The grey blankets distributed by the hypothermia hotline, the Salvation Army and other organizations help save the lives of homeless people in cold weather.
But there is no place to store them, so it can be hard to keep them. They get swiped by other homeless people, they get thrown away or confiscated if the homeless person goes to the hospital. Good citizens will find them and put them in the trash can. Some of the cleanup people will throw them away because they don’t like us. The police will do it for security reasons.
There are a lot of ways of losing your blanket. But if you lose your blanket, you still need a blanket.
The city has a U–Lock–It for the Inauguration. But if you put your blanket in there, you can’t get it out until Wednesday. The homeless who are staying out downtown are being urged to go into the shelters during the festivities. But if the shelters are overcrowded, where do you sleep? That’s a good equation to die.
Charles Carson has been a vendor for two months and came to D.C. as a Hurricane Katrina evacuee.
