Dr. Sheldon A. Jacobs - 48: An Experiential Memoir on Homelessness

An Experiential Memoir on Homelessness

Dr. Sheldon A. Jacobs

Copyright 2020 Dr. Sheldon A. Jacobs.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-9623-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-9624-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-9625-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020917947

Archway Publishing rev. date: 10/30/2020

CONTENTS

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

To the lady from the gym who inspired me beyond anything I could ever imagine, to move forward with living on the streets for forty-eight hours, to provide hope to the hopeless, lend a voice to the voiceless, and shine light when there is so much dark.

Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.

Proverbs 28:27 (ESV)

I dont know what will come from sharing my homeless experience with the world. In fact, I dont even know if this memoir will even move the needle. Im fully aware of all the complexities surrounding homelessness, and my only hope, prayer, wish, want, and request is that my experience somehow inspires some sort of change pertaining to this social ill. And if change does not occur, all is well because I have already been greatly affected by this experience. I learned one main truth, and that is homelessness can affect anyone. It does not matter how much money you once had, which part of the sociocultural strata you fall on, how large your family is, what color your skin is, or what your political party is. Anyone can be homeless. I also learned that surviving on the streets is very hard. The physical and mental toll that it takes on you is enough to make cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, and denial seem like the only available coping methods.

Many will criticize me for only living two days instead of two weeks or two months on the streets. They may say two days is not enough to provide an accurate portrayal of what it is truly like to be homeless. And that is completely fine. I have learned that you cant please everyone. I will say that a lot of folks outside of this project who have experienced some form of homelessness in their lives have commended me for what I have done because I went out of my way to understand something that many are either unable to or simply refuse to understand. Even though it was only forty-eight hours, every minute of my experience was excruciating. I went from being a successful, middle-class family man one day to being without food, money, shelter, and technology the very same night. The mental toll alone was the greatest challenge I have ever experienced. Not being able to sleep comfortably due to the hardness of the concrete and having to essentially sleep with one eye open were tough.

The undesirable pain I experienced long after I completed the forty-eight-hour journey is still with me to this very day. The way people from the outside world looked down at me, stared past me, or did not look at me at all remains with me. I had never felt so low in my life. On top of that, I left my family, especially my wife, wondering if she would ever see me again. So, it might have been only forty-eight hours, but those forty-eight hours felt like forty-eight days.

What frustrates me the most about homelessness is people who hold positions to facilitate change but instead cowardly run behind the narrative that homeless people have made a choice to be homeless. Folks from across our nationpolicy makers, colleagues, family members, friends, neighbors, and community leaderstruly refuse to help. In fact, several days after I completed my forty-eight hours, I was involved in a heated discussion with a colleague who said, If so many people dont want to be homeless, then why are there so many homeless across the globe? That was the basis of why this person thought being homeless was strictly a choice, and the person who made this statement is well educated and well informed, which only shows that there are a lot of people who share the same sentiments toward the homeless.

So how does someone end up homeless? This is certainly a loaded question, but the question was always in the back of my mind when I befriended homeless individuals during my experience. The reality was that it is easy for a person to end up homelessand it is much harder for most people who are homeless to no longer be homeless. Thus, if it is that easy for a good portion of people in any community to end up being homeless, and that much harder for the majority of those people who are homeless to get back on their feet, then that means you will always have people who end up homeless and even more people who struggle to find their footing. I feel that homelessness is a problem that will never completely go away, but I am hopeful that one day homelessness will no longer be a crisis but a problem that is able to be effectively managed. I believe we can get there as long as we collectively learn as much as we can about the problem that we are trying to solve.

As I mentioned earlier, my forty-eight-hour experience was the most challenging endeavor I ever faced. I think that if I remained on the streets beyond the forty-eight hours, I would have hit a breaking point. I was increasingly feeling helpless, and the only thing that got me through was knowing that there was light among all the darkness. I knew that if I stayed out of harms way, I would be going home to see my family. However, what about the thousands across the globe who are truly homeless? For many, its a temporary shortcoming that can be overcome. For many others, its a twenty-foot dark hole with virtually no way out. Just when you find a small crevice or two to support your footing, you climb your way up, only to find out that the crevice is not strong enough to support you. You fall right back down to where you wereat the bottom of the dark hole. So many people I met during this journey shared these sentiments, but surprisingly, they also seemed to understand there is light in the midst of the darkness. What makes light thrive is its ability to expose darkness. With light, we can cling to hopeand it is that hope that can set us free.

To my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To my parents, Vernetta Stewart, Darryl Jacobs, and Edwin Steverson; to my grandparents, Winfred and Ethel Stewart; and my wife, Nicole, you have all been an inspiration to my success. Also, to my children, Jayden and Arianna; my siblings, Tammy, Darryl Jr., Adrien, Lauren, Myla, Kenny, Carla, Erica, and Jennifer; and to the many who have touched me in some way, shape, or form.