could still commute in the two days a week they require for local employees. Or we could go further west in MA.

Help. Advice?

[fratboykate]

ok so basically i need advice. my girlfriend (who i have been dating for 6 years i promise this is relevant) just turned 26, i’m 32. and at the very end of 2020/start 2021 she started to gain a lot of success. like ungodly amounts of success. pre pandemic she worked for the UN (she still does but is transitioning out) but in 2020 she went back to school to get a degree (she’s in 2nd year now) she started 2 companies which are both successful, one only moderately but the other one absolutely took off in august last year and became one of the top companies in our country as well as ranking on several lists for humane working conditions. she taught herself to code, built an app which made the apple editors list all in less than 5 months, she speaks so many languages it’s insane. she signed a book deal. she started 2 charities, one that pairs with universities and colleges in our local area to retrain houseless people and partners with local businesses to give them guaranteed 6-8 month job contracts as well as using the money from her app to buy a building and house as many of them as possible. it works. the second is a basically single handedly solving the food scarcity problem in our area and surrounding counties. last week i found out she started teaching herself bengali so she’d be able to talk to my parents. she went on an insane fitness journey, lost weight and got jacked and just last month got selected for the national team for a sport she had never even played before january but took up during lockdown, they’re pretty sure she’ll make the olympic team next year. and she still is the most amazing girlfriend, she’s never dropped the ball on our relationship even once, even though i have no idea how she finds enough hours in the day for everything. and i find myself being unable to be happy for her because i’m jealous of her success. the girl goes to class, goes to work and literally is changing the world for thousands of people every single day and i’m just there like “today at work i managed to not cry also i took a shower” and she is genuinely happy for me every time. she kisses me, makes me dinner and listens to me eagerly as i tell her about the job i have that i hate and is genuinely happy that i took a shower or that i took a nice walk like she didn’t just spend 13 hours literally changing the world. when people ask me if i’m proud of her i have to just awkwardly laugh because i think i’m too jealous to be proud. she asked me to move in with her last month (we basically live together anyway) but i can’t bring myself to do it bc i don’t want to be reminded of the success i haven’t achieved (she’s not in any way flashy, the opposite actually she gives away most of her wealth and actually downgraded flats after success, i just find myself thinking about it more and more). am i a terrible person?

I'm going to say something that may sound absurdly simple given the length of your message and you incredibly detailed you were (which btw thank you I appreciate you being so open with me) but I promise I'm not being facetious. This is genuinely the single best piece of advice I can give you: I think you need therapy. Potentially couple's therapy but start with solo therapy and go from there. I'm no expert but it seems to me like you're severely depressed and that's only something a professional can help you navigate. There might be some other issues feeding the jealousy but it might also just be that your depression has you stuck and once you solve that problem you can gain momentum in your own life in a way that would leave no room for jealousy of her success. So yeah, that's my honest advice.

Another thing I would say is, she sounds like an amazing girlfriend so maybe a conversation with her explaining things the way you explained them to me wouldn't hurt. Open communication is better than letting things fester. She asked you to move in with her. She clearly sees a future with you so be honest with her about where your head is at. If therapy isn't something you could afford on your own then maybe opening up to her would mean she could help in some way given her success. It would ultimately benefit you both in the long run. Idk. I just think therapy is at the very center of your solution. Everything else will stem from there.

[kay9leo]

It's hard being the new kid...

Sort of "modern" HL AU

Meet Iñaki "MC" Martinez Cariaga! She's the new transfer student from the United States. She was late for the sorting ceremony so she's currently houseless right now, hence the gray tie. Unfortunately for MC, her ancient magic is a magnet for attracting trouble and getting her into situations she rather not be in, sort of like Percy Jackson.

Fun Facts:

Normally her eyes are brown, but ever since she ended up in the UK, if she's around the presence of high Ancient Magic activity, her own ancient magic activates, turning her eyes a magical blue. They also turn that color when she's using it. At the advice of Prof. Fig, she tries to keep a small flow of it running consciously if she's not at a nearby ancient magical source.

She's also big runes fan! Since her family comes from both Central and South America, she has a big love of studying Mayan glyphs and Incans quipus (they use that instead of runes to conducting their magic). She also knows some indigenous words in Kaqchikel and Quechua; some for fun and some for spell casting. Seeing Norse runes in person was the one thing she was definitely looking forward when going to Hogwarts.

While she doesn't originally goes by MC back in the States, it became her deferred nickname/shorten version of her double surname Martinez Cariaga to use at Hogwarts. She's gotten tired of both professors and peers taking too much time to say it or have them accidently butcher her surnames (or first name even). Her nickname of MC is used so often that it gets to the point that barely anyone remembers that her name is Iñaki 🤣

Ancient Magic & Hogwarts Castle

I headcanon that the Hogwarts Founders were ancient magic users who build Hogwarts and never told anyone about their abilities. Since the place is humming with Ancient Magic, MC's eyes are always a constant magical blue. It's when she leaves Hogwarts grounds that she has to focus on maintaining that magical flow.

