Slight shift from my usual.
A series of cardboard signs that I’ve gathered over the past few months from the gutters, ditches, and alleys of Tempe while I rode every street. Each of these signs is one persons life and struggle. One of more than a half million sleeping on the streets of this country every night.
When city leaders focus on a city’s “attractiveness” they believe it’s a beneficial use of resources to simply hide homelessness, especially when this group is already invisible due to everyone else driving by at 50mph, staring at their phones. If someone doesn’t see it, then it doesn’t exist. There’s a change in perspective that happens when you choose to step outside your comfortably plush, two ton, air-conditioned, metal box living-room-on-wheels; while it’s not always aesthetically pleasing, is it important.
Maybe you bought a sandwich for the person hunched on a milk crate on the corner because you walked to get groceries instead of driving. Maybe you donated a few spare jackets to your local shelter because you turned off the heat one night and ‘brrr yeah that’s chilly, huh?’ helped you imagine what it’s like outside. Or maybe you just picked up a few cans on the side of the road because there’s a lot of unused room in that Wald 137. The little things are what make a big difference. Changing your perspective makes a big difference.