Catch 22

It’s a catch 22 situation!  This man, I’ll call him John, has a wife and several small children.  Through unfortunate circumstances, the children have been taken from them until they can get good housing.  Hoping against hope, they purchased a two family house for $1,000.00—that’s right, 1,000.00, not 100,000.00.  But, it had been pillaged.  All radiators and pipes are gone, the wiring too.  So, they hoped to do something with it.  He still can’t find work.  Both are going to school.  For now, they live in one room of the house using a kerosene heater for warmth, when they can scare up enough to buy some kerosene.  Water they carry in from neighbors.

John was here this morning, and he signed up for a shower.  He came to talk and said he was just this far (- -) from taking a drink and said no.  He knows it is just a dead end.  He then asked for some shower gel.  He said, “I wake up so cold that my joints just ache.  When I take a good hot shower with the gel, it makes me feel good.”  His wife is in class and will be here later for her shower.

The catch 22 is that they can’t get the kids back until they have a decent place to live.  But, they can’t get a place to live until they have an income.  When they get the kids, there will be assistance, but not until they have a place.   He’s studying heating and cooling and wants a job so badly he can “taste it”!! 

John left my office saying, “Well, the upside of this is that winter will soon be over.”  He can wake up without aching joints and won’t have to scrounge for kerosene to keep warm. -Br. Bob