On The Road: Destination-Minneapolis Minnesota story by August H Mallory

This story originally dated september 16, 2008. as I arrive in this city I had to get through the loop of how minneapolis deals with its homeless, as I begin my trek through the city. I find out about a place called mary jo's a daily community kitchen plus social sevice office that also has a insider deal with minnesota state department of human services. the united way a well known organization throughout north america. had given me a referral to mary jo's, what I discovered was that this particular organization was known all over the twin cities including st. paul. I had to admit to myself if this was not well handed marketing then I don't know what was. as I spend a few days in minneapolis, I spend my nights at the salvation army in downtown minneapolis. but much like any city that I have traveled to, the situation is pretty much the same. many cities have very limited services for the poor and homeless. mary jo's takes on alot to be the small organization that it is. when I walked inside of mary jo's I was amazed at the size of the building, a rather large building for just a small organization, but there were medical staff on hand, veteran service reps available, state job service reps also. I thought to myself not bad, but as I had my lunch which was an excellent meal, as I left to explore more of the city. I noticed that homeless is far more rampant in northern cities that is was in the deep south. the sad thing about being homeless in any part of america, is that people are very desperate, destitute and determined to do what ever it takes to survive. even if it means to take down another homeless person in the process. many conflicts occur amongst the homeless, alot of violence exist within the ranks of the down and out. I been involved with the homeless for many years and I can say from experience that anything can trigger anger from a person. it is like walking amongst a walking time bomb. when I left the military in 1984. my curiosity begin to rise about the homeless, how do they live exactly. where do they sleep. how do they get food and where do they get their meals. but as I continued to mingle among the homeless, there was one thing that I learned about the homeless, they communicate in away that black slaves did during the days of slavery. and the majority of the homeless are african american. why is this. it is due to the result of slavery and the many problems of being denied rights that whites would get in a perfect world. since 1984 I have seen alot of changes with human service organizations. alot of budget cuts have been put in place and many services that would be available to the poor are placed on hold or have been eliminated. I musy give the organization known as mary jo's it props. they do an awesome job for an organization to be so small. as i watch the local homeless romp around town with no guidance or direction I wonder do they know about mary jo's. if there are outreach services available, may i encourage social service worker to go into the city parks and the doorways and the alleyways to find these people and direct them to mary jo's, well done mary jo's keep up the good work