There was thud and crackle when I stepped out of the car the other evening - my foot landing on a frozen puddle in a driveway and punching a hole in the ice. That's how cold it was, and I'm guessing 10 degrees colder than when I'd left downtown Baltimore just 50 minutes earlier. It had taken me that long to reach the country road where Steve Shaw said I'd find the "suburban homeless" woman.
"I am active with the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore," Shaw had introduced himself six weeks ago. "Many times during our meetings, the leaders speak of the homeless in downtown and ways to help ... which brings me to the suburban homeless thing."
By that, Shaw, a sales rep for a large security company in Hunt Valley, meant the human being who appeared to be living in a car in a Carroll County farm field surrounded by new development. Shaw had driven by several times since last winter; and he'd become convinced that the sedan was someone's shelter. There was a cooler on the ground next to the car; the back seat and passenger side were packed with personal belongings, and clothes were hanging on a line nearby.
"It bothers me," Shaw wrote in an e-mail. "I have stopped once, but the person was not in the car. I would like to find out who this person is, and then put together an action plan to help them out. My wife and I are pretty active members in my community; there has got to be something we can do to help."
I asked Shaw for directions with the idea of looking into this "suburban homeless thing" myself.
Before I could, he sent another update: "My wife heard that this homeless person is a woman who may have already refused help. I am going to stop and speak with her next time I drive by. It is way too cold now to be sleeping in a car. There must be something we can do."
Shaw was about to do what Jeff Singer, longtime leader of Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore, suggests in these situations - engage the person you think needs help, see if you can start a dialogue, try to get to know them. The best approach, says Singer, is direct and personal. You can't put together an "action plan" for someone unless you know who they are and what they need.
And, while it's important and necessary to get professionals involved - particularly in cases involving mental illness - no degree in social work is required for the kind of engagement Singer advocates; you just need to be human and willing to approach the homeless stranger. Steve Shaw was.
