Will he kill YOU or a loved one in a car accident ?

I have described the plight of a homeless man , aged 66, in very poor mental and physical health, living in a car. But I must also emphasize that the law still allows him to drive until he is caught driving recklessly ( he distraught and strongly medicated) .   I was with him in his car the other day and  I had to routinely remind him to watch out for pedestrians and stop at stop signs in  residential neighborhoods in Cranston and on the East Side of Providence.

        Seeking a home , he is often evicted from hospitals. If he finally ends up killing somebody , don't blame me. I  did try to help my homeless friend.

How many homeless here live in cars ?

   I have sent you a series of short letters describing the plight of a homeless friend living in his car. I wonder just how many homeless people in Rhode Island are  invisible to the authorities . Has anybody  here been able to estimate the number of homeless individuals or families living in motor vehicles ? According to reports on You Tube,  many of these people represent the American middle class in free-fall.
              Unable to accommodate a 66 year old friend in my  cramped  studio apartment,  I sent him with ten dollars worth of quarters to the Warwick Public Library-which still has a public pay phone ( his cell phone is missing in the chaos of this life-style) . He got in touch with some senior center which misdirected him to a non-existent shelter on Howard Road in Warwick. He stopped his junky old Lincoln Town Car in front of a nice home in the neighborhood. Looking like an escaped convict, he rang the doorbell and asked the resident for directions to the shelter. He was redirected to  Howard Avenue in Cranston. This might have been all that is left of the old Welcome Arnold building. He spent a wretched night in that depressing place with some 100  bunk beds.
             Part of my friend's problem in finding subsidized housing is his vagabond history. Presently he has a Washington state license plate.   It struck me while reading a sign on a RIPTA bus this morning :  "  Please offer these seats to the elderly and persons with disabilities ".  My friend is elderly with disability. Should not public housing apply the concept of priority  here ?  " Am I going to die in my car ? " , my friend asks.
           In many ways he is the anti-character of Horatio Alger's " Ragged Dick ".   The theme of " Ragged Dick " is the rise of a young pleasant fellow -by luck and pluck-  from slum life to social respectability. " Ragged Dave " is a story of a precipitous fall in early old age from prosperity to squalor. Such " luck " as Dave encountered on his way down to the lower depths is best described by a Thomas Hardy - not an Horatio Alger.  Alger's universe was fundamentally benevolent. Hardy's was either indifferent or malevolent.  No, everything is not for the best in the best of all possible worlds .

Homeless Dave Gold told of Aunt's Death

I recently sent a rather detailed letter relating the strange odyssey of a homeless friend, age 66 ,in frail health, now living in his car somewhere in Chicago- one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. He is the nephew of a socially prominent woman who just left a fortune to Brown University.
       On Wednesday night he called me as expected. I informed him of his aunt's death. He said he recently was escorted out a hospital by security guards, after the hospital failed to find any shelter for him.
          How many readers of the Providence Journal know about the daily humiliation and terror of being homeless in this country ? Or the joys of living in a broken down Lincoln Town Car ?
         It seems to me that too many people who might help  Dave don't even want to hear his story. He himself is quite articulate. He represents the All-American nightmare- a fear of falling.

The most creepy TV and Radio commercial

     The news media has the public super-sensitive to all forms of child abuse. And yet this very creepy TV and radio commercial has fallen through the cracks : a Stephen King nightmare named with a hint of sadism for naughty kids : " The Total Transformation ", created by a child behavioral psychologist.  It promises to teach a lesson to defiant kids that they will never forget !
             Remember that rotten little kid that hated his mother ? Well we fixed him! Now he is a timid, conforming zombie who loves not just  mommy dearest but even the friendly school police .