This is a collection of my journal entries written during my first year of being homeless. The purpose of making something like this publicly available is that homeless people are rarely given the opportunity to speak for ourselves in meaningful ways, I'd like to be part of changing that.
The informality of the style (journaling) and the raw, personal nature of it says more about the nature of homelessness than it does about me as a writer. You get things on paper in the rare moments that you can and then you have to squirrel them away in your backpack and hope you can hang onto it, and typically, things are happening so fast, the organization is what you can manage. My approach was similar to Gonzo Journalism, minus exaggeration, hyperbole of any kind, and I approached things like my emotions (which one unavoidably confronts within the context of being homeless) and my body’s response to them as another detail among my observations, but the place I was writing from remained objective and calm in my goal of reporting what was happening as truthfully and accurate as I was capable of.
If you’re looking for more ways to get involved personally and do something to address homelessness, I recommend looking up mutual aid groups and networks in your area. Also, if you think someone is homeless, in your community, or if you live in a bigger city, if you have the opportunity to speak with homeless people, I suggest doing it and having conversations and getting to know them (if it seems like a good idea, some it’s not, most are actually really normal) on a one on one basis. You can ask them what would help. It may take some time to build enough of a rapport and trust before they’ll tell you, but getting to know people and doing things directly is in my opinion the best option if you’re looking to help.
-Patrick Callan, September 6, 2021
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If you would like to support the work I’m doing as a writer, artist, organizer, activist, and my ability to survive and do more things like this, throw some money in my Paypal- anabasis0802@gmail.com