Enga mellom fjella

Ready for a flophouse experience? How about staph?

An old photo taken at the local flophouse. The fence is still there, doing its duty.



There are always lines for the poor. Our local ghetto store has lines that would not be tolerated on the wealthier west end of town. It's known locally as Dirty Dillons; but, it services the East Side and no one else does. What gnaws at the heart of things is that they have two other stores in town that are not as bad. Poor folk get the short stick ... most every time. But better to live here then over in Crack Valley by Wal-Mart, though. Maybe that's why the green-folks want another. It's hard for some people to be exposed to the underbelly of society that they choose to ignore or deny.

As for the flophouse ... In previous winters they have allowed more people inside than firecodes allow. They do it out of kindness, of course; but, this city has a high vacancy rate (and empty buildings, empty dorm rooms, heated city buildings empty at night) and no valid reason to pack people into spaces that would make the local SPCA weep. No reason other than greed and an uncaring aorta blocking blood from their heart to their brains.

Manhatten (the Little Apple, about 90 west of here and home of Kansas State U.) is building a shelter for $1.5 million in a town smaller than Lawrence and not as wealthy. Here, one of the wealthiest counties (Johnson County, Kansas) in the U.S.A. is 30 miles east; they have no shelter. In Douglas County one of the three universities, Kansas University, has an endowment in the billions and football and basketball coaches that annually make around $1.3 million EACH. (The switch of the KU-Missouri game to KC alone cost this town $2 million) That is more per day than someone trying to get welfare gets per year ($217/month = $7/day IF a committee of three people decide by phone conference that the person deserves that amount. They have been known to approve less. Minimum wage is less than $6/hour; living wage around $10/hour.) The numbers numb the conscious or so they should ... or shouldn't!

This summer the numbers trying to get inside for nightly shelter (one must sign up for a lottery day-by-day) did not go down. This winter, the flophouses will again be over-packed. And then there is the concern about staph. Supposedly the local jail is having a problem and releasing people to the streets that have no medical or social support. Guess where they go ...

Is anyone reading this willing to come to Lawrence, fight daily for a mat on the floor of a 9 foot by 10 foot room that is shared by 3 or four people? Make sure you have good health insurance, aren't susceptible to respiratory problems (like bronchitis or pneumonia), hepatitis and now staph. You will not get to choose who sleeps less than 2 foot away from you. You will not be informed whether they have a background of violence.

My prediction? We will have more deaths on the streets this year. The odds are really great. Most years someone dies.

Poems for folks I knew:

Michelle died in December in the train park: "A radiant moon has set" 
Byron had brain cancer and lived in the flophouse until almost the end: "Byron Lynn" 
Jason came back to town quite ill and died on a blue mat: "Picking up the trash" 
Jeanne was quite ill too; but, got dismembered by the UP train first: "Knowing it lies beyond" 

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