The Big Move, Fourth Year & the Reserved New Girl

Unfortunately, Iñaki's dad lost his job during the first layoffs of the Great Recession in early 2008. Thankfully, he had a buddy who hooked him with a new temp job in London, causing the Martinez Cariaga family to move across the pond from New York to London during the end of summer. While she loved the idea of traveling and going to Europe (and maybe even learn more about the different ancient runes used there), she wasn't too pleased at the idea of moving abroad and leaving everything she knows and loves.

Instead of starting her freshman year with her close friend group at Excelsior (NYS magical school system, Ilvermorny is the New England private magical prep school - the most famous, oldest and only school most people know outside the US), Iñaki is starting 4th year at Hogwarts.

Note: The words between "< >" is spoken in Spanish. MC comes from a Spanish-speaking Latino household. If the words are not in between "< >" assume she's speaking English.

6: At the end of MC's first week:

MC:

<¡Hola Mami!>

< I'm fine. ¿And you? >

< Nothing interesting happened this week. >

< ¡NO! ¡It wasn't like I fought a dragon or a troll this week. >

< ¡Just because I faced the Jersey Devil in 6th grade or the Headless Horseman in 7th OR befriended Champ at Lake Champion in 8th doesn't mean weird things always happens to me! >

<¡I'm fine Mami! Nothing happened...>

<¡I had to Mami! ¡He told me he wanted to give me a "proper Hogwarts welcome" before we started! I told him "That's how we say 'Hello' in New York." Made it too easy for me by saying his spells out loud. The prof said I was a great example of how magical duels are different in the New World with our non-verbals...>

<He was cool with losing. ¡Sebastián even gave me a tour of the magical village nearby and introduced me to the "dueling club" the school has! >

< We dueled together…¡It was fun! I almost forgot how much I miss home… >

8:

MC:

< I still want to go home. >

< No Mami. I don't mean visiting you guys back in London. Home as in New York. >

< ¿Why should I make friends if we're only going to be here for a year?>

< ¿It's only a year...right? >

< ¿Right? >

< I gotta go...I promised my classmates I'll study with them for our exam next week. >

< I love you too. >

"Bye."

*Flips phone closed*

*Ends call*

......

MC's trying...but she is rather homesick.

She's now stuck in Hogwarts and isn't too keen on making friends since she has no clue whether she'll be there for a year or not - it all depends whether if they extend her father's work contract and she's isn't keen on making friends if she's only there for a few months in her mind. It gets to the point where Sebastian trying to friend her is like an unstoppable force meeting an unmovable object. (He ends up winning though when she accidently slips up and calls him her friend later on in the year).

For now though, MC is a very angsty teen right now and had her world flipped upside down.

At least she can take out her angst in dueling club 😅

I want to thank @myokk for listening to my ideas about my MC and to my sibling who needed to borrow my laptop for work (leading me to doodle and actually make a digital drawing on my tablet -that I use as a second monitor for work- since I couldn't edit some papers on those days). Without them this drawing wouldn't have happened.

I'm never doing this ever again because I a bit too perfectionist for art and I hated the number of layers I needed. It was supposed to just be a SIMPLE digital doodle!!!! Instead I made this 😭. Never again. I'm sticking to my pen doodles. I was bored out of my mind and I was either reading or doodling while my sis was testing out her new laptop and I was on stand by in case she needed me.

[thewoodbinewitch]

I'm currently in the process of deprogramming the way I interact with houseless people by treating them like, y'know, people.

I just got out of a conversation with this great dude, Alan, who started talking to me about Fleetwood Mac. We get into a conversation and he tells me about how he hasn't seen his daughter in five years and how he's been thinking about reconnecting. The conversation continues and ends up he's a former actor, and he gave me advice on an upcoming role and about a million high fives

[ultraviolet-techno-ecology]

I agree with this sentiment, however something that has always bothered me is that I never know what I can actually do to help. All my friends talk about politics all the time and we go out and vote. Then what? How can you enact change at all, really?

This is precisely the sort of learned helplessness that comes from liberal politics teaching people that politics is electoral in nature. Anarchists around the nation are involved in various projects which have direct material impact on their community - feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the houseless, unionizing workplaces, even fixing roads in neglected neighborhoods. 

In fact the question shouldn’t even be phrased as “Then What?” implying some future action - the question is “Now What” - immediate to the present. And my advice for that is to get a firearm and learn to use it, because right now in the USA protestors are being kidnapped off the street by armed soldiers who only answer to Trump and who are itching to start a real armed conflict. 

