Homeless By Choice?
Not a Criminal: The Cost of Being Sick, Poor, and Tired I am not a criminal. I am not a character flaw. I am a person managing lifelong spinal stenosis and bipolar disorder in a system designed to wait for me to fail. Anyone who has navigated the Social Security Administration knows that disability determination isn’t a process; it’s attrition by bureaucracy . I waited five years to be believed. Five years of proving, over and over, that my body and mind could no longer sustain traditional employment. While I waited, the world didn't pause. Rent, copays, and prescriptions don't care about "pending" status. The Five-Year Void I have not been idle. For five years, I have been on literally every housing list I could find. I have filled out the forms, updated the paperwork annually, attended the check-ins, and kept the records. I have done everything the system asks of a "responsible" applicant. In five years, nothi...