It’s time I told you all what is going on with me.
I no longer have the apartment I had for the past 21 years. I fell too far behind on my rent. On November 1 the management company took me to court.
My bank balance fell negative for so long that First Tennessee closed my account in June. I’d had that account since 1987. No bank account means I can’t receive money transfers via Venmo, Cashapp, Zelle, etc. It also means I can’t work for a remote company and receive payment via bank transfer.
AT&T cut my cellular service off around September 10. That brought an end to the tour guide job I held this summer. The customer-service aspects of the job required that I had a phone. I still have my Phone and am able to jump on public Wi-Fi and use Apple iMessage to text many of my friends.
I’ve been out of my apartment since December 18. Since then I have mostly been couchsurfing thanks to incredibly generous friends. Two of them even paid for me a ticket to Bardog’s $150/person anniversary party. I greatly appreciated that, even though it wasn’t at the top of my “needs” list. It helped me feel like a whole person again, not “less-than” if that makes any sense.
Friends aware of my situation have bought me meals. I haven’t had to stand in any soup kitchen lines yet. Not that there’s a thing wrong with doing so.
Two nights I stayed out all night. On one of those nights I walked all the way from the Downtown core to Madison and Cooper. This was about 3 in the morning. The streets were deserted. No particular reason for going out there. I just needed to pass the time. I’m finding that boredom is my biggest enemy.
I have an outer jacket, two hoodies (one of them my famous PBR hoodie), a t-shirt, jeans, underwear, socks, and shoes in a backpack. Clothes to survive, but probably not appropriate work attire for many occupations.
I do have my driver’s license and Social Security card, and before I left the apartment for the last time I grabbed a copy of my birth certificate. So I’m good to go there.
I also grabbed my computer, its charger, and my iPhone and Apple Watch chargers before I left. So I’m connected. Through free public Wi-Fi I have a signal most of the time.
Five years ago, St. Peter Catholic Church commissioned me to create for them a pamphlet listing available resources for the homeless in the Downtown Memphis area. Through that research I became familiar with the Hospitality Hub, a tremendous clearinghouse of resources to help those experiencing homelessness get to a better place in life.
Today I plan to go to the Hub and see if they can help me with
- Transitional housing
- Employment, either through their vast connections or through their own Work Local program, where Hub clients can earn money (& a lunch) cleaning up blight
- Most of all, general advice on how to move forward given that I currently have no address, no working cell phone, no way to get mail, and no bank account
The Hub offers a lot of other services I don’t need personally, but which I want to mention just because I think the Hub is awesome!
- Help getting forms of government ID needed to work
- Help obtaining copies of birth certificates from states of birth
- Help applying for monthly disability checks
- Referrals to substance abuse counseling
- Referrals to mental health services
- Rides to and from job interviews and doctor appointments
Y’all, I plan to keep going with this blog and remaining your Downtown news source. Informing and entertaining all of you gives me purpose and true joy in my life. I hope this is not the end of our relationship.
Feel free to send me love, prayers, (gently worded) advice, and whatever else you’ve got for me. Best ways to do that, other than in-person:
- E-mail me at paul.ryburn@gmail.com
- Hit me up on Facebook Messenger
- If you have an iPhone and we’re already connected on that platform, you can try there; but if that doesn’t work, try one of the other methods listed above
To those who have known about my situation the past three weeks and have helped me, I cannot say THANK YOU or I LOVE YOU enough to express the depth of gratitude I feel in my heart. I know some of you are frustrated with me for moving so slowly to reach out for help on my own. I apologize and will try to go faster – but please understand, accepting the reality of my current situation is a difficult mental exercise.
Thank you for reading. As I said, there is nothing which gives me joy as much as writing for all of you.