[meta-squash]

Brick Club 1.2.4 “Some Facts About the Dairies of Pontarlier”

My favorite thing about this chapter is the Hugo-as-Baptistine-as-Hugo narrative style.

So, Valjean gets fed and makes a comment on the bishop’s poverty. The bishop then subtly reveals his actual status--both in the church and his family. He doesn’t outright say that he is more than just a cure, but he hints at it with “God is more than just.” He hints at his background by explaining that his family was ruined during the revolution and he had to go into a labor job; but he does name-drop a relative who was captain of the gates.

And I know it’s not supposed to be this way, but I always imagine Myriel telling Valjean about the cheesemakers in the same way that like old people talk and talk and talk to retail workers who can’t tell them to shut up or they’ll get in trouble. Anyway.

So Baptistine transcribes Myriel’s explanation of the fruitieries and the grurins and their labor, and then goes on to note that at no point so far has the bishop tried to preach to Valjean or give him moral advice, despite having a number of chances and reasons to do so. She wonders about this, and then realizes that it’s probably the bishop wanting to comfort Valjean and give him respite from his misery and keep him from thinking about his situation.

I think the little line about the people of Pontarlier being “happy because they are innocent”  is such a succinct little introduction to the way Hugo views happiness and unhappiness.

It’s also interesting that Myriel encourages “good” labor jobs. I’m wondering if he knows for sure that a place like Pontarlier would take Valjean in or if he’s just trying to make Valjean feel better as well as encouraging him to find an “honest path.” Considering the way Valjean was treated by other laborers on his way to Digne (the fishmonger, the wagon drivers, the foreman at Grasse), I don’t know whether the cheesemakers of Pontarlier would actually employ Valjean.

And I’m probably going about interpreting this with too much of a modern lens, but I’m gonna write it anyway, because I can see a connection to modern day.

Baptistine falls into the weird morality trap that I feel like a lot of centrist or neoliberal types tend to fall into in present day when talking about people who have been victims of the prison system and/or have returned from being incarcerated for a longer period of time, or who are in other, similar situations. And that is, belittling or dehumanizing someone while simultaneously attempting or intending to be compassionate or kind. Baptistine says:

“He undoubtedly thought that this man, called Jean Valjean, had his misery all too constantly in his mind, that it was better to make him think of other things, and have him believe, if only for a moment, that he was a person like anyone else, by treating him in this normal way. Isn’t this a true understanding of charity? Isn’t there, dear lady, something truly evangelical in this tact, which refrains from sermonizing, moralizing, and making allusions? Isn’t it most sympathetic, when a man has a bruise, not to touch it at all?”

I think this shows the difference between Myriel and Baptistine. The bishop is treating Valjean like a person because he is a person, just like anyone else. Despite the brief mention in the last chapter of the choice between hatred or good will, at no point does Myriel treat Valjean as anything but a regular man. This is further illustrated when Mother Gerbaud enters, and we see him treat her with a similar respect as he is treating Valjean.

Baptistine, on the other hand, gets caught in that trap that we still see today. She unintentionally frames herself as “above” Valjean, and frames Valjean as not really being a person. Just because he has to adjust to life outside of prison for the first time in almost 20 years, doesn’t mean he’s not a person. Yet again, Hugo being unfortunately relevant in present day. I think it’s the use of the word “believe.”

Baptistine gets the idea but comes at it from the wrong angle. It’s not about him believing he’s a person--he is a person--it’s about him not having to think about his pain and trauma that dehumanized him in the first place. Which seems to be the angle Myriel is coming from, Baptistine just isn’t interpreting it well.

It reminds me of something I hear a lot from neoliberal type people when they talk about helping unhoused people or people who have just gotten out of prison and things like that. As in, they acknowledge the person needs and deserves help, but that “help” comes with parameters and restrictions set up by those in more privileged positions. Giving houseless people a sandwich instead of money because you want to help them but don’t want them “spending it on drugs”--thereby taking their autonomy away in the process, because it’s their decision how they spend money given to them, and they should be able to choose. Or like NIMBY types who say they like the idea of helping the homeless but “not around here.” Acknowledging that someone needs help, but then refusing to show them respect, or unintentionally being disrespectful or dehumanizing out of ignorance. Again, I’m pretty sure that’s not what Hugo is showing but I’m making the modernized connection anyway.

I do like the little interlude with Mother Gerbaud; it illustrates to the reader and to Valjean and the bishop treats everyone like this. He’s not giving Valjean special treatment nor is he pitying him. He’s simply doing what he would do for any of his parishioners.

Basically, we’re getting a look at Myriel’s goodness from a (sort of) outsider perspective, as well as an outsider look at Valjean, though Baptistine is more focused on her brother than the stranger. It seems like talk of honest labor is a more subtle way for Myriel to preach. By the power of gentle suggestion, he encourages keeping to the “straight and narrow” rather than by proselytizing.