Slum Jack is homeless no more!
After more than three years of homelessness, Slum Jack has a place of his own.He says this was a direct result of some friends helping him with stunning generosities. "My major benefactors have been persons that became friends with me while I was homeless, too," he said. "That seriously surprised me."
Read his post here.
posted by Jacqueline Dowd @ 11:04 PM
6 Comments:
That's right.
What an ordeal that was.
That's right.
What an ordeal that was.
Ah, but like so many "chronic homeless" the above is no longer true.
While I'm currently not "out there" on the streets, and in much better condition than before, I lost that residence and have been reduced to a Second or Third Class Citizen status, having to sneakily "live" out of a rented commercial space in a building.
I do have a vehicle and am getting by much better than in not-so-distant years past, but I've been stuck in this version of the predicament for most of this year and, so far, unable to get out and up from here.
Stay tuned (if anyone cares) . . .
Like so many others, my predicament now is that I've been living in a vehicle… which I'm currently at peril of losing due to merely a few parking tickets. In recent times, it got "booted" twice and towed/impounded once. I've gotten it back each time and without having paid the total ransom they've set and which many have marveled at, saying "that never happens". But I'm not out of the woods yet.
It's a complex situation. All else aside, it's made me keenly aware of the odd status of The Parking Ticket Hustle. Here, despite there being a couple of different "programs" to relieve folks of various burdening legalities/fines (traffic violations, even some criminal) parking tickets have a unique, sacrosanct status that keeps those from being included. They have been relegated to their own, special court, too. And it's all in a blatant reversal of American Justice: You're guilty until/unless proven innocent and only given strict times and ways to do that. This would be an "administrative court" which at least one judge has ruled as illegal, unconstitutional.
Continued, next reply...
Continued, from reply above…
In my case, once the vehicle was booted the first time, I assumed that I was surely going to lose it since I simply could not afford to pay all that it was going to cost, and then loaded with boot/tow/impound charges. However, after hastily removed all items of any value to me, I just could not passively allow them to "steal" my vehicle without at least attempting to do something to prevent that. So I began to go through the motions: put a sign in the windshield, wrote a protesting statement which I took in person to the police dept (and they refused to "receive") and made some phone calls which only allowed me to leace voice messages. But… I did receive a callback from a Sergeant of the Parking Enforcement division and, after some lengthy discussion, some modified arrangements were agreed -- and my vehicle was unbooted and restored to me.
The next day, it was booted again. The Sgt did not provide me with any documentation nor other form showing what we'd only verbally established. I attempted to get it released again, with the company that contracts with the city for "booting". The first time the person easily and immediately realized that it was a mistake, since the semi-automated system they use still showed boot-eligible status, and the "meter maid" failed to read included notes that showed the arrangement otherwise. Some time passed, and it wasn't unbooted. So I called two more times, speaking to a different person each time, and they were not acknowledging any such thing. I left my name, phone number and requests that they check with the police. Meanwhile, I discovered that the boot device… wasn't locked. So I removed it from the wheel and put it inside the vehicle, since it seemed an obvious mistake. and called the Sgt. leaving a voice message describing what happened and asking what I should do with it and requesting some form of documentation for our deal.
A week later, my vehicle was towed from a different location. No boot. No warning. Later, a Supervisor at the police ticket paying center told me that the boot company had come the night before to remove the boot (a week after booting it), but then discovered my vehicle was not there and they assumed I had damaged the boot to get it off. Apparently THAT is why they had it towed the next day, with collaboration by the police, to hold it hostage against the return and condition of their boot. I don't know that that is even a legal option for them. But that's how it played out when I told them where in the vehicle it was. They had someone "break in" and retrieve it, discovering that I had not damaged it, indeed. Then my vehicle was released to me again.
Continued, next reply….
Continued, from reply above…
But when I went to retrieve it from the tow yard, there were new, large "spider web" cracks in the windshield… right in front of the driver seat. A friend that was with me commented that it appeared that a solid, pointed object coming from an upper angle might cause such, but it didn't appear possible for any road debri, etc. to do so. He wondered aloud if it was retaliatory blow when they thought I'd defeated their boot. The tow company and the police have denied any knowledge about it and refuse to pay.
Such windshield cracks, technically, render the vehicle undrivable too. Replacing the windshield will cost a couple' hundred dollars. Meanwhile, the vehicle was scheduled for registration renewal during all this. I'd received advance notices from the DMV showing that to require about $100 or so… until the most recent one, in which several of the tickets the Sgt had arranged two more months for me to pay, were now showing and preventing registration that now costs over $500. And I' ve since received a ticket for "late registration", adding even more charges.
So due to may having parked somewhere that had its monthly street sweeping (and not having prevented that from happening since I was only there briefly), they've now got me cornered…. owing hundreds of dollars (mostly "fines" and "late fees"), have damaged it so that it's illegal to drive in that condition, prevented from even re-registering it, which is then illegal to have on public streets anywhere, suddenly deprived me of even use of it for spans of time, etc. All the while, simply neglecting to call me back, document the "arrangements" or acknowledge the boot company's crime of stealing my vehicle.
This is how things can go when you get identified as homeless and helpless. This is how folks fortunate enough to have a vehicle get it taken away from them to be sold with the money going to the "authorities", and slapped back down to living on the streets.
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