DERELICT

Words and Images by Akintola Hanif

Back in the day that's what we used to call them, derelicts. Then while I was working on my book (still in progress) about homelessness, I learned that derelict also means lost or abandoned, which is their true circumstance. They weren't always homeless. Some of them are veterans, fathers, mothers, blue and white collar workers as well as victims of addiction, illness, abuse and lost hope.

Those issues aside, this could happen to any of us. There are 700,000 people who are homeless in the U.S. on any given day. One guy in this essay was an English teacher who simply lost his job. What do you do in New York without a job? You fucked. Even with a job, you fucked (unless you making 50 and better) Most of us living paycheck to paycheck are one job and chance away from being ass out. And if you don't have a support system in place to hold you down when shit get real, you done. Some of us cope better than others but everybody has that breaking point. You never know what yours might be and when it might hit.

That's why I always say “never look down on anybody unless you got your hand out to help 'em up.” Money and class are the only things that separate us from them, not intellect or anything else. Those of us that've been fortunate enough to attain a self-sustainable amount of money need to be all that much more compassionate. Because if you don't understand the social and economic crisis that exists for what it is, there's something wrong with you, not them.