It's cold and rainy here today - well, the rain has currently stopped, but it's still cold. Last night as I walked home, in the rain, I saw a lady making her bed in the doorway of a bank. She was youngish looking and missing that haggard homeless look, so my guess was that she had not been homeless long. As I continued my walk I thought about how I will lose these encounters in a few short months. No where else that I've lived have I been in such constant contact with the stark difference of homelessness. In most cities the million dollar homes are miles and miles away from the daily reminders of homelessness, but not here in New York. Daily I see someone pushing a cart, now that it's cold I'll see people sleeping under the bridge when I walk to work in the morning. And yet here, these two worlds live side-by-side as though it is normal. It's crazy sometimes for me to realize that people who co-exist in NY would never, never in other parts of this country. And still - even while seeing these people on a daily basis - in a city with TONS of apartments (and less jobs than before) there is still the problem of homelessness. Walking by these people on a daily basis starts to loose it's "shock" sometimes for me. That while I am walking home on a cold, windy and rainy night - this woman, my age or younger, is bunking down in the doorway of a bank. Something's off...
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