As I wait for the 32, I notice that the lady who slept overnight in the bus shelter at 20th and Vine has a real interesting color coordination going; a sort of lilac-and-sage harmony between her pillow, her quilt, and her fleece blanket. Her bright blue IKEA shopping bag doesn’t fit the scheme, but it is capacious and keeps things tidy. A big trash bag is tied neatly to the upright holding up the roof, and I assume she folds the bedding and stows it there.
She has on a pretty head wrap and a nice outfit with a patterned sweater and capris, and is sitting perched on the low wall outside the library, fastidiously brushing her teeth so she can spit discreetly over the wall.
It’s a periodic and compelling reminder, in case I needed it, that “homeless” just means “lacking a home.”
Oh sure, she could go to a shelter. Those places are dangerous, as I hear from what people say on the Girard Avenue trolley, and not only that, they make residents leave during the day. Sometimes they won’t let you bring all your things. If you do bring your possessions, other people steal them.
When cities “clear homeless encampments,” they usually throw out people’s belongings. She would lose her pretty things either way. And meanwhile, she still has no place to live except a bus shelter where someone lit the bench on fire once and the scorch marks are still there.
I don’t get why we want to punish people who do not have homes. It’s like we look at someone who doesn’t have a place to live and say, “Fine. How dare you have little pleasures! How dare you want to be a little bit okay! Let’s take away your false teeth, your driver’s license, your old letters from your family, and your dog, too. Let’s throw out your nice airplane pillow and your sage-colored fleece blanket! See how you feel about that!”
She won’t be there next time I wait there; it will probably be someone else there, because no one seems to stay more than a night or so. It’s a very desirable property, that bus shelter, because it has good visibility and a roof, and it’s in between the majestic Philadelphia Free Library and the lovely, landscaped Barnes Foundation, across from the recently-opened Calder Gardens.