Springs Rescue Mission: The Things They Carry
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What is it like hanging around the Springs Rescue Mission (SRM) for several days? I wrote two weeks ago about its environment early in the morning. I’ll show now what it was like at 4:45 p.m. on a hot summer day. Ninety men and 29 women were lined up waiting to get into the air-conditioned dining hall. Most of the men had beards. Many of the women had leathery skin. Almost all were tattooed.
The things they carried: Two enormous pillows, gigantic plastic bags, heavy blankets, spare pairs of sneakers — and almost everyone had a cell phone. (Medicaid provides free phones or tablets.) The T-shirts they wore: Just Do It. Never Too Much Bacon. The things some of them said: “I want dinner now,” “Don’t need this sh**,” “I don’t know when my f***ing payday is.”
The conversations we had:
“Gonna sell my plasma tomorrow.”
“What other ways do you have to make money?”
“Maybe I’ll go home. Three hours southeast of here. Ride a tractor.”
“What brought you here?”
“My wife kicked me out.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Well, she’s my fifth wife.”
“Will Springs help you get your life in order?”
“I’m not going to take any of their B.S.”
“Ever think of going elsewhere?”
“It’s bad all over. Too many immigrants coming. They’ll take any job.”
The mental illness some showed: On a summer day, one thin young man with a long brown beard walked back and forth for half an hour, always saying, “First time all day! First time all day!” A middle-aged woman kept yelling, “State should have paid for it. Mandatory! Mandatory!” An enormously fat man with feet in socks, holding his shoes, said, “I’m sorry. He made me do it.” He noticed me: “I’m sorry. I’m talking loud.” I replied, “No problem.” He then kept repeating: “I didn’t want to do it.” My dumb question: “What?” His response: “I didn’t want to do it.”
But most of the residents were not mentally ill. One Springs manager showed me the record of a typical spring/summer month and said it was fine to take notes: The 754 clients included 203 women, 535 men, 16 trans or undetermined. Two-thirds of the clients were on Medicaid or Medicare. Nearly one-third had a physical disability of some kind but more than one-third — 288 in all — had a mental health disorder. Also significant: 170 had a history of domestic violence, sexual assault, or human trafficking.
I can’t tell some of the stories, since I reported at SRM under constraints I have not had elsewhere. In return for unsupervised access, I agreed not to write about the personal stories of residents without signed statements from them and authorization from administrators, which inhibited the process. I can say, based on numerous conversations, that those making progress through the programs expressed optimism and pleasure, while those going one-night-at-a-time often grumbled that long-term residents were getting better food.
Here’s a crucial statistic: Men stay an average of 11 days, women 14. That’s not much time to try to turn around a life. Every SRM guest is better off than someone sleeping outside on Las Vegas Street. SRM offers safety. No weapons, no public intoxication. Everyone who comes in gets nourishing food and a bed for the night. Since many are used to thinking about their next meal or where they will sleep, SRM shows them that by joining a program they can have better food and the same bed every night.
By agreement, I am able to write restaurant reviews. Food for program participants was good, as it was for one-nighters as well if you like oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches, which I do. Dinner one day for people in the program was chicken, vegetables, and lemon cake. The transients not in a program had noodles in broth and a piece of bread — not great, but better than the junk food on Las Vegas Street.
I’m also able to quote staff members such as Ronnie Hammers, who moved to Colorado Springs from the Midwest six years ago with plans to retire. After volunteering at SRM for a year, he became a salaried Hope program leader. “I originally thought you could snap your fingers and change things,” he said of what he’s learned. “I’ve learned that doesn’t work and I’ve also had to overcome the other tendency: playing God by thinking someone is unable to change.”
I enjoyed conversations with Jose Colon, who was 64 and had accumulated 32 years of distinguished Army service. Colon, as head of security, said SRM averages 260 incidents per month that require some discipline. Specifics include disorderly or aggressive behavior (53); medical problems requiring some transport (22); possession of drugs, alcohol, or drug paraphernalia (25), each requiring a one-week suspension. He’s glad the entire campus is now fenced in.