Blog
Eve
Last week the sleeve of Eve’s donated down jacket showed a mixture of burned feathers and melted nylon. She reeked of the kind of smoke we usually associate with good times around the campfire – only we knew it was nothing of the sort. The burned coat and strong smoke odors were the result of [...]
She’s Doing So Well
Today’s blog was written by Emily Downey, Housing Specialist for the UNITY Rebuilding Communities Shelter Plus Care Program. I see joy almost every day. Joy when I pick someone up from the Salvation Army or the street corner, joy when someone buckles their seat belt in my Honda, joy when someone realizes that we’re going [...]
The List
I never sleep well on these nights. After 13 hours working the streets, an inordinate amount of stale coffee and a lingering sense of doubt, it’s kind of hard to sleep. At three in the morning I start thinking about the list. Every city has one and somebody has to track it. In New Orleans, [...]
Blessings
In the spirit of the season, I count among my blessings the men, women and children whom the entire UNITY team and the Continuum of Care partners have assisted this year. Here are a few of my recent favorite blessings: “Wait, wait! Stop please!” she cried. We were out in the UNITY van and on [...]
Reflections on a Year of Working at UNITY
Today’s Post is by Cynthia Mitchell, Director of Referral and Shelter Outreach at UNITY Working at UNITY of Greater New Orleans shed a very specific light in my heart and mind on the human price of homelessness and of the need for assistance in being housed. For the most vulnerable people, it is impossible to [...]
Ms. Gwen
I fully expect to one day be tapped on the shoulder, turn my head and have my face meet the clenched fist of Ms. Gwendolyn. It would be justified. As a mental health professional, I’ll take one for all the social workers, nurses, psychiatrists, LPC’s, psych tech, pharmacists, case managers, outreach workers and administrators who [...]
From the Backwoods of Mississippi
Today’s blog is by Dr. Chandra Crawford, UNITY’s director of public policy. “Go back home–we don’t want you here!” “Why would you associate yourself with such trash?” And my favorite, “You must have received your degrees from the backwoods of Mississippi!” Those are examples of the hate-filled speech hurled at me by three leaders of [...]
Ghosts from Before Katrina
“Hey UNITY, I’m waiting for you!!!” These are the words shouted from the front porch of a shotgun double in Central City as we drove past in the van this afternoon. The man shouting them yells them nearly verbatim whenever he sees us. We’ve met him before. We’ve explained that, as he has an apartment, [...]
Barefoot and Shipwrecked
I’m jogging Max, now 16 months old and 90 pounds of K-9 energy. It is Monday morning, around 9:20am. I’ve recently switched from traditional running shoes to some sort of 5-toed soft shoes that are intended to mimic the effects of barefoot running. I like them, but Max is clearly impatient about the fact that [...]
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Phrases.org identifies the origin of the phrase “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” as “Always toward absent lovers love’s tide stronger flows” from Sextus Aurelius Propertius – a Roman poet from 15BC. (The same site also conveys the bawdy wordplay that Shamus may appreciate – “Absinthe makes the fart grow stronger”.) I’ve been thinking of [...]
