#couchsurfing

i am very scared.

i cannot live where i am fleeing. i just can't go back there.

i cannot live with my parents. i thought they'd be a safe option but given the role disability plays now they are not. i guess in some sense they mean well but they have so little understanding of disability they're borderline abusive and have no idea. and they do not like taking criticism.

i cannot trust nearly everyone i know because damn near the only friends i've seen since october are the longtime friends of the people i'm fleeing.

i have very particular and significant sensory needs. i am a wheelchair user for now at least. sometimes i am cognitively impaired. i am a trans woman. these make things harder and make me much more vulnerable.

i also have a history of exploitative or violent housing situations and i think if i ran into one of those right now it would permanently damage my mental well-being.

places advertising themselves as places for desperate people to go terrify me because they know their tenants don't have anywhere to go and are incentivized to act accordingly.

i have a couch for tonight but i don't know what comes after. i have some savings but few easy options.

fucking scary.

Vendredi 8 mars : j’ai regardé avec joie les vidéos des manifs féministes en France, en réalisant au fur et à mesure que ça allait être moins la folie ici.

Et il m’a fallu un peu de motivation parce qu’il pleuvait des cordes à Chicago. J’ai foncé au musée de l’architecture histoire d’avoir quelques infos en plus sur cette ville. Maintenant que presque tout est bétonné, le projet est de mettre le plus de verdure partout. Et j’ai vu le projet de réhabilitation de la tour Montparnasse pour la verdire également !

J’ai pris le bus, avec la ficelle le long de la fenêtre sur toute la longueur du bus pour demander l’arrêt :-) pour aller au musée de l’histoire de Chicago.

Ça ne parlait pas des Irlandais mais plutôt des polonais arrivés à Chicago dans les années 1830, pendant la guerre avec la Russie (toujours les mêmes …). Même si certains sont repartis vivre en Pologne, d’autres sont arrivés à chaque nouveau conflit international. Tout ça ressemble à la population dans The Wire 🧐

J’ai rejoins un rassemblement contre une fausse clinique qui va bientôt ouvrir à Chicago. Le genre de clinique qui n’a aucune certification médical mais qui reçoit des femmes et donne son point de vue sur l’avortement par exemple, sans pouvoir prodiguer plus d’aide. Les panneaux sont un peu confus mais j’étais bien avec des pro-choix donc des gens qui soutiennent le droit à l’avortement, à l’accès aux soins pour toustes… Il y a une marche dimanche après midi, j’espère y trouver un peu de l’énergie que jamais vu dans les vidéos françaises !!!

Some info about Point In Time counts and statistics around homelessness in the United States!

[ID: Slide 1 of 9, White text on a grey background reads: "Any statistics around homelessness are greatly under-represented, here's why" next to an arrow directing to the next slide, at the bottom, it reads "chronically couchbound"

Slide 2 of 9, in the same style, reads "The numbers that tell how many unhoused people are in the United States are done using something called Point In Time (PIT) counts." the bullet point below it reads: "PIT numbers are used to identify needs for services, and help shelters qualify for funding." The last bullet point reads: "PIT numbers only count people who are legally considered homeless (couch surfing isn’t considered homelessness, legally) This means PIT counts are only counting people in shelter beds, and those visibly sleeping outside."

Slide 3 of 9, in the same style, bullet points read: "Pit counts are the only required count of unhoused people in the US across the country." the next reads: "Every other year, official PIT counts include people not living in shelters, however, many communities try to count both sheltered and unsheltered people every year." The final bullet point reads: "These counts are the closest to an accurate representation of homelessness we have in the united states, and still is lacking."

Slide 4 of 9 reads: "Why?" at the top of the page, below reads bullet points: "PIT counts are done on a random night in January every year." the other bullet point reads: "On this random night in January, it’s often freezing. When I was unhoused in New England winters, I can tell you I wasn’t sleeping outside. I’d stay up and walk around if I couldn’t find a place to crash, and sleep in the daytime. I knew sleep meant death. Most people who do sleep outdoors are usually hidden well because that means warmth and safety."

Slide 5 of 9, in the same theme, bullet points read: "Most shelters simply do not have the funding to staff outreach workers to go out to do full PIT counts. Even if they have the funding, it’s hard to find unhoused people, so staying out the whole night as an outreach worker is difficult." the next bullet point says: "From unofficial counts done similarly to PIT counts in warmer months, it’s easy to see booming numbers of unhoused people. More people aren’t unhoused in the summer, it’s just less dangerous to sleep outdoors."

Slide 6 of 9, in the same style, bullet points read "PIT counts especially misrepresent unaccompanied youth, disabled people, and other marginalized people, because they’re often couch surfing or more hidden from the public while homeless. Couch surfing is not legally considered homelessness." The next bullet point reads "Many communities report zero unaccompanied unsheltered youth, which is often inaccurate in reality." The final bullet point reads: "Lack of youth shelters, and beds in youth shelters, play a huge part of this discrepancy."

Slide 7 of 9, in the same style, bullet points read: "The lack of knowledge, safety, and support in accessing services makes it harder for youth to be connected with service providers and less likely to be counted in PIT numbers." The next bullet point reads "Increasing awareness of PIT counts, and local service providers could help give more accurate counts, but we need more youth-based services that have active outreach teams in order to achieve better (and more accurate) counts of unhoused youth."

Slide 8 of 9 reads: "What can you do to help?" at the top of the page, below reads three bullet points: "Share this post & comment to spread awareness" The next bullet point reads: "Volunteer with a local homeless service provider, such as a shelter, nonprofit, or soup kitchen to help with PIT counts" The final bullet point reads: "Share, contribute to, or create local resource guides, or add or verify information for resources online (such as on Google or the shelter app) to ensure they're up to date."

Okay, so, it’s not all strictly about couchsurfing, but it does mostly have to do with moving around a lot. And there’s some melancholy tunes in here, along with the more raucous numbers. I tried my best. (Also, you get a bonus song, because I obviously had to include the W/IFS song which you gave me as a prompt.)

other people’s apartments & couches & clothes

World/Inferno Friendship Society - Hothouse Flowers (laments and rowdy songs / hymns about sin / high lifes and reels / a tarentell violin / other people's apartment's and couches and clothes / young again / lost again / here we are / here we go)

Enola Gay - Sofa Surfing (I’ve got this weekend comin’ and it’s on repeat / I’ve been sofa surfing from suite to settee / From dusk till dawn now it’s blinding me / Gotta get off my hole and order my taxi)

Friendly Foes - Couch Surfing

The Replacements - Here Comes a Regular (And sometimes I just ain't in the mood / To take my place in back with the loudmouths / You're like a picture on the fridge that's never stocked with food / I used to live at home, now I stay at the house)

Peter Case - The Open Road Song (I'll seek my fortune in the wide world / Take my chances in the cold / Come what may I'll be okay / If I could only find a stretch of open road)