May 6
One of the homeless members of the Village of Hope (that as you know, has no home) is named Kerry Wheeler. It’s an odd coincidence that she shares the same surname as you do. That coincidence caused me to want to know more about your background, since I know Kerry’s story. I thought it might be interesting to line your story up with her story. So I researched your family history online. I found the home you were born into. I found the two homes you currently own in Portland (home and condo). I read Wikipedia and news articles. I read about your father’s alcoholism and your volunteer work and your work history. I found that you graduated from Lincoln, the foremost high school in Portland, and then attending Stanford, Columbia and Harvard.
Your story completely depressed me. I don’t know what I thought your background was but I didn’t expect you to be one of the 1-2%. I didn’t expect that your family had made their fortune by clear cutting Oregon. Today, the “good” Oregonians are the ones who buy their acreage in order to preserve nature, not destroy it. Your inability to really understand what it is to be a poor displaced Oregonian suddenly makes more sense but at the same time I feel less hopeful that you can change or understand. That you can ever “get” it. Your people are the wealthy, not like the other 99% of Oregonians, not the parallel 6 generations, the ones’ whose ancestors worked for your family.
My father was an alcoholic too. He did not have a college degree. His alcoholism threatened his income. He had no inheritance; his parents were immigrants. His father a baker. His mother a homemaker. Despite this we lived well enough. However, my mother’s constant fear that he would lose his job was a real concern. We did not have the luxury of just being angry or sad my father had a disease, we also had to fear for our safety and survival. But still I thrived. I was not beaten, I was not sexually or otherwise abused, I was neglected a bit but it’s easy to understand in light of my parents’ problems and stresses.
Kerry did not have even that stability. Ironically, she was born on Father’s day, June 18th in the 60s but didn’t meet her father until she was 18, ready to deliver her son. She said it was awkward. Her father died 6 years later of lung cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. I don’t know if she told him about her 13 year old self who was raped and endured an abortion.
Despite a life filled with grief Kerry 51, has only been homeless for four years. Coincidently, the same four years Portland’s economy has “recovered”. Unemployment is down but unfortunately, like my mother, my husband’s mother, my grandmother, and myself, homemaking was Kerry’s career. Did your mother have a career besides homemaking? Missing teeth, high blood pressure, COPD and uterine cancer, she hasn’t ever had a paying job. With Obamacare she has finally been able to get better healthcare but her anemia from chronic bleeding has postponed surgery. You have to be healthy enough to survive surgery. Despite her ill health she helps distribute food to the camps throughout east county and comes to my house once a week to help with my chores.
This is one of the woman you have denied enough stability to get back on her feet. She’s not someone who can tolerate a lot of rules. I understand that. I would not be one of the homeless seeking shelter in a homeless shelter, unless I had small children. I’m an adult. I would need to have privacy and freedom of movement. I would probably also prefer living in a tent.