Every Friday a group of unhoused people meets in a room at the Junction near Downtown Bloomington to write. They are part of a writing group, an effort to help the unhoused enrich their lives amid a stressful existence
“To whomever this may concern, you are about to get inside the brain of someone who never knows what the hell is going on,” wrote Abigail Sample, who lives at the Home Sweet Home Ministries shelter for the homeless.
Sample has been without a permanent home for eight or nine years off and on. She had children and had to give them up for adoption. She has ADHD, a history of drug use and says she has memory problems because of that. Abigail is doing an autobiography. She says her writing process is not always easy. Some days she’ll ignore everything in the room, and it flows. Other days she sits and stares at the screen. The act of writing evokes past experiences.
“I’ve definitely had memories pop up where I’m like, oh my god I forgot about that. I’ve definitely forgot about some memories until I started writing. I just looked at my work again and I’m like Oh I forgot I even put that in there,” said Sample.
In one of her works Abigail sets down a recollection of going on a trip in her dad’s tan Pontiac to Wisconsin Dells. It’s what she calls a "good" memory, although it includes childhood trauma.
“My mom and dad started arguing. My siblings and we were in the back of the car. I remember they were getting loud and my dad said he was going to tear up the tickets and we’ll go back home. My brother hugged me. I knew then and there my brother cared. I never thought he cared, he was so quiet,” wrote Sample.
The germ of the idea for the writing group came in 2018 when co-leader Jen Woodrum worked at PATH in homeless services. Woodrum said people would bring her their writing while they were coming in to get help with other things.
“That felt very exciting and encouraging to see that they naturally just had this inclination to tell stories and to want those stories to be heard and the meaningful experience that comes from being able to share that with another person,” said Woodrum.
Woodrum said she never had time to start the writing group back then. She’s now a therapist and pitched the idea to Home Sweet Home as a volunteer project.
“We get a range. Some people love writing and dream of writing books and already have them in their hearts. Then we get some people who come in the room because there’s community and there’s pizza but then they’re like, 'Oh! Yeah! I could write.' And it’s neat to see that combination of different passions,” said Woodrum.
Sessions range from just a few people up to 12. Group co-leader Carey Compton has a degree in creative writing. Compton said every meeting has its own energy.
“A lot of people in the unhoused community are full of stories. Just, stories are pouring out of them at all times if you would just stop and listen,” said Compton.
Compton said that energy manifests differently occasion by occasion. Some want to write the story of how their life became the way it is or the big thing that happened to them.
Irish Sterling is one of those. Sterling is now in permanent supportive housing but spent most of nine years unhoused. She said writing is freeing.
“You’re able to release your feelings. You could put on paper what you can’t say to people. ‘Ain't nobody going to judge you for it. It’s just you, releasing everything within you that you can’t release to no one else,” said Sterling
When Sterling writes she thinks about instances in her life and what she could have done differently. Writing down the goods and the bads gives her enough distance to gain clarity and, finally, avoid repeating old situations.
"I try to always mend the relationship with my sister because our parents are dead. But then every time I go back something happens, something happens. So, I write down a list. It finally got to the point that if she’s doing all this hurt to you and this is what’s happening, why do you keep going back? It’s not even worth it,” said Sterling.
Writing about her life has helped Sterling understand herself as well.
“It’s a big change with me within. And the crazy thing about it is it took for me to become homeless in order for me to see it. It took for me to become unhoused for me to actually see my worth my value and what I have to contribute to any and everyone,” said Sterling
Getting some of those stories out is not easy. Woodrum works with people who have trauma. She said writing and then sharing the work can be tantamount to reliving it to process it.
"So, there’s almost a bit of therapeutic work that we have to do of helping the group figure out how to pace themselves and know that we have to go about this gently, stay in tune with ourselves and stay in tune with each other,” said Woodrum.
It does help. Irish Sterling said there’s a change in how she feels when she has written.
“It’s like that big old thousand-pound weight that was on my shoulder, in the air is lifted. It’s just like a release,” Sterling giggled.
The writing group sometimes does prompts to spark a work if no one has something they are working on. And Cary Compton said that has led to a number of touching experiences. One such prompt was for a homeless man to write a letter to a child.
“Afterwards he chose to read it out loud and as he was reading, he was just crying. It connected to something within him. And it was something I think he needed to experience,” said Compton.
Sometimes it is about more than healing. Compton said it can be about belonging.
“We had another participant who wrote a piece that was sort of discussing their internal experiences feeling outcast and an outsider. And two of our participants got up and they hugged, and they were crying, and it was beautiful,” said Compton.
Other writers, like Abigail Sample, want to set down something helpful for others.
“Knowing that they’re not alone. They’re not the only ones going through family issues, because that’s what I thought for a long time,” said Sample.
Anyone who has ever taken an entry-level psych class is familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, structured as a pyramid — physiological needs at the bottom [shelter, food and other basics] and individual self-actualization at the top. According to that model, you wouldn’t expect people who are struggling to secure the basics to have much energy left over for the richness of an internal life. Woodrum said it's more complex than that; writing might help make people more capable.
“By a person finding a sense of purpose and meaning and hope in their life, then that may give them more direction and self-esteem and the ability to take steps toward other things to feel as though I have the mastery and capability of seeking a job and finding stability,” said Woodrum.
By completing something as small as writing something on a piece of paper, they have an accomplishment. And Carey Compton said that can go a long way when you don’t have a lot of accomplishments happening on a daily basis. She said it’s also a way to reconnect with being a human.
Compton and Woodrum want to put out a small book of writings from the unhoused people in the group — poems, prose, non-fiction all included. This will not only allow them to be heard it will help the public understand what it’s like to be unhoused because they feel misunderstood.
Some of the judgements that people make about our experience. They don’t know the little ins and outs, the moments of our day, what it’s like to pick up our backpack and have to move around and not be able to stay in one place. And Carey and I have encouraged, write that!” said Woodrum.
Woodrum and Compton have set up an Indiegogo fundraiser to help cover the costs of publication and modest payments to the writers. Any profit would go to the Home Sweet Home Ministries Bridge Project, an effort to expand noncongregate living space for the unhoused in the Twin Cities.
The final word in this story goes to unhoused writer Irish Sterling. Here is her poem: You Know Better, You Do Better.
“If you knew the weight a word could hold you wouldn’t speak so sharp, so bold.
Your softened tone choose peace instead and think before the words were said.
If you knew the storm someone hides you wouldn’t judge the tears or pride.
You will see the cracks behind their smiles and sit with them, if just a while.
If you knew the cost of turning away, you’ll stay one more moment more than necessary.
You’ll hold a hand. You’ll lend an ear. You’ll be the one to draw them near.
If you knew what silence breaks, the hearts it wounds, the toll it takes, you’ll speak with kindness, steady, true, not just for them but also you.
We live. We learn. We rise. We fall We miss the signs. We drop the ball.
But knowledge plants a deeper seed and wisdom grows through, indeed.
So, when you know the better way don’t wait for some far-off day.
Let growth be shown at what you do because better is waiting inside of you."
